The Force Unleashed - score

Okay, so it's not a movie score, but it sounds like it'll warrant its own dedicated thread.

According to this article, it's a 90-minute score recorded with 80 musicians of the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra. Best of all, it's by Mark Griskey, who composed the wonderful Knights of the Old Republic II score.

The game's official site loads up with what could be part of The Force Unleashed Main Theme. If not, it still seems to be indicative of the game's epic tone.

 

I'm looking forward to this score very much.

The clip on the web site is indeed the game's main theme, composed by Jesse Harlin and arranged by Mark Griskey. The rest of the score was written by Griskey.

 

Composed by Jesse Harlin. That's some good news; he/she (I'm not sure offhand ) did the Republic Commando soundtrack, which was rocking in and of itself.

 

Bah. Harlin's okay, but it would have been better had Griskey composed the entire score.

 

Shrugs. We can have our separate opinions, yet still coexist peacefully.

 

No, we can't. Prepare to die.

 

[image=http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y137/Chrlsgain/funny/batmanstrikes.jpg]


This isn't a forum. It's an operating table.

And I'm the surgeon.

 

I really, really wish LucasArts would start commercially releasing its games' scores. I don't really have a gaming-worthy computer, but I'd love to have listening-quality, well-sequenced official releases of the KoTORs, Republic Commando, The Force Unleashed and so forth.

 

Jesse Harlin, the music director of The Force Unleashed, has expressed interest in releasing soundtrack albums, but he mentions that it will take a lot of fan support to change the necessary licensing laws.

If Star Wars video game soundtracks were ever released, the John Williams themes would probably be edited out of them, as with James Hannigan's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

 

A gushing review of the soundtrack.

 

Wow, sounds like there could be some great music here.

I'm sure this has been discussed somewhere before, but since I know very little about copyright laws and the like, I have to ask. Why does Williams' themes on the album cause that much of a problem? They are already in the game, why can't they be on the soundtrack? After all, his themes are present on the two Harry Potter film soundtracks that he did not work on.

Is it simply a matter of it would take more money to license them in a separate entity then they are willing to spend on a game's soundtrack release?

 

Yes, I think that's it.

 

Anyone knows how to get the promo soundtrack cd?

 

A promo CD like this is probably next to impossible to get. I would guess the only way to get a CD of this score is to actually know the composer or someone close to the game's production. I'm guessing this one won't even show up on eBay, but I could be wrong.

Best just to wait for the game release.

 

I know I'm going to need a copy of this.

 

You can listen to the whole promo CD here! (No, it's not illegal, I don't think. Either that or tracksounds.com really screwed up.)

 

Thanks! Listening now...

Edit: Too short, but I really enjoyed Griskey's music. I would love to hear an extended version of the Juno Eclipse theme, it's just a bit too short in that last cue.

 

This is probably my favorite non-Williams Star Wars music since Shadows of the Empire. While I enjoyed Kiner's work on The Clone Wars, the music from Griskey blows it out of the water. Maybe Griskey can get some work helping out Kiner on the series.

I loved how "big" it all sounded. And liberal use of Williams music helps too. Something that was missing from the Clone Wars score.

The only problem with it is...streaming only!!! Grrrrrr! I would very much enjoy getting this album in a higher quality format. I'm hoping that Griskey releases the mp3's on his website, or that Lucasfilm makes them available in some official way.

 

Hmm, even if they don't release them in some official way, some of us still remember how we got a hold of the Kotor soundtracks and Republic Commando.

 

Very good soundtrack indeed! A notch below Shadows of the Empire and right there with KOTOR 2 (also by Mark) as my favourites non-Williams Star Wars scores. The uses of Classic and Prequel Trilogy themes is very well handed, sometimes using not so much the themes themselves but the same musical texture. I wish there was more to it, though. Half an hour is not enough to satisfy with a score this good. Saving to an MP3, the sound quality is still actually quite good, way better than what we managed to get from KOTOR 2 anyway...

 

Yes. What QuiWanKenJin said.

I actually attempted to record the stream with Sound Forge, but was very displeased with the quality of the final result.

 

I REALLY, REALLY wished I had this score to add to my collection. It's Amazing. Too bad he didn't do the music for The Clone Wars. You just can't have a Star Wars Movie or Game and not Honor what has already been recorded. you just can't move too far from what Williams has already put out there. Griskey knows this and did an excelent job with the score.

 

Actually, getting this music is very simple. Just use a browser plug-in like DownloadHelper for Firefox to download the MP3 files from the web site.

 

Well put. This sounds excellent. I'm really wishing that he did the score for TCW.

 

Thanks for the hint, Cerrabore! Just downloaded all tracks.