Soundtrack Review: Guild Wars 2 (2012)

Guild Wars 2 Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the video game score Guild Wars 2 by Jeremy Soule.

“It’s full of mystery and intrigue, full of great themes and glorious action cues.”

Guild Wars 2 is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by ArenaNet and published by NCsoft. Set in the fantasy world of Tyria, the game follows the re-emergence of Destiny’s Edge, a disbanded guild dedicated to fighting the Elder Dragons, a Lovecraftian species that has seized control of Tyria in the time since the original Guild Wars. The composer is Jeremy Soule with Julian Soule composing additional music.

Track List

CD 1

1. Overture	100
2. The Seraph	100
3. Bear’s Spirit	80
4. Call of the Raven	100
5. Out of the Dream	80
6. Heritage of Humanity	100
7. Snaff’s Workshop	100
8. Eir’s Solitude	80
9. The Walls of Ebonhawke	100
10. Battle With the Tamini	80
11. The Sea of Sorrows	100
12. The Vigil Goes to War	100
13. Mepi’s Ranch	100
14. Legion of Flames	100
15. Farren’s Theme	60
16. Ruins of an Empire	80
17. Ventari’s Legacy	100
18. Tears of Stars	100
19. Logan’s Journey	100
20. Tyria Reborn	100

CD 2

1. Tyria Awaits	100
2. Farahr	100
3. The Tengu Wall	100
4. Zhaitan	80
5. Lornar’s Pass	100
6. Dawn in Shaemoor	100
7. Fallen Comrades	80
8. Straits of Devastation	80
9. Kormir’s Whispers	80
10. Shadow of the Behemoth	60
11. Zojja and Mr. Sparkles	80
12. Michoti Battle March	100
13. Smodur the Unflinching	80
14. The Darkness Will Fall	100
15. Change Versus Comfort	60
16. A Land Restored	100
17. Explorers and Artifacts	100
18. The Shiverpeaks	100
19. Plains of Ashford	100
20. Sunrise Over Astorea	80
21. Blighted Battleground	100
22. Rytlock	80

CD 3

1. Hero’s Canton	100
2. Journey Through Caledon	100
3. Melandru’s Calm	80
4. The Stars Shine on Kryta	80
5. The Saga of the Norn	100
6. The Last Great City of Men	100
7. The Great Wall Has Fallen	100
8. Gendarran Fields	100
9. Bandits’ Expanse	80
10. Almora’s Revelation	60
11. Battle of the Vanguard	100
12. Caithe’s Daggers	100
13. The Grand Gamble	100
14. Promenade of the Gods	100
15. Hope Falls	100
16. The Vaults of the Priory	100
17. Knight of Embers	80
18. The Charr Triumphant	100

CD 4

1. The Orders Unite	100
2. Raven Speaks	100
3. Journey to the Mists	60
4. Once Friends Now Enemies	60
5. Of Tides and Quaggan	80
6. Whispers in the Dark	40
7. The Pact	60
8. Adelbern’s Ghost	40
9. The Hammer Falls	80
10. The Heart of Rata Sum	60
11. We Fight!	60
12. Malchor’s Leap	60
13. Sparkfly Fen	80
14. March of the Legions	80
15. Here Be Dragons	100
16. Scales of Issormir	100
17. Trahearne’s Reverie	80

It’s fantastic having Jeremy Soule back! We get no less than over 3 hours of music from the free to play MMORPG Guild Wars 2. I can’t really complain about it because I am an advocate for more music, complete music, etc. you know the drill. Still, there are some blemishes here in between the awesomeness that is Guild Wars 2 and it all becomes slightly tarnished. There’s a part near the end of the score where the quality is just not the same, let’s just call it CD 4. Let’s not spoil the party though because you get so many amazing cues here that I don’t know where to begin.

Let’s start at the beginning shall we with the opening cues ‘Overture’ and ‘The Seraph’ which are phenomenal choral cues that is barely an appetiser of what to come. You have wonderful themes, action cues, calm cues and everything within the great world of Guild Wars 2. It is a marked improvement on the previous Guild Wars scores which I also liked, but here it finally feels right.

Basically everything you hear in the first three CD’s has got to be some of the best fantasy video game music out there. It just sounds so good, so polished. It’s full of mystery and intrigue, full of great themes and glorious action cues. Enjoy it! I’ve been knocking CD4 quite a bit, but without it we wouldn’t have awesome cues like ‘Raven Speaks’, ‘Here Be Dragons’ or the massively epic ‘Scales of Issormir’. Oh I need to mention that the cue ‘Call Of The Raven’ on CD 1made me cry, it’s so damn powerful.

Conclusion

Not much to say here except go get this wonderful piece of video game score history. It is truly a wonderful score, and my personal opinion is that it is much stronger than Skyrim that was released last year. If you are into fantasy games with great fantasy scores, you are truly spoiled because here is another top notch score to match the brilliant game.

GEEK SCORE: 87.5

Buy the score at Direct Song.

GD Star Rating
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Soundtrack Review: Guild Wars 2 (2012), 9.2 out of 10 based on 5 ratings

Nov 24

Jørn Tillnes November 24th, 2012 5 Comments Soundtrack Review

http://www.thoroughmas.com/ Thoroughmas

I like it, but no where near as much as you!
- http://soundtrackgeek.com/ Jørn Tillnes
  
  Well we can’t all enjoy it as much as me
http://www.facebook.com/spacecadetbling Benjamin Ling

Your review’s pretty helpful in getting me started on this. 4 CD’s is pretty daunting, and rarely a bum track in this soundtrack and Skyrim’s. Love it!
Julian Pedersen

The soundtrack, overall, is a very enjoyable piece of musical artwork, but what particularly stands out for me are the hidden gems that are the “exploration” pieces. In particular, Logan’s Journey, Explorers and Artifacts, and Hero’s Canton are all superbly-layered masterpieces that continue to surprise me each time I hear them.

Explorers and Artifacts also has brilliant, sweeping, and very rapid interplay between the oboes and the horns, with strings supporting and adding to the maelstrom. It’s a shame that it’s only 2 minutes. I highly recommend listening to it, but I can’t help wishing there was more…
Mark Goninon

I was more critical with my review of the GW2 soundtrack – I’m not a big fan of ambient tracks lacking melodies but like you, I take a methodical approach to soundtrack reviews by rating each track. Also like you, I ended up liking this soundtrack better than Skyrim’s. Good review overall.