Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts book review

Of course, no discussion of LucasArts and adventures would be complete without exploring the reasons for moving away from the genre. It’s not actually a question that Rogue Leaders addresses, but viewed in the context of greater company difficulties from the turn of the century onwards, it’s not difficult to understand how those adventure roots were neglected and ultimately abandoned. The book clearly pulls its punches in assessing these lean creative years, but it doesn’t gloss over them either. From over-reliance on the new Star Wars movie trilogy to misreading console audiences, through an imbalance of internal/external development to severe staff downsizing, the years following Escape from Monkey Island in 2000 were clearly turbulent at times, and the company underwent multiple reassessments of its fundamental principles and corporate restructuring. As one incoming executive put it, LucasArts had become “a mess”, and this was no culture in which a niche genre could thrive, no matter how near and dear to the hearts of longsuffering fans.

Somewhat disappointingly, the focal point of so much bitterness now felt for the company barely gets a passing mention. That would be the much-publicized cancellation of Sam & Max: Freelance Police in 2004, for those too traumatized to remember. Despite the significant public outcry at the time, the decision isn’t questioned, the reasons never explored. But if left unexplained, what Rogue Leaders does make clear is that the canine shamus and hyperkinetic rabbity thing had a whole lot of lesser-known company on the game production scrapheap. Including themselves.

Indeed, perhaps the singlemost intriguing aspect of Rogue Leaders is its reference to the many projects that died somewhere between concept stage and gold master. While perhaps already known to hardcore devotees, many readers will be surprised to learn that Freelance Police not only wasn’t the first Sam & Max sequel to be trashed but was actually the third, albeit the one that got closest to release by a large margin. Similarly, while you may know that the action-y Full Throttle sequel called Hell on Wheels (already considered an unforgivable sellout by some) was cancelled, you may not know that a more traditional sequel known as Payback had previously been ditched. But if you think those examples are bad enough, you’ll be reeling from the growing list of other games buried by LucasArts. Two Indiana Jones adventure concepts: dead, only to be picked up as comic series by Dark Horse. Two planned Loom sequels: never started. And FMV fans, read it and weep, but a point-and-click multimedia adventure proposed by Hal Barwood called Rapid Transit made the development list but never found the support it needed.

Lest the conspiracy theorists begin uniting, however, adventures were by no means the only genre represented on the cutting room floor, as a planned Diablo-killer called Justice Unlimited was among those that met an early demise. Even projects from the almighty Star Wars franchise – a shooter with a Wookiee as lead character (which, quite frankly, would have been incredibly cool); a stealth game starring C-3PO; a fairly substantial Knights of the Old Republic 3 RPG proposal, to name just a few – never saw the light of day. In fact, even in the early years a remarkably inventive “online community” game called Habitat was dropped, not because of potential failure but because of its overwhelming test success. A then-unheard-of precursor to today’s wildly popular MMOs, the game was simply too far ahead of its time for the Commodore 64 technology for which it was built. These insights may not ease the sting of lost adventures at all, but it’s a telling reminder of the complexities involved in a high-stakes industry.

There are certainly some interesting tidbits to be gleaned from Rogue Leaders, but I daresay that most if not all of the same information is available for free with a little research. So why fork out for a fairly streamlined compilation like this? Well, the other main enticement is its reproductions of over 300 pieces of concept art, character development sketches, and storyboards. I said this is a coffee table book, after all. Flip open the very first page and there’s a full-size concept design of Monkey Island 2’s box art by Steve Purcell. There’s plenty more where that came from as well, from the most rudimentary pencil sketches to stunning coloured paintings covering a broad range of LucasArts games, many of them adventures. For some people these alone will be worth the price of admission. There are also some original internal documents included, though these aren’t nearly as plentiful or particularly revealing, so don’t be expecting a treasure trove of previously-unreleased gems.

When all is said and done, Rogue Leaders will most likely appeal to people at one end of the gaming spectrum or the other. The most passionate fan of LucasArts adventures or Lucasfilm franchises (particularly Star Wars, as Indiana Jones gets surprisingly little play here) will almost certainly find value in these pages, primarily from the published artwork if not so much any new information provided. Far more casual gamers will likely also find enough here to make for an interesting few hours of reading about a company whose rich history has long deserved to be told. If you find yourself in the middle of these two extremes, however, you may find the book a little too lightweight in content for such a heavyweight price tag (and size). Having any existing familiarity with popular LucasArts titles, there likely won’t be much here you don’t know to some extent already, and just when you find a topic that intrigues you, it’s time to move on. And no matter what level of interest you bring, anyone expecting a detailed exposé will not find it here, as the book was written with full cooperation from LucasArts, including a Foreword from none other than George Lucas himself.

Covering such an extensive background is no small undertaking for a single book, of course, but it’s hard not to shake the feeling that a happy medium might have allowed for a little more depth than what is found here. Even so, the presentation is solid from start to finish and the author never attempts to overshadow the book’s real star – the LucasArts legacy itself. In deciding if Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts is right for you, then, think of it like a whirlwind tour on a cross-country trip. It’s the “10-cities-in-10-days” package, with quick stops at places that are well worth seeing – so much so, you’ll want to stay longer but aren’t afforded the opportunity, though at least you’ll come away with beautiful pictures of your visit. Just be sure you have a nice coffee table for them when you return home from far, far away.

Rogue Leaders is available to order from both Amazon US and Amazon UK. (Note that these are Adventure Gamers affiliate links.)