Realism is overrated. When it comes to making an art museum worthy video game, graphical fidelity is seldom the most important aspect. Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as impressed with photorealistic graphics as much as the next internet dweller, but it’s more of a technological marvel than an artistic one. Art is meant to hold a mirror to real life, but that mirror shouldn’t reflect our world perfectly. The best art serves as a fun house looking glass – our world with a twist. An avant-garde impression that’s anything but the real thing. If you’re looking to be not just captivated, but moved by a game’s visual world, check out these 10 games with stunning art direction – every screen shot deserves its own exhibit at the MOMA.
Okami
One of the most underrated titles of all time, Okami is the story of Amaterasu – the wolf-like reincarnation of an ancient sun goddess resurrected to save a folklore world. The land of Nippon was born out of centuries of Japanese folklore, and the art style reflects the fantastical beauty of a bygone past. The game’s visual world is based entirely around sumi-e ink brush art, a traditional style that gives the 2006 title a timeless quality. Despite being made over two decades ago, Okami looks like it could have been released yesterday. The game’s art style captures both the gravitas and the whimsy of its mythic setting, and feels fresh and nostalgic in equal measure. Combined with the fact that the game’s combat involves the player making brushwork drawings on the screen, and you’ve got the makings of a visual masterpiece on your hands – one that you helped sketch yourself.
Cuphead
Cuphead proves that classic animation ain’t broke, and the developers decided not to fix it. This shoot ’em up side scroller is brought to life by an art style that feels like it just sauntered its way out of an old black and white cartoon. Rendered with a style made famous by Fleischer Studios in the 1930s, Cuphead follows its titular vessel-headed protagonist and his mug-brained brother through a world that feels drawn by hand. But don’t let its adorable art style fool you, this run and gun indie title is notorious for its brutal difficulty. It just goes to show, you don’t need grisly graphics to create a heart pounding gaming experience. Cuphead might be for the whimsical of heart, but certainly not for the faint.
Gris
The most emotionally evocative walking simulator ever created, Gris is a surrealist dive into a watercolor world. The art direction feels like the blurry, can-barely-see-through-the-tears style that made graphic novels like Blue Is The Warmest Color heartbreakingly famous – combined with Salvador Dali-esque dreamscapes that dazzle the eye. The tear-jerking graphics serve the game’s story perfectly, which follows its titular protagonist on a hallucinatory journey through grief. Gris is a young woman reeling from the loss of a loved one, and her watercolor world serves as a physical landscape for her heavy emotions – one that finally softens as she comes to accept her sorrows and move on. Be sure to play with tissues on hand.
Hollow Knight
An indie side scroller packing the wallop of a Fromsoft official release, Hollow Knight is an insectoid interpretation of dark fantasy. The player controls a nameless little bug warrior through a subterranean world infected by a scourge of light. The Radiance is a strange and supernatural brightness that infects the minds of the insect-people of this chthonic land, and “The Knight” (as the game’s fans gave dubbed him) is the only one who can stop it. The game’s chiaroscuro world flips the concepts of light and dark on their antennaed heads, making light a source of divine evil and darkness a force of shadowy good. Combine the game’s bold style with its adorable little insect characters and deceptively brutal difficulty and you’ve got a title that gives Dark Souls a run for its money.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
One of the boldest visual switch-ups in video game history, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker‘s graphics had the franchise sailing into uncharted art style waters. Nintendo 64 graphical limitations aside, the franchise’s previous release Majora’s Mask reveled in dark fantasy realism – a creepy and hallucinatory title that still unsettles fans to this day. With its brightly cel-shaded colors and swirly art style, The Wind Waker threw The Legend of Zelda‘s previous graphical legacy overboard. While many fans of the series weren’t thrilled by the change at first, the game art style has earned overwhelming support and accolades as the years pass. A breathtaking open world Zelda title made before Breath of the Wild was still a glint in Nintendo’s eye, The Wind Waker‘s sky-meets-sea vistas are sure to take your breath away. Nautical, whimsical, beautiful – this game brings out the pirate ship loving inner child in all of us.
Ori and The Blind Forest
In an industry with a never ending demand for increased graphical realism, Ori and The Blind Forest decided to pull a Robert Frost and strike out off the beaten path. Set in woods that are lovely, dark and deep as the famous poem describes, the game’s hand painted world is lit by bioluminescent critters – Ori being one of them. Ori is an adorable little spirit that was recently orphaned due to the slow decay of its forest home – a decay that it sets out on a quest to stop with the help of a friendly glowing orb named Sein. The game is the definition of “dreamy,” set in a blurry-edged world that wavers through states of dawn, dusk and midnight. Rhapsodic, sweet, and slightly spooky – Ori and The Blind Forest is a side scroller of deep spiritual beauty.
Control
One of the best cosmic horror games ever made, Control takes places entirely within the brutalist architecture of a government building designated for dealing with the supernatural. The Federal Bureau of Control headquarters have been overtaken by a mysterious entity known as The Hiss, and FBC agent Jesse Faden is the only person who can stop it. Deemed by the agency’s new director by the cosmic intelligence that serves as the FBC’s Board, Jesse uses a combination of telekinetic powers and eldritch armaments to destroy occult threats. The game’s art style oscillates between the ninety degree angles of mundane reality and the non-Euclidian geometries of the Astral Plane with mind-bending aplomb. Control is maddening, hallucinatory, and utterly unforgettable – one of the most underrated modern shooters around. RIP Le Corbusier, you would have loved this game.
Persona 5
The crown jewel of one of the greatest JRPG franchises ever made, Persona 5 is a masterpiece on all counts – visual style among them. Rendered in cel-shaded anime glory, the game follows a group of high schooler protagonists as they dive into the screwed up mindscapes of evil adults – stealing their dark desires from their brains. Each member of the Phantom Thieves of Heart has an impeccably dressed alter ego, a psychic representation that’s fierce in fashion and combat alike. Featuring some of the finest fits in gaming history, Persona 5 is an haute couture title that belongs on Fashion Week runways. Combine that with its bold black and red color palette and full fledged anime cutscenes and you’ve got graphical greatness on your hands.
Bloodborne
Wet leather. Gothic architecture. Blood soaked implements of torture. Is this a Berlin BDSM club? Close, it’s Bloodborne! Set in a darkly Catholic-core Victorian world, the player controls a leather-clad hunter slaying their way through scores of ravenous beasts. Everything about this game is scarily stunning – the haunted cathedrals bathed in the full moon’s glow. The lupine monstrosities that stalk the city’s alleys. The alien glow of a cosmically horrible plane threatening to pierce the thin veil of reality. Bloodborne‘s world is a thing of nightmarish beauty, meant to be wandered through with bloody boots while wearing the most incredible leather trench-coat that money can buy. While all FromSoftware games are things are graphical greatness, Bloodborne is head and shoulders above the rest – it’s hard not to stand tall on top of a mountain of alien/beast corpses.
When it comes to turning video games into high art, Disco Elysium set the bar high indeed. One of the most literary titles ever conceived, calling this game a “game” feels like doing it a disservice – playable novel is more accurate. The player is put in the shoes of a cop waking up from the mother of all benders, working to piece together the details of crimes and his own drug-obliterated personality. A thing of sublime visual beauty, every frame of Disco Elysium is a painting – literally. The art direction was helmed by Aleksander Rostov, a formidable painter who specializes in a dreamlike style. The hazy visuals feel like you’re seeing the world through permanently hung-over eyes, which, depending on your in-game substance use choices, may be an accurate description of your character’s physical state.
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