10 Video Games With Unique Art Styles You Need To See
Come for the gameplay, stay for the visuals.
In modern gaming circles, it's easy enough to pull a handful of titles out of the air for their beautiful graphics and realistic visuals. Just look at Uncharted 4, Forza Horizon 4 or Red Dead Redemption 2 as examples that push our high definition TV's to their limits.
Yet that doesn't mean that games that don't strive for that level of fidelity are any worse for it, or not worthy of our time. Far from it.
As the saying goes, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" after all. But that doesn't mean that looks alone can carry a game either, for gamers are not just shallow creatures.
We've come a long way over the last few decades, as these examples will show you. Whilst not in chronological order of release, you'll see what are "time capsules" of different styles through the decades. There's the art of cel shading, both minimal and bursting with colour, to even incorporated in a playable comic book of a spy thriller.
There's the bleak yet beautiful from Playdead, as well as a few more indies that just wanted to buck the trend of AAA big budget looks.
Now of course, these are going to be subjective, but there's no denying the visual appeal that the following games ooze.
10. Killer7
Cel shading was a big deal at the start of the century for a select few games. Whilst most developers were pushing for a more realistic look in their games, some bucked the trend and went for a more aesthetically pleasing cartoon look.
Killer7, wacky "auteur" director Suda51's GameCube debut, is one such title. A curious beast of a game, with its seemingly bananas plot and equally baffling control scheme, Killer7 was a polarising game on release.
It seems like a cop out for me to say, "You just have to play it" and be done with it, but honestly, I only have so many characters and a story recap wouldn't fit in here. You just have to play it.
It's weird, make no bones about it. It needs a couple of playthroughs to get used to how it plays and to make sense of what's going on, but it does pay off.
A truly unique game from the man who went on to give us the No More Heroes series (if that tells you anything), with a complimentary unique style, it should be one to seek out for something off the rails.