The same glorious colonial-era scoring, same absurd track names, official album release. Age of Empires III's Original Soundtrack collects Stephen Rippy's 2005 work for Windows and Mac in its proper form. "Across the Ocean Sea" has this slow, building anticipation that perfectly captures shipping out to a new world.
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"Ludus Perditus (The End of Happy Times)" hits with a finality that genuinely stings. And "Niceterium (The Sound of One Hand Clapping)" is peak Rippy, a philosophical joke title attached to genuinely moving music. Twenty-seven tracks of RTS scoring that never sits still.
The mood shifts between adventurous, menacing, and oddly tender without warning. For anyone who spent hundreds of hours building colonies and never once thought to listen to this on its own.