The Art of the Mass Effect Universe

 (77 customer reviews)

Customer Video Review Length:: 1:20 Mins

The first Mass Effect art book, The Art of Mass Effect, was quite good. The Art of Mass Effect Universe is even better.

This handsome 184-page hardcover art book covers art for Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3. Yes, you'll be able to get a sneak peek at the upcoming Mass Effect 3, that's if you don't mind a little spoiler.

The book is packed with concept art for characters, creatures, environments, props, weapons and vehicles. There are a few sketches but most are just gorgeous fully coloured designs. The art is top notch, the environment paintings are spectacular.

There's some overlap of content with the first art book that features the first game. Here, there are additional content which makes you wonder why they weren't in the earlier book. Anyway, the first art book is already out of...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 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