"The Art of the Mass Effect Universe" Collector’s Edition review

A week or two before Mass Effect 3 was released my fiancé received a huge art book he’d been
waiting for – The Art of the Mass Effect Universe, Collector’s Edition (limited to 1500 copies.)
He purchased it directly from the BioWare store, we couldn't find it locally. The shipping was steep but we found out why the shipping was so high when it arrived.

The art book and the box it's packed in is huge! One of the bonuses of the Collectors Edition is that the art
book comes in an embossed outer box, with metallic foil and artwork of both the Male and Female
versions of Commander Shepard.

Male Shepard in all his metallic glory.

The outer box is really large!

Fem Shep graces the back cover.

When you open the box lid, on the inside you see some more metallic art work, and even the inside
of the box is shiny. On the right hand side you see the art book sitting down in the box and a ribbon
out from under the bottom of the book. You lift the ribbon to be able to lift out the art book. I much
prefer this system to book that just slides in and out of a box, because you’ll never damage the book
removing it with the ribbon.

The art book in the right hand side.

Using the ribbon to lift the book out.

The box is really sturdy, and really well built. The entire box is shiny.

Pulling out the book you feel how weighty it is! The book is jam packed full of character design, map
and land area designs, and most information you could wish for about the process of all 3 Mass
Effect games. At the end of the book there is even a section on the comics that were released for the
games, talking about how they were written and why.

There are some stunning full page art works.

Detailed concept designs for characters you'll encounter in Mass Effect.

Places you'll visit throughout your adventures in the Mass Effect series.

Throughout the book there is a wide range of work, from basic sketches and draft CG art work,
to costume design for the different characters and full page art works. The book starts with Mass
Effect, then moves into Mass Effect 2 and 3. Each game gets its own section. Most pages have blurbs
about the art work shown, why they decided to use something or not, or why they changed things
throughout the games. It’s nice to look through and see the progress of the art work and characters
from game 1 to 3. Really cool way to include behind the scenes information of the games.

Talking about the making of the comics.

Miranda costume designs.

The back of the book.

If you’ve played and replayed all three games and loved them, you’ll love this book.
If you aren’t a die-hard fan, you might find yourself flipping pretty quickly through the pages, as
most of it is design for characters you might not know. I’d really only recommend the limited edition
to serious Mass Effectors. If you don’t want to drop so much cash on this book, the normal version is
also available to buy, and you can get the normal version through local sellers (like MightyApe.)

Into Mass Effect stuff? Also check out this scale replica of the Normandy, and Liara!