Rate the M2TW Music

[Martok]

I would have to rate the game soundtracks as follows:

1.) Shogun
2.) Rome
3.) MTW
4.) Medieval 2

For me, Shogun's music simply can't be beat. It's the most evocative and adds an tremendous amount of atmosphere and immersiveness, regardless of whether you're talking about the battle music or the campaign music.

I find Rome's soundtrack to be uniformly excellent all around. In fact, it's the only TW title for which I really wish I had the soundtrack on CD. (I know CA used to have Rome's soundtrack available for purchase at one point. I wonder if it still does?) It just really captures that "epic" feel.

The music in MTW is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I either really like it or really *don't* like it, depending on which track you're talking about. The Muslim and Viking music rocks hardcore, but I only really enjoy about 50% of the European music. The rest of it is okay, but nothing special; the Europeans' campaign music in particular I find to be rather mediocre. Still, MTW's music is overall very solid, especially in terms of adding atmosphere & immersion.

The music in Medieval 2 is good -- not great, but good. To echo what a couple others here have said, the sountrack feels a little....overdone. I agree with Sir Robin's view that the music in MTW being "edgier", whereas M2TW's soundtrack almost feels too "smooth" in a way. It still *sounds* medieval-ish, but it doesn't quite grip me the way the music in the first three titles do.


Of course to be fair, my saying that the music in M2 is the "worst" out of the series would somewhat akin to claiming that a Ford Mustang was worse than a Viper, Corvette, & Porsche. Jeff Van Dyke is still clearly very good at what he does, and I hope he continues to do the music for the TW series for many years to come.