The Assassin’s Creed series has always shown incredible artistic direction; from the dark atmosphere of the crusades to the vibrant and alive renaissance to the dystopian modern age we get to visit as Desmond, the wonderful team over at Ubisoft have yet to disappoint fans. The great guys and gals over at Titan Books  have recently put out an amazing collection of concept art and notes from the design team that crafted Assassin’s Creed III. Lets jump right in and take a look at The Art of Assassin’s Creed III

When I got my hands on the book I was ecstatic. I normally don’t go for art books and I’m simply not very interested in concept art. When I cracked the spine on this hardback however, I was blown away. The outstanding painted collections of concept images are presented in an extremely intelligent and cohesive manner.

The book is laid out over seven chapters that is prefaced with a great foreword by the Creative Director for AC3, Alex Hutchinson, which explains the thought process of the artists. The collected works start from a few sketches in a meeting way back in 2010 and cover the entire two years of development.

Present Day

Now, when I started looking at this collection I hadn’t yet played the game. I’ve only just got my hands on a copy and haven’t even broken the surface of the narrative. It’s really amazing to see where the artists changed their initial concepts and where they kept things the way they were envisioned from the start. Talking over the book with my friend Dylan, who had already cranked through a good portion of the game was an extremely interesting conversation.

The artist Chinh Ngo states that he wanted to to showcase the artificial lights of the modern era, making the sequences as Desmond a stark contrast to the natural lighting from the revolution. Exaggerated and dynamic lights were featured to help bring the cold electric feel across the atmosphere; from the overhead view of an MMA fight, to a dark, damp vehicle sequence. The notes on the Abstergo offices were interesting; the design team wanted to make the angles of the building very sharp and sterile.

Characters

The creative thought process behind these characters is amazing. The evolution of Connor is something any fan of the game has to see; his first design is very Native American inspired, with feathers being very prominent. The change from concept to concept is very interesting to see, his first iteration is very foreign compared to Ezio or Altair. Conceptually looking into the historically relevant people you’ll meet in the game is absolutely breath taking. These large scale paintings of some of the historical figures deserve to placed in a museum, I’m saying they’re actually museum quality.

Forest & Frontier

The one element of AC3 that shines the most is the expansive environment players can explore. The entire game is 1.5 times larger than Rome from Brotherhood, and you can see in this section of the book that the art team really put a lot of their heart and soul into crafting this world. The really fascinating portion is the recreation of famous battles and locations from history. The artist notes in this chapter are very intriguing and are definitely worth a read.

Boston

Way back at SDCC 2012 I attended the Ubsoft AC3 panel (my fellow ‘scapist Jake108 was also there). They demoed a section of the game in Boston, and frankly I was a little underwhelmed. The portion I saw seemed to be step backwards from the Italian renaissance, and the parts I’ve seen in game of the city still haven’t overly impressed me, but DAMN, this section of the book is critical. Seeing these huge set pieces really wowed me. From alleyways to docks, I cannot believe how cool this place looks. Maybe I need to progress further in the game, but where did all these great ideas go!? If you pick up this book, you NEED to see page 83; That HUGE shot of the entire city is absolutely incredible. It deserves to be on canvas in some rich white dude’s study, right over the fireplace.

New York

New York, New York baby. Historically this place was the setting of many pivotal battles for the revolution. The notes here focussing on the emphasis of shadows are very interesting. It’s more of the same you’ll have seen in the Boston section, and it is also the shortest section of the book.

Homestead

A returning mechanic from AC2 is the home territory. In this case players get to interact and upgrade a large tract of land that Connor and his mentor call home. I’ve seen a great deal of the process of upgrading and exploring the homestead while watching my friend play through a bunch of the quests. I find it extremely interesting how the game intertwines different characters into your own town. Doing small sidequests for each new person who comes into the homestead and how the area changes from what they bring is one of the coolest parts of the game. The concept art for the homestead area is very intriguing. The character and housing developmental changes is definitely something to take notice of.

Battle At Sea

Back at that SDCC panel, Ubisoft expanded on the Naval portion of the game. Seeing stills from it made me want this game so much more. I’ve always loved the sea from this period in time; if you see the miniseries Hornblower from A&E you will know why. AC3 really blew this part out of the water, pun intended. The paintings from this chapter are really some amazing pieces. If Titan Books are reading this, you can get me the images from page 135 on canvas for Christmas (please!).

Final Thoughts

Like I said at the beginning, I’ve never been a HUGE art fan. The little books you get in some collectors editions of games really never interested me. This huge collected works from AC3, on the other hand, is something to behold. The notes that accompany the pictures is worth the price of the book alone. The crew over at Titan Books really put together a great collection and I think everyone needs to check it out.

You can get your hands on the version I have right HERE.

BUT! If you are the ultimate Assassin’s Creed fan then you’lll want to get the Limited Edition copy. It features a radical slip case and two signed prints from two of the artists, Chinh Ngo and Gilles Beloeil. It is limited to 1000 copies, so if you want it, you better get it quick!