Kurisu of the Hellfire
Those complaining about the art style need to bear two things in mind.
1. Art is in the eye of the beholder, what isn't steampunk to one can be steampunk to another
2. The game is still in development, and much like Borderlands, the art style can very likely change.
I do agree though that calling the art book a "guide to steampunk" is kind of, arrogant.
If anything a book with that title should talk a bit about the culture, give some recommended media, and some basic project ideas.
1. The aesthetics of steampunk are surely debatable, but the core of steampunk (the steam) is not.
2. The game came out 2 days ago. Also, if they released an artbook based on the game, then it's likely NOT in development anymore, as artbooks often include concept art from every phase of development, including the final product, to give a sense of how far along the project has come and the changes it went through. The art style for Damnation already has changed, though it was mostly just going from a more widely accepted-as-steampunk color scheme, to a more widely accepted-as-shooter color scheme.
I agree that it's arrogant, especially if it's misguided or all-out incorrect. It's one thing to say "look, our game is steampunk!" but it's an entirely different thing to try to redefine steampunk for your own best commercial interest. It seems to me that they do know what steampunk is, and their publishers wouldn't let them go all-out steampunk, so they're trying to use the artbook as a cover up to explain how they're still all-out steampunk, even if they're not.
That said, I think the artbook has nothing to do with whether the game is good or not, and neither do the actual in-game aesthetics and graphics (graphics can only make a game better, not worse, as long as the game itself is playable). Has anyone actually gotten the game and played it yet? I might actually see if this one is available for rent at one of the nearby video/game rental places, just to see what it plays like.
