Get the art book, if you can

[TayTayMon]

It's got amazing art and answers most questions about the game. You will want to play the game through to completion and then read the book. Play the game a second time after going through the book and things really start coming together.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by TayTayMon:

Get the art book

Sure. Can you spot me €45?

[Flybye]

I preordered it. It also comes with the game digitally, but the book will be able to present tge game beautifully.

[TayTayMon]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Originally posted by TayTayMon:

Get the art book

Sure. Can you spot me €45?

I'm just saying, there are a lot of people with questions and there are answers. If you can't afford it, then I won't recommend for you to get it. For those that I can, I do.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by TayTayMon:

I'm just saying, there are a lot of people with questions and there are answers. If you can't afford it, then I won't recommend for you to get it. For those that I can, I do.

I don't disagree :) I'm just somewhat annoyed that the art book seems fairly important in understanding the game's narrative (what there is of one), yet it isn't available for standalone purchase and requires repurchasing the entire game at significant markup.

[BuffyFan2001]

The artbook is all sorts of frustrating. Firstly, it's very difficult to get legally. Apparently the steam page is broken and you can't get it at reduced price if you already bought the standard version. That's stupid and obviously Ebb didn't know this was a problem.

Secondly, I am extremely angry that you need the artbook to understand anything because the devs couldn't communicate it effectively in the game itself. Almost nobody doing story analyses hit anywhere close to the mark. 99% of the time it's surface level stuff like: alien invasion to create perfect slaves, parasitic infestation overgrowth destroyed civilization, elaborate death by childbirth metaphor... when the game is supposed to be a social commentary on humanity's relationship with technology, how it dehumanizes us and makes us scorn our flesh in favor of hedonistic pursuits and social media.

Thirdly, I am extremely angry that almost half the planned levels were cut during production. The Blasted Labyrinth, Tower, and psychedelic creatures look amazing. Way more amazing than the awful Crater levels. Apparently Ebb blew their budget on making Crater look as pretty as possible, so they had to rush the ending and cut out most of what they planned. It is very obvious from the pacing in the final game. The tram ride feels like a natural end point for the part 1 Dasein they originally planned, so it's obvious to me that they had to cut out most of Part 2 to get it to release. Argh!

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by BuffyFan2001:

Secondly, I am extremely angry that you need the artbook to understand anything because the devs couldn't communicate it effectively in the game itself. Almost nobody doing story analyses hit anywhere close to the mark. 99% of the time it's surface level stuff like: alien invasion to create perfect slaves, parasitic infestation overgrowth destroyed civilization, elaborate death by childbirth metaphor... when the game is supposed to be a social commentary on humanity's relationship with technology, how it dehumanizes us and makes us scorn our flesh in favor of hedonistic pursuits and social media.

Yup. I found a video of someone discussing it with screenshots and text caps. Not sure if it's legal, but it's on YouTube so whatever. I've seen it, and I had much of the same reaction - none of that is in the actual game, and most of that can't even be deduced from what we got. Not only were major parts of the game cut, but tremendous amounts of context were cut right along with them. Aspects were bashed together in ways that don't make sense given the intended narrative, as well.

The little Modok creatures which make up the games final boss fight(s) weren't supposed to be in the sex temple (here revealed to be a high-society city), but rather off in their own area waging a war. Those cyborgs we fought were just thrown in at the end with no explanation, seemingly to have a boss fight, no matter how little sense that made.

That "elevator creature" was supposed to be the mother of the spitting monsters, but none of the the actual environmental storytelling makes that clear. It doesn't appear in any way connected to them. I guess a VERY charitable interpretation can be drawn from the "reach the lowest point" Steam achievement, suggesting some kind of "Alien Queen" thing, but without the artbook that would just be a blind guess.

The "factory" was supposed to look different from "the crater" but they both look identical. This isn't helped by Protagonist 2 walking through "the factory", seemingly as part of their journey into "the crater". And none of it looks like a crater, either. There are occasional shots of a steep wall with a light far into the fog, but it carries no intrinsic meaning.

Going through the Art Book feels like reading Raising the Bar. Half-Life 2 was supposed to have some kind of Atmospheric Processor location on the way to Nova Prospekt, which would start the civilian uprising. That got cut and the trigger was moved to the collapse of the Nova Prospekt dark matter reactor. Crucially, though - the story still made sense even with the cut.



The artbook has only made me like the game less for two reasons. It shows me that all the people telling "You're too dumb to get the story! Everything you need to know is there, you just have to look" don't know what they're talking about. The majority of it got cut, and what's left is jammed together in ways that don't make sense. It also shows me that all the high-brow "literary critique" pieces about the game are talking out of their asses. This was evident from how none of them can agree on what the story is, but none of them came even close to what the developers had in mind.

As I've said elsewhere - if it's not in the game, it doesn't count because most of your audience isn't going to pursue supplementary materials. If understanding your story requires shelling out for tie-ins and doing additional research, you fail at storytelling.

[WanderingArtist]

If only you can upload it to gdrive...

[Cakefist]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Originally posted by TayTayMon:

Get the art book

Sure. Can you spot me €45?

Deluxe version is £18.99 on CDkeys.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Cakefist:

Deluxe version is £18.99 on CDkeys.

Not only is that still WAAAY too expensive for an art book, I'm also really not interested in dealing with any more shady key resellers.

[(UK) The Mawster]

Isn't it only available in French (the print version) ?

[illgib]

Everyone, it can be pre-purchased from the editor, Titan books, will be available 2 december for Europe and 10 january for Us, actually it's discounted at 22£ for Europe.

[Monkey8u]

Originally posted by illgib:

Everyone, it can be pre-purchased from the editor, Titan books, will be available 2 december for Europe and 10 january for Us, actually it's discounted at 22£ for Europe.

Thank you for this! I've been trying to figure out how to get the art book separately since I pre-ordered just the game by itself and not the deluxe version. I would rather pay $45 and get a hard copy then $45 for the same game I already have, the ost and only a digital artbook.

After clicking on the US/Canada tab on the titan books website it shows it's selling it on amazon and will be released this Dec 6th :)

[Grendain]

Originally posted by TayTayMon:

It's got amazing art and answers most questions about the game. You will want to play the game through to completion and then read the book. Play the game a second time after going through the book and things really start coming together.

True... With the ArtBook = You can understand soo much about this Alien civilization world story

[Necrosian]

Am i only one think that hiding important part of the narative in 45 eur art book is extreamely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing to do instead of including all that in games or atleast giving it for free?

[BuffyFan2001]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Originally posted by BuffyFan2001:

Secondly, I am extremely angry that you need the artbook to understand anything because the devs couldn't communicate it effectively in the game itself. Almost nobody doing story analyses hit anywhere close to the mark. 99% of the time it's surface level stuff like: alien invasion to create perfect slaves, parasitic infestation overgrowth destroyed civilization, elaborate death by childbirth metaphor... when the game is supposed to be a social commentary on humanity's relationship with technology, how it dehumanizes us and makes us scorn our flesh in favor of hedonistic pursuits and social media.

Yup. I found a video of someone discussing it with screenshots and text caps. Not sure if it's legal, but it's on YouTube so whatever. I've seen it, and I had much of the same reaction - none of that is in the actual game, and most of that can't even be deduced from what we got. Not only were major parts of the game cut, but tremendous amounts of context were cut right along with them. Aspects were bashed together in ways that don't make sense given the intended narrative, as well.

The little Modok creatures which make up the games final boss fight(s) weren't supposed to be in the sex temple (here revealed to be a high-society city), but rather off in their own area waging a war. Those cyborgs we fought were just thrown in at the end with no explanation, seemingly to have a boss fight, no matter how little sense that made.

That "elevator creature" was supposed to be the mother of the spitting monsters, but none of the the actual environmental storytelling makes that clear. It doesn't appear in any way connected to them. I guess a VERY charitable interpretation can be drawn from the "reach the lowest point" Steam achievement, suggesting some kind of "Alien Queen" thing, but without the artbook that would just be a blind guess.

The "factory" was supposed to look different from "the crater" but they both look identical. This isn't helped by Protagonist 2 walking through "the factory", seemingly as part of their journey into "the crater". And none of it looks like a crater, either. There are occasional shots of a steep wall with a light far into the fog, but it carries no intrinsic meaning.

Going through the Art Book feels like reading Raising the Bar. Half-Life 2 was supposed to have some kind of Atmospheric Processor location on the way to Nova Prospekt, which would start the civilian uprising. That got cut and the trigger was moved to the collapse of the Nova Prospekt dark matter reactor. Crucially, though - the story still made sense even with the cut.



The artbook has only made me like the game less for two reasons. It shows me that all the people telling "You're too dumb to get the story! Everything you need to know is there, you just have to look" don't know what they're talking about. The majority of it got cut, and what's left is jammed together in ways that don't make sense. It also shows me that all the high-brow "literary critique" pieces about the game are talking out of their asses. This was evident from how none of them can agree on what the story is, but none of them came even close to what the developers had in mind.

As I've said elsewhere - if it's not in the game, it doesn't count because most of your audience isn't going to pursue supplementary materials. If understanding your story requires shelling out for tie-ins and doing additional research, you fail at storytelling.

Oh yeah, totally agree.