MIDI Week Singles: "Escape" - Thomas Was Alone (NS)

 

"Escape" from Thomas Was Alone on the PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Linux, iOS, Android, Xbox One, Wii U, & Switch (2013 - 2021)
Composer: David Housden
Album: Thomas Was Alone Original Soundtrack (Deluxe Edition)
Label: Bandcamp
Publisher: Ant Workshop
Developer: Mike Bithell

I was tempted to use the opening track from Thomas Was Alone, but after playing through the game for a second time, I realized I wanted instead to use "Escape."  As I found out while listening to Mike Bithell's commentary during the game, the score that David Housden wrote for each scenario (a block of 10 stages) is played at different times based on an algorithm so you may not hear the song in the order from beginning to end in the game as it was written, theoretically, over the course of the 10 stages, you will likely hear the song in its entirety.  Maybe the algorithm happened to select the right parts of the song to play at the right time, anticipating how I was playing to have the music line up with the narration and where I was in the stage.  That might be asking a bit much, but whatever it was, having "Escape" play during the Generation scenario (8.1 - 8.10) was a wonderful experience. Playing as different AI quadrilaterals making use of the different abilities from the original AIs from the beginning of the game and making their way to escape was... moving?  Heartfelt?  Powerful?

I would like to think that there is some lingering effect that the music has if you are listening to this track (or even the album) if you have not played the game, but I know for me, listening to it out of context, outside of the game, "Escape" still very much has all of the impact as it does while playing as Grey, Jo, and Sam.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
My Head is in the Stars, My Feet are in the Sky