Continuing the trend of elaborate and evocative game soundtracks, Riepel has put together more than 60 minutes of well-written (and -played) orchestral music inspired by the scores of genre favorites such as Alien, Predator and Starship Troopers. Just about the only thing missing is "The Cole Train Rap" from the end of the game.

Riepl does some good work here, and it wouldn't be a surprise if he manages to leverage his success into movie and or TV work. He's more than competent enough to do it, even if large chunks of the GOW score function more or less as background music for gameplay. But hey—it is a game, after all—what else could one expect?

He's provided music for games such as Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Championship and the forthcoming Unreal Tournament 2007. Readers here, though, might find more interesting the tidbit that he provided additional music for SUN, Howard "LOTR" Shore's initial entry into game scores.

An exciting musical ride

Things get off to a rousing start with the lumbering "Gears of War," the main theme, its implacable tempo meant to evoke, well, the gears of war. There is even a section of parade drumming here, swelling as the theme repeats, rendered by strings and brass.

The mood of the pieces is about evenly divided between anticipatory/threatening and "git them boogers" action writing. The best of the action pieces are "I Will Kryll You," "East Barricade Academy" and "Running With Boomers." One of them, "Jacinto Prison," has a clever hammer-and-tongs percussion line to it. The Sinfonia sounds like it is having fun with "Attack of the Drones," Cue 4, sawing briskly away on the strings.

What's most interesting about Riepl's music is that he often throws in little bits of "business" in the background: synth riffs on the backbeat, small backward passages, the aforementioned hammer-and-tongs percussion, etc. He does this again with different percussion in "Fish in a Barrel." This helps the music stay interesting and fresh. He also has a nice sense of dynamics; listen to the way the sound builds during the opening of the second cue, "14 Years After E-Day." Nicely done throughout.