Composer Bear McCreary wrote over 8 hours of music for SOCOM 4, featuring a full orchestra and Asian instruments, including a gamelan ensemble. The score was recorded entirely with live musicians at the famed Warner Bros. Eastwood Scoring Stage in Los Angeles and Skywalker Studios in Northern California. McCreary approached the SOCOM 4 score by first addressing how the music would be integrated into the game.  He envisioned a game where the computer constantly re-mixed and adapted the score based on the player's actions and other factors...

Bear McCreary's TV credits include Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Eureka, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Walking Dead and The Cape. His score for SOCOM 4 is interesting, although due to the fact that when used in the game it is constantly changing to reflect the action on screen, when listen too in isolation a lot of the tracks sound very similar in nature.

The main theme is powerful, but then we slip in and out of oriental sounding tracks, mainly due to the theme setting of the game. While it has its moments, the majority of the music is atmospheric in nature - which I assume is down to the fact that it's designed to accompany various aspects of the game play.

To be honest I'm not the world's biggest lover of game soundtracks. I have bought a few in the past (Call of Duty 4; Call of Duty Modern Warfare II, Heavy Rain, Advent Rising, Brothers in Arms, Primal and several in the Medal of Honor series) because I've been impressed with how they heighten the atmosphere of the game. But as a rule I'm not a huge fan.

CD one lasts for just over 57 minutes, whilst CD two comes in at almost 53 minutes. For those who have played the game and enjoyed the music, then this is a no brainer, equally fans of game soundtracks will find that there is much to champion here.

There's a hidden track at the end of the score which is worth waiting for. It sounds like an old classic '80s arcade game track - I'm assuming this is original music from the first SOCOM game, but I can't be sure.

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Darren Rea