Performed by the world famous London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Greatest Video Game Music 2, features 17 brand new, classical orchestrations of some of video game’s most cherished musical themes. The album is a sequel to 2011’s hugely successful The Greatest Video Game Music, also recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra...

The Greatest Video Game Music 2 is an interesting album and acts as a sort of sampler for soundtrack fans for whom some of these scores have passed them by. If the first track, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, doesn't have you digging out your credit card to visit iTunes and download the full album, then this is not really an album for you. Personally I went straight to iTunes to buy the full score for Batman: Arkham City - something I'd been waiting for since I was blown away by the music in the game. But, on previous searches the only album I could find was the various artists download.

What's interesting about this release is that it includes some tracks from soundtracks, but puts an entirely new spin on them. For example, the main theme from Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (for which we reviewed the full album) manages to add a little something extra. The theme is familiar, but this version is slightly slower and sounds more like a classical music track. Likewise, the Deus Ex-Human Revolution track sounds like a more polished version of the original.

Unfortunately a lot of the other games I'm unfamiliar with the soundtracks, so while I enjoyed the interpretations here, I'm not sure how they measure up when compared to the original. However, I can highly recommend this as an interesting album that delivers some great segments of music.

While this is stating the obvious, the best themes are with the first volume, but if you've bought and enjoyed that, this follow up album is well worth adding to your collection.

01 - Assassin’s Creed: Revelations - 'Main Theme'
02 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - 'Far Horizons'
03 - The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker - 'Dragon Roost Island'
04 - Final Fantasy VII - 'One-Winged Angel'
05 - Mass Effect 3 - 'A Future for the Krogan/An End Once And For All'
06 - Halo - 'Never Forget/Peril'
07 - Sonic the Hedgehog - 'A Symphonic Suite'
08 - Chrono Trigger - 'Main Theme'
09 - Luigi’s Mansion - 'Main Theme'
10 - Kingdom Hearts - 'Fate of the Unknown'
11 - Super Metroid - 'A Symphonic Poem'
12 - Diablo III - 'Overture'
13 - Batman: Arkham City - 'Main Theme'
14 - Deus Ex: Human Revolution - 'Icarus Main Theme'
15 - Fez - 'Adventure'
16 - Portal - 'Still Alive'
17 - Little Big Planet - 'Orb Of Dreamers (The Cosmic Imagisphere)'

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Darren Rea