Cog in the Machine - World of Goo

Notes from the composer; "You can hear a clip from this track in one of my other small games Robot and the Cities Who Built Him"

[bigshrekhorner]

The factory is named xy and what they produced is named "Product Z". The world turns "3D" after this chapter and x, y are the axes of the 2nd dimention while z is the axis used in the third dimention. Nice touch

[eudgenius]

All the screaming in the background makes more sense if you realise that this song was originally used in a game called "The Robot and the Cities that Built Him", where you play as the titular robot and wreck havoc around the cities. The bastard then popped up in Little Inferno, but sadly forgot to bring this sick track with him.

[RottenLegacy]

I get the impression that people are trapped in a burning factory here.

[Megapixel]

The whole song sounds like the factory is trying to sing. The low parts and drums sound like machinery chugging along, and the high parts almost sound like creaking metal. The drums keep moving from ear to ear; it sounds like you’re in the heart of the factory, surrounded on all sides.

Can’t forget about the ambient wind and fire noises, and of course, the screaming children. In short, this is when the game gets *dark!*

[chessm]

It's shame how this game has no awards for having such a good ost.

[DrPew-phdu]

This Factory has Fire...
This Factory has Screaming Children...
This Factory has Explosives...
This Factory, has GOO!

[Randomlollis]

nice and positive song about children playing

[MiraFishFunny]

This game was so scary when i played this as a kid. From the animation to the visuals, the music, it all was terrifying to me. I see games in a different perspective than others sometimes and found this game way too unsettling when I first played it.
The game always felt so... evil.
It starts off with the normal world of goo gameplay and i didn’t ever think much of it, but as the story went on it kinda disturbed me more and more, but i never stopped playing. The idea of a big corporation preparing for this “project Z” and you were witnessing it trough the perspective of the player it gave the fear of the unknown for me, the corporation always felt like it had bad intentions. And some puzzles combined with the sad songs really sticked with me, and seeing the “burning man” have his head slowly turn as the music went on was really uncomfortable to look at and on the sides there were two more of them, but without heads and with just a burning flame instead. I don’t think I never actually beat that level, i probably wouldn’t have had the courage for it anyways. Once you get to the Project Z level where you light up the big Z and the huge gun pointing at the sky slowly rises i knew something not good was going to happen. And then the cutscene played. The gun fired up at the sky and the big green projectile flew out of the planet and just.. Stopped. When i first saw this i had no idea what it was but when the people who were watching it unfold said:
“what is that?”
“It looks like its growing”
I started to fear what it was. I was starting to experience the game as if I was one of the people watching it happen, then the green cube in the sky started to fall towards the planet again and everyone started panicking and screaming, and then silence. The green cube had wrapped itself around the earth. When the game transitioned from this unique art style to this green virtual world it felt like the world wasn’t right anymore. The area where you tried to create a tower as big as possible was instead of being this gray, dull and dark place, it was turned into this happy cartoony virtual area which felt so fake-positive and deceptive. The music in it sounded so happy aswell but not in a good way, it was too happy.
The entire world turned virtual with the last level ending at the recycle bin, which i never reached as a kid and only got to it when i was older.
But i did meet MOM, and the way the concept of building your way up to MOM not knowing at all what awaited there made me almost desperate to get up. The music also made this feel really emotional and i felt sort of attached to MOM. When i eventually reached it i never got trough the questions thing as i never realised what i was asking about and was just clicking everywhere, i was just a kid so i didnt know what i was doing and that is why i never got to the recycle bin. I think i started to even belive that was the end of the game. But it wasnt really a disappointing “ending”
for me for some reason.

Idk if you find this extremely weird or dumb but this is how i experienced the game as an impressionable kid and how it sort of scarred me. I do not regret playing the game though as it is a fantastic game if not one of the best games i’ve played.
Also i wrote this at 2:40 AM also so yeah

[GeorgeTankerYT]

Both Cog In The Machine and Atomic Express are fire

[ZilkenianDavenport]

THIS! This is the one that made me look at the game! This is the one that made me realize how dark it really is.
This is the one that made me buy the game yesterday, after so many years, and play it.
And this will always be my favourite...

[babyfromthesimpsons]

That distorted guitar(?) is just the best shit. Juice it, hook me up to an IV bag full of it, and I will die with a happy embolism.

[thechocolatearmor]

This is definitely a factory I would want to stay away from.

[butter]

For me, this song gives the exact vibe of a live event revealing something like Product Z. So good.

[LonePhoenix]

Just with this song, you can make a warning message about industries and pollution, the strings are telling the gravity of the situation (almost sounds like an alarm), the guitar represents the metal sounds, the drums represents the working machine, and the childs noises are here to tell they are playing outside, breathing polluted air. That's how I imagine the scene.

[lundojelding]

Caution, children at play.

No--they're not playing with oil and fire, we swear.

[toubi]

Now things start to get much darker and more dystopian as the corporation reveals the extent of the dark depths they’re willing to sink to. Cog in the machine is also a phrase used to describe a feeling of being a means to an end, so it’s a fitting name for a song that highlights the dark side of industry.

[trishschamont]

When I was little and heard this, I was thinking "Wow, this really fits the theme of the factory with those screams in the background." Then I thought later that they could be cheers because it is the launching of a new product. But now that I listen to it here, I know that I was right before and that those are screams of terror

[lilpamper]

This is so much better than the in game version. I instantly hot chills once the guitar started rolling in. 10/10

[necrozmaIV]

This is what I like to call "Industrial Horror"

[childeofepickness]

my dad used to play this game a lot, until now I never even remembered it existed. thanks for jogging my memory