Gaming: New Once And For All, Which Game Has The Best Art? 2026

Videogame art is gorgeous. Year after year, we collect special editions, design works books like those from Lost In Cult, or videogame vinyl soundtracks, all flush with lots of lovely concept art. Hell, the reason I decided to hold this discussion is because I was leafing through my records and lingered a long time admiring my Dishonored Soundtrack Collection, which features a load of art from all the games.

Welcome to Character Select, a weekly column where PC Gamer takes a look at the art and cosplay created by you. This week, we're taking a break from the regular format to bring you a discussion of something near and dear to our hearts: videogame art.

So, I decided to co-opt some of PC Gamer's other writers to talk about their favourite videogame art and share a few of the most memorable pieces. Obviously, we won't cover all the great art out there—apologies if we miss your fav—and declaring a winner from amongst them would be the height of silliness when taste is so individual. Instead, we'll each just talk a bit about beautiful art we love. Please let us know in the comments below what your favorite game is art wise, especially if none of us covered it here.

Maybe you'll find some you haven't seen before, or perhaps it'll make you see a game you already knew in a different light. Next week, Character Select will return to its usual format—this is just a sneaky one-off highjacking.

Sean Martin, Senior Guides Writer: Few videogame cities have ever gripped me in quite the same way as Dishonored's Dunwall and Dishonored 2's Karnaca, but it's unsurprising when you consider they were conceptualised by Viktor Antonov, who was also responsible in a big way for Half Life 2's City 17, and sadly passed away last year.

His legacy persists, though, through that striking combination of old and new, of crumbling gothic town houses and towering futuristic metal that you can see in the art of both games. That almost haunting aesthetic, I'm convinced, is one of the many reasons both Half Life 2 and Dishonored remain so stuck to the brain this many years after their release.

Dishonored also has some of my favorite character art, whether it's Cedric Peyraverney's, frankly, iconic chiaroscuro portraits from the first game, including the most memorable likenesses of Delilah and the Outsider, or Sergey Kolesov's instantly recognisable royal family-style portrait of Corvo and Emily Kaldwin, plus the duke and Kirin Jindosh.

There's even art showing off Dishonored's dar

Source: PC Gamer