This was an outstanding year for video game music. Professional musicians from various genres all contributed pieces to very unusual places, and many up-and-coming indie composers stole our hearts with their emotional scores. In fact, it’s pretty difficult to find a game with a bad soundtrack these days.

Below is GamesBeat’s choices for the best soundtracks of 2012. It’s an eclectic mix of indie, dubstep, and classical composition that aptly reflects this year’s dynamic music scene.

But because this was such a big year for soundtracks, we also have a few honorable mentions, so be sure to check those out, too.

The Best Video Game Soundtracks of 2012

10. Max Payne 3
Composer: Health

Few songs are quite as lingering as “Tears” on the Max Payne 3 soundtrack. “Tears” lingered in the background of numerous commercials for the game, often playing while the down-and-out protagonist walked away from explosions. It’s an apt summation of the game’s sound and inspires thoughts of edgy spy dramas and sweaty action flicks.

Pairing “Tears” with other tracks from the album like 9 Circulos and Combat Drugs, the Max Payne 3 soundtrack expertly sets the scene of a scumbag ex-cop doing bad things in South America.

9. Mass Effect 3
Composers: Cris Velasco, Sascha Dikiciyan, Clint Mansell, Sam Hulick, Christopher Lennertz, Faunts

Mass Effect has always had a clean, space-age feel to its music, and Mass Effect 3 takes that to a new level. None of its music is overly bombastic, but you do feel a sense of urgency throughout. Melodic, determined pieces inspire us to take in-game decisions very seriously, and you can definitely feel the weight of your choices hanging in the air around you while listening to this score.

8. Skylanders Giants
Composer: Lorne Balfe

Lorne Balfe’s most notable compositions feature prominently in splashy action films like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Inception, but his transition to video games is where he really shines. Balfe scored both Skylanders games, but Giants is where his whimsical style really comes to life. Skylanders Giants owes its jaunty atmosphere to Balfe’s music, and it feels like a proper epic adventure because of it.

7) FTL: Faster Than Light
Composer: Ben Prunty

Is it possible to feel space? FTL is about exploration and space combat that’s also fiendishly difficult. Ben Prunty’s soundtrack amplifies the vastness and danger of space with spangly synth sounds that make you feel like you’re floating among the stars.

It’s also fantastic listening to both the exploration and battle variants of each song in the game. Afterward, you can also feel the expert sound mixing as you play FTL.

6. Borderlands 2
Composers: Cris Velasco, Sascha Dikiciyan, Jesper Kyd, Raison Varner

Borderlands 2 is a space Western, and its mix of airy, sometimes-mechanical tones bring that concept alive. While you scour Pandora for crazier weapons and combat ruthless enemies, the soundtrack is always there, sending out tension tendrils every time you trigger a fight or find a cool location.

Borderlands 2 actually shares two composers with Mass Effect 3, something that isn’t too surprising when you listen to the game’s more action-oriented songs. Velasco and Dikiciyan are masters of incidental tension.

5. Lone Survivor
Composer: Jasper Byrne

Silent Hill composer and creator Akira Yamaoka was on to something when he joined swirling, dreamy guitar sounds with metallic clangs. Lone Survivor’s soundtrack flirts with harsh, chaotic tones while wrapping the game in a melancholy melody. Listening to this soundtrack brings back very powerful Silent Hill memories, and it’s nice to hear that sound live on. The spooky score will unnerve you as you explore Lone Survivor’s gloomy environment.

4. Halo 4
Composers: Neil Davidge, Kazuma Jinnouchi

Few games have soundtracks as passionate as the Halo series. I liken them to Disney films such as The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast for the emotional depth in the music alone. Halo doesn’t have discernible lyrics, but it inspires a wide spectrum of feelings. Halo 4 does this more competently than Halo 3 while sprinkling in a fair amount of easily dubstepped beats.

You should feel elated during some scenes in Halo 4, as well as very tense. This isn’t just because of the gameplay, but because the soundtrack plays well with the scenery to deepen your experience.

3. Fez
Composer: Disasterpiece

Fez’s soundtrack is a twinkly adventure all on its own, but pairing this with its sometime mind-bending gameplay creates a nostalgic feeling. Disasterpiece’s sound is best described as 8-bit epic and manipulates a similar electronic sound as Angelo Badalamenti’s work for the early ’90s TV cult hit Twin Peaks.

Fez’s score is inexplicably haunting at times, and many tracks would be just as effective if you played them over stock footage from an old lumber mill and a massive water fall.

2. Sound Shapes
Composers: I Am A Robot and Proud, Beck, Deadmau5, Jim Guthrie

Sound Shapes hit the pinnacle for interactive music. As you guide your musical blob through increasingly treacherous landscapes, your actions build the various parts of the song playing in the background. Building music as you play is an addictive holdover from rhythm games like Rez that works as you leap from precarious ledge to precarious ledge while avoiding baddies that want nothing more than to stop the music.

1. Journey
Composer: Austin Wintory

Game soundtracks exist to heighten emotion in any given scene. In Journey, Wintory’s music is often our only companion, a score drifting delicately on the breeze waving the character’s scarf. While sometimes mournful, Journey’s score urges us to embark on an epic quest fraught with danger and sometimes crushing loneliness.

Journey’s soundtrack is absolutely the most emotional and beautifully composed score for any game in 2012, and Austin Wintory definitely deserved the Grammy nomination he earned.

Next page: Honorable Mentions

Honorable Mentions

4. Silent Hill: Downpour
Can Silent Hill ever be the same without Akira Yamaoka’s soundtracks? Downpour does an excellent job standing apart from Yamaoka’s signature style while still invoking the disjointed musical universe surrounding the Silent Hill series. The only thing it’s missing is a song with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn on vocals.

3. Gravity Rush
If you’ve ever wondered what anime soundtracks influenced by French street music sprinkled with a dash of Star Wars composer John Williams sounds like, look no further than Gravity Rush. Each track amplifies its sometimes manic flying and world-bending platforming.

2. Persona 4 Arena
Most of the music in Persona 4 Arena first appeared in the PlayStation 2 role-playing game Persona 4, but that doesn’t make it any less awesome in 2012. Shoji Meguro’s score is incredibly energetic, lending itself perfectly to a fighting title.

1. Syndicate
Cyberpunk was once completely composed by Greek electronic and ambient musician Vangelis in my mind, but dubstep is taking over. Dubstep pioneer Skrillex’s contribution to Syndicate’s soundtrack is probably one of the most face-smashing sounds in 2012, but the rest of the music feels very inspired by it. If you want to feel like ripping out someone’s neural implant, I suggest taking Syndicate for a spin.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Indie games are more than inexpensive alternatives to this year’s Assassin’s Creed and Halo; they’re mouthpieces for serious issues, bold experiments in game design, and canvases for discovering new artistic possibilities.

We sorted through 2012′s releases and chose the 15 strongest and most influential titles, in no particular order. Feel free to let us know which ones we missed in the comments. Or tell us we’re completely nuts. Whatever makes you as happy as these games made us.

Fez

Developer: Polytron Corporation
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade
Release Date: April 13, 2012

We might as well get the elephant out of the room first: Fez is a smart and challenging puzzle-platformer with bad associations. Creator Phil Fish lashed out against gamers and Japanese developers in the spring, and he won few people over with his personality. Luckily, Fez’s charming style and engaging gameplay are as memorable as his antics, only better.

Fez puts a tiny, two-dimensional hero named Gomez in a world that you can rotate and explore three-dimensionally. The complexity of the space Gomez inhabits is what leads to the game’s many brainteasers, but the peaceful visuals and soundtrack encourage impatient players to slow down and reflect.

Although widely praised, Fez is the center of a big controversy — and host to criticism — because of the game’s glitches and the perhaps inadequate steps that Polytron and Microsoft took to fix them. Should we hold developers and publishers responsible when they fail to issue patches that improve the experience for everyone? Do we have the right to boast that Western games and development are superior to that of another country, especially one that’s contributed so much to the medium? Polytron delivered one of the best indie games of the year, but it also gave the industry something much more valuable: an attitude adjustment. Whether that’s made us better or worse is hard to say. The Japanese, at least, have made the most of the criticism — warranted or not.

Spelunky

Developer: Mossmouth
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360
Release Date: July 4, 2012

Before you yell that Spelunky is from 2009, take a look at the screenshot above. Or better yet, fire up your Xbox 360 and behold the differences. Spelunky on Xbox Live Arcade is a completely new model, not only graphically improved compared to its PC counterpart but also with more content. The action-platformer now has 1-to-4 player co-op and deathmatch, new music and zones, and additional enemies and traps.

The appeal remains the same: Explore and survive. Sometimes making it to the next area requires a careful balance of risk and reward, such as a decision to attack the shopkeeper and incite violence or leave the princess safely behind, for example. Sometimes it comes down to plain luck. And part of it depends on whether your friends are reliable or whether they’re all too happy to let you suffer.

Spelunky’s recipe is one of the most irresistible in game design. The promise of randomized adventure and secrets keeps players from setting down their controllers even though they’ve died countless times (and will many more). It’s a game that you’ll love to hate and an excellent case study of how to serve both PC and console crowds without losing what makes the experience exciting and original.

The Walking Dead: Episodes 1-5

Developer: Telltale Games
Publisher: Telltale Games
Platforms: PC, Mac, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, iOS
Release Dates: April 24, 2012 through November 21, 2012

With how big Robert Kirkman’s zombie series The Walking Dead has become — leaping from comics, where it all started, to television and now video games — it’s easy to forget that so much of its success is in the hands of independent creators and developers.

Telltale Games has stirred the emotions of players for nearly a year, fascinating them with a surprisingly well-handled story and, better yet, bringing attention back to the point-and-click adventure genre. All five episodes have set a new standard for interactive storytelling. And the game could give the TV show a few pointers about how to create compelling character performances.

The Walking Dead is also a huge success for a relatively small independent company with a modest portfolio of games, including Sam & Max and Wallace & Gromit. Not all of them have been winners, like Jurassic Park: The Game. But this breakaway hit foretells good tidings for Telltale in the new year.

Retro/Grade

Developer: 24 Caret Games
Publisher: 24 Caret Games
Platform: PlayStation 3
Release Date: August 21, 2012

You could learn a lot from your mistakes if only you could rewind time.

That’s the challenge of rhythm-space game Retro/Grade, where you control a spaceship pilot bobbing his head to the music as you play events in reverse. You’ll need to pay attention to the beat as much as the colorful lasers streaking across your screen, which you “collect” so that when the action moves in real time again, you can dominate the battle. Each burst of energy within these lanes of light is your own ship fire, so when you suck up one of these, you’re also shooting it against the enemy in the present flow of time. You can also fast-forward using your rocket’s fuel to give yourself extra seconds to fix your mistakes.

It’s a clever side-scroller and twist on the shooter and music genres, and equally as engaging is Skyler McGlothlin’s (electronica music artist Nautilis) soundtrack and the zero-gravity, free-flying motions of the course you chart. Just keep an eye on the background as you spin and rotate your way through the awesome regions of space. It’s pretty cool.

The Unfinished Swan

Developer: Giant Sparrow
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform: PlayStation 3
Release Date: October 23, 2012

The Unfinished Swan is an abstract tale of loss and our need for closure. You play as Monroe, an orphan boy whose mother dies and leaves him one of her paintings, an illustration of a swan. When the bird escapes its picture, Monroe follows its orange footsteps through a world that you create one glob of paint at a time.

It’s a perpetual visual wonder, but as you progress, the game evolves and redefines the way you interact with it. What begins as paint becomes water, and so on. Discovering the unknown is the source of real magic here, not merely the acts themselves, and the things you find inspire your imagination as though you had stepped into a fairytale.

The Unfinished Swan’s fragmented images and themes might feel incomplete to some — almost like you’re touring Monroe’s mother’s unfinished paintings come to life. But as a whole, it’s one of the most original and artistic games of the year.

Click through for our next five picks.

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If 2012 has shown us one thing, it’s that video game development is truly in the “crossover era.” GamesBeat’s 2012 Game of the Year, The Walking Dead, was first available as a downloadable title, not a retail release. Other downloadables, such as indie-developed darlings Journey and Faster Than Light, garnered plenty of votes as well. And in our staff’s and contributor’s top games of the year lists, we even see mobile releases — like Fieldrunners 2.

Gaming has changed, and it’s nice to see that it’s more than just big-budget console and PC titles that have earned Game of the Year attention. Here are the top games as chosen by GamesBeat staffers and contributors. Let us know what you think about our picks in the comments — especially if you feel we’ve left something off our lists!

Editor-in-chief Dan “Shoe” Hsu

XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Firaxis Games

Little green men — yesteryear’s poster boys for mysterious invaders from outer space — are about as menacing as Oompa Loompas armed with toy guns. XCOM’s little gray men, however, are scary as hell. It’s not the ashen skin, bulbous eyes, or creepy-crawly walk. It’s what these Sectoids represent: a greater threat that we are simply not equipped to handle.

In the strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown, we mere humans bring dull knives to plasma gunfights. And just when we start to catch up in weapon technology, the bug-eyed bastards bring bigger guns and meaner friends. These jerks even cheat with mysterious mind-control powers. Meanwhile, we’re barely keeping the checkbook balanced between research, manufacturing, facility construction, aircraft, and an ever-decreasing budget due to world nations pulling out of the program if you can’t keep them safe (and you can never keep them all safe).

It all adds up to an incredibly exciting and stressful experience. Each decision — whether it’s which tree to hide your assault trooper behind or which whiny country gets your last airspace-monitoring satellite — feels monumental and permanent. Humanity’s existence is at stake, and we just want to make it to the next month, when a few more pennies come rolling in and a few more traumatized soldiers get out of sick bay.

It’s a desperate fight. And boy will we celebrate when those little gray men are dead.

Shoe’s other picks for best games of 2012: Fieldrunners 2, Dishonored, Journey, Fez

Lead writer Dean Takahasi

The Unfinished Swan
Platform: PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network)
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Developer: Giant Sparrow

The Unfinished Swan is one of the most creative titles yet for the PlayStation Network. It’s an interactive fairy tale where you lob blobs of black paint at a white screen. As you do so, you uncover part of a 3D space hidden within the white scene. Uncovering each scene is a mind-bending task, as you have to navigate perplexing puzzles. You explore the unknown, and as you do so, you uncover a new segment in a fairy tale about a boy who loses his mother. It is a touching story that will remind of you of the zany Alice in Wonderland. Ian Dallas, the game creator, feels that a child who is abandoned is like an unfinished work of art. But just when you think that the game has become predictable, it changes. In some ways, the story seems unfinished. But the title is a wonderful first effort for Giant Sparrow, a new studio bankrolled by Sony.

Dean’s other picks for the best games of 2012: Halo 4, Far Cry 3, Journey, Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Culture editor Sebastian Haley

Hotline Miami
Platform: PC
Publisher: Developer Digital
Developer: Dennaton Games

Indie sensation Hotline Miami is best described as the film Drive, but in a retro, pixelated and somehow even more violent form, with subtle hints of Rockstar’s Manhunt sprinkled on top. The short-but-sickeningly sweet levels allow you to carefully orchestrate your symphony of murder and mayhem, filling the floors with maimed corpses and spraying the walls with crimson, all while its surreal, Miami Vice-inspired soundtrack beats in the back of your mind. Basically, if you own a Wii or like looking at livestreams of kittens, this is not your kind of game.

Sebastian’s other picks for best games of 2012: Trials Evolution, Far Cry 3, The Darkness II, Final Fantasy XIII-2

Staff writer Jeff Grubb

Mark of the Ninja
Platform: Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade), PC
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Developer: Klei Entertainment

For these Game of the Year summaries, we’re supposed to look above and beyond the individual parts of a game. We’re supposed to write about why it is important, but in the case of Mark of the Ninja, it’s those parts that make it so special. Developer Klei’s 2D stealth action game for Xbox Live Arcade and PC is a master class in well-executed gameplay mechanics. Whether it’s a soundwave that ripples off your ninja’s feet to indicate how much noise he’s making or a vision cone that indicates where an enemy is looking, Mark of the Ninja is constantly communicating with the player. It then provides the player with a great controlling character to poke and prod the world with.

It’s not rare that a game makes you feel like a badass, but with Klei’s game it’s not about how powerful you are — it’s about how in tune with the environment your character is. You have so much visual and aural information that every moment is an opportunity for experimentation. You can spend 10 minutes laying out a detailed plan that involves deadly traps, or you can play the entire game without a sword.

In video games, we don’t usually get a lot of new ideas, we just get different takes on old ideas. Stealth is an old idea at this point, but Mark of the Ninja distinguishes itself by executing the concept better than any other game before it.

Jeff’s other picks for best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Trials Evolution, FTL: Faster Than Light

Copy editor Jason Wilson

FTL: Faster Than Light
Platform: PC, Mac, Linux
Publisher: Subset Games
Developer: Subset Games

I’m low on fuel. My crew raced around my starship like a colony of ants, hastily putting out fires as doors opened to the cold vacuum of space. The Rebels are closing in on me. Do I take a chance and see if I can gain more fuel in the next nebular cloud, or do I make a mad dash for the next sector and hope to find friendly forces instead of angry adversaries? These are just some of the choices the player faces in FTL: Faster Than Light, the indie roguelike that’s swept upon a number of Game of the Year lists in 2012 (including ours!). What makes FTL so compelling to players is that a take on Civilization’s “one more turn” addictive nature — but instead of furthering your game, you’re driven to see if your next attempt takes you closer to escaping the pursuing Rebel forces. And it’s this that makes FTL one of the most interesting, fascinating, and, yes, best games of 2012.

Jason’s other picks for best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, Crusader Kings II, Torchlight II, Dragon’s Dogma

Contributor Rus McLaughlin

Far Cry 3
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Something visceral. Something primal. Most shooters don’t have these. They settle you into a safe, comfortable role. Veteran soldier. Seasoned cop. Career criminal. A hero … or an antihero. But Far Cry 3 makes you run blind through the jungle while murderous pirates hunt you like a piece of prey. You’re just a terrified kid. Never held a gun before. Never seen anyone die before. Now you’re covered in your own brother’s blood and getting high off the giddy thrill of mere survival. Then you’re turned lose to roam two amazingly rich, open-world islands where you can really start enjoying yourself, slowly and cautiously picking your tormentors apart. Before you know it, the elation you get from destroying a criminal empire hardens into a different kind of drug: revenge.

That’s when Far Cry 3 surpasses the standard shooter fare. An aimless twentysomething becomes a killer of killers, as feared as the insane warlords he wants dead. Between coolly tense stealth play and straight-up gunfights, you become the predator, stalking intruders in your jungle and murdering them at will. It all culminates in a moment where you must decide just how much you enjoy that particular power fantasy. Enough to abandon your humanity? Maybe.

Far Cry 3 goes there. Solid gameplay — minus a weak-tea multiplayer — and incredibly detailed environments lift it far enough, but its secret weapon lies in how it takes you into that dark, primal place. And then it dares you to ignore your basic animal instincts.

Rus’s other picks for best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, Fez, Halo 4, Journey

Contributing editor Rob Savillo

Contributor Rob LeFebvre

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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