Book Review - The Art of Borderlands 4

The Artbook Collector
Oct 13
5 min read

October 13th 2025

Borderlands is back with more chaos, action, laughs, and of course, guns! Hot off the heels of the release of Borderlands 4 in September 2025, The Art of Borderlands 4 from Dark Horse Books and developer Gearbox was published on October 7th, delivering a look at the art behind the latest team of Vault Hunters and their story on the new world of Kairos.

Now that a copy has joined the collection, find out here if this book should be left behind to save room in your inventory, or if it glows with the same orange as a Legendary weapon!

Build Quality

Dark Horse deliver their standard 9” x 12” hardcover format and that’s not a bad thing. The cover is strong, the binding is secure, and they have again used good quality paper. The book comes with 224 pages this time round, which falls within the normal range for an artbook from the publisher. This is a nice short and sweet part of the review, because you cannot go wrong with what they deliver here, their consistent quality should always be praised.

Content

Borderlands fans are treated to a fun mix of content that includes early sketches, colour concepts, and 3D models that explore the new world of Kairos that Gearbox have created. The book is split into the following chapters; Vault Hunters, Non-Player Characters, Guns, Environments, Bad Guys & Monsters, and Vehicles. Each of these is self-explanatory and what you expect from a video game artbook, which is always a good thing as it covers a lot of what you see in the game.

The series is known in part for its cell-shaded visual design, but The Art of Borderlands 4 is an example of the concept art style not needing to match what you see on screen. The black outlines you see in the game aren’t features across all of the designs, there are even some concepts made up of only block colour, because it’s not required to explore ideas. What you end up with here is a variety of styles that all look great in their own right, all working towards a common goal— creating characters and a world players will want to spend time in. Not only is the art superb, but the print quality is also excellent too, giving the art the showcase it deserves.

It's not often that a book doesn’t have a stand out section, but this release has a fantastic balance of art for the characters, environments, and technology. In each section you see early concepts through to more detailed renders, as well as the inclusion of 3D models and art, as opposed to just 2D. Nothing feels neglected and they fit a lot in on each page too, as you can see in the previews. There’s a consistency here that I like, but of course if you prefer character art then that will be the highlight for you, same goes for fans of environment art. However, if like me you have no specific preference, you’ll appreciate the shared focus here.

The character and enemy chapters include a lot of the earlier iterations of each design, giving readers a look at a lot of unused concepts, which is always a big selling point of any good artbook. The non-human creatures and enemies in particular are fun to look through for this reason.

Borderlands 4 offers a wide range of environment types and that is reflected here too. It lends itself to an interesting artbook for this reason and you get a wonderful mix of barren wastelands, nature filled locations, and different architecture styles for the man/alien-made settings too. The colour palettes change from page to page and that also helps to highlight the work Gearbox put into its new world.

On the technology side, weapons and vehicles flood the pages with a lot of artwork, especially for the guns that even include a look at specific components too. Each arms manufacturer is featured here and given a couple of spreads to shine the spotlight on the work of the team. The Vehicles chapter is the smallest, but you also get to see early sketches and unused material that is always appreciated.

The text throughout gives insights into the characters and world, with the main focus being on the approach to the design choices made to create the final designs, which includes updates for returning characters. Rick Barba has done a great job here at getting details across in bite-sized chunks, as well as through interviews with the team. You get insights from lead game designer Nick Thurston, lead artist Chris Kuhner, associate art directors Dax Davenport and Chris Neeley, among others, with this being where the bulk of the details come from. The book definitely has an art heavy focus, but the amount included here still offers a lot to readers.

Credits

In the case of The Art of Borderlands 4, the credits are found across 3 pages in the back of the book. It would have been nice to see the individual pieces of art get a credit, as this is always the best option, but they can at least be found on a credits page. It doesn’t just include the credits for what is in the book either, but all artists for the game, including those that worked on tech art, mocap, animation, UI, lighting, and more, as well as across multiple companies that contributed to Borderlands 4.

Use of Space

I’m a big fan of the design of the book, the team at Dark Horse and Alan Jones at The Story Division have created a book that fits a lot in, while keeping the page layouts clean and easy to read. Some artwork is boxed together to keep them organised and this works very well. The placement of text is unobtrusive, even when placed in the corner of an environmental piece of art.

The big win here is the art that crosses the centre fold, as it avoids image loss and that is usually not the case. Images are often at risk if they cross the middle of a spread, but thanks to the binding and designers, all of the art can be fully enjoyed as seen above. A great job all round here.

Value

The book has an RRP of $55/ £50, which is a small increase from previous releases and likely due to the economic landscape. However, as with previous artbooks, prices for the book online can fluctuate, often even before release. The Art of Borderlands 4 is no different, with Amazon US selling it at the time of writing this for $53 and on the UK site it can be found at £38, so it’s worth looking around before buying. Given how expensive things have become for people, the RRP seems very reasonable for another solid Dark Horse release, with lower prices being great if you find them.

Verdict

The Art of Borderlands 4 shines like a rare gun after being dropped by an enemy. It features fantastic art and insights that are delivered in a well made and designed book, allowing the work of the artists to shine. I like the mix of styles and its balanced focus for each chapter, while fitting a lot in too. Some loot should be left in the wastelands, but fans can't go wrong making space in their inventory for this one!

If you like the previews and review and want to add The Art of Borderlands 4 to your own shelf, you can do so here;