Farpoint from Impulse Gear is set to release next week on May 16th exclusively for Sony’s PlayStation VR (PSVR) headset on PS4. It’s the first title to use the new PSVR Aim controller, which is included as a bundle option along with Farpoint, with more games coming soon to feature support.
In Farpoint you play as an astronaut set out to rescue two survivors from a crash-landing on a strange alien world. It mixes sci-fi escapism with pulse-pounding action, so naturally the soundtrack is a big part of it all. Without a proper suite of music as a backdrop, the whole experience would fall flat.
“The music of Farpoint alternates between varying degrees of ethereal, atmospheric beds with sparse instrumentation; contrasted with a hyper-cinematic, action score that goes beyond a ‘standard’ cinematic experience,” explains Farpoint’s composer, Stephen Cox of Unified Sounds. “Along with most of the orchestral elements, almost every tone you hear was recorded and crafted from an original source. This included ‘Trumbacca,’ which you’ll hear throughout the game. Trumbacca was a beat up old trumpet with stuck valves that sounded like a dying duck initially. After a bunch of crafting and tweaking in the DAW, Trumbacca was born!
Cox and Unified Sounds previously worked on a variety of feature length documentaries such as Apocalypse Later distributed by Gravitas Ventures, as well as the award winning web series, God Rewards the Fearless.
“It was such a thrill to be a part of the sonic world building in Farpoint,” said Cox. “Every desolate, beautiful or terrifying virtual space has its own sonic and musical signature. The added layer of interactivity with a VR game created a new dimension to the story telling and emotional content as well. Story telling is at the heart of this composition.”
Embedded above are two tracks from the game that the team is exclusively revealing with UploadVR. One is simply titled “Farpoint” as the game’s Main Theme and the other is a track called “Survival Instinct” which plays during one of the major boss fights. Representatives have told us that the full soundtrack will be available for purchase and listening “very soon” on various digital outlets including iTunes, Amazon, GooglePlay, and Spotify.
Let us know what you think of the tracks in the comments below! And make sure to check back on the evening of May 15th for our full review of the game once the embargo lifts and read our previous hands-on impressions of the single player and cooperative multiplayer for more details.
