Despite WatchDogs now being out for quite a while. I was recently given the opportunity to check out the book The Art of Watch_Dogs from Titan Books. The book features a lot of interesting information about how the artistic team brought the city of Chicago to live, and what influences they took from real life Chicago to help them in their efforts.
Throughout the book we receive additional information and quotes from both of the art directors Mathieu Leduc and Sidonie Weber. The narrative throughout the book from Andy McVittie provides a great overview as we delve into the characters, locations, and the unique art style that is in WatchDogs.
I found it interesting how the divisions in the game are not only for gameplay purposes but were also based on actual locations within Chicago. Also each one of these locations has their own unique fashion, architecture, and street art that is reflective of each locations unique culture and struggles.
I also really enjoyed the sections in the book dedicated to the graffiti and street art. It is obvious to me that the artists spent a great deal of time developing a unique artistic style to represent the different cultural sects and organizations that are living in this version of Chicago. The art and design choices they made really do a great job in creating the authentic world.
Compared to the other book I recently reviews The Art of Titanfall I found this book to have less in regards to the artistic creation process but had more in regards to the world building and cultural aspects. Obviously these are two very different games and as you can see by checking out both books, they had very different artistic challenges.
Another note I would like to make, be wary reading this book if you have not played the game as there is certainly the potential for spoilers in both the narrative and the quotes. Overall they did a good job trying to not get too detailed with the art descriptions and usage, but sometimes it did happen to slip in and could be considered serious plot spoilers.
This book does an excellent job to depict the research and effort of there artistic team behind WatchDogs. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed not only the game, but also the artistic feel and authentic nature of the online city of Chicago.
~LastUrsa