Developed by the German studio “Piranha Bytes,” the Gothic series has slowly but surely become a larger phenomenon: not just in Europe, but in the US and Australia as well. These RPGs, published solely for the PC, continue to show better graphics and present better aural qualities as well. The most recent game, Gothic 3, has music composed by Kai Rosenkranz, who also wrote the music for the second game in the series. While his work is excellent, and I applaud him for for being able to write such accomplished orchestral work at a young age, it’s safe to say that the music is less than original.
The music sounds so much like a film score, and in particular, the film score for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, that I had friends and family compliment me for my choice in music. “Oh, the Two Towers, I love that soundtrack! Oh and hey, is that the ‘shire’ theme I hear?” No, no, it’s actually music from a German PC game. Seriously, track 7 sounded like the standard orcish horde music, and track 8 takes almost direct cues from the Shire music. Really, it was too similar for words.
But that isn’t the case for every single track on the album. I noticed it more during the first half of the album; the second half included some generic atmospheric themes and a couple of key melodies that sounded fairly original. Track 20 is a good 7 minutes long, and includes some lovely music. This track, along with many others, included a female vocalist that sang in an Arabic style. Nice stuff.
There are four tracks attached to the end that were not written by Rosenkranz. They include a variety of popular musical styles: two techno-trance songs, a standard female pop vocal, and a really lame rap song. Check the audio sample to hear the rap.
I really enjoyed this album, even with the bits of copycat-film-score found throughout. I applaud Kai Rosenkranz for his work and hope he becomes an even more accomplished composer and is able to score even more games, not just for recognition, but for experience. Check this album out if you enjoy classical film score.
