Outlaws

Outlaws was a western-themed, first-person-shooter game created by LucasArts. Released back in 1997 was a hit at the time thanks to its then-impressive graphics, strong plotline and strong music. In the game, you play the role of retired Marshal James Anderson. The Marshal's refusal to give up his land to the greedy new owner of the surrounding lands wanting to destroy struggling farms to raise a great city, leads to the murder of the Marshal's wife and kidnap of his daughter Anna. Now the Marshal goes on a quest for revenge to rescue his daughter.

For all you Morricone lovers out there you'll be pleased to know that Outlaws is a modern version of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Outlaws starts off with a racing acoustic guitar playing the quick prelude to the main theme played by a solo synthesized horn then whistled before the track carries on the start of an adventure as the music varies from racy to action styles. "Sanctuary" begins with a wolf howling leading to the intro of another theme on the guitar. The latter half of the track is carried out by solo whistling and underscore. "Anna's Theme" is a pretty one. Here the track starts with a solo, mellow trumpet followed by a low playing cello then followed by a western type piano. The solo female vocals add to the tenderness of the track nicely representing Anna.

"Sanchez the Outlaw" and "Showdown" are tracks sounding very "Spanish" in that the lead instrument is a solo trumpet played much in the fashion of Morricone's The Trio. Tracks 3, 5, 9, 11, and 13, are percussive underscore sounding very disjointed and hard to get used to. Another highlight of the score is "Two Feathers". It starts off like the opening percussion music from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. The track contains the main Outlaws theme played in a Native American fashion. "The Last Gunfight" open very similarly to Morricone's "Ecstasy of Gold", making this track one of the best on the album, and "The Last Gunfight" sounds more like the main theme from A Fistful of Dollars.

Overall, Clint Bajakian pays homage to Morricone's score of old back when the music did the storytelling. The score stands on its own like Morricone's and is quite enjoyable. LucasArts released the official game soundtrack as a part of a package with the PC game. If there are any copies of the score release out there it's incredibly hard to find. Take comfort in knowing that the game - a two disc game set - contains the full score spread between the two CDs. The tracks on the game set are the exact ones found on the album release with the inclusion of data tracks.

The video game can be found on the bargain bin for at most $5. So for that amount you get an awesome first-person shooter and some of the best western music written in the past decade. I give this score 4 out of 5 stars.