Yesterday, I went back to play Hitman 2 on PS3, and one thing really struck me – I adore the graphics. It’s hard to explain, but the blurry, stretched PS2 textures really immerse me in this fictional world (despite being upscaled to 720p).
At first, I thought it was some sort of nostalgia section of my brain opening up for old PS2 memories, but that makes little to no sense. I, like many others, declare Sony’s Playstation 2 as the greatest console of all time, but I remember the graphics being super realistic – as I’m sure everyone else does. Textures never particularly stood out as being blurry and low-res.
There’s something so immersion breaking about realistic graphics. No, no, hear me out. As much as I appreciate the uber realism of GTA V, I’ve never felt the sheer joy and immersion of exploring the simple, colourful PS1 Spyro titles (even replaying them the other week I found myself getting so glued to the screen). Realism in games is overrated, and the truth is – real life is boring. We play video games to escape reality, so making games more realistic only stunts the immersion I feel when playing them. It sounds insane, but the fictional, simple, low-res textures we had in old-school Spyro and epics like Shadow of the Colossus really helped me get lost in such a world.
Perhaps that’s why I get so drawn to indies nowadays. As innovative as most are, the charming nature of the low budget graphics creates a wonderful fictional universe that I love exploring – especially in 3D outings like Rodina.
Maybe I’m slightly biased, because I adore exploration games. Whilst 80% of the gaming market right now get all their entertainment from shooting each other’s online avatars in gritty (brown) realistic (boring) FPS-es, I can’t help but fall in love with traversing the lush environments of Just Cause 2 or the open waters of AC: Black Flag.
Just because I’ve spent a whole article talking about simple graphics and exploration, here’s a picture from No Man’s Sky. You know, that game that could never get released and still be everybody’s Game of the Year.
