Many games owe more to their soundtracks than to their gameplay or graphics. Music builds upon the player’s experience and adds to the immersion. Therefore, a game’s soundtrack carries a not insignificant part of the gaming experience. However, not all soundtracks are created equal, and not all soundtracks are made to perfectly suit the game they’re made for. A horror game with an action soundtrack distracts from the core experience and leaves the player expecting an experience that might never occur in the game. The beauty of a good soundtrack therefore, is one that truly catches the attention of the player, while also being in tune with the game’s overall experience.

Before the decline in real time strategy games (RTS) in the 2000s, there were a few industry giants that dominated that genre. Westwood studios, who arguably were responsible for the genre gaining as much attention as it did back in the 1990s, as well as Blizzard Entertainment, who in the late 90’s and especially in the early 2000s had a dominant role in the space. The two companies had very different perspective on the music within their games. As an example, take Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft (1998) and Westwood Studio’s Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (1999). The first game had a very small selection of music for each playable faction within the game. StarCraft had a total of three tracks specific to each faction, as well as three menu menu tracks for each faction. Meanwhile, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun had 15 tracks shared between the two factions as well as a menu track. One game focused on faction identity, while the other was focused on atmosphere. This was, and still is, a relative norm within the industry. It is therefore rare to find a game that does both. Which is where Westwood Studios managed to do something that, to this day, outshines most contemporary soundtracks in terms of innovation and identity. In 2001, the game Emperor: Battle for Dune was released.

The game was a sequel to Westwood Studios previous games, Dune 2 and Dune 2000, based on Frank Herbert’s Science Fiction universe Dune. Like the Command & Conquer games, Emperor: Battle for Dune (EBD) is a real time strategy (rts) game and was the first game of its genre to implement 3D graphics instead of relying on sprites. This was the first attempt at what is now a norm within the RTS genre. However, upon release, it wasn’t very popular and the game was quickly forgotten. It has been relegated to existing merely as abandonware, software that has been abandoned by the developer either because the developer no longer exists or because the lack of popularity led to the software being abadoned.

EBD, like many other rts games, has three playable factions: House Atreides, House Harkonnen and House Ordos. The three factions play differently and have a completely different feel to them, because they are meant to be as different as can be:

House Atreides: The noble warriors. On first glance, they represent a stereotypical “hereos fighting for the good of the universe” archetype. Though, like the story they come from, they’re not as noble once you get into the story.

House Harkonnen: The exact opposite of Atreides. This faction is all about being evil and exploitative. Nothing short of brutality, in some instances. They employ slaves and don’t care about individual life.

House Ordos: A faction created specifically for the games. This faction is not from the original source material. They have no care for individuality and are a faction of clones and genetic manipulation.

The reason I just gave a short description of each faction, is to better understand the point of this piece. The focus is on the music, and in order to best understand the music for each faction, it is recommended to keep the short faction descriptions in mind. Each faction’s soundtrack is highly distinct, and not only represent the faction and their atmosphere, but also their individual playstyle. House Atreides is a balanced faction, not focused on speed, nor brute strength, and this playstyle is represented in the tracks. The same thing is true for the other two factions. House Harkonnen has a slower playstyle than the other two. The units are slower, everything is more expensive and can both dish out and take more damage than their counterparts. House Ordos is fast, it’s a chaotic faction where everything is based on speed and numbers.

The soundtrack was split in three sections, one for each faction, which, as mentioned earlier, isn’t unusual, especially for games with soundtracks representing factions rather than atmosphere. However, what makes this particular case interesting, is that each faction’s soundtrack was made by a different composer. The three being Frank Klepacki, David Arkenstone, and Jarrid Mendelson.

Due to this split in factions and split in composers, the soundtracks are wildly different from one-another. Varying in genres and style:

House Atreides (Frank Klepacki) – More classic video game soundtrack from the time. Supposed to feel like a call for battle.

House Harkonnen (David Arkenstone) – A shift in genres, switching to a heavier industrial metal inspired sound to better represent the faction.

House Ordos (Jarrid Mendelson) – Another drastic shift in genres. Electronic, chaotic, and meant to present a sense of unease to best represent the uneasy and chaotic nature of the faction.

What Westwood Studios managed to do by using three different composers to create three distinct soundtracks, is that the sheer difference between each soundtrack is highly noticeable. Many games have several factions where each one has its own sound. However, it is rare to find such a striking difference between each faction in terms of their auditory representation.

After Westwood Studios became part of EA Games around the same time as EBD was released, a later game was also introduced with a similar idea to soundtracks. Command & Conquer: Generals introduces the player to, once again, three different and distinct factions, each having their own playstyle. However, while the gameplay balancing of the three factions was nearly identical to EBD, the entire soundtrack was made by two composers working together: Bill Brown and Mikael Sandgren. While the music does vary, in theming, the highly distinct differences present in EBD is not present here:

USA

GLA

The two tracks represent military might and rebellion, respectively. However, they share more in terms of overall sound, than EBD’s soundtrack offers. The differences between GLA and USA is minor, in regards to the instruments used as well as genre. This is generally the norm in most video game soundtracks. There’s limited differences between genres, and nothing similar to what Westwood Studios did with EBD.

Staying with the Command & Conquer franchise for now, the next major title was Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, released in 2007. By then, the video game soundtracks have started to adopt a new strategy. Instead of having a specific soundtrack for each faction, games around this time starting using a technique known as adaptive music. The idea here is to adapt the music to fit the situation that the player finds themself in. As an example, when the player is building their base, the music is calm and focused on setting the scene for the battles to come. When the player is engaged in combat, the music switches to a more aggressive style, underlining the combat on the screen. This method has been used ever since in most games to varying degrees of success. However, in regards to an RTS game like Tiberium Wars, there could be awkward scenarios where the action music would set in due to a scout dying across the map, without any actual combat on screen, or the combat music switching back to idle in the middle of combat. Contrast that idea with the consistency of EBD’s sound and it presents a wholly different experience. One where the music is consistently fueling the player and keeping them engaged within the setting of their chosen faction.

In brief, the experiment done by Westwood Studios with EBD was quite unique. One that has not been done before or since. The game as a whole is full of experimentation. From the fact that it was a departure from the old engines and old ways of making RTS games, to the experimentation of presenting three highly distinct factions not only in visual and gameplay design, but also in terms of auditory design. It is an experiment that ended up spawning a new era for RTS games. An experiment that should be remembered and cherished for what it did.

Most importantly, in regards to this text, however, is the experiment done with the music. This soundtrack should be remembered and learned from by others.