10 Times Music Made A Video Game INCREDIBLE
8. Mass Effect 3 - Leaving Earth
Mass Effect 3 gets a bad rep, but a lot of that rests on the shoulders of the simplistic, cookie cutter ending. Most of the game is still great, and the early Leaving Earth sequence is the first hint of the game’s desperate tone.
The Reapers had featured in Mass Effect 1 & 2, but only as an overarching threat. They might have been driving the plot in the background, but it always seemed like Shep had other things in their immediate priority. Mass Effect 3 though changed all that.
Shep and the rest of the galaxy are on the run from the Reapers from the get go, with Earth coming under attack. Shep tries to fight their way through but ends up having to retreat with the Alliance, watching as a little boy is left behind in the devastation.
A soft, hollow piano sequence plays, accompanying the emptiness Shep feels. Suddenly, a discordant blare strikes through the melancholy; a reminder of the Reapers’ power.
Mass Effect 2’s Suicide Mission theme is affecting too, but there it feels like it’s a little too subtle, simply sitting alongside the action. It complements it, but doesn’t quite elevate it in the way that Leaving Earth does.