Award-winning Composer Cris Velasco Scores Ubisoft's ZombiU

Zombies will invade once again on November 13th on Nintendo Wii U with ZombiU. The talented  Cris Velasco will once again contribute his musical talents by adding terrifying scores to the upcoming title. Read on to learn more!

From the Press Release
Following his recent critically acclaimed soundtracks for Mass Effect 3 and Borderlands 2, award-winning composer Cris Velasco (Clive Barker’s Jericho, Hellgate: London) returns to lend his prolific music talents to the horror genre with a dark and twisted original score for Ubisoft’s new survival-horror shooter ZombiU. As a BAFTA nominee and winner of “Best Original Score” at the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Achievement Awards (God of War trilogy), Velasco has become one of the most sought-after composers for the medium. ZombiU will be released exclusively for Wii U from Nintendo on November 13.

To immerse players in the zombie apocalypse setting and intense first-person experience of ZombiU, Cris Velasco composed a visceral hybrid action score featuring the raw sounds of detuned toys and instruments, carnival organs, distorted guitars, and haunting ambient textures, contrasted with the intimate emotion of piano and string quintet compositions. Velasco will appear on the “Maestros of Horror and Sci-Fi Music” panel at New York Comic Con on October 12th. The panel will be followed by a Meet & Greet / Signing Session with Cris Velasco at the Metal Machine booth (#1075).

ZombiU puts players in the middle of London circa 2012, where an outbreak has infected the population, destroying their humanity and turning them into mindless monsters preying on the flesh of the few remaining survivors. This fear-fueled first-person shooter takes all the terror, chaos and tension found in the best of the horror genre and adds original interactive elements, including a unique death mechanic that puts players in the body of a different survivor each time they die, allowing them to track and take down their old, infected characters, recover their equipment and see if they can stay alive just a little bit longer this time.

ZombiU showcases the innovative features of the Wii U GamePad and creates new game experiences not possible on other consoles. The Wii U GamePad serves as the player’s ultimate survival kit, called the “Bug Out Bag.” The Bug Out Bag is a backpack containing all the maps, tools, weapons and supplies that players can scavenge from the limited resources available in the devastated cityscape. ZombiU also uses the Wii U GamePad’s touch screen, gyroscope and camera to create a tactile connection between gamers and the in-game world. Finally, ZombiU features a distinctive multiplayer adversarial mode that allows one player to take on the role of “Zombie Master,” spawning and controlling enemies from a top-down view on the Wii U GamePad while the second player fights for survival on the big screen in first-person shooter view with the Wii U Pro Controller.

About Cris Velasco
After receiving his degree in Music Composition from UCLA, Cris Velasco turned his attention to his childhood passion, video games. Widely known for his work on the God of War series, Velasco has since gone on to score many major titles including Mass Effect 3, Borderlands 2, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Darksiders, Tron: Evolution, Prototype and Clive Barker’s Jericho. Velasco has enjoyed considerable recognition for his work in video games, including top honors from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences for “Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition” as well as GameSpot’s “Best Original Music Award,” IGN’s “Best Original Score Award,” G.A.N.G.’s “Music of the Year Award” and Tracksounds’ “Best Video Game Score Award.”

You can visit the official ZombiU and Monarch Audio websites to learn more. Also, make sure to check out the “Maestro of Horror” at New York Comic Con on October 12th.