Album Review | Assassin's Creed (MusiCube)

Assassin's Creed has an immediately epic, grandiose sound befitting a story of the series' size. The tone and themes fit the franchise, but it's clear that this is a film score, not videogame music. Fans should feel right at home here, even though they are not necessarily hearing tracks lifted directly out of the games they have spent years playing. Much of the music is frenetic and fast-paced, conjuring images of chase scenes and fight-or-flight action sequences, while the slower, quieter tunes and pieces befit the stealth aspects of the game franchise.

On the whole, the score can be repetitive at times, with certain cues appearing exactly as-is a few times, as well as in other, more subtle ways - nearly every track seems to begin with a slow, silent fade-in, with some featuring perhaps a few too many measures of the same repeated tone or beat before finally mixing things up. The selection of instruments and style of music represents the historic aspects of the series well, but one of the game's highlights - the juxtaposition of future technology - feels absent in this soundtrack. A track or two representing a more modern or futuristic sound would have worked well here, but the existing tracks are enjoyable and often beautiful in their own right. None of them seem to convey the feeling that might be expected after just having assassinated someone - something the games handled very well - but what the soundtrack does take on, it handles well.

7/10

Very Good - Bronze Award

Assassin's Creed plays nicely with the music of the games that came before it, striking out on its own but co-existing peacefully. The tracks tend to be repetitive, and the series' signature futuristic flair is notably absent, but the epic, historic scope the series captures is present in the film's soundtrack, as well. Fast-paced tracks bring chase scenes to mind, while quieter moments invoke moments of stealth. The history and scope are here, even if the futurism and weight that should accompany an assassination are not, and the soundtrack as a whole is a very good one.