Editor’s note: As more video games strive for realism, Roberto champions those that create a unique graphical style. Which visual direction leaves a lasting impression with you? -Rob
What started out as a bunch of dots on a screen in the ’70s evolved into cartoony figures in the late ’80s. Blocky 3D figures shooting aliens emerged in the mid ’90s and transformed into high-definition mythical warriors who leapt onto the backs of colossal giants — all while wielding impressively fiery blades — in the latter half of this decade. Video game graphics finally seem to have reached a technological and aesthetic plateau.
Where can visuals go from here?
Our obsession with realistic, life-like images has taken us all the way from Combat on the Atari 2600 to Modern Warfare 2 on today’s consoles and PCs. Still, I can’t help but notice that the games which attempt to mimic real life end up looking dated years later, while those that strived to attain a unique and compelling style managed to remain visually striking.
No better proof of this exists than the comparison between Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat, both released in the early ’90s. While Mortal Kombat’s “photo realistic” characters look way beyond cheesy today, Street Fighter 2 still holds up as a visually appealing 2D fighting game.
Developers who are able to mix past, present, and future technologies will always manage to create more striking, impressive, and lasting visual experiences than those who only aim to push the limits of life-like graphics. Yoshi’s Island’s mix of beautiful 2D sprites, Mode-7 effects, and some of the very primitive polygon-pushing capabilities of the FX Chip are a prime example of top-notch visual design, as are games like Jet Set Radio Future and the recently released Borderlands.
As talk of the “last generation of power consoles” starts to fly around the web, we should begin to ask ourselves: Do we really need something more realistic than Heavy Rain?
The current global economic recession makes investing in new, big-budget polygon and texture-pushing productions more difficult for triple-A developers; however, smaller — sometimes independent — studios are looking on the bright side and creating fun, visually stimulating games like ‘Splosion Man and 3D Dot Game Heroes.
So where does the future of video game visuals lie — more real or feel? All I know is that I’d take Van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone before any hyperrealist painting of the same.