The Force Unleashed (Star Wars) | Haden Blackman | A Great Story... The Game is Based On

The Force Unleashed (Star Wars) | Haden Blackman | A different view from the Book version

books:

The Force Unleashe...

	The Force Unleashed (Star Wars) Haden Blackman Dark Horse Comics, 2008 - 104 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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LucasArts' game The Force Unleashed, is poised to be the Star Wars event of the year. The game-play promises to be stunning, but we think it's the story that will blow you away. Revealed here are the origins of Darth Vader's secret apprentice, the deadly missions on which he was sent to track down and destroy Jedi, and the awesome decision he is forced to make that will, literally, change the way you look at the Star Wars saga!

A Great Story... The Game is Based On

As Good as the game The Force Unleashed is, (I have the X-Box 360 Version) The Story Comes First. Now If you Play the game through it will reveal the story to you. If However You don't have the game, or just want to read the story I suggest this Graphic Novel. As well as the Del Rey Novel which goes into much deeper detail. The Graphic Novel is a Tremendous Story with Top notch Art. The only Conplaint is After Reading it, Some of the Key elements of the story just couldn't be fit into the Book.
The Graphic Novel is Good for an easy read to understand the basic story and important Continuity Storyline Points. I won't spoil the story for People who want to learn first hand of the Story of "Vader's Secret Apprentace" I will tell you that George Lucas Oversaw the Entire Project from Start to finish and the Main story is Probably the most important story to come out of Lucasfilm In Years It Basically ties Episode III to Episode IV. Very Important Read. I Highly Suggest this book to all Star Wars Fans both Casual and Serious. it is Highly Recommended.

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A different view from the Book version

Having read BOTH the book and graphic novel I can say that the story line in the graphic novel is told from a different point of view and in a totally different way then from the book version I would recommend reading the book version first then the graphic novel that way you can see what the graphic novel skipped over or shows a small part of it. (I would have liked to see the robotic versions of the jedi council that starkiller fights while fighting another jedi master in the book version) It does show you what Proxy looks like as well as the Bull Rancor. It also tells WHY (in both the book and graphic novel) Starkiller when from being a sith lord trainee to a jedi trainee.
For those above the age of 15, I would disregard the 3 and below star reviews since it seems that they were basing their reviews on the tv commercials, what they read in a gamer magazine or they was looking at the pictures and not reading the story. IF you want a full background story about "Force Unleashed" then read the book, but IF you want a quick story that hits the high points then get the graphic novel.

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Only a piece of the puzzle

I was disappointed with this book. I was really interested in this period of time in the SW Chronology. But I guess you have to have the game to understand the whole story. There's too much action missing. Entire battles are boiled down to a one page mural drawing. I was really expecting something along the lines of the 'Legacy' series, which I've devoured multiple times. I've read Jar-Jar stories that had me more riveted. I've never played the game but I hope it has satisfied the inner Star Wars Geek in people more than this comic.

Interesting Point: Starkiller was originally Luke's last name while EP 4 was in the concept phase.
Shakk Ti was supposedly killed in the begining of EP 3 by Grievous, but that scene was deleted...as her death was too I guess.

High Points: Baal Organa and the conception of the rebellion. I liked the knock-down drag-out fight at the end of the book which left Vader without his helmet and the emperor all tattered.

Low Points: They show Juno's butt because she's wearing hip-huggers. Gimme a break. That looks tacky in real life.

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i expected more from a special event like unleashed

star wars: the force unleashed is another attempt at a multi-media event by lucas arts like their mediocre attempt with shadows of the empire in the 90s. don't get me wrong, the effort they put into the event was mediocre, i actually enjoyed shadows; but this isn't a shadows review...

this time around we've got a video game/book/graphic novel combo, with one lego spaceship and one action figure (that i know of) thrown in, almost as an insulting after-thought.

but let me just talk about the main offerings. they all complement each other, but are lacking in their own merits, so i will simply review them all.

GAME: i wanted to give this game more than a 3, i really did. but with amazing games like dark forces and jedi knight coming from lucas arts more than 10 years ago, there was really no excuse for this game not being better than it was. the gameplay was fun for the most part, with the exception of the boss-battles. there's nothing i hate worse than interactive cut-scene boss battles. if you're going to have a cut-scene, let me WATCH the cut-scene. the gameplay is completely linear, which granted is to be expected since this game above all else is an interactive story. you do have one mission as darth vader, but you spend the entire rest of the game playing as the apprentice. this is entirely a melee combat game, with the addition of force powers. if you enjoy star wars for it's shoot-outs and space combat, this isn't the game for you. they could have thrown in some space combat with juno eclipse's back-story, but alas it didn't happen. this game is definitely worth playing if you're a star wars fan, but i can't recommend it at the $60 release price; rent it or wait for the price to drop. while you're waiting, give the book a read.

BOOK: sean williams is no stranger to scifi, and he has prior credits in the star wars universe. this was some pretty solid writing, considering the storyline was already predetermined. he complemented the unleashed story and still managed to add to the mythos with a back-story for juno eclipse that i would like to see williams revisit in a novel of her own. a back-story, and explore what-happened to her after unleashed, since we obviously have no mention of her in the original trilogy, despite her obvious importance [sorry, being very vague here to keep it spoiler-free]. worth a read.

GRAPHIC NOVEL: for a special event like unleashed, i expected the comic to be a little better than this. it just seemed a little rushed. i haven't taken a look at any of brian ching's other star wars work yet, so i don't know if this is his best art. there were a lot of proportion and perspective problems that made it hard for me to enjoy for the artwork alone. and some of the most incredible events in the story, such as the scuttling of the star destroyer, were reduced to a panel on a page. that awesome destruction was worthy of nothing less than a splash-page. in some ways, ching's out-of-proportion heads reminded me of carmine infantino's work on marvel's star wars in the 70's. i'm a big fan of infantino's art now, but it wasn't until some year's later with his work on the flash that i could really get into it. only time will tell if i feel the same way about ching after seeing more of his work. the graphic novel is worth a look, but overall, it adds nothing to the story. if you're already getting the video game and/or the book, you might want to skip this one and spend your money on the the art and making of star wars: the force unleashed.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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