Geek Read: Valve Presents: The Sacrifice and Other Steam-Powered Stories

Title: Valve Presents: The Sacrifice and Other Steam-Powered Stories
Publisher:  Dark Horse Books

Authors:  Multiple

Published:  29/11/2011

Page Count: 205 pages

Final Verdict: 9/10

OKAY SO, it's been a little wild. I like pretending that work is what has gotten in the way and that I'm just so darn busy and important that I don't have time to keep up my blog for my whole 4 followers. But really...

 

Work has been busy and all, but I've had my share of lazy days. The other book I am reading for review is taking wayyyyyy too long to get through (doesn't help that I left it on an aircraft so I had to wait until someone turned it in) and eventually lost motivation. But today, during my most lazy of PJ days I picked up this gem that my dad got me as a going-away gift which I was saving for just this kind of day. So after breezing through it... I bring you, my opinion! Not that you care.

So I have to hand it to Dark Horse for their prints: The ones I own are all large, colorful prints on heavy stock paper and printed hardcovers. This is something I value in a book that will sit in my collections. I hate books that disintegrate in my hands during a normal read through, or that have bible-thin pages that take me 3 minutes to turn in fear of tearing it off. Okay: Maybe I'm a little obsessive, but all I really wanted to point out is that it's a sturdy bugger that looks great on a shelf, especially beside it's own kind. She's a beaut'.

Before going further I'd also like to point out that on sites such as Chapters.ca and Amazon.com, the book title is followed by Volume 1, which leads to believe they may create more of these, which would be great.

Onto the main subject!

Content! The book is split into 3 stories which revolve around 3 of Valve's best sellers: Left4Dead, Team Fortress 2 and Portal 2. I'm a little surprised they did not bring in Half Life or start with Portal 1 but that's not really important. I'll be quite frank and admit these aren't games I played heavily as they had a special spotlight on multiplayer play, which is not something that I'm very much into, yet I've played them all to some extent and am comfortable within their stories/worlds.

The main story, The Sacrifice, is the story behind Left4Dead's main cast and takes up about half of the book's 205 pages. It takes a glimpse into the backstories of the crew while showing their present situation. There's a huge emphasis on the relationships between the characters and how they came to develop a certain way. The story is well balanced in storytelling and action, as well as emotional yet exciting. There's plenty to look at on every page and the dialog can be long but stays simple as it's all it needs to be. It follows a somewhat typical zombie apocalypse story arc, there's nothing excessively original about it, but I don't think that was the point. You get to know the characters that you didn't expect could be so profound when you where shotgunning witches in Left4Dead, and it feels good.

The second story strums a completely different cord. The Team Fortress 2 story, War!, is as silly as the game itself. The artwork is simple and bright and reflects it's source material perfectly. It does the same sort of backstory-filling that The Sacrifice does, but in a total other direction. The story really just shows to what extremes the characters are caricatured, and the pointlessness of the endless Red team vs Blue team war (bringing to mind the satirical Halo machinima, Red vs Blue). It's sometimes interrupted by old-style comics of Saxton Hale and his manly adventures, wrestling sharks and setting bears on fire, which are guaranteed to make you laugh if the main story didn't (which if it didn't, guarantees you have no soul).

So while The Sacrifice will make you want to cry and War! will make you pee your pants, Lab Rat will leave you completely wtfed. Easily the most artsy of the three, Lab Rat (a Portal 2 comic) is much more abstract, diving back and forth into reality, madness, present and future, so it's not the easiest comic to follow. It does, however, also have an art style that reflects the madness in a very sketchy, contrasting way. The story is very short, and doesn't take me anywhere emotionally, though I did enjoy it because of it's frantic pace, and really I like anything about insanity.

Overall good purchase, though it is a pricey one, at least for Canadians ranging around 31.99$ for a book that takes about an hour to read, or two to enjoy slowly. My poor collector heart (and wallet) will unfortunately never let that stop me from bringing this gem into my collection. It's a really enjoyable graphic novel for those who enjoy graphic novels in general, but even better for fans of the game that like having a little more then the pew pews the games provide. I'll give this 9/10 crazy turrets for being a well rounded and well constructed book full of tears, laughs, and I don't know whats.