Moebius: Empire Rising Soundtrack Review

• Name: Moebius: Empire Rising OST
• Label: Phoenix Online Publishing
• Composer(s): Robert Holmes
• Number of Tracks: 32

What does Gabriel Knight, Gray Matter and Moebius: Empire Rising all have in common? If you said, they're all designed by the brilliant Jane Jensen you'd be right - but not the answer I was looking for. They also happen to have all have soundtracks composed by her husband, Robert Holmes. I really enjoyed the soundtracks from Gabriel Knight and Gray Matter so I was expecting more of the same with Moebius: Empire Rising.

How would I describe the music on this album? It's mostly the kind of stuff you'd expect in a spy thriller action flick, but it runs the gamut of decades with the earworm Moebius Main Theme having a very 60s-70s vibe to it, to a very 90s sounding The Warrior and the Savant thanks to some wailing guitars. I think the strong tracks by Robert Holmes tend to be either the rock tracks (ones potentially performed by the rock band The Scarlet Furies, which he plays with, along with his daughter Raleigh) or the piano pieces, such as Drowning in the Seine (which has a very Gabriel Knight feel to it) and the soulful Opening Up.

Speaking of Raleigh Holmes, she does an excellent job of providing vocals to this gem of a song called The Wheel:

Really awesome song - great for a credits song, except they decided to have the credits at the beginning for some reason - like a TV show intro I guess?

While there are a few highlights there are also some filler tracks (i.e. ambient stuff not really worth a mention) and these are responsible for the slightly lower score. I especially dislike Central Park as it sounds like circus or carnival music - maybe I'm missing something or maybe it's meant to be mocking the American political campaigning system? Not sure but it just seems out of place.

Overall audio quality on the album seems to be average or worse at times though. There's definitely some crackling in the background on a few of the tracks. However, that's not going to hold me back from listening to the Moebius Main Theme for the 2,000th time.

Score - 6/10

Robert Holmes proves he's still got it when he comes to game soundtracks, and Moebius: Empire Rising is no exception. The rock tracks and piano pieces on this album tend to be its strengths and he's definitely got an earworm with the Moebius Main Theme - if only there was more of it, much more.


There are a couple of ways you can grab this album: either via the publisher's website for $9.99 USD or via Steam as a DLC (also for $9.99 USD). If you get the game from GOG, you'll get the soundtrack for free!