Shogo: Mobile Armor Division is another one of those games in the same vein as Scurge: Hive: one whose title starts with an S and features a subtitle following a colon, one that I really wanted to like more, and one whose soundtrack is easily the best part of the game. On paper, Shogo sounds great: anime-style FPS involving giant mecha. In practice, Shogo still sounds great, but the forgettable combat, mundane level design, and bland graphics leave little to recommend it aside from the soundtrack and promising premise. Lucky for you, you don’t need to play the game to experience the music, composed by Guy Whitmore (composer for No One Lives Forever—another game by the same people, but one that has lots to recommend it).
As with Solstice, the music-to-gameplay ratio is completely out of whack, but what little you do hear could fit right in as the background beat for your favorite action-oriented anime. A little dark, a little tense, a little mysterious, but always with a sense of motion. Enjoy a few selections below (give each track about a minute to simmer; most of them take time to build), and click here for more.
