Battlefield 4
Action-packed, touching
Two years after the magnificent Battlefield 3 the fourth Battlefield was released as a seamless sequel that promised a lot but delivered little, especially at the beginning. The launch was a disaster, the network code was terrible, and in many respects, the game didn't feel as good as its predecessor. However, various patches and DLCs helped the sequel gather a fan base, which is why the question of whether BF3 or BF4 was superior still yields different answers today.
As someone for whom the renewed “grind” after Bad Company 2 and the time invested in the third part was already a slight challenge, I had no desire to repeat the same thing in Battlefield 4. That's how the sequel felt to me: like switching from FIFA 11 to FIFA 13 – or even FIFA 12. That's why I never had a high emotional commitment to the fourth installment. I also found the campaign less successful: while the single-player mode of the third installment reenacted a war movie in the style of Black Hawk Down or The Hurt Locker, Battlefield 4 followed more in the footsteps of Call of Duty, serving up the fate of a squad that was very stylishly staged but less realistic, and thus never really managed to captivate me.
The score
On the other hand, this stylistic decision means that the soundtrack for this Battlefield-installment is quite good. After all, while the music in the predecessor was boring in multiplayer mode with ambient and loading time music and provided little excitement in single-player mode, composers Johan Skugge and Jukka Rintamäki were allowed to be a little more creative this time around. As with BF3 , publisher EA also provided BF4 with two different scores: a 17-track OST and a Premium Edition with 20 tracks. However, while the Premium Edition of the predecessor primarily contained pieces from multiplayer and the DLCs, the sequel exclusively features action-packed tracks from the campaign.
It's a shame because, unlike the actual game, the Battlefield 4-soundtrack turns out to be a clean continuation of its predecessor and has the upper hand in almost every respect. Where does part 3 come out on top? Like pretty much every composer tasked with continuing an iconic brand, the two Swedes were faced with the question: “How do you make something epic even more epic?” As always with music, the assessment is a matter of taste, but I think the familiar Battlefield-theme, which appears in this score as the Warsaw ThemeJukka Rintamäki auftaucht, gut gemacht, doch irgendwie fühlt sich die (notwendige) Weiterentwicklung nur nach ‚lauter‘ und nicht nach ‚mehr‘ an. Das ist, wie gesagt, der einzige Punkt, in dem die Musik etwas zurückstecken muss.
The electro sound is powerful, driving, and action-packed. Unlike its Call of Duty-counterparts, however, the score remains more in the ambient realm—there are hardly any motifs, let alone their further development. This is especially true of the tracks on the Premium Edition . There are experiments such as Pukor Och KrigJohan Skugge, Jukka Rintamäki, which sounds like someone (successfully) exploring the sound options of an iron pipe. Another example is the sad piano piece (!) Tell My MomJohan Skugge, Jukka Rintamäki, which probably accompanies a particularly emotional part of the campaign. The rest, on the other hand, falls into the rave register (prime example: Third AssaultJohan Skugge, Jukka Rintamäki) and the realm of classic thriller fare (StressedJohan Skugge, Jukka Rintamäki, Combat ReadyJohan Skugge, Jukka Rintamäki).
So what are my highlights? First, there's Cyclone 2Johan Skugge, Jukka Rintamäki, which sounds like typical loading screen hype and gets your adrenaline pumping. The other track, which is much more important to me, is A Theme for KjellJohan Skugge, Jukka Rintamäki. It's from the campaign and really moved me. Enough to include it in my list of the Top 15 saddest tracks . To quote myself at this point:
A Theme for KjellJohan Skugge, Jukka Rintamäki is one of those emotional masterpieces that seriously mixes sadness and regret and lets it waft over us in the form of a synth composition. Our thoughts inevitably wander, we think back to what was and what could have been. We feel the loss, the end ... but also the hope of a new beginning.
That's exactly what A Theme for KjellJohan Skugge, Jukka Rintamäki does, and for me it represents one of those gems that inspired me to start this blog in the first place. To bring precisely these pieces, these little treasures, to shine a light and present them to the world (aka my three readers). Incidentally, I liked the piece so much that I even used it in my radio project “Radio feature - Living by society: The case of Reinhard Rutz” for university.
However, that shouldn't overshadow the conclusion of this review. So what can be said about the Battlefield 4-soundtracks? That they are particularly creative? No. That they are particularly varied? No. That they are well done? Yes. And that there are a few gems that deserve to be heard? Definitely yes.
