Overview

LucasArts continues to plumb the depths of the Star Wars universe with this latest theme-based video game, focusing on events between Episodes III and IV. The Force Unleashed score is composed by Mark Griskey who provided music for an earlier Star Wars video game, Knights of the Old Republic II. The main theme music was composed by LucasArts' in-house composer and music supervisor Jesse Harlin (arranged by Griskey).

Body

The score is performed by Lucas' in-house orchestra, the Skywalker Symphony. The ensemble has a good brass section needed for the many action sequences incorporated here. The music is all well-written and extends the musical universe of the films slightly. The style of the music bears only a mild resemblance to that of John Williams (it is closer to Shirley Walker's Batman animation scores), though the brass fanfares are often the closest. The style is most similar when the main Star Wars theme appears.

Action music bubbles along quite well and is cast in longer musical segments without seeming too much like a loop. Many of the selections tend to open with a swath of mysterious and unusual sounds that then dissolve into small motivic or thematic statements. A standard device employed here is to have action music, all quite intricate, move along with a lot of excitement and then to throw in one of the original themes to hint at the story. These action sequences work well. In particular, "Drexl's Raiders" is one of the better sequences and also incorporates the "Imperial March".

"Approaching Felucia" is another great sequence with a more mysterious opening and low brass in sinister-sounding music, all of which feels like the best extension of the score from Revenge of the Sith. It features some wonderful woodwind writing as well — a detail rather surprising which lifts this from your typical game score. This is what many will enjoy about the music that plays along with the game: subtlety of orchestral writing for restrained moments followed by well-written action sequences of which there are many. If you love the battle music from the final sequence of Episode IV, then much of the action sequences recall this, especially "PROXY and the Skyhook."

Summary

Much of this score falls along the lines of scores for DC Comics' animated features but with the force of 80 musicians in top notch form. Some ninety minutes of score was recorded for the game, unfortunately none of which will be released separately as a commercial recording.