Does art style matter to you in video games?

[Introspective Onlooker]

Covenant​

• A religious collective of various alien species hellbent on the destruction of humanity for the sake of this prophesied “Great Journey”, all of these sects have also gone from gradual (sometimes sudden) changes in art design in each game. Grunts went from being “ugly cute” by fans in the first two games, to being “ugly” from 3 to Reach, to being HIDEOUS in 4 and onwards. Jackals came in two varieties in the first game, until they got a uniformed-look in the second onwards, up until, yet again, Halo 4 happened. Hunters had an exposed abdomen and green “eyes” on the side of their helmets in CE, though the blue armor was standard until Reach made it gray. Elites in Halo 2 kept the appearance similar to the first game, with higher-ranked Elites being granted different armor colorations, and even different helmets. For some odd reason, Elites were made bulkier in Halo 3, a change that still baffles me to this day. Reach… is an interesting case; Elites were made slimmer again, and their armor is easily the most diverse out of every other game, but I was always more drawn to the humble design of the first two games. Halo 4, still, takes a nose dive in quality when it comes to character design. Elites wear less armor and their skin is more exposed — to reflect that these Elites represent a splinter faction of the Covenant. Makes sense, but every single species in that game looks hideous.

A rather long-winded explanation of a point I’m trying to make, and I wish I could’ve written more about the designs of the Covenant. I also wanted to write about architecture, weaponry, and colors of both factions, but this post is already as long as it is. I felt this needed to be elaborated, because art style, like music, is what gives games their identity — how they stand from other games. It should NOT be overlooked.

Last one, then I'm done:

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As stated above, The Covenant comprises of various aliens races in the faction, so it'd be quite difficult to nail down every change made to every species. I'll try to condense as much as I can, starting with the Unggoy:

This comparison showcases how these little guys have changed from the first game, all the way up to Reach.

H4 gave us this monstrosity, and it was kept in H5.

There's a variant to this, as well in H5...

Infinite blesses us with these designs.

Let's move on the Kig-Yar, now:

(By the way, with the Reach example, the one on the right is a Skirmisher, trading the Jackal's usual shield with mobility.)


Infinite brings back the Skirmishers absent from the games since Reach. It's quite a surprise.

Hunters. Gigantic, terrified, and incredibly strong, these fierce, worm-like beasts have remained consistently intimidating, regardless of how much was changed, design-wise.

Hunters have remained largely unchanged since Reach, so I don't think there's any point in posting any pictures of them in games after H4.


Lastly, we have the very heart of the Covenant, soon to be former members of the army — the Sangheili:

Since this was the best Elite comparison I could find, I figured I'll just post this here, and save myself the trouble of adding more pictures. Sweet Vishnu...

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Right. That's it. There were still so much I wanted to discuss and show. The Jiralhanae (Brutes) and the Yanme'e (Drones). The weapons and vehicles. The buildings and environments... Given how much time I spent on all of this, though, I'm satisfied with what I did, here. I hope my point got across. That video game art is a part of game's identity — how it help distinguish itself from others. Halo's art direction is crucial as to what makes this particular FPS series truly special. Halo was never "just another run-of-the-mill" First-Person Shooter. It was more than that.

 

[Dunquixote]

Sometimes it does, but not often.

I tried Cuphead largely because of the artwork. I love the artwork but the game is too hard for me .

Don’t Starve Together: I got it to play with people I was friends with at the time (also too hard for me lol). The artwork is part of what makes me want to keep playing it just by myself if i get it on the switch.

When I try gacha games, it is very important. I never expected to like Genshin as much as I do because I initially wasn’t very impressed by the art style or unit selection (since I was under the impression they were mostly little kids at a glance).

I got another game: The Wild at Heart (haven’t had the chance to play much) partially because of the art style.

I think now that I’ve been looking at art more and appreciating it, maybe in some ways or subconsciously it may matter to me more than I realize.

 

[Neb]

They do. A good art style helped some older games age a lot better than other games on the same platforms (Wind Waker, Okami, Jet Set Radio etc.) If a visual style looks bad enough to me I won’t try a game. For example Cattails. The game’s concept is really cool, but the pixel art was just so bad that I didn’t want to keep playing.

That said it’s the not the final deciding factor most of the time. The gameplay matters the most and if it isn’t compelling I wouldn’t want to play even the prettiest game ever made.