One of the most distinctive CRPG soundtracks ever recorded, and it's all performed on solo string instruments. Ben Houge composed Arcanum's score as intimate chamber pieces -- mostly solo violin and cello -- that mirror the game's collision between Victorian-era industry and ancient magic.
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The result sounds nothing like any other RPG from 2000 or any other year. "Tarant" captures the smoky, class-divided industrial city with melancholy violin that could score a Dickens adaptation. "Qintarra" shifts to something ethereal for the elven city, while "The Wheel Clan" goes deeper and more resonant for the dwarven stronghold.
"The Vendigroth Wastes" is haunting desolation, and "Kerghan's Castle" builds genuine dread with minimal instrumentation. "The Demise of the Zephyr" sets the entire journey in motion with urgent, mournful strings. Troika Games understood that their steampunk-meets-fantasy world needed music that felt handmade and human rather than orchestrally bombastic.
Twenty-one tracks of solo and small ensemble strings shouldn't work for a massive open-world RPG, but the restraint is exactly what makes Arcanum's soundtrack unforgettable. This is a landmark score that deserves far more recognition.