Book Review - The Art of Rust

The Artbook Collector
5 minutes ago
5 min read

January 27th 2026

Facepunch Studios introduced players to the world of Rust in 2013 through early access, winning them over with its survival mechanics and freedom within its world. Over a decade later, people a still deeply invested in the game, but there had never been an artbook... until now.

The Art of Rust from publisher Dark Horse was released on January 27th 2026, allowing fans to add a volume of artwork to their shelves. A copy of the book is now here, so I can give you my thoughts on the new release!

Build Quality

Unsurprisingly, Dark Horse deliver the goods again with another video game artbook, maintaining their high production quality. The book comes in their usual format as a 23.5cm x 21cm hardcover, this time with 184 pages. The binding is strong, perfect for the thick paper used in their releases, but it still provides enough flexibility to allow the pages to fully open up too. Reliable as always, it’s one of the best things about the publisher!

Content

Inside the book is split into chapters that cover all aspects of the gameplay; Characters, Bases & World, Weapons & Tech, Vehicles, and Events & DLC. It’s what we have come to expect from an artbook and that’s not a bad thing, with this book having an unsurprisingly heavier focus on the environments and assets for the genre.

The art itself has a grounded style, but comes with a variety in the level of detail, from looser artwork to more detailed pieces. This also includes 3D models for concepting ideas too, offering a nice mix of techniques from the art team. The world of Rust is full of decay, custom built technology, and industrial remains, all of which are of course found in the artwork for the assets and types of locations players visit. It’s a well-balanced mix of styles and development stages throughout as you can see in the previews.

A highlight of the book is that unused designs are shown throughout the chapters, not just variants of things that were used either, but ideas that never made it into the game at all. These include Cobalt branded sharks, unused climbing boots, an interesting four-legged robot called CAML, and a submarine frozen in ice. It’s always appreciated when things like this are included, because it makes for an interesting peak behind the curtain.

Including the chapter ‘Events & DLC’ at the end is a thoughtful move that takes the elements of the previous chapters and condenses them into a look at some of the content added to the game. Featured is artwork for their themed updates, such as Chinese New Year, Halloween, and Easter. With the game being out for so long, it makes sense to include this for people that have been surviving the Rust’s world during its many seasons.

There’s not a huge amount of reading in The Art of Rust, though text is scattered frequently throughout. It’s made up of short paragraphs, giving descriptions of what you see, as well as some nuggets if information like inspirations, materials, and style. There are some nice insights here, but it’s not too in-depth, so it is therefore complimentary, rather than a selling point of the book.

The downside for me is that as there isn’t too much text and a lot of the designs are of single assets or characters, such as gates, buildings, clothing, weapons, and base materials, which makes it feel like a retailer catalogue for a large portion of the book. Without set characters and narrative scenes found in other game genres, there is less art with full backgrounds or character/ gameplay moments, so it lacks the dynamic pieces seen in other books. The environment art of biomes and locations stand out for this reason (seen below), and while the rest of the art is still great, it may not be as appealing to collectors wanting keyframes, storyboards, animation concepts, key art, and more.

Credits

Sadly, the art on the page isn’t credited, so it’s impossible to know who did what. In the front of the book are a list of names of staff at Facepunch Studios, but it’s not noted what their job roles are. The list includes the COO’s, but does have artists too. Included are Howard Schechtman, Paul Bradley, Megan Tupper, Sam Kemp, Taylor Reynolds, and more, who are the creators of the art, but I can only tell you that from looking up each name online. This list is also included on the publisher details page that most people would skip as well, which is a shame for the artists involved.

Use of Space

The layouts throughout the book are simple, but fill the pages in a clean and easily readable way that gives the art a good amount of space. The designs of the backgrounds are interesting, because the use of multiple flat tones in rectangles with some 45° angles is effective at separating elements on the page, however, it’s very modern and doesn’t match the visual theme of Rust. A large number of books don’t design pages to match the look of the game or movie they are based on, often kept simple or even sterile, but they at least aren’t in a conflicting style. It doesn’t affect the quality of the book, although it did stand out to me.

The binding comes into play with the page design, as there is little to no image loss in the centre fold for art that is placed over it, which is always fantastic to see. Overall, the team did a great job at keeping the art the main focus, although it does exaggerate the catalogue feel mentioned before.

Value

A look at the art behind Rust comes with an RRP of $54.99/ £49.99, which is the standard now for a Dark Horse artbook. The production quality of the book and print finish justifies the price point, especially as with the right care, a hardcover like this will last a very long time.

As always, I compare prices on Amazon to stay consistent, and at the time of writing this just before the official release, the book has already been 20% off in the UK. Given that £40 is around $55 with current exchange rates, it makes sense that the UK has a price drop already as it is more expensive without one. No discounts in the US yet, but there are always price fluctuations as many collectors will know. I will always say a deal is worth looking for, but if you’re a player in the wasteland and like what you see in these previews, you won’t be let down by the quality at full price.

Verdict

The Art of Rust delivers a look at the concept art for a lot of what makes up the game, with the environments and unused ideas being the highlights. There is a heavier focus on single assets and character pieces compared to most releases that buyers should be aware of, but those that are curious to see that will find a lot to enjoy.

Whether this book is worth buying or not is very much based on your personal preference for the content, because Dark Horse have once again released a well-made book and given the art a strong showcase. It’s very likely though that if you are reading this, you’re a fan of Rust, so are probably expecting they type of concept art highlighted in this review and previews. These types of games don’t aften get an artbook, and although it lacks story and gameplay concepts that can add more variety to other releases, this is a nice way to celebrate the ongoing long life of Rust and its art team.

If you enjoyed the reviews and would like a copy of your own, you can buy The Art of The Rust here;