The Art of Horizon Zero Dawn

by Paul Davies

Focusing on the beautiful artwork of Guerrilla Games' Horizon Zero Dawn this is an in-depth insight into a world as dangerous as it is beautiful.

The Art of Horizon Zero Dawn is the ultimate gallery of the hotly anticipated new IP from Guerrilla Games (Killzone series). It focuses on the stunning artwork used to develop the game, and includes over 300 images, sketches, and concept art, commentary throughout from the artists and creators. This is an in-depth insight into a world as beautiful as it is dangerous.
Over 1000 years ago a cataclysm destroyed life as we know it, forcing humans to the brink of extinction. In our place machines rose, and nature took back our cities, until all that was left of our world was the rumours of the old ones and the ruins of a civilisation long past. The tribes of the new world live scattered, some small and humble, some as powerful as kings. If Aloy, an outcast and hunter, is to find her true place in this world she must combat the great robotic creatures of the land and uncover the mysteries of a lost civilisation.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Video Games, Reference, Gaming, Games, Media Tie In

192 pages, Hardcover

First published February 28, 2017

About the author

Paul^^Davies

Paul Davies has worked in journalism for over 25 years, first editing gaming magazines and websites and now as a writer and consultant to games developers and publishers. He is the co-author of numerous gaming books including The Art of Assassin’s Creed Origins, The Art of Deus Ex Universe, The Art of Horizon Zero Dawn, Awakening The Art of Halo 4, The Art of Thief and Tales From the Sea of Thieves.

Reviews

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE this art book ♥

Vídeo reseña/ Video rev here: https://youtu.be/WZOcEXDl9T0

[Michelle Curie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This stunner of a book presents the artwork used to developed the video game Horizon Zero Dawn that was released for Sony's Playstation 4. I have only recently started playing this game, but have been taken in by the beautiful and thought-through open world from the beginning, which was what drew me to the art book.



The game is set in a post-apocalyptic future, in which a cataclysm has destroyed the world as we know it, allowing machines to rise and nature to take pack our cities. In a world where tribes live scattered, some small and humble, some powerful as kings we follow Aloy, an outcast and hunter, who is to find her true place in this world and uncover the mysteries of a lost civilisation.



The book is a real treat and definitely one that is fun to flick through again and again! The 200 coloured pages are split into different sections in which we get to have a look at the development of each tribe that appears in the game, but also get background information on the machines, the cultist group Eclipse, the bandits and the ruins.

Anyone who has had the pleasure to dive into this world will know about the diversity of the people that inhabit this world: we've got the modest living Nora, the flourishing Carja and the functional Oseram. They all have their own characters, looks, cultures, way of living.



It's definitely a book that lives from its imagery, which is the point of an art book I suppose, but the short paragraphs of texts accompanying the sketches, the concept illustration and finished art works are a nice bonus and give interesting background information! I guess this book will speak to a very specific audience, but if you enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn and its world, you'll definitely have fun with this release!

[Andreas · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been two years that I played Horizon Zero Dawn. No game before managed to draw me in like this: I just love the main protagonist Aloy, a fierce, strong woman; the puzzling setting of post-post-apocalypse with machines roaming around that Aloy has to fight with her bow; the stunning beauty of the landscapes partly around the National Parks of The Grand Circle Tour in USA; the tribal culture; and an immersive story which builds up and stays interesting until the grand finale. I can't wait to play the next volume on PS5 next year.

To soothe my aching heart, I've just snagged the hardcover The Art of Horizon Zero Dawn and its 193 pages of illustrations. They cover all the aspects of the game, with a special focus on Aloy and her hairstyle, the tribes, landscapes, and machines. They range from concept illustrations, to comic style, up to photo realistic drawings. Some of the most prominent moments are double sided. There is not much text in it, but the few lines on every double page bring forth the artists' intentions directly from the source. It could have provided a bit more insights into the creative process, and I'm missing details around the cultural background. In addition, I missed some important characters, and I'd loved to see some more machines. On the other side, I always can go back to the game.

You want to see a few fotos? There are some on my blog.

[˚ʚPossessedByPagesɞ˚ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful art book full of wonderful details and great art work. I love the world of Horizon 🏹

[rybkaponi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Красиво, шо тут скажеш
Питання тільки до самого видання від мальопуса - там дефіс всередині слова (дуже багато насправді), там картинка низької якості (ну як низької - лінії шо мають бути лініями виглядають драбинками), там взагалі запікселило все.
Згоден, щодо якості артів питання можуть бути до правовласника, але все ж, хіба гарні арти це не головне у артбуці? Нє? Ладно, може таки не допросилися якісного матеріалу, тут вже працюєш з тим шо маєш.
Але от дефіси/ тире дуже ріжуть око, редактору/коректору/верстальнику тупо двійка за роботу.

[Ignacio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Los diseños en general están chulos, sobre todo los de los paisajes generales que integran las criaturas y las tribus en el medio natural. Dejan mucho que desear algunas representaciones con una resolución mucho menor que la mayoría, y el escaso peso del bestiario, probablemente lo más atractivo de Horizon Zero Dawn. Aparecen las criaturas mecánicas más llamativas/evidentes, pero faltan un huevo de diseños igual de espectaculares (ni tortuga, ni cocodrilo, ni cangrejo). Mejorable.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very pretty! I wish there were more pages about the machines, and maybe something about the named characters (though the overlook of each culture was really interesting)

[Moon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Horizon Zero Dawn. I loved the concept artwork Loish had done for Aloy before I bought the game, and I loved it when I played it, so much I pre-ordered the extra content (yes, I know this is a site about books, NOT video games). I also preordered funko's and pins and the soundtrack.
And now I have the book.
The book is stunning, with a lot of detail in it, a lot of artwork (which is one of my favourite parts, sometimes books that are "the Art of" don't have enough art) and it just made me want to draw there and then. Absolutely stunning!

[Jacoline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very beautiful art book about Horizon Zero Dawn. The book contains art of and information about the tribes, locations, machines, culture, weapons & outfits.

I like the fact that the book features some concept art and is not just screenshots of the game. Horizon is my favorite game and this book gave some more insight into the world. It is stunning.

[christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stunning just wish there was a bit more of the scenery.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book providing insight into the world that Guerrilla Games created although the need to withhold story spoilers holds the book back and leaves a hole with what has been left out.

[LKay · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband gave me this art book along with a pre-order of Horizon: Forbidden West for my birthday. I’ve been wanting to fire up Horizon: Zero Dawn for a replay before the sequel releases, but just haven’t been in the mood to. Cracking open this art book did the trick, it had me itching to play and explore the world of HZD again.

HZD is one of my favorite games of all time. Its storyline and graphics are unmatched. I’m constantly looking for a little bit of HZD in any sci-fi or post-apocalyptic media that I come across, and they rarely measure up.

The art in this book is gorgeous and so detailed. I loved seeing all of the iterations of Aloy’s character that came before the girl we now know and love. The deep look into all of the tribes made me learn new things that I hadn’t realized in my playthroughs and has me appreciating the story even more. I’m super hyped to play the game!

[Linda Jaejoong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich liebe das Spiel und habe mir deswegen dieses Buch gekauft. Ich hatte die Hoffnung, dass ich mehr über die Maschinen und die Welt von Horzion Zero Dawn erfahre. Leider war dies nicht der Fall. Es gab kleine Detail die für mich neu und interessant waren, aber das war es auch schon.

Die Bilder waren wunderschön, aber leider waren zu wenig Maschinen zu sehen, was ich sehr schade finde. Das Buch muss man sich nicht unbedingt kaufen, außer man möchte ein paar schöne Bilder von dem Spiel haben. Ich konnte leider nur 3 Sterne vergeben.

[Daniel O · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is definitely replete with wonderful colored images making it a wonderful book particularly for the coffee table.
For me, there was a paucity of conceptual, drawings-from-the-drawingboard, type drawings which is what I'd like to see much more of in an 'art of.." book. I am personally not interested in the details of the story of the game, at least not in the art book. I'd rather read more about the processes that went into developing the finished product - the initial drawings, the ones that were discarded and the ones that were kept and how they were modified and developed...In that regard, the 'Star Wars art of books remain my favourite.
As an art hobbyist, conceptual art in particular, I collect these books for ideas, and of course the images which I enjoy copying as part of a learning experience. So I'm glad I got the book. The images are fantastic, don't get me wrong, but so many look like the finished piece. And amazing.

Lovely book, great price, glad to have it in my collection, but it just seems to be another in the current trend of 'art of ' books with insufficient conceptual drawings but an abundance of the finished, 'screenshot' type images.

[Serhii Zubov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Добрий фанатський контент. Думаю, що шлях Артбук -> Гра малоймовірний. Тут не розкривається магія гри, тут надаються цікаві деталі, дрібниці для тих, хто вже зацікавлений. А ось Гра -> Артбук дуже навіть гарний варіант (за умови, що гра зайшла)

[Tayler K · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice book. I hadn't expected there to be much text, but if I had I would've expected a bit more art process information and not as much in-game background. It was a nice surprise though; I kind of felt like I was reading a cultural guidebook.

It ended very abruptly though. Some type of afterword or just parting vibes would have been nice. It just drops off all of a sudden.

I do have to say I'm not sure what was up with the grammar. Just the opening jacket flap was hard to get through; I don't think a single instance of comma/no comma was done correctly. There were odd bits throughout, too. However, since the text is rather sparse, it's not too bad to go past. It was distracting though. (Now, please don't come after my commas on this lol. 😅 This is a conversational goodreads review, not a published book.)

I've never been a gamer, but I've seen my boyfriend play bits and pieces of this game. I picked this up for him when I came across it at work. He looked through it and gave it back, and it's been sitting in my house for months waiting for me to get on with my notion of "oh, that's something I should be able to take a quick look at in an afternoon." 😐 Stupid brain. But someone else requested it, and 3 days later I've actually read the whole thing. I think this would be a fun game if I ever get coordinated enough to operate all those buttons at once and remember combos (don't hold your breath). But I'm always game for a fierce redheaded lady. 😉

[McFrenret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Qué. Preciosidad. De. Libro.

La historia del videojuego es larguísima y compleja y con un millón de detalles que no esperaba que fuera posible resumir en un libro de menos de 200 páginas, así que no me llevé ningún chasco cuando vi que así había sido. Le falta información, no se habla apenas nada de las máquinas, nada en absoluto de las IAs (aunque creo que esto podría deberse sobre todo a intentar evitar cualquier spoiler, por mínimo que fuera), ni del proceso de creación de los personajes, ni siquiera de los más importantes, exceptuando a Aloy.

Pero, aún así, me encantó. Las imágenes son una verdadera pasada, aunque algunas de ellas pequen de mala resolución al agrandarlas para abarcar toda la página. Me parecieron tan bonitas y detalladas y bien hechas que me encantaría empapelar mi casa con ellas.

Y las descripciones de los diseños, cómo estaba planeado todo hasta el más pequeño detalle para hacer que toda la experiencia del juego fuera lo más real y verosímil posible, toda la dedicación que le pusieron a cada tribu para que fuera distinta de las demás y fácilmente reconocible y diferenciable, las ruinas de las ciudades, las máquinas…

Me dieron ganas de comenzar otra vez el juego desde el principio, volver a sumergirme en ese mundo y volver a pasarme horas y horas simplemente explorando. Qué precioso todo.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horizon Zero Dawn is just one of those games that had an aesthetic that caught my eye IMMEDIATELY. The game was interesting and the world was so varied and alive and Aloy was such a witty and kind protagonist so I really enjoyed the experience. Naturally, I needed the art book.

I loved seeing the differing art styles as they developed Aloy from a young girl to a young woman, and the concepts made me almost wish that some art styles had carried over so we could get that same expressiveness in the game! The majority of the art book is sorted into concepts and notes for developing each of the tribes and the machines, and it was beyond interesting to see the numerous concepts of character designs, environmental landscapes and sketches of tools and weapons. I was captivated by the deep insight that went into forming the history, customs and day to day items from the tribes that were thoughtfully derived from the differing environments and religion such as how the Nora symbology embodies feminine anatomy.

A must have for any fan of the game!

[Dyslexic Bookmonster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of beautiful art which makes me truly want to play the game. I am not kidding. True, I got the book because I already planned to play the game and wanted to immerse myself a bit beforehand. And that is exactly what this book does, it gives the reader a peek into the world of Aloy, but nothing more. It makes one curious, to make them want more.

There is information given about the art and what influence it has had in the game or within the process of the making of the game world, without the text being annoying, obnoxious or anything else negative. All stories that are told are straight to the point and objective.

I didn't give it five stars because there are still subjects I missed. Such as which influences the artists used as inspiration for both the tribes and their buildings. Or how the artists started on the basis of the machine creatures, and how they continued to better their builds.

[Sir Laguna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horizon Zero Dawn es uno de los juegos que mas he amado en mi vida y me encontraba ansioso por enterarme de su proceso de desarrollo y de diseño... pero este artbook me dio muy poco de eso sobre todo comparado con otros que he disfrutado de juegos como Bayonetta, Resident Evil 5 o Mass Effect.

Si, tiene algunas ilustraciones maravillosas y me enteré de algunos datos interesantes sobre el diseño y evolución de este mundo... pero sabe a poco considerando lo masivo que es el juego. Las ilustraciones no son muchas y buena parte de ellas ya las había visto en otras publicaciones. No hay muchos comentarios de los desarrolladores y lo mas triste de todo es que algunas imágenes tienen una resolución terrible.

[Cloak88 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Capturing the feel of the game!

The world of Horizon Zero Dawn is truly beautiful. The grace of the machines and the cultural details of each tribe are a wonder to behold. As a fan of these kind of artbooks I can only commend Guerrilla on doing such a good jobs exploring and refining their concepts and making this marvel of a game.

This book is a depiction of that exploration. Filled with a wide variety of art ranging from landschapes, character studies and design philosophies of the various tribes. Their mix of visual storytelling to enhance and build an intuitive understanding of the game-world was particularity interesting. An achievement in itself, but doubly so while avoiding all major plot-spoiler.

Overall just a beautiful book and one of the better examples of its kind!

[Eivind · Rating 5 out of 5]

A both beautiful and interesting art-book about the art in a equally beautiful and interesting game.

I particularly enjoyed reading about the thought and hard work that went into the design of the matriarchal Nora tribe. Not content with having a "strong woman" protagonist, Aloy is put into a larger context where her role makes sense.



The organic-inspired "robot dinosaurs" of the game are pretty awesome too, and I think both the tallneck, a giraffe-equivalent machine of gargantuan size) and the watcher, a one-eyes small machine with a scout/guard role are pretty awesome.

[Georgi Ushakov · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointing blueprint for how not to create a compelling game artbook. There is very little concept art on the actual development of the machines, which are so pivotal to the game's identity. Major human characters receive no mention. At the same time, the book contains major spoilers to the game's plot, one of which appears at its very beginning. The rest of the accompanying text sounds PR-driven and lacks depth. And the pictures themselves – many of them are not even concept art, but are painted-over 3D renders of actual game assets. Given the standard set by other video game artbooks, this volume is an obvious letdown.

[Will Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, haunting, and mesmerizing. That's how I'd describe the world and story this game built. The official art book showcases the concept art made for the game's various characters, locations, and creatures and the goals they had when designing the world's styles and cultures. It's all stunning frankly (and that's coming from someone who hasn't actually played the game!) Its absolutely worth your time and money.

Also, special sidenote: the book is entirely spoiler free!!! So if you want to read this ahead of playing the game, you can do so without ruining the main plot! :D

[Katarina Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

This art book contains insights and spectacular graphics of the 'Horizon Zero Dawn' game. As someone who was deeply inspired by the beauty and complexity of this title, I was eager to delve into its creative evolution and support Guerilla Games.

While I do wish there were more character sketches and painted scenes, the contents is breath-taking and intriguing. Anyone who's a fan of the game will appreciate this book.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This had beautiful pictures, and sketches from the development of the game to the finished product. I liked how it showed the progression of the artist work. We not only see the art, but we get descriptions of why the style, colors, or materials were used for each character or location. This was a great look at the "making of" the game. The book does not spoil the story of Horizon Zero Dawn, although you see locations and machines, and have them named for you.

[Gianni Costanzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ho comprato questo libro per colmare l'attesa per Horizon Forbidden West e seppure il prezzo non sia contenuto, vale tutti i soldi che costa, perché è realizzato molto bene. Purtroppo non non c'è moltissimo materiale sulle macchine, per le quali mi piacerebbe avere un libro dedicato, con informazioni sulla progettazione e dettaglio un po' da nerd, ma sono comunque molto soddisfatto dell'acquisto. Consigliato agli amanti di Horizon Zero Dawn senza riserve.

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my absolute favorite video game, so I am probably biased in saying that the art book was gorgeous, absolutely stunning. The concept art was really neat. It was great to see the background one where the story came from, what kinds of plots, ideas, and characters didn't make it to the final cut, and especially seeing all the ideas for different machines.

[Severind Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely art book. Figured since Forbidden West is coming out later this month, I might as well revisit the game that started it all. It was nice reading about some of the concepts behind the game, and why certain things are the way they are. It's absolutely beautiful too. The concept artists at Guerilla are truly phenomenal.

[Chloe Spackman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like horizon zero dawn and forbidden west. This book showed close up designs of the buildings, machines and costumes it also gave more detail about the tribes and quotes for real artists that worked on this game. I would have liked for them to add more detail into characters clothes and personality’s