Anyone who has played through Black Mesa, or simply downloaded the soundtrack will know that Joel Nielsen did a darn good job with it… But is it the best soundtrack in videogame history?
I personally think X3, Sins of a solar empire and company of heroes give black mesa a run for its money, and there is orobably others i have forgotten to mention, but I will leave this to public debate 
To be honest, I don’t think Black Mesa is anywhere near the best soundtrack in video game history. It is pretty decent and much better than I expected, though. A few parts just seem a little off, though.
When I say off, I’m talking about placement and duration of the music in game and not the music itself. For example, the music that plays during “Power Up” just seems to last too long and doesn’t really fit, in my opinion. There are a few other other examples I could give, but the soundtrack alone is really nice, so I won’t bother giving any.
Edit: It’s not “Power Up” I’m thinking of…oh well, I might find the part I didn’t agree with after a replay in the future. To sum things up;The soundtrack is very nice, but not comparable to the soundtracks of many other games.
Black Mesa’s OST is awesome and it’s one of the rare occasions when I actually listen to the soundtrack out of the game.
However, my absolute favorite at the moment is Mass Effect 3. I do have a lot of problems with this game (especially in terms of it’s story and don’t get me started on the ending) but the OST is pure gold, all of it.
Black Mesa’s soundtrack fits very well within the game. When I originally heard it I felt that it was pretty well-done and professionally made, but lacked something as an actual soundtrack.
Hearing it in-game just MAKES the game what it is though. The game could not possibly work without it. Pretty amazing stuff.
The soundtrack is top-notch, goosebump inducing rocket fuel for the wild ride that is BM.
The one and only thing I’d like to see (hear) are small loops cut from the main tracks, to play near the end of the fight / while sneaking / low alert level.
I think it would make the songs all the more enjoyable when they don’t end abruptly out of sync with what’s going on.
As for song to scene arrangement, it’s been done perfectly. Quite a score 
Best of video game history??? Holy jesus batman, dude - The soundtrack is very good, but I wouldn’t go further than that.
Have you never heard the soundtracks of the Baldur’s Gate series? of Legend of Zelda? Descent II? Atlantis - The Lost Tales? The Elder Scrolls Oblivion? Katamary Damacy? Mirror Edge’s? Max Payne? These are some of my favorites.
But the fact of the matter is, Joel’s music really is up there in terms of great soundtracks. Where exactly up there is a matter of debate, but the fact that it is up there at all really says something about his work.
If comparing Joel’s musik to others, take into consideration that he’s a non-professional music designer, doesn’t get paid to do it and worls at it in his free time.
Given those, he did a fantastic job and his talent will render similar results mentioned above in time to come.
I see what you did there, and applaud you for your effort and good choice of tracks
I wouldn’t say it’s the best game soundtrack ever, but aside from some “meh” tracks, some of them are pretty up there for me, like Questionable Ethics 1, Anomalous Materials, Surface Tension 2 and 3, We’ve got Hostiles, Power Up, and Lambda Core are all great tracks that I think rival much “great” video game music. However there are some tracks that on a whole bring the soundtrack down a bit thanks to poor placement, or out of place “feelings” they give off.
Very good choices, especially TA.
That’s an awful lot of links. Could you maybe summarize what you linked to so I don’t have to kill my tiny laptop loading all of them?
You should look into the browser addons: Linkify plus and Youtube title link.
I can easily see the preview images of all those videos just by hovering my mouse on them with these.
“Power Up” rapes my ears
after you electrocute the Garg and that ear-splitting screechy song plays?
OW
Really? I found that it made it very atmospheric.
Questionable Ethics 1 sounds like a complete, blatant rip off of the Assassin’s Creed II theme, if you ask me.
Not at all, if you ask me.
It’s a good soundtrack, and better than I expected. However, it’s not even close to the level of Jesper Kyd or Jack Wall.
Yeah actually when the soundtrack was released, I thought it was pretty good but wasn’t all too special. But hearing them in-game, in-context, really makes it shine.
The game couldn’t work without the music, and the music works best in the game.
Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.