Star Wars: The Old Republic (Soundtrack) by Mark Griskey - Review

New Music for The Old Republic

Review by Thomas Midena

BioWare’s mammoth online game enlists a massive team of composers to create an authentic Star Wars soundtrack. But can they produce quality entertainment to rival John Williams? Lennie Moore, Jesse Harlin, Gordy Haab, Wilbert Roget II, Steve Kirk, Jared Emerson Johnson and Peter McConnell unite with MARK GRISKEY (composer of the previous game in the series, Knights of the Old Republic II) to conquer this task.

The game, which was released in December 2011, is a Massively Multiplayer Online game created by BioWare - a studio renowned for their Mass Effect and Dragon Age games. Said to have cost $200 million to develop, Star Wars: The Old Republic is certainly one of the largest video games ever created. Players can create and customize their own character then jump right into this massive Star Wars universe with thousands of other online gamers.

A soundtrack disc containing 17 tracks was released with the Collector’s Edition of STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC, and another 30 pieces were released online for free download. This totals a whopping 47 tracks of original music from MARK GRISKEY and his team. And as an avid follower of the game since its announcement in 2008 and a dedicated player since its launch in 2011, I’ve listened to every beat of the soundtrack to delusion. Here are my thoughts.

READ THE FULL REVIEW

Music of the Old Republic! Star Wars: The Old Republic Web Doc

Finally!  A big look into the music for the upcoming LucasArts title, STAR WARS:  THE OLD REPUBLIC. The hotly anticipated MMORPG, being developed by Bioware, is due sometime in 2011.

The music has been composed by MARK GRISKEY, JESSE HARLIN, WILBERT ROGET II, GORDY HAAB, and LENNIE MOORE.  The music represented in this doc is fantastic, true to the ORIGINAL  Star Wars spirit!  If you weren't excited for this game and it's music yet...this doc ought to do it.

Now, Lucasarts, "You will release the original score."  (waves hand) "....oh and The Force Unleashed II, too." (quickly waves hand again.)

Go here to be notified by Amazon, when pre-ordering of The Old Republic is available

Star Wars: The Old Republic Composers Revealed!

Remember that incredible trailer for STAR WARS:  THE OLD REPUBLIC?  Of course you do.  It's what the Prequel Trilogy should have been.  Remember Mark Griskey (and Jesse Harlin's) great score to THE FORCE UNLEASHED?  Of course you do.  It was what the Prequel trilogy scores COULD have been.  So who did LucasArts lock down to provide the musical score for their upcoming MMORPG?

According to an interview with DARTH HATER ( a great blog covering Star Wars:  The Old Republic), Music Supervisor, JESSE HARLIN reveals that, in addition to himself, the composers hired to provide the massive amount of music for the game are: MARK GRISKEY, GORDY HAAB, LENNIE MOORE, WILBERT ROGET, II, and PETER McCONNELL..  Below is an excerpt from Darth Haters' extensive interview with the LucasArt's audio team.


Here's a bit from the extensive interview:

DH: The original score by John Williams became an integral part of Star Wars culture. How did the audio team approach creating new pieces with such iconic shoes to fill?

JH: We’ve assembled a team of composers for The Old Republic who are all well-versed in the language of John Williams. Mark Griskey, whose previous Star Wars work includes both KOTOR II and The Force Unleashed, is returning as our lead composer on the project. Joining him are composers Lennie Moore, Gordy Haab, and Wilbert Roget, II. Lennie comes to us with a diverse background in games, TV, and film. Gordy recently worked with us on Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings and Wilbert wrote new music for the recent DLC levels for The Force Unleashed. In addition, we’ve also hired composer Peter McConnell (Grim Fandango, Brütal Legend) to compose 90 minutes of original cantina music for us. We’re deep in the heart of writing material for the game right now and things are sounding fantastic.

DH: When will we find out about a Star Wars: The Old Republic Official Soundtrack and how can I preorder it?

JH: All of the details are still to be determined but we’ll have more info on that soon!

Good news, eh?  Be sure to check out Darth Hater's extensive interview with the LucasArts audio department.


Check out the full interview here

More Star Wars: The Force Unleashed to come. More new music, too?

UPDATE: 7/26/09

Well, some sad news. We won't be hearing any new music from composer Mark Griskey for any of the DLC or Ultimate Sith Edition. Of course, that doesn't mean there won't be ANY new music at all, but looking pretty doubtful at this point.

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And even more news from the Star Wars galaxy...

Also announced at Comic-Con today, LucasArts tells us that there is more DLC (downloadable content) coming for THE FORCE UNLEASHED for both Xbox360 and PS3. It will be available sometime this Fall. That's all well and good and I'm fairly excited about that, but they've gone the next step and announced THE FORCE UNLEASHED: THE ULTIMATE SITH EDITION!

Looking good. No? As you saw in the teaser, this new DLC and Ultimate Sith Edition will explore the question "What if the dark side had won?" Now, who wouldn't want to play through the answer to that?

Admittedly, I'm scratching my head a little over the marketing strategy: make the first part of this new storyline available as DLC, but make us have to buy the new edition to complete the storyline. Seems like a double-dip of the Sith kind. Yes...well...call me weak-minded, because I'll be forkin' over the dollars to finish that story. Plus, battling an aging Obi Wan and Boba Fett? Impossible to resist, the double-dip is.

Last of all, could all of this new content mean some additional new music from MARK GRISKEY and/or JESSE HARLIN? This alternative storyline is begging for some new thematic material. Let's hope I'm right.

You can check out more on The Force Unleashed: Ulimate Sith Edition at the official site.

Star Wars: The Old Republic coming from LucasArts and Bioware

Well, just as we complete our feature on LucasArts' most recent release, FRACTURE, they and Bioware make a big announcement regarding their next "biggie." As many have speculated about for months, LucasArts and Bioware are returning to the STAR WARS universe, but in MMO style.

STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC is under development. The official announcement was made today amidst much hoopla. This sequel (of sorts) to the KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC (KOTOR) franchise, is set some 300 after the events of THE SITH LORDS. Claims are that, while some tasks can be completed as a single player, others will take cooperative efforts to complete. So perhaps both the KOTOR faithful (which were RPGs) and the massively multiplayer online (MMO) crowd will be happy with the game.

The official site offers some concept artwork, backstory details, discussion forum, and the like, but it is early days yet. No official announcements have been made regarding the game's music. Well, we can always speculate...

I think we can rule out KEVIN KINER, as THE CLONE WARS appears to be his era. JEREMY SOULE did a nice job with the first KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC and of course we have gotten more familiar with the good work of MARK GRISKEY since KOTOR 2: THE SITH LORDS via his recent work for THE FORCE UNLEASHED...or perhaps resident composer and music supervisor, JESSE HARLIN will pen this one. We have quite some time to think about the possiblities as no release date for the game has been mentioned yet.

Who do you think would be the best choice to score STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC?


You can check out the official site here


Stay tuned...

Terra Fragga! The Music of Fracture (Video Game)

We present a special in-depth look at the music from the recent LucasArts video game, FRACTURE. The score was composed by MICHAEL GIACCHINO, CHRIS TILTON, and CHAD SEITER and we have a full review of the soundtrack plus 22 SOUND-CLIPS from the score!

We also have a special interview with LucasArts Music Supervisor, JESSE HARLIN. He gives us some insight into the development process and his role as music supervisor.


Check out the Review of FRACTURE here


Check out the Interview with JESSE HARLIN here