Helldivers 2, Pacific Drive composer Wilbert Roget on his influences

If you look at video game composer Wilbert Roget’s credits from 2024 alone, the contrast and depth of his work is shocking. Roget composed the stirring, over-the-top songs heard when saving democracy in Helldivers 2, but also the haunting soundtrack for indie survival-via-your-car game Pacific Drive. Roget’s work will also be heard in Star Wars Outlaws later this month.

Polygon asked Roget some questions about his process as part of Polygon FM, our theme week celebrating the intersection of music and games.

Polygon: Was there a game soundtrack or song that inspired you to pursue creating game music? Can you set the scene of what that felt like for you, and why the music was so effective?

William Roget: I had played classical piano since I was very young, and although I loved the arcades, I didn’t have video games at home until PlayStation 1 in high school. I’d always assumed I’d have a career in music, but it wasn’t until I played Final Fantasy 7 that I knew I wanted to be a video game composer specifically. Uematsu’s soundtrack was of course brilliant on its own, but it also seemed more “inviting” than any other music I’d ever heard before — its clear and direct composition, mixed with Uematsu’s signature melodic writing, seemed to say “Do you hear this score? You can do it too!”

So I immediately began writing my own RPG-inspired music all throughout the rest of high school, took on indie projects, and the rest is history.

Can you break down one of your own songs and its influences? Was it inspired by game soundtracks, other music, or something else?

I’d love to discuss the main theme to Helldivers 2, “A Cup of Liber-Tea”!

The piece was written to represent the Helldiver soldiers themselves, so the goal was to write an anthemic tune that could inspire players to be a part of an epic, heroic effort. As with the game itself, the most obvious inspiration might be Basil Poledouris’ timeless score to Starship Troopers, though in terms of orchestration, my biggest influence was Michael Giacchino’s military video game scores like Medal of Honor and Secret Weapons Over Normandy. The melody itself hints at Johan Lindgren’s memorable theme to the original Helldivers a few times throughout as well, particularly in the ending climax.

As far as classical music influences, my choice to write the piece in 5/4 time signature was a reference to Gustav Holst’s “Mars, the Bringer of War”. The entire second half of the piece was inspired by Paul Hindemith’s “Mathis Der Maler” symphony in its use of dramatic counterpoint. I layered together the melody from the solo violin bridge section, Lindgren’s aforementioned Helldivers 1 theme, and the four-note descending Helldivers 2 motif to create a powerful climax, and a nod of appreciation to players of the original Helldivers.

What are the main instruments used to record the soundtrack for Pacific Drive? How did you choose those instruments?

Pacific Drive was unique for me in that it was the first score where I designed and invented the instruments before writing any music. I had two sonic principles: the concept of beautifying ugly or grotesque sounds, and the sound of isolation. So I recorded construction drills and squeaky rusted doors, played a metal colander with a doublebass bow, played a washer dryer like a drum kit; anything that I thought sounded cacophonic in an interesting way, I’d record and process into synthesized pads and leads.

On the more traditional instrumentation side, I played guitar with an ebow and brass slide, and worked with vocalist D’Anthoni Wooten and doublebass virtuoso Sam Suggs. Their performances had a haunting and yearning quality that beautifully conveyed the concept of isolation.

Is there anything else we should know about your approach to composing video game music?

I like to think of game music in terms of “first-person” and “third-person” scoring when conceptualizing each piece. Most pieces would fall into the latter category: third-person cues function as a distant commentary on the scene, focused on the story and the greater narrative themes. But in some circumstances, I would get inspiration by imagining myself standing next to the player character and observing the environment and situation — for example, the intensely quiet terror of being in the middle of a warzone at night, hidden amidst distant gunfire. I dubbed this “scoring in the first-person” because music is no longer a commentary, but rather it reflects the character’s emotional state alone.