Book Review: The Art of Dead Space (2023)

January 22nd 2025

Dead Space made its mark on the survival horror genre back in 2008, introducing us the Isaac Clarke and the Necromorphs. After 2 sequels and an artbook for that trilogy, Motive Studio released a remake of the original game 15 years later. Now, they also have an artbook of their own.

The Art of Dead Space was announced in 2024 by Dark Horse and after a couple of delays, it is finally here with a release of January 28th 2025. I was curious to see what this would include, as the previous book of the same name, The Art of Dead Space, was full of early art for the original trilogy. This also being a remake means that a lot of the initial designs have already been done, so would this be a display of old art, a mix or just new art?

I’ll go over this below, as well as giving my impressions of the book as a whole.

Build Quality

Dark Horse deliver another well built book, which is never surprising given how many they make. It’s the same standard size as the majority of their releases (24cm x 30.6cm), so if you own any of their books you know what to expect. It’s a hardcover, with reliable binding and over 200 pages of art.

The print quality is also good, which is important here as it features predominantly dark colours. It would be a huge issue of it was difficult to see the details of the artwork, so this is an early win for the book.

Content

Onto content and there’s a lot to enjoy here. I don’t review the art itself, I’m not in a position to do so. I can say though, that I am a huge fan of the visual design, from the suit and weapons, to the enemies and Ishimura, so it is great to have more art for the series in my collection. You can decide yourself if you like the art, but if you’ve read this far I’m sure you do.

The focus of the book is what they added and changed from the original, don’t expect to find early art for the 2008 release here. Its intent is clear, which is to showcase the work of the art team and how they added and improved upon what they loved from the original. I think they did this very well too, they constantly refer and compare to the original release and still showcase the talent of their own team throughout.

This book, by its nature of being based on a remake, includes a lot more screenshots and 3D models than you get in most. It does a nice job with them for the most part. It has some sections with side by sides to the original, that show just how much things have been improved, as well as with some of the weapons and suits too, which I liked.

The only place I thought it was a little too much was in the character section, where each one is shown as 3D models compared to the original. While these are impressive models, I wanted a little more from this section. An example can be seen below.

I was concerned initially that there was too many screenshots as I had a quick flip through, but when sat with the book to read it, I realised that a lot of the environment art is so detailed, that skimming though, they could be mistaken for screenshots. The art for environments, which takes up the largest portion of the book, is superb and look like close to, if not, final designs.

In the environment section are also designs for the wall art. Like in the game where they are found throughout the Ishimura, they are found across the book too, rather than in an isolated section. It breaks up the dark colours of the pages and art, so I like this choice.

My favourite section was for the suits as it’s a lot of new art. They highlight the changes made, as well as what wasn’t used, which I always like seeing in an artbook. The weapons also got similar treatment, with art, renders and comparisons for the remake.

The Necromorphs have a chapter too, with some highlighting the changes made and others with art simply showing the new designs. I'm sure fans old and new will enjoy this part, the Necromorphs will always stand the the test of time with their grotesque visuals.

There isn’t a huge amount of text for this book, but it gives enough in places to let you know the thoughts behind the art and changes. It’s a good balance to me of giving information and insights, without being either too generic or being too much.

While this book may not be for people that want early sketches and concepts, it does showcase the approach to creating a remake and the art and flexibility that goes into that.

Credits

The artists are not credited on each page and so it's not possible to know who is responsible for which piece of art, but as you can see below, they do get a dedicated page at the back of the book. I always like to see them noted throughout, but they do get some page space.

Use of Space

The book does a nice job with its use of layouts, it’s not overcrowded or messy and it doesn’t waste space either. It includes a variety of image sizes, included double page spreads, but nothing is lost in the centre fold, which is an issue I find in a lot of artbooks. I’m very happy with the design of the book and how it showcases the art.

Value

As this is a Dark Horse book, you know what to expect with price and that’s not a bad thing. It retails at £45/ $50 which is normal, but you can already find it a little lower online at the time of writing this (just before release). I would be happy to pay £30-£40 as a fan of both Dead Space and also Dark Horse artbooks.

Verdict

Overall, this is a great book for fans of Dead Space and a nice showcase for the work of the art team at Motive. If like me, you have played the original, especially if you own the original artbook too, this makes for a nice edition to your collection.

If you’re a new fan of Dead Space or want to see the early designs for the series, you won’t find that here. Think of this artbook in the same way as the game, it has taken what was done by the original team at Visceral and updated it, rather than start from nothing all over again.

I hope Dead Space makes a return and brings with it another artbook!

For those interested in the book, you can order it here and see the video below for more previews;

Buy Here (UK)

Buy Here (US)