Saturday, August 9, 2025

Entry 1219 - Risk of Rain


Style: video game music, ambient, progressive rock

Primary Emotions/Themes: Slowly building melodies and atmospheres that fall in line with the gameplay

Thoughts: The concept of Risk of Rain is simple. There is a timer counting up and the longer you survive the harder things get. It's a challenging gameplay loop that requires a lot of strategy and some luck to survive. 

The music follows this exact same pattern. The tracks start slow and nearly ambient as the level starts off and then slowly builds as the amount of enemies mount. It's a gameplay and song cycle that is strangely addictive, especially as your skill in the game grows. You are rewarded with more tools and cooler music. 

The fantastic thing about the Risk of Rain soundtrack is that it works just as well as an instrumental progressive rock album as it does a video game soundtrack. I often will find myself listening to the album on its own without any desire to play the game. Very few soundtracks have that effect on me, and Risk of Rain is among the best.

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