Simon Viklund sits down for a conversation on music, something here's clearly a fiend for.
Image credit: 10 Chambers
Den of Wolves stood out to me during this year's packed Game Awards celebration for one major reason. The music. Yes, the concept of a new first person heist game from the developers of Payday 2 is enough to garner significant hype, but it's the pounding, relentless rhythms that snatched my attention. Inside the Peacock theatre, you could feel your chair shaking.
As a fan of drum and bass myself, I was delighted to have a chance to sit down and chat to Simon Viklund about the approach to music in Den of Wolves. We had talked before, ahead of the game's initial reveal last year. But now that gameplay is out there, I wanted to dig deeper into this topic to find out the trick to making heist games exhilarating through music, and if there were any new details on Metal Gear Rising: Revengence composer Jamie Christopherson's involvement.
So first, what exactly is the music style in Den of Wolves? It's not quite dubstep, not quite drum and bass. Thankfully, Viklund was willing to explain exactly where both tracks we've heard so far live in the musical landscape. This, of course, came with him miming the drums with his hands and a collection of mouth sounds.
Viklund: "Both are 150BPM - last year's trailer and the TGA trailer. Last year's trailer is in half time, so it has more of a hip-hop feel to it. While this one has more of a techno thing. I'm just experimenting with different things. I call it the 'other mid-tempo'. The mid-tempo is like 100-110 BPM, the sort of music you have in Cyberpunk. 120-130 is where Dubstep is. With Den of Wolves, I'm at 150BPM, 160. It's this no-man's land - because you have to go above 170 to reach Drum and Bass. That's why I call it the other mid-tempo.
"Not all music will be like that, obviously. But I like exploring rhythmical, almost hypnotic things that just repeat, y'know? The music isn't very melodic really, it's just a grove you get into with this constant rhythmical thing."
He mentions Cyberpunk, a game that many will draw comparisons to at least as far as the setting is concerned. That game had a boundary-pushing soundtrack. So did Den of Wolves' corporate dystopia provide a similar opportunity? The answer, in short, is yes.
Viklund: "Yeah, absolutely. It's forcing me to try to make something [interesting]. I can't go super cutting-edge and avant garde - I'm not trying to think about what music would be like in 2097. It would be so out there that I guess people would struggle to feel the emotions you want them to feel when they play the game. It has to be rooted in what people recognise as action music now, that gives a sense of attitude or badass-ness. That's why I bring in hip-hop influences and trap music with the brass hits - I really like that sound. Combining that with the drum and bass rhythms is cool. It's got just enough of that cutting-edge feeling to it.
This all is done in support of creating a soundtrack that is not only distinct, but achieves the most important role: making the player feel "f*ckin badass", as Viklund puts it.
Viklund: "We want them to feel like, yes! Cool and dangerous. The music needs that street vibe to it. Even though we're not preaching and saying it's you against the corporations, it feels a little bit like you're looking out for yourself. Even though you're doing missions for corporations and CEOs, you might do a crime within the crime. Looking out for number one."
But what about Jamie Christopherson! His presence on the Den of Wolves soundtrack was big news last year, especially for fans of his legendary work on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. According to Viklund, Christopherson has indeed composed music for the game, not that we've heard it. However, there's a real desire to continue the partnership to better play to Christopherson's strengths.
Viklund: I'll be completely honest and say that I asked him to do some atmospheric music for the game, and he made some fantastic tracks. It was super useful to get the ball rolling, but it's not what he... The music was great, but it's not utilizing what he does best, why you should really turn to Jamie Christopherson. So I think we really need to go back to Jamie. We're still in contact, and he really wants to work more on the game - he loved helping out! But we need to use what he's known for. High energy music, like what he did for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
With no firm release date at all, aside from a very vague 202X window, we've little that points to when the rest of the soundtrack will be blasted directly into our ears. Thankfully, the track we heard in the recent gameplay trailer is on Spotify! So at the very least, we can pass the months / years with a taste of the other mid-tempo.
English (US) ·