The Art of Battlefield 4 by Martin Robinson
“War! What is it good for?” Well, if you’re EA Games, absolutely millions in world-wide sales. Now in its 11th year, the Battlefield franchise has turned out to be a massive money-spinner for both EA and its developers, the Swedish company DICE. The newest release, Battlefield 4 has recently hit the shelves for the current-gen consoles and PC market and will be among the first titles available for the soon-to-be-released Next-gen consoles in time for Christmas.
To coincide with the games’ release, Titan Books have published, “The Art of Battlefield 4” written by Martin Robinson. Robinson has form with these sorts of book having previously written, “The Art of Dead Space” and the 10th Anniversary celebration, “Halo: The Art of Building Worlds” as well as being an award-winning journalist and Features Editor of Eurogamer. The critically acclaimed Battlefield is one of the most popular first-person shooter series of all time and the book has been released to give fans an in-depth look at the epic art of the game.
The book is packed with exclusive concept and development art, as well as detailed creator insights and commentary throughout its 192 pages. Beginning with CHARACTERS, it shows finished 3D character models in-situ, but also some developmental design work to illustrate the concept artists’ train of thought. It then leads us through a series of location-focused chapters, following the narrative path of the game itself.
Beginning with the wonderfully realised PROLOGUE, setting up the narrative in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku. If you’ve seen the 17 minute game-play trailer that was released a couple of months ago ( here) you’ll know the level of technical realism, dramatic story-telling and sheer cinematic -quality visuals DICE have achieved is absolutely breath-taking. When the game’s Lead Concept-Artist, Robert Semmerlen, informs us that their main cinematic influence was Asian Director Wong Kar Wai and his Cinematographer-of-choice, Christopher Doyle, you know you’re in for a visual treat.
It’s no spoiler to say that the ultimate aim of the game is to put a stop the onset of World War 3 and save the World from global nuclear devastation. With this in mind, the book leads the reader through chapters dedicated to SHANGHAI, NAVAL BATTLES, where the entire level is set in and around a gigantic, partly destroyed air-carrier that is under attack from enemy forces, AIRFIELD, PRISON, DAM CITY and finally ending in in a gigantic military conflict in SUEZ. The last chapter takes a look at the artwork for the MULTIPLAYER specific levels.
My personal favourite was the Inception-alike PRISON chapter. Set in the frozen wastes of Tibet, the player and their squad have to covertly break into a remote Prison in the snow-covered mountains and the design work for the vast exterior environments and confined interior prison corridors are truly epic and give a great sense of the true scale of the game.
Closely following the recent “Art of Assassin’s Creed IV Blag Flag”, Titan Books have provided us with another high-quality peek behind the curtains of a AAA video game. You can purchase a copy of, “The Art of Battlefield 4” below.
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