Zoned in

September 14, 2007

Sound in games has come a long way, but it still has a ways to go to be consistently good
By Michael Lafferty

When it is good, it can be blissfully ignored; when it is bad – you hunt for the remote and the mute button

Sound is one of those elusive beasts in video games that, when done right, can be easily ignored. When done wrong, though, it can be a major irritant. Some developers seem to get that and invest time and money to make certain that a game’s sound is first rate and conveys what they want it to.

After all, in the cast of characters that mark the elements of a game, sound is a supporting player. If it does not do its job right, then the stars of the show – the gameplay, graphics and story – shine through and no one really notices the contributions of the sound. If done superbly, but struggling with stars that are less than stellar, then it can be overpowering to the point of causing frustration with other elements. So, basically, if the sound is spot on, it may not be noticed; if it outshines the stars or cannot support them adequately, it can throw the whole tempo and feel of the game off.

What brought all this to mind was Two Worlds. The voice acting is not good. And it suffers from bad written dialogue. The author attempted to give the game a medieval flare by throwing in a bevy of “dost,” “mayhaps,” “yon,” and “pray” (as in “pray tell”), without a convincing study of the language and how those expressions were used. The actors voicing the game obviously had no clue either as the inflections are flat and the whole thing comes off awkward and ridiculous.

It’s worse that Matthew Broderick bouncing around with a New York accent in Ladyhawke (a favorite film in spite of the lilting interpretation Broderick inflicts on the viewer). But Two Worlds is not the first to falter in the sound department – and in fairness, the music of the game is very good.

For years EA has been hit or miss with its EA Trax additions to its sport franchises. Sure, it is laudable that EA gives little-known bands the opportunity to be immortalized in a game, but what good is that if the sound options are opened and the music is turned down because it simply does not fit the game?

Sound is a subjective element. While the husky slight accent of Nariko in Heavenly Sword may resonate in dulcet undertones to male players, to an 18-year old girl wandering past, it may sound too much “like a guy.” Of course, the robust orchestral scoring of games shines through, marking tempo with a range of instruments that can stir the imagination and adrenalin more so than some guy with a low-end Casio keyboard cranking out elevator-style repetitive annoyances.

It can be day and night. Consider the robust sound of John Williams Star Wars anthem compared to a GBA title. No, you can’t compare one to the other due to cache sizes and system memories, but the point is that we are now in the next-gen era of consoles, where machines can handle Dolby Digital surround sound, in 5.1 or 7.1.

The time for soundtracks to be thrown together as an afterthought is long past.

Throughout the course of the year, GameZone runs interviews with some of the more renowned composers in the video-game industry. We have even run interviews with musicians whose primary body of work was motion pictures but they were transitioning to include video games in their resumes. During E3 this past July in Santa Monica, Microsoft featured a very talented group of teen-aged musicians doing their renditions of the music from a game that they all liked.

Music is one facet of the soundtrack. Voice acting is another, along with the narrative. These are also areas that need to be focused on. It begins with good written dialogue and then moves to those skilled actors who can emote with their voice. A monotone delivery is not conducive to drawing gamers into the story. Rather, they reach for the remote and finger the mute button, forcing other elements to carry the day. If they don’t, the game is discarded and forgotten.

Much like graphics, sound has progressed a long way since the beginning of the modern age of video games, but it has not progressed at the same pacing as other areas. Maybe when graphics reach a pinnacle of achievement that cannot be exceeded with the current generation of platforms’ sound will get additional focus and we will see great strides in that area. And don’t misinterpret – the hardware is there, there is just not the concentrated effort placed on that facet. It is flashed in cut scenes and trailers, and then given less focus in actual game play. The trend is changing, and for that we applaud.