The Art Of Titanfall Book Review
Titanfall was one of the most highly anticipated video games coming in 2014, and it had the promise that the game would be visually stunning. The new book The Art of Titanfall was meant to highlight the achievement put forth in this game.
For starters, Titanfall is a first-person shooter that places the players inside of big-ass mech suits, kind of like Pacific Rim, but on a much smaller scale. Think 25 feet tall instead of the height of a skyscraper.
Gameplay is an amalgam of cooperative multiplayer games—up to twelve at a time can go on group missions—but also injects more typical single-player elements, like plot and non-player characters. Action goes down on a war-torn planet, but there are a variety of ships and environments rendered in game.
You definitely don’t have to be a fan of the game, or even games in general, to appreciate this offering from publishers Titan Books—a funny coincidence.
The Art of Titanfall is slick and nice to look at, like those expensive tomes you see at Barnes and Noble full of high-quality reproductions of famous paintings. If someone breaks into your house and this is all you have to defend yourself, you stand a fighting chance.
You could definitely bludgeon an intruder into unconsciousness with this, and there’s a distinct possibility it could stop at least a small-caliber bullet, it’s rather substantial.
Inside, The Art of Titanfall is also very similar to those fancy-pants art books, only way, way nerdier, which is a huge bonus. It starts off by introducing the Titans and characters, then moves into creatures, ships, weapons, and settings. Basically, it has everything that any sci-fi fan could want: robots, monsters, and space.
With The Art of Titanfall get full-page images of the various components, but also quick blurbs about not only what they are in the game but also a little bit of where the design originated.
The finished The Art of Titanfall pictures are an impressive mix of old and new methods, combining classical artistry and skill with cutting-edge 3D digital techniques. There are pieces of concept art and some rough sketches that lead to the glossy final looks, so you can see how the different parts evolved over time into what you face in the game.
The very last entry in The Art of Titanfall details the modeling the artists did, including the manufacture of a full-sized Titan suit, which you have to admit is cooler than anything you have where you work. All my office has is a life-size cardboard of James Bond and an oversized Pink head.
All of this is worth checking out. The robot and creature designs are fantastic, as are the ships and weapons. However, the real highlight of The Art of Titanfall is the location. There’s a wide variety in play, from open rural settings to cramped urban areas and decimated cityscapes. Some of the cities will definitely call to mind such sprawling futuristic worlds as Blade Runner, and the level of detail is breathtaking. The intricacy and depth of field is incredible; the very idea of painstakingly rendering each and every frame, so to speak, is daunting.
If you’re a gamer and especially love Titanfall, then The Art of Titanfall is definitely worth your time. You’ll also get a lot out of it if you’re interested in the construction and behind-the-scenes aspects of game design.
People not into either of those things, like me, can still thumb through and gawk at the pretty pictures and marvel at the craftsmanship that goes into modern games, but that’s likely all you’re going to walk away with.
