“The Art of Titanfall” Review
Titanfall is EA and Respawn Entertainment’s brand new first person shooter that takes place in sci-fi universe several centuries into the future. The forces of IMC battle the rag-tag rebels known as the Militia over every piece of land and resource over several different planets. The most iconic feature of this game is the use of Titans – humanoid like robots that are roughly 20-25 ft. tall. This Beta that I played for this game only served to further ramp up the excitement for this game.
I am reviewing the book “The Art Of Titanfall” which is written by Andy McVittie and is published by Titan Books. This book covers in great detail, the design and artistic elements of the game. The book is broken down into subsections which cover the Titans & Pilots, Vehicles, Weapons and Tech, Locations, and finally the Graphics and modeling.
The author takes us through each section and, like a guide, takes us through several different types of images, from sketches to full-out digital renderings of images. On nearly every page he brings in quotations and insights from several different members of the art and design teams. As you are able to see how this project started as a concept and became the game that was released today.
Being a fan of Anime series like Gundam, I was fascinated by the Titans and how they came up with the unique designs for these suits. I like how these suits all serve unique purposes in the gameplay mechanic and how the artist took the time to not only provide unique design elements to delineate that, but also took steps to provide some realism to these suits that would be recognizable by our modern technology.
The worlds in Titanfall are also all unique and each have their own unique backstory. Whether these worlds are IMC strongholds, or tropic fishing villages housed by people who just wish to be left alone. These worlds all tell a unique story that I’m sure will be shown in the narrative of the game.
The last section is also very interesting as they go through the process of how they produced maquettes – which is a scale model fo everything from the equipment the pilots wear to full size titans. Also, they talk in this section about how they built a full size titan. The process they detail from construction to adding the final artistic touches is really cool, and I would really like to see that Titan in real life!
The book does an excellent job of painting a picture of how the peoplee at Respawn Entertainment created a world and narrative and how after a lot of effort and hours, they were able to create this game. There are minimal spoilers in the book, and artwork is really stunning. You will be amazed at the level of detail they discuss in the book and ultimately is shown in the game. This book clearly illustrates how this game was a labor of love and has really gotten me excited to start playing.
In other words, it helped me to…
“Prepare For Titanfall”
– LastUrsa
