Game On: Photorealism in games is nearly attainable – but is it worth attaining if they aren’t fun?

Graphics and physics engines have come a long way in the 50 or so years that video games have been around, from the oscilloscope dots of Tennis For Two to the near-photorealistic graphics of titles today like Microsoft Flight Simulator or Red Dead Redemption 2.

But sometimes I can’t help but wonder whether game developers really should be striving for photorealism. It seems silly to suggest that the only way to immerse a player is to mimic the real world when in truth, some of the most engrossing games are those that create such a comprehensive, imaginative world that people can momentarily lose themselves in it.

In the same way that filmgoers enjoyed the action sequences of animated movies like “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” that intentionally removed frames of animation as a stylistic choice, gamers often enjoy the more stylized approach of games like Hades or Celeste.

Similarly, in retrospect, the 2D games that were often dumped on for their “inferior” graphics during the PlayStation 1 days have aged better than their 3D counterparts, which look like blocky, clunky messes by today’s standards. There aren’t many older “realistic-looking” titles that have aged gracefully, but Cyan Inc.’s classic Myst series is one exception – in 1993, its pre-rendered graphics were some of the closest to realism in all of 3D artwork.

In the 20 to 30 years that have passed, the graphics are clearly dated, but still appealing. Myst and its sequels achieved a surrealistic style, approaching photorealism but integrating abstract elements and eye-popping colors. So while the curves look blocky by today’s standards and some of the textures are a little rough, the whole presentation is so whimsical and unique that it retains much of its charm.

Accordingly, I was a little skeptical when Cyan chose to remake Myst in 2020 – the graphics held up well enough. But aside from a new coat of paint, the whole game being navigable in real-time, even in virtual reality, made it a worthwhile upgrade. The studio has a notably timeless design philosophy that is likely to make their next game, Firmament – due out May 18 – similarly enduring.

Ultimately, a game can have subpar visuals and still deliver a memorable experience. No one’s jaws were agape at Super Mario Bros. even when it was new in 1985, but the gameplay loop remains incredibly satisfying to this day. That’s why it’s so painful to see many modern AAA games spend around six years in development achieving graphical perfection only to completely fail to deliver a genuinely fun gameplay experience.

The old adage of “style over substance” is a relevant critique for many of the big-budget game flops of the past decade. The developers of games like Forspoken, Anthem, Marvel’s Avengers and Ryse: Son of Rome spent too much time on spectacle and not enough time developing captivating gameplay concepts. After all, games are typically interactive media first and foremost – they are not films.

Whether the everyday consumer consciously knows it or not, signs point toward this being a common opinion. Minecraft is the best-selling game of all time despite its blocky appearance and pixelated textures. The spectators in Rocket League are circular blobs. Fortnite has been massively popular for five years and counting despite its middling graphics.

“Modernizing” a video game with graphical enhancements and recent features isn’t an automatic upgrade. 2021’s Back 4 Blood was advertised as the spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead, but it received mediocre reviews and the game’s active player count quickly dropped below that of 2009’s Left 4 Dead 2. Back 4 Blood may have looked better, but it sure didn’t play better.

With modern computers inching ever closer to being capable of rendering photorealistic visuals on the fly, I am hopeful that the naïve excitement will soon give way to common sense again. We already went through this with the notorious “full-motion video” games in the ’90s, which have aged like milk – a game should be a game, and a movie should be a movie.