Can't get over the Space Age soundtrack — Who's with me?

[gorfreed]

Fellow engineers,

I need to discuss what made my play-through of the new DLC something truly special: its stellar soundtrack. I feel it's an evolution of Factorio's musical soul, and I think it has been seriously underappreciated in comments so far.

Factorio's soundtrack has always been a brilliant mix of creepiness and grandeur. It perfectly illustrates the inherent menace and majesty of the machinery the players are building of countless hours. A perfect example for this: Remember that feeling when you first unlocked and used artillery shells, which is probably the biggest turning point in your endless battle with the disgusting biter plague? Watching those tiny dots arc across the radar map, obliterating biter nests without even requiring you to witness the carnage firsthand—there was something both haunting and exhilarating about it. And the soundtrack amplified that experience, giving me goosebumps every time.

Now, the Space Age score takes that emotion and cranks it up to eleven! Composer Petr Wajsar has geniusly picked up the original Factorio motif we all have etched into our brains and conveyed it into a distinct Space Age melody. He interprets it in such a great variety across the different planets that it's nothing short of brilliant. Those who say it doesn't match the original score clearly might be missing out on how cleverly it's been expanded and reimagined.

The new soundtrack is filled with these creeping melodic chains that remind me a bit of "Peter and the Wolf" (Example) It might seem out of place for a game like Factorio at first, but it actually adds a profound layer to the experience. It feels as if the whole game is making a subtle commentary on the human drive to always want more and better. Or, as Satisfactory's protagonist employer puts it best: "Construct, Automate, Explore & Exploit."

There are so many memorable pieces in this soundtrack that I don't even know where to start. Maybe it just hits me on a personal level, but if you feel the same way, it would be amazing if you'd share your thoughts. The talented people who worked on this incredible music really need to hear our appreciation!

Let's give credit where it's due. Drop a comment with your favorite tracks or moments when the music elevated your gameplay. Let's make sure the creative minds behind this masterpiece know how much their work mattered to us!

My Favs:
Star Glider
Bioengineering

[königplatzen]

I really like it, too. I turn the space age soundtrack on, when playing, even when on nauvis, because I'm pretty oversaturated by the nauvis one.
It's a good way to get in a mood for playing and progressing, that's for sure.
I like this one:
Scorched Colossus
Reminds me a bit of the soundtrack of the movie "The Rock"

[Ghulmeister]

hard agree. especially fulgora with headsets on was stellar for my taste, hot damn.
nauvis feels a bit lackluster now, because i heard its soundtrack for like 1.6k hours nonstop before 2.0 came out ^^

[Taehl]

The new music is amazing. Literally the only downside IMHO is that it makes the music on Nauvis seem boring in comparison (doesn't help that I've heard it a lot over the years).

[gorfreed]

Wube said that the game engine didn't allow for the required hooks to have the soundtrack be dynamically change depending on what you are up to, so I think it is mostly controlled by whichever biome is active. That said, more often than not I found the score a perfect fit to my activities!

[tulpabug]

I would disagree with peter and the wolf. Parts of the new soundtrack are inside of generic modern classical swell, which you can probably produce cheap with a top line synthesizer, though modern orchestras are often employed in this type of music. Parts are reminiscent of Hanz Zimmer, which makes sense since he's a fixture of the soundtrack industry, and the entire science fantasy soundtrack industry is deep into modern classical emotional swell.

The tracks seem to genre jump a lot. They're hitting all over the electronic soundtrack space. At least one sounds like it was ripped from portal 2.