Book Review - The Art of Warhammer Video Games
- The Artbook Collector
- 9 minutes ago
- 6 min read
November 24th 2025
There are very few franchises that have made the transition to video games as flawlessly as Warhammer from Games Workshop. The hugely successful miniature tabletop game has a huge range of campaigns, genres, units, and factions, so it’s no surprise that over 30 years of video game releases come with just as much variety as well. This of course means there is a lot of art to explore, as found in the new book, The Art of Warhammer Video Games.
Releasing November 25th 2025 from DK, it looks back at a large number of the games that many have been enjoying for decades. A copy has joined the collection and I have been diving in to see if it is worth adding to the Librarius, or should be left to the Orks for scrap.
Build Quality
Very few ‘Art of’ books come from DK Publishing, but being British like Games Workshop, it makes sense for them to take the reins of this release. The book comes in a good size of 30.1cm x 28.5cm, larger than most and with 232 pages. The paper is high quality as you expect in an artbook and the binding is very good to, with the right amount of flex in the backing to allow the pages to fully open.
I’m a fan of the cover (seen above), the fractured design that highlights some of the key art of multiple games gives you an idea of some of titles featured inside and creates a nice mix of colour too. All in all, a very well-made book.
Content
As the cover indicates, there are multiple games included in The Art of Warhammer Video Games, though it doesn’t quite paint the full picture. A whopping 40 games are included, which is a lot for a 232-page book, though still only a smaller selection of the games that have been released for Warhammer. The book is split into 5 sections, Warhammer 40,000, The Horus Heresy, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Warhammer Fantasy, and Blood Bowl, with games split amongst each one (seen below).
The author of the book is Andy Hall, who has worked on some of the games himself and comes across as knowledgeable and enthusiastic about Warhammer. He does a great job throughout and in his writing gives details of the stories and genres of the titles, development details, reception, and even speaks to the table top game in places as well. There’s not a huge amount to read, but it does a nice job of giving those less familiar with each game an idea of what they are. The in-universe quotes that are peppered throughout are a fun addition too.
As for the artwork itself, you will find key art, concept art, sketches, illustrations, 3D models, and the occasional screenshot. If you are familiar with Warhammer then you know that its world design is incredible, lending itself perfectly to video games and the art reflects that. What I really like is that with the games covering so many years of releases, genres, and styles, you get a good range of art. From early sketches, to pixel art, to detailed digital paintings, whether you’re a fan of the games, or just Warhammer in general, you’ll find some nice pieces here.
I have played a number of these games myself (including fond memories of Dawn of War: Winter Assault, Fire Warrior, and more recently Boltgun), so it was really good to see some of the artwork behind these titles. The style change for Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus was also a highlight. Some of the art really stands out and everyone will have a favourite, with mine being of Captain Agravain from Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters, pictured below.
There’s a huge problem with this book for me though; it bit off way more than it can chew. This is a two-part problem, but I’ll start with the fact that 40 games in a 232-page book is simply too much to do much with.
6 games get just two pages, 14 get four pages, 11 games get six pages, 5 get eight pages, and 4 lucked out with ten. Space Marine gets 20 pages between its two games, no surprise given their popularity, however, introducing Dawn of War as the first big video game hit, only to give it just 4 pages leave you wanting more. Those consist of only one piece of key art, one illustration, one colour concept, and a small group of sketches, almost certain to leave people disappointed.
The issue here is that if you are wanting to see art for some of your favourites, you’ll likely be let down. If you’re a fan of Warhammer in general and the artwork for its universe, it makes it a more enjoyable read because you won’t be invested in specific games. I did think while reading through that some of the individual releases and series would be much better served with dedicated artbooks.
The second fundamental mistake with this book causes me to rearrange this review, bringing forward the 'Use of Space' section, as it makes what I just mentioned so much worse.
Use of Space
When it comes to the pages of art, I think the designers did a good job, the layouts are well presented, the art gets a good showcase, and they waste little space… but not on the game title pages.
Seen in the example below, all of the games with two spreads (4 pages) or more have introductions presented with a piece of key art, their logo, and a description. Had there been only 10 games featured, this would be great as it’s clean and well-written. But when 14 games get only two full spreads, half of the space for their artwork has now been used up. I find it very wasteful, because even if you crammed every bit of white space with art, you’d still only show a small amount for each game. It’s a poor use of precious space that should have been reduced to a single page at most, not a full spread.
Books like this will always upset fans that may think that one game should have got less pages so their favourites could have more, there’s no avoiding that. But this has created a situation in which you’re more likely to be bothered by the lack of artwork for a game, regardless of the page count. Only 9 games get four full spreads or more, minus one each for their title pages, it’s less than ideal.
Credits
Sadly, another negative for the book is a lack of artist credits. This would be more difficult for a book with so many games, as it may not be clear who did what from so long ago, and listing the names of all the artists on each project would only use up more of the pages. However, crediting where you can is always preferred. Space is there for them too, as shown with the small image descriptions placed on the spreads.
Value
The Art of Warhammer Video Games has an RRP of £40/ $50, sitting right in the standard price range for artbooks of this size. For a well-made hardcover this is reasonable and that’s before any discounts can be found online.
Checking Amazon as I always do for consistency and a couple of days before the book’s release, there is no discount yet in the US where they typically come a little later. In the UK it is already down to £30.33, indicating that there are deals to be found that is good news for those interested in the book. Overall, this is about what you expect from pricing in 2025, so no complaints from a value perspective.
Verdict
The Art of Warhammer Video Games comes with incredible artwork, but a frustrating amount of wasted space while trying to cover too much lets it down. Those that appreciate Warhammer art in general will find a lot to enjoy, but others that want to see more than a handful of images for a favourite game will be left wishing this was a Horus Heresy style multi-volume series.
I don’t personally dislike the book because the artwork is superb and that’s really what it’s about, but knowing what I do now, I'd have felt better waiting for a deeper discount. As much as it’s never as good as bring printed in a book, artwork can be found quickly on the internet, and for that reason if you want concepts for specific titles—bearing in mind that only a selection are found in this book—it’s hard to recommend buying this release. This is really for general fans and people that have played a lot of the Warhammer catalogue.
If you’re one of the people this book is suited for, you can order a copy of The Art of Warhammer Video Games here.
