All forms of
Resident Evil media, whether it be the movies or the games, have gone through having just about every briefly relevant style of music serve as the soundtrack for any of the games or films. The first to third
Resident Evil games all had original scores that were chilling, morose, and downright terrifying even outside of the context of the games. Indeed, the soundtracks definitely played a substantial role in what made the golden age of survival horror games so horrifying, and
Resident Evil games had soundtracks that at times rivaled even the industrial-powered eeriness of
Silent Hill video game scores.
Resident Evil 4’s soundtrack retained the somber and creepy atmosphere of its predecessors, while infusing more cinematic musical elements to dazzling results, and on the other hand, the soundtracks of the actual cinema adaptations of the
Resident Evil franchise shifted with what was popular for the times; going through the nu metal, metalcore, and more recently, dubstep waves.
But regardless, here we are with the original soundtrack for the sixth
Resident Evil sequel in the main video game continuity, and what is it essentially? A bloated 64 tracks comprised of vapid and lifeless orchestral music that’s completely devoid of excitement, and ironically really would have been better suited as an original score to a
Resident Evil movie in how cinematic its goals appear to be. What’s unfortunate is that like the video game, there was clearly no priority (or any intention at all for that matter) in composing a score for a horror game. This is all solely generic and recycled classical music that was composed with an explosive action game in mind, and since
Resident Evil 6 is basically a video game that apes the conventions of modern action-based games in every category, one would think that this score would be appropriate and fit quite well despite a lack in quality. However, while it’s unreasonable to expect creepy horror music on the soundtrack to an action game (though it would have most likely been more preferred by fans of the games), it’s inexcusable for
any of the music composed by a wide variety of different artists on this double disc affair to lack any and all pulse, and be utterly vacant of intensity, interest, or appeal.
It’s laughable that there’s a good assemble of varying composers that contributed to the bulk of score music on this soundtrack, and yet the tracks are all so stylistically identical to each other that discerning one composer’s work from another’s without reference is a trying task. It’s not like it matters anyway though, seeing as how the soundtrack manages to pull off making orchestral score music seem outdated, as the album sounds like a culmination of clichéd stock film score cues ripped straight from every shoot-'em-up movie of the ‘90s rather than a score for a video game. Sure, you have your average couple of drab J-rock songs thrown in here and there (that haven't changed since the late '90s as well, and since then have been standard for what seems like every Japanese video game soundtrack), and there's of course the typical electronic elements that are too eagerly bombastic to ignite genuinely thrilling sensations (and would truthfully be more at home on the soundtrack to an espionage feature film instead), but all the same, the entire album is merely music made to only remain far in the backdrop of cutscenes from the game; simply adding a painfully traditional and barely noticeable musical effect to the scenes, and never standing out in a unique way on its own. Completeness as a collection of music from the game could factor in as a redeeming value, but all of these songs are so short and only fulfilled through the game that listening to individual tracks is pointless, and listening to the two discs worth of tracks as a whole is daunting and wearisomely boring.
In a nutshell, the
Resident Evil 6 Original Soundtrack is a massive all-time low in creativity for the original music of the game series. The
Resident Evil series has most certainly lost its way by trying to put cinematic action value before actual scares, and this is a sad example of how the original music of a series can easily sink along with the ship.
