By Aidan O’Connor | Play-by-Play/Radio Broadcaster
Whenever the topic of photorealism is brought up in video games, it is usually associated with progress and a positive for a game, but in reality, it’s extremely detrimental to the medium.
Photorealism has long been an obsession within the video games industry, dating back to its inception. The idea has always been that a game will somehow be better and more immersive for having realistic graphics.
This is just not true, however, because as technology races forward, this thought process becomes increasingly flawed. What might’ve looked cutting edge 10 years ago looks severely outdated today. A prime example of this was the marketing for how next-gen Call of Duty: Ghosts looked.
There were advertisements and promotions about how realistic dogs and fish looked in the game, and while it still does look OK, it doesn’t hold up to modern standards. The reason I bring up the conversation about graphics becoming outdated is that if your game strives for realism, it will always become a product of its time and never timeless.
A strong and unique art style will forever outlast those striving for realism. Something like Elden Ring will age gracefully because its art style was given the freedom to take chances and give off a particular feeling and atmosphere. Photorealism locks you in and hinders the same creative freedom.
Another negative aspect, along with the lack of visual identity, is that photorealism is ballooning the cost of games and making them take longer.
When technology was more limited in the 2000s, developers knew they wouldn’t be able to make something photorealistic. This meant they could produce games faster and cheaper because they weren’t going into detail with things like someone’s pores.
For example, Red Dead Redemption 2 was a game centered on realism. It took eight years to make and cost around $540 million.
While the game was good, this isn’t a surefire recipe for success. This is money and time that could be spent on multiple games and experimental ideas.
This obsession with photorealism causes the creativity and quantity of games to plummet, as it seems every major studio with money shoves almost a decade and hundreds of millions into one project at a time.
While this may produce a couple of gems here and there, like Red Dead Redemption 2, there will always be games like Mass Effect: Andromeda, MindsEye and Anthem that ultimately fail and in some cases bring their studios down with them.
Photorealism is not sustainable for the gaming industry from a financial and creative standpoint. Gaming needs to take a shift toward allowing games that embrace experimentation with unique art styles. This will not only help produce more games, but ones that will become a timeless piece of art instead of a forgotten relic.
