The Art of Assassin's Creed Odyssey

This art book offers the reader a very intimate look at the world of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Ubisoft's take on a Greek epic. Full of rich, extremely detailed pages on both the game's leads and the many locales, it grants a real intimate look at some of the thought process and research that went into pre-planning the game, with a few sprinklings of real world Greek folklore and history to boot.Right away the book grabbed me by dedicating several pages to both their lead characters, packed with concept art and renders of exiled Spartan citizens Kassandra and Alexios, as well as recollections on what the design team was attempting to accomplish with the physical traits of these characters. The several pages dedicated to the protagonists of this title are a far cry (get it?) from prior Assassin's Creed books that failed to provide satisfying or adequate page space to their characters. There is very little white space in the book, a definite plus in my opinion, instead filling the pages with beautiful, large sketches and paintings of the characters and locations. In a few instances, the book carries fold out posters, truly giving a strong sense of the size and detail of the game's exotic Mediterranean locales.Rather than providing a general overview of the game world, the book instead focuses on the many islands, landlocked nations and mythological arenas laid out in Unsoft's re-imagining of ancient Greece. The individual chapters are even all named for the locales you can adventure to in-game. This makes for a grand travelogue where the reader is able to go on their own odyssey along with the book.While that may sound similar to past Assassin's Creed art books where the sole focus was pretty much on architecture, geographical recreations and landscape paintings (and poor paintings and concepts at that), the Odyssey art book is sure to include the "local flavor" of each nation it globe trots to by including character art, mood paintings, and short paragraphs giving a brief, mostly spoiler-limiting overview of the story for that region. Biome and weather breakdowns, weapons, gear, building materials, ship battles and even a few Greek monsters are threaded between these chapters, successfully keeping it fresh and a strong overview of the game.Finally, it eschews buzz words and marketing pitches that littered previous Assassin's Creed art book installments, instead allowing the reader a real look into the ideas and thought process of the artists and developers who toiled on the game (example, they discuss how important it was Kassandra's eyes look bright and full of life to deliver a more vibrant personality).This is a great art book, so great I bought two copies, one for living room for guests to peruse, and one for myself to hoard. Really also one of the best releases of Ubisoft, Titan books and editor Kate Lewis. Not to mention the book opens with art work for the Battle of Thermopylae, how cool is that?

Overall this book is amazing - which is not suprising considering we are talking about assassins creed art.Titan books does a great job with the layout and physical production. Their books always feel so nice to hold and flip through - the binding is nice and tight and the pages are thick. I was particularly inpressed with the actual layout of this book, the way the content is presented is just very interesting and attention grabbing. Rather than just slapping a painting into a page with some tiny text there is a cool flow, there are interesting borders and graphical elements to help guide you through the pages. It just looks sharp.As far as the artwork goes - its all amazing. I love Ancient Greece and greek mythology and this was a wonderful reimagining of it. I do have a personal gripe with the style of the art work but it is my own personal prefrence. Ubisoft is not one to skip corners, especially on anything assassins creed related. Their artwork is always impeccible and they always go above and beyond the expectations of what ‘concept art’ should be. This is what i love about AC art. However, in this production a lot of the art work is very heavy on photobashing techniques and a lot of the images are just 3d mockups or 3d paintovers. I understand that this is very time efficient for game companies and allows artists to work fast and visually communicate easier. This is pretty standard as far as concept art goes. I think my gripe with it is that ive come to expect more from AC art, and to me this feels like cutting corners. It is by no means a slight on the artist - it is very technically proficient, i just look forward to the very carefully planned and painstakingly rendered final pieces that AC normally produces. If you are not familiar with photobashing and 3d paintovers, chances are you wont even notice the difference . If you like AC odyssey or are a fan of ‘art of’ books - you will love it all the same.

Paul Davies just KNOWS how to create an Art Of book. The game is gorgeous, but that doesn't mean the art book will properly reflect that or show it in the same way. This book does show you why the art direction is so important. It's beautiful and you don't ever have to have played the game to appreciate it. The quality of the paper and the images are 5 star all the way and the occasional fold out pages are such a nice treat. This is the sort of coffee table book you leave out for everyone to enjoy. A nice cover, but hidden beneath is a nicer foil stamped cover and it just elevates the book to new levels.