Book Review: The Art of Mass Effect Universe
The first Mass Effect art book was quite good. The Art of Mass Effect Universe is even better.
This handsome 184-page hardcover art book covers art for Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3. Yes, you'll be able to get a sneak peek at the upcoming Mass Effect 3, that's if you don't mind a little spoiler.
The book is packed with concept art for characters, creatures, environments, props, weapons and vehicles. There are a few sketches but most are just gorgeous fully coloured designs. The art is top notch, the environment paintings are spectacular.
There's some overlap of content with the first art book that features the first game. Here, there are additional content which makes you wonder why they weren't in the earlier book. Anyway, the first art book is already out of print so it makes more sense to get just this one.
As all the designs come with insightful commentary, there will be a bit of a spoiler when you're reading the last chapter on Mass Effect 3. If you're just looking at pictures, then it should be alright and it'll give you a nice idea of what to expect visually in the next game.
Unfortunately for a book this good, the artists aren't credited, not even with a page on the list of names like they did in the first art book. In many instances, I wanted to find out who these artists are and their websites. This is a silly exclusion, a downer.
Overall. this is a great art book for fans of the game and sci-fi art. It should be one of the top art books for 2012.
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Comments
Woah.....
Woah.....
I'm not much of a gamer at all, but this book looks absolutely stunning!
I've pre-ordered mine long
I've pre-ordered mine long ago since I'm a huge Mass Effect fan and I really love anything related to game artwork. :)
After reading your review, I'm now fully convinced that I made a good purchase. I can't wait to get my hands on it! :D
I guess there is still enough
I guess there is still enough art exclusive to the first book to warrant owning both of them?
@c-Row
In reply to I guess there is still enough by c-Row (not verified)
@c-Row
The first artbook is 176 pages.
The Mass Effect 1 chapter in this book is 52 pages.
So I guess there's still more art in the first book. However, the price of the first book is quite high even for secondhand copies as it's out of print already.
I'm a great mass effect fan,
I'm a great mass effect fan, and i've waited a long time for this book.
But i'm disappointed whit that. Absolutely beautiful artwork, but the feeling is the same of the artbook "the art of Mass Effect" from the first game: it's a digital painting and character design gallery from the games (actually i haven't seen the mass effect 3 part for not spoiler :D) with poor comment, that not communicate me the great amount of work and time spent in development of the games (and i agree with you Parka, where are the artists credit???). Maybe i've waited this book for so long, i don't know...it's not a bad artbook, but i hope really better...
The first art book was
In reply to @c-Row by Teoh Yi Chie
The first art book was published by Prima Games, who primarily make strategy guides. The art book was typically bundled with the guide, but you could order it separately online. Anytime I see a game art book I'm interested in published by Prima or BradyGames, I pick it up immediately because they rarely (if ever) do second printings (the only recent second printing I can think of it the Skyrim CE guide).
Since this new book is published by Dark Horse, I think it will be available for a while. For example, Dark Horse published The Art of Alice: Madness Returns which is on it's 3rd printing and is still readily available online.
This is a good art book,
This is a good art book, though I wish it was bigger because they cut out alot of content to make all 3 games fit into one not-so-thick book
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