The soundtrack to the game Assassin's Creed Revelations is available to buy on three albums (Vol 1 & 2 covering the single player campaign while Vol 3 includes the multiplayer music) or, as reviewed here, in its entirety in a three volume album. The in-game music was composed and produced by Jesper Kyd, while the main theme, cut scenes and multiplayer music was composed and produced by Lorne Balfe.

This soundtrack release represents just over 2 hours and 40 mins of music spread over 80 tracks - you can't argue that you don't get value for money. Fans of the game will relish the chance to buy the music to listen to in isolation.

I still regularly listen to Balfe's score for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, for which he composed the lion's share of the music while Hans Zimmer wrote the main theme. It remains one of the few game soundtracks I've purchased - mainly because it was cinematic in style and contained some incredible segments of music - the main theme from the 'Boneyard' level has to be one of the most beautiful pieces composed for a game.

So, I was extremely pleased to discover that Balfe not only continues to write beautiful and moving themes, but that he's topped his work on MW2. Balfe is joined by Jesper Kyd, who was responsible for writing the music for the previous games in the Assassins Creed series. I have to admit to not having heard Kyd's music before - sure I've played some of the games he's written for, but I wasn't aware at the time he was the composer. He and Balfe have a very similar style for this soundtrack, which is great because it make the music flow seamlessly from one track to the next.

There are some incredible themes included on this album 'Assassins Creed Theme'; 'We Walk Together'; 'Master and Mentor'; 'No Mistakes'; 'Suleiman's Grief'; and 'Mastermind' are beautiful. While tracks like 'Fight of Flight' are quirky, catchy and memorable.

Kyd has suspense and "chase" music down to a fine art. So tracks like the aforementioned 'Fight or Flight' as well as 'Galata Tower' and 'Street Fight' get you geared up for confrontation.

Tracks like 'Sailing to Constantinople' and 'Ambush' (the later of which was actually written by Kyd) sound very similar in style to Balfe's MW2 score, while there were a few of Kyd's tracks which seemed to pay homage to Nathan McCree's music for the early Tomb Raider games. Kyd's 'Forum of Ox' and 'Street Fight' also sounded similar to Balfe's 'Favela' music for MW2.

This is incredible value for money. There isn't a track that's wasted with filler material or dull atmospheric music. This is a must buy for fans of the game, and lovers of well crafted soundtracks.

10

Darren Rea