Book Review: The Art of The God of War: Ascension

First off, I must thank publisher Bluecanvas for sending in this book so that readers here can get a preview.

The book is available for sale at Amazon.com.

The Art of The God of War: Ascension is an amazing book.

When I took out it from the box and put it on the floor, I saw the pages glow with yellow light around the edges. It's like there's a thick piece of gold between the covers.

The glow is from the gold trimmed page edges. It really gives the book that extra premium look and feel. You can almost imagine the pages being cut from gold.

There are 392 pages. They have used thick matte paper to print the artwork. Overall, because of the thick paper and the 392 pages, this book is about three times as thick as The Art of God of War III. The pages are slightly larger than A4.

Behind the white dust jacket, there's the hardcover with leather that's smooth to the touch. On it is the logo with gold trim.

It's very heavy.

International buyers note:
Because the book is over 3 kg, there's additional weight surcharge. E.g. Shipping to Singapore (Southeast Asia) cost US$22+. As for buyers within USA, the book ships with free shipping from Amazon.

Each chapter has a translucent overlay.

The amount of work featured is impressive. The concept art includes the early high vision artworks, character designs, weapons & props, environment, visual effects and marketing. The bulk of art are for characters and environments.

Character designs come with sketches, the coloured paintings, ZBrush models and the textured 3D models.

The creatures, monsters and characters are just fascinating to look at.

The ZBrush 3D models are very detailed. For something like skin, you can see the texture, veins, and the folds from the wrinkles. Every piece of the ZBrush sculptures is awe-inspiring. The Hecatonchires head really top it all — architecture merging with the anguished looking colossal head.

The environment paintings from Cecil Kim and Jung Park are particularly spectacular.

The high vision concept pieces really set the tone for the game. The sense of scale in the game is always being pushed and through the paintings with the small people in huge cities, the world feels extremely vast. From the cities on mountains to the deep canyons and underground sewers, everything is designed with attention to detail and mood. Many of the pieces are fit to be printed big and be displayed at museums.

The Art of The God of War: Ascension is without doubt one of 2013 top artbooks.

Highly recommended for fans of the game, concept artists, collectors.

It might be pricey but that would be the last thing on your mind when you see the jaw-dropping display of art.

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The links below are affiliate links, which means I earn some commission from each purchase, but at no extra cost to you.

The book is now available on Amazon USA:
www.amazon.com/gp/product/098590223X