#1: The Art of Alien: Isolation - The art book is an amazing document of design this game, making it clear that the developers wanted to give us a female protagonist as strong as Ripley and that they were very reverent of the 'blue-collar industrial' aesthetic present in Alien. The respect for the creature is present, too - the pages packed with illustrations detailing that they wanted to get the more unusual, stalkerish nature of the creature on page and in-game, rather than the lightning-fast bugs of the second movie onwards. The use of film photography from Alien also shows just how intent they were on getting things right. The choice of more... Unusual art-styles in the sketches and the like, at times - in addition to the usual painted background and character work - is a plus point too.
#2: The Art of Wolfenstein: The New Order - This, like the game, should have been such a mess, and I was surprised to see an artbook from Dark Horse creep in under the radar after being disappointed by the previous Wolfenstein game. But just like the game being a pleasant surprise, the artbook turned out to be fantastic, too. It could have been really cheesy to have an AU world where the Nazis won, but the book shows that they really wanted to treat the idea with relative seriousness and only a little bit of tongue-in-cheekness. There's also real respect and reverence for the past of the franchise while trying to move it forward, with little bits and pieces like their design for BJ directly referencing the original character portrait from Wolfenstein 3D but also instilling age and vulnerability and wear and tear into the character. The design work overall, for the Nazi mechs and the redesigned troopers, is really strong and appropriate, too - and just like the game can really hit home with some horrific, true-to-life sections involving the Nazis - things like their propaganda and the environment dressing are utterly spot-on, too. This one's another winner for Dark Horse, who have put out a really impressive set of books lately.
#3: Substrata - This is - as I commented on the review page for the book - a really interesting concept in of itself as it.. It isn't even tied to anything. It isn't like Udon's usual offerings, tied to a Capcom property, and really, feels like it could be an actual, upcoming game, where a bunch of artists were basically handed a brief and told to go nuts; The results are really fascinating. Some basically just hit the standard notes of 'fantasy' and are a little 'eh', but others really go for it and conjure up designs that Guillermo Del Toro or Mike Mignola would be proud of. It's a thick, meaty art book with wonderful variation in styles and a really fascinating experiment in seeing numerous artists handle one concept. I'd love to see this one turned into a real game.
#1: The Art of Alien: Isolation - The art book is an amazing document of design this game, making it clear that the developers wanted to give us a female protagonist as strong as Ripley and that they were very reverent of the 'blue-collar industrial' aesthetic present in Alien. The respect for the creature is present, too - the pages packed with illustrations detailing that they wanted to get the more unusual, stalkerish nature of the creature on page and in-game, rather than the lightning-fast bugs of the second movie onwards. The use of film photography from Alien also shows just how intent they were on getting things right. The choice of more... Unusual art-styles in the sketches and the like, at times - in addition to the usual painted background and character work - is a plus point too.
#2: The Art of Wolfenstein: The New Order - This, like the game, should have been such a mess, and I was surprised to see an artbook from Dark Horse creep in under the radar after being disappointed by the previous Wolfenstein game. But just like the game being a pleasant surprise, the artbook turned out to be fantastic, too. It could have been really cheesy to have an AU world where the Nazis won, but the book shows that they really wanted to treat the idea with relative seriousness and only a little bit of tongue-in-cheekness. There's also real respect and reverence for the past of the franchise while trying to move it forward, with little bits and pieces like their design for BJ directly referencing the original character portrait from Wolfenstein 3D but also instilling age and vulnerability and wear and tear into the character. The design work overall, for the Nazi mechs and the redesigned troopers, is really strong and appropriate, too - and just like the game can really hit home with some horrific, true-to-life sections involving the Nazis - things like their propaganda and the environment dressing are utterly spot-on, too. This one's another winner for Dark Horse, who have put out a really impressive set of books lately.
#3: Substrata - This is - as I commented on the review page for the book - a really interesting concept in of itself as it.. It isn't even tied to anything. It isn't like Udon's usual offerings, tied to a Capcom property, and really, feels like it could be an actual, upcoming game, where a bunch of artists were basically handed a brief and told to go nuts; The results are really fascinating. Some basically just hit the standard notes of 'fantasy' and are a little 'eh', but others really go for it and conjure up designs that Guillermo Del Toro or Mike Mignola would be proud of. It's a thick, meaty art book with wonderful variation in styles and a really fascinating experiment in seeing numerous artists handle one concept. I'd love to see this one turned into a real game.