Top 10 scores from 2002

Early simulation games were often less simulation and more arcade-style variations on reality, because the technology wasn't advanced enough and the gaming community was too mainstream-driven for hardcore simulations of real professions – with the possible exception of (fighter) pilots – to find enough fans. That's why the Emergency-series is not a 100% accurate representation of the processes in an emergency control center... and maybe that's exactly why I had so much fun with it.

Little Mattis had to manage the police, fire department, and THW (Federal Agency for Technical Relief), find criminals, rescue the injured, and tow away vehicles. Pure adrenaline, I tell you! And throughout all this action, a rock soundtrack blared from the speakers that still brings beads of sweat to my forehead today. However, since only two of Uwe Rasch's six tracks are top scores, it's not enough to make the list given the field of participants. Still, I wanted to mention it.

I'll spoil this much: For all future annual top lists, there is a very high probability that the Elder Scrolls-installment released in that year will rank near the top. Morrowind only makes it to 10th place, because I never played the game back then, and my attempt to catch up failed due to my nostalgia for Oblivion and Skyrim: too old, too clunky, too unpolished.

In terms of the score, composer Jeremy Soule had already identified the core of the TES-brand, but in my opinion he was still a little too tentative. That may be fine for the third installment of the series, but in my opinion, the sequels impressively demonstrate what is possible musically. Nevertheless, the album provides us with two pieces, Nerevar Rising and The Road Most Travelled which are not only frequently quoted within the series, but are also regularly featured in concert arrangements related to video games.

The 2000s were also the decade in which we were still regularly treated to good Star Trek-games before the series slowly disappeared at some point. Bridge Commander is probably the flagship game when it comes to bringing sci-fi ship combat to life. For me, it was a source of great joy and, in the absence of a universal translator, also forced me to learn English.

The accompanying soundtrack by Danny Pelfrey was the perfect accompaniment to our bridge adventures: calm and optimistic, as in the series The Next Generation, then dramatically exciting. I love this duality. And the fact that the music dynamically adapts to the course of the battle was music to Vulcan ears... or something like that.

I mentioned guilty pleasures at the beginning, and here we have one: Enclave. A formerly Xbox-exclusive third-person action game in which we slip into the shoes of various warriors to beat up fantasy creatures. What seems incredibly generic today actually was back then too. But because it came free as a full version with an issue of the video game magazine GameStar, I played it.

What describes the gameplay also applies to the music. Gustaf Grefberg fires off the standard repertoire of every fantasy composer without exposing himself to accusations of lack of imagination. On the contrary: the soundtrack is uncompromisingly powerful, dark, driving, and catchy. I like it now as much as I did then, which is why the OST and Gamerip from Enclave secures 8th place.

Whereas in Emergency 2 I mentioned that realistic job simulations didn't have it so easy in the past, Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom comes along and impressively demonstrates how stressful managing a feudal empire can be. Whether the spiritual successor to Caesar and Pharaoh was a good game is something I can no longer judge today. All I know is that I regularly found myself embroiled in battles inside and outside my city and was never able to build the metropolis that smiled at me from the screenshots on the packaging.

At least one thing alleviated my frustration during the game, and that was the soundtrack by Jeff van Dyck, who also wrote the music for the early Total War-games. The score for Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom is cheesy, it's cliché. A little like what you'd imagine in a stereotypical Asian spa – but it's fun. You can read exactly why in the accompanying review. With 5 x 5 stars, the album lands at number 7 on this list.

Five tracks may not necessarily be a lot for an album. But when all five tracks get full marks from me, it can only mean one thing: nostalgia alert! And of course, this applies to the add-on to the last really good Settlers-game, The Settlers IV. While the main game already took first place in last year's list the Trojan expansion continues the musical course of the main game and delivers a wonderful mix of relaxed, bustling accompaniment and rousing war hymns. At least for me, who had countless wonderful moments with the building game as a child.

The Academy of Honor, Floating Across Water, The Mountain Song – to name just three of the seven top tracks that Paul Romero, Rob King, and Steve Baca serve up in Might and Magic IV . However, anyone expecting typical fantasy fare will be disappointed in this installment of the venerable Heroes-series. Instead, the trio of composers veers toward classic Celtic sounds, moving away from the operetta style of its predecessor. A heavenly decision, as it provides us with bittersweet melodies that oscillate somewhere between world-weariness and world-embrace. I love it!

We are rapidly approaching this year's podium, at the foot of which the other representative of the Star Trek-brand has gathered: Starfleet Command III. As with Bridge Commander we take control of space battles, but this time over a fleet of up to three ships. Although I enjoyed both, Bridge Commander was the more immersive and – as strange as it may sound – also the more ‘realistic’ game.

Although both had the same composer on board, Danny Pelfrey, SC3 lands at number 4 on this list. A total of eight tracks achieve full points potential for me, as they set the scene for the battles in an atmospheric way. Whether it's the Federation, the Klingons, or even the Borg, the pieces are rousing, pleasantly varied, and create a proper Star Trek-atmosphere. Nevertheless, the album still has to bow to three other releases from the same year, all of which have more top marks under their belts.

Starting with Anno 1503 in third place. As a logical continuation of Anno 1602 this economy simulation actually does everything better than its predecessor—almost everything. Anyone who knows me or this site knows that the album from the first Anno 21/22 tracks received 5 stars. Inflationary? Perhaps. Justified? In my nostalgia-tinged opinion, yes. It almost seems like a step backwards that I only give the sequel 15/69 times the highest rating. But receiving 15 awards is a real rarity for current albums in my rating spectrum and should express how much I like the music from back then.

Composer Alexander Röder breathes Renaissance flair into the game with his quotations from classical works such as Mozart's Lacrimosa, a flute version of Thomas John Williams' Ebenezer and pieces such as Capture Trip and Scarborough (Fair), striking exactly the right balance between melancholy and lightness that, in my opinion, makes parts of the Anno-series so special. A well-deserved third place!

It should have been obvious to connoisseurs that the second part of the Harry Potter-games, The Chamber of Secrets, would make it onto this top list. Once again, Jeremy Soule was at work, who, in addition to the Elder Scrolls-series, also composed the fantastic music for the first part and provided the childlike wizard adventure with a soundtrack that is sure to put a smile on the faces of fans and newcomers alike.

Now, it's difficult for me to name the exact number of top tracks, because the game was released on different platforms with different scores, all of which used the same and different versions of the melodies and pieces with different names – not only among themselves, but also from its predecessor, The Philosopher's Stone! A technical detail that should not affect the legitimacy of the ranking.

Anyone familiar with the music of Chamber of Secrets knows how magical it is (in the truest sense of the word): the playful Gryffindor Common Room; the ominous Storybook, which already appeared in the predecessor; the touching Day (Fireseeds in the predecessor); or the creepy Expelliarmus Spell Challenge (Part I). The mix of horns, piano, and strings works perfectly, but ultimately has to admit defeat to a genre giant that sits firmly on the throne simply because of the sheer volume of its content.

We are of course talking about Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the fourth installment and my introduction to the GTA-series. As a musical potpourri of the 80s, the soundtrack offers 103 real songs, a musical best-of of the decade, featuring everything from Toto's Africa to Nena's 99 Luftballons to Iron Maiden's 2 Minutes to Midnight – everything you should have heard.

So basically, individual games are competing against a musical decade in this list. You could criticize that, or you could see it for what it is: a tribute to the various composers and their works that shaped me at that time and still accompany me today. As always, I can only recommend listening to the scores and checking whether past Mattis was just being a little peculiar or whether he was already on the trail of something big (and great) back then. And with that, I would like to thank you for reading this list! I look forward to your comments and see you next year!