Michael Larson, Jason Shapiro & Romulus Mars Priscus - The War in Heaven (1999)

 

Composer: Michael Larson, Jason Shapiro & Romulus Mars Priscus
Console: 'Early' PC [Win 3.1 - 2000]
Game Release Date: 1999-10-??
Bootleg Release Date: 2020-09-27
Ripper: WERTA BEST / SnowBlue
Runtime: 26:46, 5 Tracks

Here's a really rare one. This is the soundtrack for the pretty much forgotten PC game, The War in Heaven. I didn't even know this one existed until a month ago. I've been trying to track down a possible unreleased PS2 game called "War in Heaven" made by the defunct studio Phoenix Games. While searching I came upon a gameplay video for this specific game and, some days later decided to play it. The lovely people at Old-Games.ru and MyAbandonware have a version compatible with modern Windows versions. The only issue I had with playing it was the music would stop and never restart if I tabbed out. I finally beat the game yesterday afternoon. 

The War in Heaven is a FPS wherein you pick a path, Divine or Fallen. Both are separate campaigns with different stories. The divine run has you play as an angel on their way to Hell to save an angel. The game was developed by Eternal Warriors. This is their only known game. The games lead designer is a rather infamous figure nowadays due to his...controversial views which I only found out when writing this post. Just research it if you want to know. I would rather keep that stuff off the blog. I feel it's more than obvious I don't support those views. 

In the game plot isn't really that big of a deal and the only thing I figured out between the cryptic bible passages and end game text was that you, an angel had to an angel trapped in hell (more specific details withheld to prevent spoilers). I only did the divine run, so I don't know the plot of the fallen run. The games not that long, it only took me 3 weeks playing it on and off. There's playthroughs that show the game can be beaten in anywhere from 40 minutes to 14min (speed run time). I'm just slow with games. 
Unlike some Christian games, the War in Heaven doesn't seem to skew any one way. From the old site it says "Personal choice is the defining feature of the game. Set at the time of Lucifer's rebellion against God, the player takes the role of an angel and decides whether to obediently serve the Almighty as one of the Divine Host, or to join the rebellion and fight in the legions of the Fallen." So, there's no punishment for choosing the 'wrong' side. 

But enough of theology and the plot. How is the actual game? The game is a slow FPS where you use primarily melee weapons to slay demons, angels, etc. You get other weapons such as a flaming sword, trumpet of the apocalypse and more. The fallen uses bidents and other weapons. The gameplay itself is kinda meh. The one thing that really stood out was the graphics. For a 1999 indie PC game this is beautiful. Huge extravagant expanses of sky, marble hallways, sandstone walls, yellow gold pillars and more. It's like I'm in a vaporwave album. For the divine run the first half of the game takes place in vaporwave heaven. The second half takes place in hell. Hell is weird man. Twisting and turning dark corridors, huge brimstone temples, a gigantic mechanical machine, snake statues that blood pours out of. It may sound ridiculous, but the game is kinda 'Lovecraftian' with its gigantic empty levels, use of frog creatures as enemies, glaring anachronisms and most of all...a non-Euclidean engine. 

Yeah. I only know of one other game that uses non-Euclidean physics and pulls it off good (Mario in Call of Cthulhu). As advertised on the site "The game features a state-of-the-art non-Euclidean portal-based engine and fourteen distinct types of angels, seven Fallen, seven Divine. Divine angels are armed with five weapons to bear against the Foe, while the Fallen are equipped with five different weapons with which to wreak havoc upon the forces of Heaven." There's one level that really displays that well with a door that upon entering seamlessly transports you to a floating island with the door standing alone. It blew my mind the first time I saw. (if anyone wants to recommend some non-Euclidean games please do. I find it interesting. 

The first two artists credited in the game’s credits were Michael Larson and Jason Shapiro. I can't find any info about them. The credits say the soundtrack was done by Kranium Musik, but the music was by the three people credited above. I guess they were either employees of Eternal Warriors or worked with Kranium Musik. 

The third credited artist is Romulus Mars Priscus, now professionally known as Rom Di Prisco. He is a damn virtuoso. The guy has composed everything from unknown PC games like this to legendary indie titles like Guacamelee (post coming one day) to working with Epic Games to deliver the FortNite soundtrack. Plus, the guy is Canadian so that's a bonus in my books. His musical repertoire consists of mariachi, Mexican folk music, new age, dark ambient, electronic dance music, post-industrial, trance, braindance and more. 

It's a shame there's only 5 tracks in the soundtrack but by golly are they good. For the levels set in heaven we are greeted with ethereal new age tracks with a little trip hop influence. For the hell songs we hear a very dark ambient sound. Even though my game was glitched, whenever the songs came on, I was in heaven haha.

The game never lists who composed what track. The songs were available in WAV format in the download. They were titled track02, track03, etc. There was no track01 and as far as I know it doesn't exist. If it ever does show up I will update this post with another issue. I created the cover myself using screenshots from the game. An alternate cover of the box art will be included. Should I ever release an additional version I will use the box art cover. The original WAV files have been included as well as my converted MP3s. Track titles made by me. The soundtrack was ripped and update by Old-Games user WERTA BEST so credit to him. 

Download: aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWdhLm56L2ZpbGUvT040UVNDQ1ojVVRHLVI3ZzZmQ01lVVdaU05pc3VucDVueEhjQWo3TW5kNFg0elVIWnJwNA==
Old Eternal Warriors site: https://web.archive.org/web/20000510212735/http://www.eternalwarriors.com/
p@ss: heavenandhell