Book Review - The Art of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

The Artbook Collector
4 minutes ago
5 min read

December 8th 2025

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. made its big return in 2024, bringing players back to the Zone after the release of the last game more than 15 years before. Not wanting to leave it that though, GSC Game World have partnered with Dark Horse to give players a look at some of the artwork behind S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl!

The Art of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl was released on December 2nd 2025, just a year after the game was first launched and perfectly timed for the PlayStation 5 release. With a copy now in the collection, I can give my thoughts on the book, as well as some photos too!

Build Quality

This is another Dark Horse video game artbook, so this part of the review writes itself before the book even arrives, because they are consistent in their high production quality. It comes in their usual 23.5cm x 31cm hardcover format, this time with 224 pages. As always, the paper used is good quality and the binding is strong and secure. The pages fully open up without issue as well, something that has been more common in artbooks of late and it’s wonderful to see, as it reduces image loss in the centre fold. An overall great job again from Dark Horse!

Content

The art comes as both 2D and 3D concepts and like many video game artbooks, the chapters are divided into elements that make up the game, as opposed to following the player’s progression. The chapters are as follows; The Zone, Characters and Factions, Weapons and Customization, Devices and Loot, Artifacts, Anomalies, and Mutants. It’s a nice way to break it up and leading with environments is an uncommon move, but I like it here.

The artwork for the environments has a very realistic aesthetic with few exceptions, looking to capture the mood and feel of areas like the Lesser Zone, Wild Island, Duga, and more. It looks fantastic and really places you in the game’s world, you can almost hear the sounds and feel the unease when going through the pages. I also really like the contrast of the outside world with that of the SIRCAA interiors, giving a nice variety of environment types. All of this is aided by the superb print quality of the book, even making the details clear in the many darker pieces the it features. A nice touch was including some studies and section on the team scanning real-world plant life too.

For the characters and gear concepts, the artwork doesn’t aim for photo realism to the same degree, but does a great job at highlighting the type of clothes worn in the game, while also highlighting practical elements needed to survive. I would have liked to see more though, as the book does lack unused ideas and early sketches, and they would have been well suited for this section of the book.

A highlight is the exploration of the Artifacts and Anomalies, both offering creative visual designs and ideas. The strange shapes of the Artifacts are divided into their types, such as Gravity and Acid, and get a nice amount of page space to showcase their unique looks. Anomalies also provide some interesting concept art through their interactions with the environments and visual effects. They perfectly capture a mix of eeriness and wonder, helping the book convey the feeling of walking through the Zone.

The chapters for the weapons and the mutants aren’t as strong though unfortunately, both lacking early concept art and relying heavily on showing final designs. It’s almost as if they ran out of pages and wanted to get as many types in as possible, so settled for showing what was found on-screen. Guns are mostly made up of side-profile single images, with a few getting a couple more pieces of art, like the Gauss Gun.

Mutants are the most underserved, with some getting just a 3D model, as opposed to the early creature concepts you’d hope to see. I was expecting it to have the most creative pages, but it’s a smaller chapter and not many of the enemies get exploration, even in cases where they take up entire pages.

Text throughout is a mix of in-game descriptions for concepts seen on the pages and notes on what the artists goals were. It’s far from a ‘making of’ book and uses short individual paragraphs to keep the art on the page the main focus, an approach I like here. It acts very much as an extension of the game’s lore though, as it is heavier on descriptions, with the details of the art team’s work shared much less frequently.

Overall, the chapters for the Zone, Anomalies, and Artifacts have some great stuff to take in, but other chapters are lacking. It feels like the book is a victim of trying to include a piece of as many elements as possible, but this is restrictive when you only have so many pages.

Credits

Credits for the art team are not shared on each page, instead they found in a small paragraph at the start of the book. Ideally, I would like to see who is responsible for each piece inside, lacking that, their own credits page. While they are at least included, having them in a paragraph with the publisher and book details will mean that they will be overlooked. I even did that myself until I wanted to make sure they were not featured, only to find that they were, but easily missed.

Use of Space

The book does a fantastic job at filling the pages throughout, minimizing empty space and allowing the art to get a strong showcase. I like that in many cases images for an environment are used at the top of the page and fade off at the edges, making them the background for other pieces on the page. It works seamlessly and allows select concepts to make more use of the real estate. As mentioned, some of the mutants don’t get a lot of exploration, so perhaps reducing some of the image sizes would have helped allow that. Despite this, for The Art of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, the team did an excellent job with the page design.

Value

This new release has an RRP of $54.99/ £49.99, the same as other Dark Horse artbooks published recently, so no surprise there. This the expected price on the market for an artbook like this and you won’t be disappointed in the physical quality of the book.

Comparing prices just under a week after release, on Amazon US has the book at 22% off, with the UK site selling it under £40 at 28% off. Discounts this soon after release is never a bad thing and makes the book more enticing for fans that are looking for more after putting down their controller. This is actually a better deal for the US when comparing currencies and highlights that, if you love the game and the previews, there is some good value to be found here.

Verdict

The Art of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a well-designed book that brings you into the game’s world through its look at environments and supernatural elements. However, while some chapters are very strong, others suffer from a lack of space, reducing the amount of concept designs they feature. It’s a book made for people that like environment world building, but if you are hoping for character and creature design, you will likely be left wanting. It is very much an extension and showcase of the game you played, as opposed to a book of development insights, early ideas, and the unused concepts that didn’t get used.

If you are someone that enjoyed the game and are interested in seeing the of the great artwork behind the Zone, you can order the book here;