15 Best-Looking Video Games Of The Decade

12. Return Of The Obra Dinn

return of the obra dinn
Lucas Pope

Return of the Obra Dinn might not have the technical power backing it that Uncharted 4 did, but it more than makes up for it with a visual design that's unlike anything from the past decade.

The puzzler acted as Lucas Pope's follow up to the acclaimed Papers Please, and proved to be just as ambitious. That's clear by taking a mere glance at the title, as the distinctive, black-and-white sketched graphical style is immediately striking.

Accomplished via a technique called dithering, the grainy effect isn't a mere gimmick, as the contrast between light and dark serves to emphasise key moments in the story and award them with the necessary melodramatic pop, while also aiding with the actual gameplay of solving puzzles.

Obra Dinn would have been a cool experiment worthy of inclusion on this list regardless, but the fact that the art style is so accomplished and so integral to the overall experience makes it worth playing as much as admiring.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.