EDIT: Seems dynamic music is back in style in some very recent games, many of which I haven't really played yet. Good. wholesome

For me, it's dynamic music, the kind that some games had that adjusted moment by moment to what was happening in the game.

The best-known example of this in the 90s game TIE Fighter, where the moment more enemy (or allied) ships showed up the music would have a little additional flourish to acknowledge the shift in battle. There were pre-battle tension tracks, battle music, complications of battle, grandiose flourishes for the arrival of enemy or even allied capital ships, and victory and failure music all ready to flow into the next seconds of the game.

A lesser-known but still excellent example of this was in Ultima Underworld and its sequel, where drawing a weapon had its own special "preparing for battle" tension music, getting attacked had a jump-out-of-your-skin joltingly sudden musical start that actually scared me as a kid when I got ambushed, music for battles going well, going poorly, victory and defeat.

I wish more games did those sort of second by second musical changes, but they've sort of fallen out of fashion for the most part. sicko-wistful

  • GVAGUY3 [he/him]
    ·
    9 months ago

    Even Battlefield itself barely used it, but destructible environments. I played both Bad Company games and the destruction was great. Battlefield 3, as much as I love the game, regressed when it came to destructible environments. I barely played BF4 but I remember they made some maps have scripted destruction.

    • Moonguide@lemmy.ml
      ·
      9 months ago

      The finals makes it work quite well, honestly. Wish it was more like a normal war game instead sometimes though.

    • 7bicycles [he/him]
      ·
      9 months ago

      I seriously do not understand why this isn't more of a thing. Red Faction: Guerilla pulled of the destruction mechanic to near perfection in 2009, it cannot be a technical problem at this point

      • GVAGUY3 [he/him]
        ·
        9 months ago

        If I recall, Battlefield 3 and 4 had urban maps that seemed to at the time limit their ability for destruction.

    • Are_Euclidding_Me [e/em/eir]
      ·
      9 months ago

      Well-done destructible environments are a ton of fun! I played Control recently and absolutely loved the destruction that would result after a tough encounter. So much fun

      • GVAGUY3 [he/him]
        ·
        9 months ago

        I need to finish that. I got stuck on some boss and then got distracted by another game.

        • Are_Euclidding_Me [e/em/eir]
          ·
          9 months ago

          Yeah, it's a pretty decent game, I enjoyed it. Do you happen to remember what boss you got stuck at? I personally struggled most with Salvador and Mold-1. Absolute nightmares, those fights, at least for me.

          • GVAGUY3 [he/him]
            ·
            9 months ago

            It's been like 3 years lol. Just gonna start again.