I’m a long time fan of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, spanning way back to the early days when the first game was little more than a beautiful, well meaning, but deeply flawed game. I also happen to have a real passion for fine art. No, not fine art in the genre sense of the phrase, but fine as in ‘that’s damn fine, son’. I can’t help it, I just like pretty things.
That’s why I was moderately excited to receive this Assassin’s Creed 3 art book. Put together by Andy McVittie, a veteran of the video games industry whom admittedly I’ve never heard of, and with a forward by AC3’s creative director Alex Hutchinson, The Art of Assassin’s Creed 3 is 141 pages of awesome paintings featuring more climbing, leaping, and stabbing than you can shake a hidden blade at.
Getting Artsy with Assassin’s Creed 3 Art Book
Now, you may have noticed that I said moderately excited to receive this. Well, you may be surprised to hear this, but I gave away my entire book collection years ago, right around the time that the first Amazon Kindle hit the market. Since then, I haven’t looked back, and I’ve been sans paper books ever since. No, I’m more of a digital kind of guy, so owning this book was a, shall we say… leap of faith? But – for the most part – the book did not disappoint. If I had to choose to sections which I enjoyed more than any other, it would be Characters and Battle at Sea. Some of the artwork is absolutely incredible.
Some of the sea related paintings are epic, and more than worthy of adorning my walls. If Titan Books (the publisher of this very book) are smart, then they’ll release a few posters of these scenes.
Is it Worth a Buy?
If you’re a fan of the series, have an obsession with art, or are both of the above, then I think you’ll enjoy what your money gets you. Aside from the “future scenes” artwork – which I found completely bland and uninteresting – I found most of the pages pretty great. Would I go out and drop $18.71 USD on this myself? Well, probably not, truth be told. Though the imagery is fantastic, I would really rather just receive a .pdf with the artwork instead, but that’s just me. If paper books are your thing, you won’t be disappointed.
Lastly, I would like to thank Titan Books for graciously providing a copy for me to review. You’ve given me a look at a bunch of fantastic artwork I wouldn’t have otherwise seen, and you’ve helped me seem a lot more sophisticated to boot. This art book will be the highlight of my coffee table.
