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Infinite vastness

Covering a special interest niche as a game is rarely easy. As a space simulation, Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos probably never had it easy. Although it was released in 2001 in what felt like the heyday of the genre, the game is hardly known to anyone today. As the successor to 1997's I-War, the second game is also set in the 24th century, around a hundred years after the events of its predecessor.

The war of independence has borne fruit and the interstellar government has been brought to collapse by piracy. However, it has now been replaced by huge consortiums that rule with an iron hand. We play Cal Johnston, whose father is murdered by a rich kid in the intro before we go to prison. We are released 15 years later and naturally want revenge. Sounds trivial, and it is. The story could be safely ignored if our progress wasn't linked to the completion of certain sections.

And this is important, because the great strength of Edge of Chaos is the freedom to do whatever we want. Should we raid a convoy that we are actually hopelessly outmatched by? Should we instead look for individual freighters with less cargo so that we can slowly work our way up? Or do we simply fly goods from A to B ourselves in order to better equip our ship?

It was this cornucopia of possibilities, this gigantic universe and, of course, the fantastic graphics for the time that absolutely hooked my brother and me back then. I still remember sitting next to him (or vice versa) for hours at a time, playing co-pilot, pointing out monitor displays, or just being excited about the thrilling space battles.

Because they were great too! The reason for this was the physics, which ensured that spaceships did not perform arcade like turning maneuvers, but drifted on into infinity in accordance with Newton's first law of inertia if you did not counter-steer. This made every skirmish a real test of skill, and the joy of outmaneuvering an opponent or surviving a seemingly impossible confrontation in one piece was simply divine.

And, of course, watching our cargo pilot Jefs load the stolen goods and fly them to the base - sometimes even several times, depending on the size of the bounty. With a bit of bad luck, other pirates or the police could even turn up during the waiting time and try to steal our freshly captured goods. We then had to decide whether to take up the fight or grab what we can and get out.

Ironically, Edge of Chaos is almost a space-Dark Souls, as we can basically fly around for hours without achieving anything. Because if we don't make it back to the base to save, the loot is gone. So you think twice about flying a short detour after you've just raided a convoy - to delay the long travel and loading times - because there's a risk that you'll misjudge somewhere - be it a small battle or a docking maneuver - and lose everything.

This mercilessness, coupled with the error-prone technology, ensured that many mundane activities became routine due to the constant repetition and that we actually 'mastered' the game - something that only very few games today manage to do without artificially complicating and stretching out processes. So anyone with a fascination for the genre is welcome to take a look, even if connoisseurs can probably point to better and more contemporary alternatives.

But that's not the point here, because I actually wanted to say something about the soundtrack before I got lost in the memories. I probably have it all in front of my eyes because I put the soundtrack on my ear and listened wistfully to the fading sounds. As a game from 2001, there is of course no real OST, but a gamerip, which I will simply call a score.

For a game that has potentially endless hours of gameplay, Christopher Mann's music is comparatively sparse with 21 tracks. In fact, I can well remember that there were times when I couldn't hear anything except the roar of the thrusters and the sounds of the HUD. All the more reason to be happy and afraid when the music started, because that usually meant that something was about to go down.

Interestingly, it's not just the tracks with the subliminal background tones that fall behind in my ratings, as you would expect, as they do on "Tension" and "Ambient", but also the "Action" offshoots in some cases. I suppose it's due to my nostalgia that I'm applying double standards here, but tracks like "A2 Ambient", "A4 Discovery" and "A1 Tension" are just as boring with their dark, ominous strings as the generic sci-fi techno of "09 Unknown", "A4 Action v2" and "A4 Action".

In contrast, the score inspires me with pieces such as the chilling "Badlands", the rise and fall of tension in "A1 Action v2" and the yearning, Indigo Prophecy like "A1 Theme" with its creaking viola and calming beats. Maybe these are just the songs you listen to more often when you're playing the game, but for me the mix works better here than with the aforementioned examples.

In my opinion, Christopher Mann understands perfectly how to capture the tonality of a space simulation without surrendering to the pathetics of a stargazer. Detached from the techno sounds, the music of Edge of Chaos is decelerating, calming. We are a tiny speck in infinity, as in "A1 Discovery", which triggers an almost Zen-like calm with the repetition of the main motif on the violin. Another example is "Options Menu", whose synth sounds are a wonderfully rhythmic call to serenity and whose background effects somehow remind me of Star Trek: Armada 2.

I would also like to highlight my favorite track from the score, called "A2 Theme". This begins with a lengthy intro of strings that briefly retreat from their constant beat before returning, this time accompanied by a simple melody on the piano. Joining the resonating beat, which supports the feeling of vastness acustically, a drum later can be heared. The whole thing flattens out a little towards the end, but until then I like the variance of this piece, its simplicity and simply the melody.

The contrast, not just between the silence in the game before the music kicks in, but also the strings and soft beats against the fast, adrenaline-boosting techno tracks of the "A1 Action" brand, is probably the recipe for success. Or the focus on the leitmotif played by the violas, which recurs constantly and holds the whole score together. For me, the music simply works on so many levels, even if not every piece is captivating - because that's not the point. It's a meditative experience, if you leave out the techno songs, and overall a really good (even BAFTA nominated) score for a forgotten gem of space simulations.

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Nostalgia warning

The rating of the individual tracks is purely subjective and clearly colored by my own experience with the game. You can find out more in the article About Nostalgia.

Nr.	Title	Interpret(en)	Ratings
01	A1 Theme	Christopher Mann	4
02	Badlands	Christopher Mann	4
03	Felix	Christopher Mann	2
04	A2 Ambient	Christopher Mann	2
05	A4 Discovery	Christopher Mann	2
06	A1 Tension	Christopher Mann	2
07	A2 Theme	Christopher Mann	5
08	A1 Action v2	Christopher Mann	4
09	Unknown	Christopher Mann	3
10	A4 Tension	Christopher Mann	1
11	A4 Action v2	Christopher Mann	2
12	Unknown	Christopher Mann	2
13	A1 Ambient	Christopher Mann	2
14	A1 Action	Christopher Mann	4
15	A2 Discovery	Christopher Mann	3
16	A1 Discovery	Christopher Mann	3
17	A4 Action	Christopher Mann	3
18	Base Ambient 1	Christopher Mann	3
19	Base Ambient 2	Christopher Mann	4
20	Options Menu	Christopher Mann	4
21	Badlands v2	Christopher Mann	3