Uncharted™ 3: Drake's Deception (Original Soundtrack) / Uncharted(TM) 3: Drake's Deception (Original Soundtrack)

The demands of writing music for a video game are different from what's required for a movie soundtrack in several regards, one of which is that, given the need for the game player to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles, the same section of the game may have to be repeated many times, and there is a danger that the music may begin to wear on the listener as it plays again and again. Composer Greg Edmonson was mindful of this concern in writing the music for the first two editions of Uncharted, sometimes preferring ambient sounds. He hasn't much worried about it with Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, instead making sure that his music could match the action and reinforce the sense of location in the game. Drake's Deception takes main character Nathan Drake (an Indiana Jones-like adventurer said to be a descendent of Sir Francis Drake) on the search for a lost city in the desert, and that's enough to have Edmonson and a few guest composers suggesting Maurice Jarre's music from Lawrence of Arabia (e.g., "The Empty Quarter," actually written by Clint Bajakian) to evoke those desert wastes and employing singer Azam Ali to ululate in a Middle Eastern mode. Edmonson also uses ethnic instruments, especially percussion, to give exotic flavors to the symphonic moods. Another difference between game composing and movie composing is that games don't generally slow down much for exposition or love scenes; it's pretty much action all the time. And so, the two hours of this soundtrack don't give much pause for breath, plunging on from one dramatic sequence to another. It may not be long before Nathan Drake joins Tomb Raider's Laura Croft on the movie screen, and if he does Greg Edmonson will be all set to join him, perhaps repeating some of the cues heard here.