The Art of Gears 5 Review

September 7, 2019 at 3:35am
By Jason Stettner

This is one excellent book, one of quality and depth when it comes to the art within Gears 5. This is an artwork presentation that includes captions with detailed descriptions of what they were going for while crafting this latest entry in the Gears of War franchise. It’s a really expansive offering, and one that should delight hardcore fans.

I’m assuming that would be the target niche for this, but if you just enjoy more context for the behind the scenes aspect of the gaming in general than this would still be a great choice. It’s a lengthy package of over two hundred pages with tons of full page imagery, detailed bits of information and it covers all the Gears 5 topics you would expect. A good portion of this is dedicated to the campaign, the inspiration behind the massive open worlds and also some cut content as well which is interesting.

Following that it details all of the new multiplayer maps present within the game. If that’s not enough action, there’s something on the various characters that are essential and then a dive into the weapons of this game. You get to see core COG heroes, along with the various Swarm monsters you battle against. It really does seem to be a comprehensive package, and as a fan that has rolled through this latest game to review early I know this all quite well. It’s great to see it presented in this different fashion.

This is a very thick, and high quality book. The hard cover is excellent, and directly reflects the mood of the game with its core frozen omen illustration along the front. The pages are also nice and thick, very detailed with artwork that was filling. Each page had something going on, taking some sort of artwork from the game for presentation. The writing blurbs were often placed in a spot to not be distracting, and this helped the writing flow with the story that the pictures were telling.

There was a lot of content covered in this, and it does touch upon every aspect of the game. I was very surprised by the showcase of extra content, and getting more of an idea of the behind the scenes for this production. Games are often mysteriously designed it seems, so it’s nice to get context there behind The Coalition’s work. I hopefully will get to see more things like this in the future, this is a great option for fans of the franchise.

The Conclusion

The Art of Gears 5 brings a wide range of excellent illustrations that were essential in the design of the core game, and it’s a great companion to the core game. This really is a nice extension and as a general fan of the series I was very impressed with what was shown. You get an in-depth look into each of the core parts of the campaign, with detailed descriptions behind the inspiration for them. It goes further with a look at each multiplayer map, to understand the changes prior to the full release. Past that you get a look at the characters, and how they were adjusted depending on the environment they were sent into.

This is really neat, it perhaps could have been expanded though in regards to regular characters, but honestly it covered everyone important. The Swarm had some good coverage, a nice and detailed look into these gruesome creatures that act as your enemies throughout. It then wraps up with a nice view of the key weapons, great models and a real deep look into what they offer within the game. This is an essential art book for fans of the series, or for those curious about the visual designs that went into the core package.

The Art of Gears 5 Book Review
Author: Aryan Hanbeck, Ryan Cleven, Matt Searcy, Bonnie Jean Mah
ISBN: 9781506713540
Review Copy Provided by Penguin Random House Canada

Rating Overall: 10