Dark, suffocating atmosphere for a game about drowning in the deep ocean. Anoxemia is a 2015 underwater exploration game where you control a scientist and his drone through toxic, war-ravaged waters, and the soundtrack nails that claustrophobic dread from the first note.
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The title track "Anoxemia" -- named for the medical condition of oxygen deprivation in blood -- immediately puts you under the surface with oppressive ambient pressure. "Is This Autonomous" raises unsettling questions about control that mirror the game's central tension between the player character and the drone ATMA.
"Since The War" and "I Died Here" establish the backstory through pure mood. Then "And Then I Died Here" follows, and the sequential naming turns darkly funny in a way that captures the game's trial-and-error difficulty.
You will die. You will die again. In the same place. "Bigger Inside" expands into something more cavernous and alien, suggesting the deeper trenches where the game gets truly strange. The ten-track runtime is tight and purposeful.
"Embrace Reality!" hits with an urgency that cuts through the ambient murk, and "Finale" delivers the payoff without overstaying its welcome. For a game that shipped across PS4, Wii U, Windows, and Xbox One, this is a confident little horror-adjacent score that knows exactly how uncomfortable it wants to make you.