Book Review - The Art of The Outer Worlds 2

The Artbook Collector
2 days ago
6 min read

December 22nd 2025

Obsidian Entertainment made their anticipated return in 2025 with The Outer Worlds 2, inviting fans back to its corporate run, retro-futuristic, and hazardous sci-fi universe. Players were excited for the game and those that enjoy concept art were in luck too, as an artbook was also announced. Partnering with Dark Horse, The Art of The Outer Worlds 2 is now here to allow players to see some of the art behind the latest game from the studio!

Arriving on December 23rd 2025, the artbook arrived less than 2 months after the game, giving players just a short wait to get more from the Arcadia star system. Below is my review of The Art of The Outer Worlds 2, as well as photos of some pages too.

Build Quality

This is a Dark Horse artbook, so I knew what to expect the day the book was announced and was not disappointed. Consistency is one of their greatest strengths and that’s ideal when the quality is always very good. It comes in the usual 23.5cm x 21cm hardcover format, this time with 208 pages to pore over. The binding is again very good, feeling secure and having enough flexibility to allow the pages to lay flat with ease. A great showing as always from a production standpoint.

Content

The Art of The Outer Wilds 2 takes the standard approach to its chapters by dividing the game up into its major elements. This book creates chapters for the following; Factions, Characters, Weapons, Environments, Creatures and Automechanicals, and Propaganda. It’s simple and effective, ideal for those that want to see a particular part of the game’s design.

Factions is the most text-heavy part, giving in-game lore for each of the groups, from mega-conglomerate Auntie’s Choice, to the smuggler faction Sub Rosa. After this, the art becomes much more of the main focus, with mixed results for me personally.

The Character chapter was an interesting one, because it should really have been called ‘Costumes’, because there isn’t too much in the way the characters themselves are designed, as opposed to what they wear. I really like the costume design of The Outer Worlds 2, especially for the Order of the Ascendant faction, but even for specific characters you don’t get much beyond this. These are presented in poses that aren’t especially interesting or dynamic, which is great for artists to convey details to those that work on the game, but it doesn’t make for a fun presentation in an artbook.

If you are hoping to see different character shapes, poses, and early unused designs, you will be left wanting. 60 pages of just simple poses did leave me wondering where the keyframes and animation exploration were, because you don’t feel any personality from what you see. Again, that’s not the purpose of the art presented, but I don’t doubt they left out concepts that do show that side of the characters. The costume design is fantastic, but this curation feels very sterile.

This sadly is repeated for the creatures in the book, of which there aren’t many, because they are shown in flat side profiles or the same 45-degree angle pose. I love creature design and it’s often a highlight, but without a dynamic pose that tells you something about them, it’s not as engaging for an artbook. Like the human concepts, there are no variations in the sizes and shapes either, just variants of one design. I find it unlikely they were happy with the first body type they drew, so I would have liked to have seen the unused versions included.

Weapons are the usual affair of variants, but I really like how the retro-futuristic design comes in to play heavily here and it looks great. I appreciate that they also included the view of the guns from the game’s first-person perspective too.

The Environments chapter is by far the strongest, with superb use of colour throughout, alongside a look at plants, buildings, rift events, and more. The great print quality of the book helps the colours pop off the page, giving it all a great showcase. It captures the feel of these places and the inclusion of exploration for specific elements of these places helps makes the chapter more dynamic. It even includes unused ideas too, such as mining machinery. Having fully painted backgrounds, as opposed to only standalone designs seen in other chapters, gives it much more life as well. It also features a look at the players ship, with more unused designs included. It’s by far my favourite part of the book.

If you like graphic design, the Propaganda section will be a highlight for you as well, with some excellent art nouveau poster designs throughout. Again, the colours here are used well to coincide with different factions. For some games, this is an afterthought, but the use of art like this in The Outer Worlds 2 is much more important, and it gets to shine here.

Text in the book leans more on giving in-universe lore and backgrounds on the characters, factions, and places of the game. However, there are some notes on the art itself that gives details on design approach, why something wasn’t used, influences, and more. It’s well written and doesn’t overstay its welcome either, so you will be happy to read it all if you enjoyed the game.

Overall, the artwork inside is very strong, but the choice of what to include does make much of the book less appealing than it could otherwise be. Some artists may appreciate this more than players who are hoping to see early and unused designs, as well as concepts for moments of the story or gameplay exploration, as seen in other artbooks. I used the word sterile before, and I feel that is most accurate, along with safe.

Credits

Unfortunately, the book doesn’t include the credits of artists on each page, so you don’t get to find out who did what in the book. They haven’t been left out though, because they get their own page in the back of the book, which includes Goodname, an outsourcing art company. Not the ideal way to do it, but at least they are included.

Use of Space

As you can see in the previews, pages are filled up nicely in clean and simple layouts. The page design was kept very straightforward here, using some beige background boxes and rounded edged frames to separate elements on the pages throughout. I personally like simple as it works and doesn’t take away from the art. The most interesting part is for some of the character title pages, that although use the same pose as seen in the concept art, utilize art nouveau backgrounds to add some flair. The binding prevents image loss in the centre fold too, something I’ve been impressed by from Dark Horse this year.

Value

The book has an RRP of $54.99/ £49.99, the new pricing for Dark Horse in 2025. It is on the higher end of the pricing range for artbooks, but the production quality is always very good from the publisher. It is probably too high for the UK though, as this works out to be over $67, so it should probably be £40-45, as seen with other books on the market that have accounted for the more recent exchange rates.

Checking Amazon again for consistency, just before the book’s release, it is discounted in the UK at 28% off and under £40. This is often the case with new releases, perhaps an indication they are aware of the exchange rate issue, one I wasn’t aware of myself until recently. Discounts come and go though, with nothing showing in the US yet, but it’s worth keeping an eye out. The American price as it stands isn’t one that will offend fans that jump in now though.

Verdict

The Art of The Outer Worlds 2 has its moments, including incredible environment art. However, in a year of many strong releases, you can’t help but notice how safe and generic much of the book is. The character and creature chapters lack the game’s personality, and although this could be all that was created by the team, those that are fans or own other artbooks may feel it is lacking the early and more dramatic artwork they were hoping for. The talent of the artists is not in question, but as a volume of artwork, it is not as compelling as other releases.

Die-hard fans, those that love sci-fi environments, and artists looking for some retro-futuristic references may find some value here, but outside of this, I would struggle to recommend this book.

If you liked the previews and think this book is for you, The Art of The Outer Wilds 2 can be ordered here;