Book Review: The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Submitted by  Teoh Yi Chie on  April 21, 2010 - 5:25 pm

This is Ballistic Publishing's first Art of the Game series and it is amazing. Well, what more can you ask for when it's based on Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, one of the best Playstation 3 games around, perhaps across all game consoles.

Mine's the paperback version, but there are also the leather-bound Special Edition and a collector's Limited Folio Edition, both available on Ballistic Publishing's website.

I'm thrilled to get this book, more so when I opened it for the first time.

This book is pretty thick at 272 pages, glossy paper. Inside, you'll find concept art for the characters, environments, cinematics, animation and special effects. About a quarter is on the characters, with the environment and story related art making the bulk.

The first thing that captures my attention is the astonishing amount of details from the art, from all the adventure dirt to the facial pores of those Zbrush head sculpts. You're going to find beautiful textures everywhere, be it from the brushes, on the weather battered walls off some monastery on some mountain, fabric of clothing, etc. The textures are easily what I like most about this book.

For character designs, there are paintings, 3D models of the body and close up on face. The 3D models are really intricate. In terms of the amount of details, the one on Lazarevic belongs to the you-have-to-see-it-yourself-to-believe-it category. Those artists and modelers who created these are definitely at the top of their game.

The environments featured in the book are gorgeous. Tropical forests, mountains, Nepal warzone, villages, temples, monastery, Shabhala and all the places in the game. They really nailed the colours, lighting and textures. Looking at some of the wire frame overlays, I can't even imagine how much time it takes to paint all those textures in. Most of the illustrations shown in the book are good enough to be framed and mounted on walls.

Oh, yeah, there are also commentary from the staff to fill you up with the concepts and ideas behind all that's shown.

This book is your adventure in print. It will make you appreciate the game even more after looking at the immense effort that went behind the scenes to creating the visuals.

Most highly recommended. It doesn't matter if you've not played the game but you should definitely check out the game — seriously.

-

PS. This book is a review copy provided by Ballistic Publishing. Thanks a lot!

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (The Art of the Game) is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

That's all for the pictures I have for you. You can check out more preview pages (smaller) on Ballistic Publishing's website.

Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

If you buy from the links, I get a little commission that helps me get more books to feature.

Here are direct links to the book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp | Amazon.cn

Tags
ballistic publishing
video game art
background art
uncharted
2010 favourite
art of books
robh ruppel
naughty dog

Comments

FAUNA (not verified) Wed, 21 Apr 2010 - 19:08

AMAZING ART & AMAZING GAME SERIES. I HOPE THEY BLESS US WITH A PS3 JAK & DAXTER NEXT.....

LIRCH (not verified) Wed, 21 Apr 2010 - 19:22

Amazing!
Like all other Ballistic books, this is an awesome book! like Parka said- the price of this book is insane, but also what you get inside it.
for all those who don't know what all this fuss is about, just visit Ballistic site- you can browse and check all their books closely..

Drewstwitr (not verified) Thu, 22 Apr 2010 - 00:11

What if we don't have blogs? T-T Can't we RT it on twitter and participate even though? xD

Drewstwitr (not verified) Thu, 22 Apr 2010 - 00:40

AIEOIAOIEOIAOE I didn't see you last comment on time! D: Well I'll just RT it on twitter too then xD

DRedWingsDJY (not verified) Thu, 22 Apr 2010 - 12:30

I don't have a blog, but I went ahead a retweeted (user name DRedWingsDJY). Thanks, Parka!

FFancy (not verified) Sat, 24 Apr 2010 - 08:11

Your review makes me salivate more than I have already. Thanks for it! :) I've been hoping for an Uncharted 2 art book ever since the game came out last year. It's cool to have those in-game concept artworks in print form. Elena's such a cutie with short hair. Lazarevic creeps me out all the more knowing how many polygons went into his character design. Wow!

And yes, I wholeheartedly agree with Nate upon seeing the Guardian page that they are REALLY an eight.

My link:
https://freneticfancy.blogspot.com/2010/04/art-of-uncharted-2-art-book…

Is the softcover a matte cover or a glossy one?

Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 26 Apr 2010 - 01:14

Hello Parka,

Do you know when the books will begin shipping? On Ballistics' website it still says "April", but it's almost May!

Andrew (not verified) Mon, 26 Apr 2010 - 13:40

Posted a link on my website: https://www.abowler.com

Book looks great, I've been waiting for something like this ever since unlocking the concept art in the first Uncharted game. Would've been sweet if they added art from the first game, but this book still looks amazing without it.

MarkHawk (not verified) Sun, 09 May 2010 - 14:47

Just so some of you know, the book is shipping now from Ballistic and is going on sale through Amazon in a month for around 3/4th the original cost (Leather bound and soft cover only). I'm sure Parka will post a link but if you wish to check it out yourself just search for it on Amazon.com.

Also re-tweeted this through https://twitter.com/MarkHawk

Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 23 Jul 2010 - 06:15

I love how the caption for the elena snowsuit pics is Elena is Hot and that's all. But you are correct there.

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