Art Book Review – The Art of the Mass Effect Universe

To say that I am a raging fan of Mass Effect would be putting it lightly. I am downright obsessed. I read the books and the comics, have started a Mass Effect cross-stitch project, and my only gaming tattoo will most likely be one from the series. So you can imagine my glee when BioWare announced a new art book, The Art of the Mass Effect Universe, and then imagine my even bigger squeal of delight when I got to see it. And that’s not even the best part. The best part is that this art book lived up to my fangirl expectations to the point it may be one of the best art books for video games I have ever owned.

The book was completely put together by the series’ executive producer, Casey Hudson, the art director, Derek Watts, and one of the lead writers, Chris Hepler. They chose the art and they wrote the introductions as well as all of the art captions. Although to be fair, to call them “captions” as the book suggests does them a great disservice. These “captions” are two to three paragraphs–sometimes more–of descriptions and details of the characters, races, and environments. At times, what these men had to say was far more fascinating than the artwork itself, especially when they explained where they found inspiration for the races or particular characters.

However, the book does come with a spoiler or two for Mass Effect 3. I have been greatly avoiding everything about the upcoming game, from trailers to character lists to screenshots, because I want to go into it with completely fresh eyes. That’s been ruined for me a little now, because the last third of the book is devoted to characters and environments from the third game. Definitely my own fault for being so eager, but I’m still a little disappointed.

At the same time, I was thrilled to note some references to the Mass Effect novels in the ME3 details. It’s not readily apparent if this knowledge will be required to understand what is going on in the third game, but there will be some throwbacks to the novels, giving the supernerds like me a tiny edge. In other words, we won’t be asking as many questions, but surely the Codex will fill in any gaps for those who have not read the novels or the comics.

Normally, I only recommend art books for the most die hard of diehard fans. But in this case, I highly recommend The Art of the Mass Effect Universe for any fan of the Mass Effect series. It’s 186 pages of gorgeous artwork, character designs, and behind-the-scenes information. Of all the art books I own, I don’t have one that goes into nearly half this amount of depth.

The art book releases on February 21, 2012.