The Art and Making of Star Wars: Force Unleashed
W. Haden Blackman, Brett Rector
Insight Editions

I love Star Wars, videogames, art, and especially art books. After several years of mediocre results in the Star Wars videogame arena, I, like many of you, became very excited for Force Unleashed as the details and videos trickled out. I was also excited to hear of a published companion to the game, the "Art of" book I'm discussing here.

I'll preface by saying I'm a total bookhound and print connoisseur, my standards are ridiculously high in that respect. As such the Art of Force Unleashed is a letdown in many ways when, based on content alone, it certainly did not have to be.



The largest drawback is the presentation, the book design. Text is blocked out in random, crooked angles in some vain effort to look "cool" and changes colors, fonts, and backgrounds haphazardly. All the art is framed or sliced by superfluous "designy-techy" elements that aren't especially attractive or functional, they become annoying very quickly. Insert into the book in two places are ridiculous glued-in envelopes that hold trading cards (ugly trading cards). They really hinder the browsing factor of the book and in my opinion should be removed immediately-- which is possible with a delicate but firm hand, tho will leave a scar.

The written content of the book, the "Making of" part, was something I was not aware was in the book initially, but there is quite a bit of it. As a game industry veteran myself, however, the more I read the more depressing it got. You may come to the conclusion that Force Unleashed was first and foremost a marketing effort, something whose priority was to reach a mainstream audience. The text does not hide or infer this, it flat out states it several times. For a company who must invest millions of dollars into a product, it is understood that this would be a key component to a major new release. As a gamer and life long Star Wars fan, it does kind of knock the wind out of sails that should have been full of awe and wonder for a major Star Wars and videogame creative effort. Even with that focus it is still interesting in places to read about the evolution process of characters and ideas in general at LucasArts, tho you may not share the ideals. To twist the knife a little deeper, the most fascinating information revolving around the technology the game is built upon is relegated just a few pages at the end of the book. I would have been more than happy to have a book of art along with explanations of the pipeline into Zeno, Euphoria, and DMM.



Lastly we come to what is the book's redeeming factor, the art. The art is plentiful and it is good. Very good, clearly from conceptual artists at the top of their game and who love the Star Wars mythos. It is wonderful to see artists expand on the universe and create new characters and vehicles, all with dozens of variations. From the purely conceptual pieces that are just meant to inspire or invoke emotion to the polished designs and environments that need to be translated into game assets. That is the kind of thing I love and eat up with a spoon. But-- (aw, there had to be a but)-- the actual print quality in the book is lacking. I am seeing more and more of this every year: the majority, if not all, of the concept art for this game was created digitally. Digital art that is created or displayed on a monitor cannot simply be put in a book layout meant for print. Thus in this book much of the art is dark and over-saturated, thick with too much ink. It is a failure by the publisher and designers to not compensate for this and make the necessary adjustments. Basically it's print 101 but in the digital age the artisanship of print often falls to the wayside. :-(



Does this book have great art? Yes. Is it a great art book? No. That's where the disappointment lies because instead of a treasured new addition to my library I have a so-so book that may occasionally be referenced. I still look forward to the game and the playing experience, which hopefully can put all concerns aside and just be... fun. We'll see.