DLC info: Steam
Listening/music info: soundtrack album
Info
Congrats if you correctly guessed that the reason I backtracked to a 2024 soundtrack with Pacific Drive was because it had a blog-relevant update this year! Whispers in the Woods is a DLC campaign that adds new areas to the game and a new storyline that seems to be a bit more explicitly horror-themed, focusing on the occult and manifestations in the darkness.
The Whispers soundtrack is definitely more horror-flavored right off the bat with the main theme, “The Harmonic Fellowship,” starting with Latin or Latin-esque chanting instead of the wordless vocals of the base game’s main theme. Getting past that track, the bulk of the soundtrack is again ambient, although decidedly dark ambient throughout without any of the more melodic ambient tracks the base game has; it’s kinda like if the whole thing was intended to follow the lead of “Atlantis” from the first game, and that was probably my favorite track from the first game so that’s cool with me. It is a bit mixed as well though, with the main theme being more imposing and there also being a new actiony theme, “Rising Tide,” near the end.
The sound palette is very similar electronic noises to the first game; the main differences are that the yearning vocal performances from the first game have been replaced with chanting and more choir-style vocals (another horror staple) and the guitar has been replaced with some bowed mandolin, an instrument not usually played with a bow but you can play any string instrument with a bow if you try hard enough. The production felt slightly more broken and glitcher than the base game’s, which is cool and appropriate, though I think you can find most if not all of what Whispers does there too and it’s just that the darker themes of the DLC meant those darker aspects could be embraced just slightly more.
It’s nice! Dark, sound design-y ambient is very much one of my (many) things, so I think it’s not terribly surprising that I liked this DLC a little more as an overall thing over the base game.
Recommended tracks:
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“Whispering Woods” is nicely thick and bendy
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“Visions” is one of the tenser tracks and the most overly broken with that very stuttery saw-sounding noise that’s present through most of the piece
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