Art of the Mass Effect Universe

I am a huge fan of the Mass Effect games the world created around it. So with Mass Effect 3 on the horizon I jumped when this book came up for pre-order. And it was well worth the wait. It is full of the unique feel and art of the Mass Effect world. But it isn't endless amazing art, a lot of it shows the various sketches and design changes that different characters went through. It is broken into three section for each of the Mass Effect games. This shows how some character have changed over the course of this universe spanning adventure. Since the game is not out there are a few spoilers you will run across in the book in the Mass Effect 3 section. It doesn't give away any story that I could see, but it does show the art for some characters you will meet and recruit that haven't been mentioned yet in the previews. If you read between the lines it also strongly hints at some story elements. That said I saw no harm in it and was actually a little excited to know a little more before...Read more

I am a huge fan of the ME series and in addition to the game, own several of the comics and previous art books. In advance of the ME3 release, I was happy to pick up this universe art book too. The book itself is big, hard bound, and features terrific, colourful, glossy images. If you are a ME fan you are sure to enjoy this. However, since I own several other ME books I figured this review would be more useful highlighting the differences as far as I can tell.

Mass Effect 1, pages 10-59
This sections details a lot of the concept work in ME1 including the alien species and the design aesthetic, such as the vehicles, mass relays, and weapons. I have the 2007 Art of Mass Effect book that came with the Prima strategy guide and some of the content in the Universe book overlaps it. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see new content as well. Given the 170+ pages of the 2007 book they could have easily poached from it wholesale to fill 49 pages so I am very pleased...Read more

I'm a big fan of art books and this one did not disappoint. From cover to end, it was informative and beautiful.

Every main character, such as all of the companions, has a page dedicated to their origin. In Tali's case, they started with a Geth and with every iteration moved her further away from that model. There is a brief paragraph on the page explaining why they chose to go certain routes with character models or what the initial idea for each race was. The page covering Ashley's progression is one of my favorites. I would say more about Ashley's page but since it covers her story in ME 3, I don't want to give much away. Let's just say they've added a more feminine look to her and with good reason.

The pictures of the worlds were nice but even the Mako page was more in-depth. It was fun to see how the Mako went back and forth from modern tank to hovercraft (which they went with on ME2). The worlds and citadel parts were just a bit flat for my tastes. Still,...Read more