Class classic

This is the music review of
The White March (2015).

Pillars of Eternity is one of those games, that propably not many people know about, despite it being a work of passion by Obsidian Entertainment, who brought us games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Neverwinter Nights 2 and The Outer Worlds. Of course, if it deserves metacritic score of 89 / 8.4, I cannot say, for I haven't played it either.

What is unlikely to be disputed is the classification of the 2015 game in the CRPG genre, i.e. Computer Role Playing Game. This is because Pillars of Eternity (or PoE) is based on the game mechanics of legendary games such as Baldur’s Gates and Fallouts from the 1990s, as it uses the pen & paper rulebook that is common for games of this type. For us as players, this means the three big Ds: top-down view, dialog and Dungeons & Dragons - at least in terms of gameplay.

I have to admit that the game reached me at a time when I wasn't ready for this classic form of role-playing game. A friend had tried to introduce me to the co-op of 2018's Divinity: Original Sin II but even that was too old-fashioned for me - it remains to be seen how worthwhile such a game is in co-op. Could the highly acclaimed Pillars of Eternity still excite me today, eight years and an outstanding Baldur’s Gate 3 later? I don't know and I probably won't find out in this lifetime.

Instead, I fell in love with the accompanying soundtrack, which comes as an OST with 26 tracks and a Deluxe Edition with a total of 61 tracks. However, it must be made clear that 19 of these tracks are from the expansion The White March so I have excluded them here. Responsible for the composition is Justin E. Bell, who worked his way up from Sound Designer to Studio Audio Director at Obsidian from 2010 to 2021 and also composed the scores for the sequel Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire and The Outer Worlds . In this regard, Pillars of Eternity was his first completely original composition.

You can't hear that - on the contrary! Although the score may sound like the usual fantasy fare to the untrained ear, I consider the feeling of coziness and old-school charm to be extremely well done here. Bell succeeds in creating the association of high-quality classical music, from the (musical) greats of yesteryear, without jumping on the nostalgia bandwagon or rubbing it in too much.

This is due in no small part to the fact that the pieces were recorded by the Budapest Art Orchestra, i.e. a real orchestra. Gothic 3 back in 2006 already showed that real performers simply produce a better sound. Anyone who has ever put together their own pieces using Magic Music Maker or similar tools can probably testify to this ... it just doesn't sound the same.

But these are only the framework conditions that Bell's composition plays into his sheets. Rather, it is the supposed proximity to other video game greats that parts of the score suggest to me. Where do I start? There's Defiance Bay, for example, which seems only a few notes removed from Minstrel’s Lament from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Ondra's Gift is also somewhat reminiscent of the online spin-off The Elder Scrolls: Online, and Woedica mixes the Oblivion-Formel with Fable.

In other tracks, we feel traces of other fantasy colleagues: The Harbingers Doom makes us think back to the screen villains of the 1930s and, like Crashed Upon the Shield, goes in the direction of Kingdoms of Amalur. Shadow of the Sun, on the other hand, leans more towards the first Harry Potter flicks with its chimes, and Dryford even has a hint of Star Wars - John Williams for the double.

However, the score is closest to my personal favorite, the SpellForce-series; more precisely to SpellForce 2, which in turn is strongly inspired by Howard Shore's musical manifesto, the Lord of the Rings-series. Examples of this include the main theme Eora, the more calm/relaxing Gilded Vale and Caed Nua and the sombre The Old Watcher.

Now you could dismiss Bell's album as a cheap copy, but this would not do justice to the composition. Let's leave the question of whether the examples mentioned above really served as templates aside, I always prefer well stolen to badly homemade. And secondly, art thrives on inspiration, so what am I actually criticizing here?

“Nothing” is the answer I would like to give. I really like what Bell has created for Pillars of Eternity . The soulful strings (Burial Isle), the powerful (Their Hearts Grew Bold) and joyful horns (Encampment), accents such as the glockenspiel (Oldsong) or the almost baroque guitar playing in The Lover Cried Out - it all works brilliantly. Quick note: According to the Pillars of Eternity-wiki , the last mentioned tavern piece The Lover Cried Out is an improvisation based on the transcript of a baroque composer. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm getting better at classifications.

Nevertheless, I can't dismiss the score entirely without criticism. Because even if the tenor very often goes in the direction of the grandeur of a SpellForce the soundtrack doesn't 'pop' that much. The battle tracks are the biggest 'weak point' - at least according to the composer. According to the wiki Bell said in a Twtich stream, that the combat music was not dynamic enough and could only be switched on and off.

[…] the combat music ended up being repetitive as a result — particularly in comparison to modern ways of implementing music for combat. He said that this was mainly due to a lack of experience with scripting audio in the Unity Engine, and that if he'd do it again, he'd add more nuance and reactivity to the music, or at least make sure that the music doesn't start at the same place every time.

As a non-player, I can't really understand this criticism, but I do know about the effect of responsive audio/music design.

What struck me when listening to the album, however, is the fact that some of the battle tracks seem a bit flat, like when you turn down the bass on the speakers. I think there could have been more oomph here ... and yet it doesn't really bother me. On the one hand, because it reinforces the old-school aesthetic mentioned above. On the other hand, because tracks like Their Hearts Grew Bold, The Dragon Thrashed and Wailed or The Watcher Prevails are simply fantastic, dramatic and enchanting and compete with action tracks from Ori and the Will of the Wisps for example, without having to rely on its in-your-face drama.

The last point to mention is the Deluxe Edition . After deducting the 19 tracks from The White March-expansion, it contains a total of 42 tracks, seven of which are very short and some of which are stingers (Glanfathans, Shock and Awe). Conversely, the very nice The Watcher Prevails is part of the collection, so another point of criticism has been resolved. All that remains for me to do is to give it a full recommendation and hope you enjoy it!

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The White March

In August 2015, the same year as the main game, the first part of the expansion The White March Part I was released, followed five months later by Part II. The accompanying soundtrack, which I took from the Deluxe Edition of the main game, has the same structure, which is why tracks 1-10 belong to the first and 11-19 to the second expansion. Nevertheless, I will refrain from dividing up the albums accordingly at this point, since the question arises: Cui bono?

The winners in terms of music are likely to be all those who wanted more from the main game. As previously mentioned, the tracks are actually part of the Deluxe Edition and therefore also by Justin E. Bell. In contrast to the main game, they don't trigger as much enthusiasm in me, but I can still recommend the album. This is because Bell's tracks once again evoke associations with soundtrack greats in me, such as Stalwart Village with the Rivendell-theme from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, or Cayron’s Scar with the third Harry Potter-film.

In addition to other borrowings, such as the female choir in The White Forge, which is reminiscent of The Witcher 3 Bell sets further accents with Gregorian choirs in Abbey of the Fallen Moon or Redux-versions of titles from the main game. Alongside the aforementioned Stalwart Village the density of highlights is somewhat lower, but after the first few tracks, the score gains noticeably in quality.