The Unreal series, among its loads and loads of overlooked aspects, had AWESOME soundtracks along all of its games. Including the Dork Age ones.
Unreal and Return To Na Pali
Alexander Brandon and Michiel Van Den Bos joined forces to create the soundtrack of Unreal and Unreal: Return To Na Pali. When you open the game and check the flyby from the intro, you have a nice taste of what you'll be going into... and the music which will make you to get into the atmosphere of the game.
Let's get started with Surfacing, an upbeat and magical piece from Gateway to Na Pali.
Have a gander at Nightvision too (also by Brandon).
Isotoxin, by Necros (Andrew Sega), (who also provided a song for Unreal Tournament, see below) a song borrowed from an obscure game*
In Pursuit of Greed, it's intro in fact
is featured in the level Outpost 3J.
The darkly evocative Vortex Rikerstheme, which perfectly suits the ghost ship it accompanies.
Dusk Horizon, the first track you hear upon stepping out into an alien world. Sounds even better when combined with the natural chirps and bird cries of Nyleve's Falls.
The industrial-sounding Shared Dig that plays in the Rrajigar Mine levels has 3 great sections; the progressive, upbeat main theme is complemented by a threatening minor key intro (starts at 4:34) and a truly awesome action track (2:40 - 4:33).
Chizra and its darker twin Seti, from the Nali temple levels.
Nali Chant, the ominous piece that accompanies the Dark Arena.
Hub 4, the dark and threatening track from the level Noork's Elbow.
Bluff Eversmoking, the powerful piece that drives the level of the same name.
Unreal 7, the suite used in Cellars of Dasa - especially the action section (starts at 3:38).
War Gate, the unsettling theme from Nali Castle. Also, the upbeat piece that plays during the boat ride through Serpent Canyon (starts at 3:55).
The tense Demon Crater from the level of the same name.
The raw orchestral power of the mind-blowing Warlord theme.
Appropriately enough, the Ending Theme has to be the crowning music in a soundtrack full of CMOA; twisting through triumph, sadness and suspense about what the sequel will hold, it ends the game in epic style.
Even the Expansion Pack, Return To Na Pali, has a great Intro song. Of course, made by both Brandon and Van Den Bos.
Twilight Horizon, an extended remix of Dusk Horizon from the previous game that accompanies the first level, is also great.
Neve's Crossing, which gives strong backing to the level of the same name.
Journey from Nagomi Passage follows in the footsteps of Chizra and Seti, producing an upbeat, mystical track with a truly beautiful pan pipe melody.
Go Down, the theme played on the legendary Deck and Hyperblast maps, is also awesome.
Foregone Destruction, as featured on the original Facing Worlds and its metallic continuation from the third Bonus Pack. Like the Deck maps mentioned above, Facing Worlds is a Crowning Level Of Awesome and one of the hallmarks of its gameplay mode (Capture the Flag). Part of that is the level design. Part of it is the jawdropping milieu. And part of it is this music.
Then listen to this remix by dj Frakture and melt from the concentrated awesomeness, I shit you not. He also did remixes for Botpack#9 (DM-Phobos) and Skyward Fire (CTF-LavaGiant, AS-Mazon).
Save Me, from the original Morpheus map, can certainly get you in the mood to kill everything that moves.
Razorback An uncredited contribution from Peter "Skaven" Hajba
FireBr, CTF-Coret's song and an uncredited contribution from Tero "Teque" Kostermaa.
Although one of the maps it's featured (DM-KGalleon) is very hated, (and YMMV on the UT3 version) nobody can deny that Lockdown isn't a great song in it's own.
There's also the very bouncy song of DM-Turbine: Run.
For a further proof, and a much more muted song than Go Down which borders on Soundtrack Dissonance, check out the simply named Level8 from UT2003/UT2004, the theme of the Tokara Forest stage.
The main theme of Unreal Tournament 2003, even with the game falling into Canon Discontinuity, and which you can also find in Unreal Tournament 2004. The most epic intro for any of the Unreal games. It gives you the sensation of fighting a gladiator game.
The menu theme of UT2004 remixes and expands the '99 version - all on a full orchestra!
If you liked Save Me, then listen to UT2004's MK-ish DM1.
The techno-orchestral remix of Go Down, called Hyperblast Redux, is even more awesome than its counterparts from the other two games it was featured.
Check this trailer for Unreal Tournament 2004. It contains two songs: the opening track is Assault. I dare you to say it's not awesome. And, near the end, when the Leviathan is showing up for serious Mighty Glacier asskicking, you hear the latter part of Atlantis, supplying some Ominous Latin Chanting, just to add even more awesomeness to the fray and making you to wish to play this game.
And then, there's the DM-IceTomb song, Infiltrate.
The Mothership assault theme takes about 37 seconds to warm up, but then...
The Sound Design Group*
The songs are those starting with SDG
made the Onslaught songs in 2004:
Their big-hitter for UT2004 is Onslaught 01, ONS-Torlan's theme, which also had a remix for UT3. A very awesome song which wouldn't be out of place in games like Age of Empires.
And there's also the slow but awesome Onslaught 08, ONS-ArcticStronghold theme.
And if you want some proof, here's CTF-OmicronDawn's song, LockDown, by Kyd.
DM-ShangriLa's stage, World of Liandri, also by Kyd, gives a feeling which goes hand on hand with the japanese style of the level.
Rom remixed classic Unreal Tournament songs such as Go Down, (Deck's song) Foregone Destruction, (mentioned above) and even the obscure but just as awesome Mechanism Eight.
There's even a remix of SDG's Onslaught 01 for UT2004, WAR-Torlan's song, made by him.
All of this without mentioning his awesome remix of the main song of the game itself.
