Summary
Open-world gamesare designed to keep players looking across the landscape in search of new places to explore. To do that, developers must fill their world maps with interesting locations, landmarks, people, enemies, and waypoints. But it’s not enough to simply have a lot of stuff, they need to make that stuff lookgood.
There are plenty of open-world games out there with brilliant storylines and mechanics. However, their dated graphics make them hard to look at, which makes them hard to revisit unless it’s purely for the nostalgia factor. However, some open-world games know how to tailor their visual style to stand the test of time, which keeps players coming back.
It takes serious skill tomake the apocalypse look good. When the world itself looks like a grenade went off in a dumpster, and all the survivors vary from unfriendly to hostile, the art team needs to pull out all the stops to show there’s still beauty in the world. Some games, likeThe Last of UsorHorizon Zero Dawn,go the route of showing nature reclaiming the wreckage of human civilization.
Then there’sBorderlands 2, which intentionally leans into that dumpster fire aesthetic. Instead of using realistic graphics (which can get real dated, real fast),Borderlands 2uses a choppy, cel-shaded, comic book-style art design that looks like ifMad Maxwas animated into a Gorillaz music video. The end result perfectly reflects the game’s vibrant, comedic chaos. Characters have unique cartoony designs, the colors pop like Tiny Tina’s explosives, and even after more than a decade has passed since its release, the world is still as fun to look at as it is to explore.
As indie gaming grows more popular, many smaller game developers look for inspiration from retro gaming for their graphics. 2D graphics tend to be a lot easier to design than fully-rendered 3D worlds. Spritework inspired by the classic SNES days has also become increasingly popular.Games likeStardew ValleyandUndertaleboth used the power of pixels in modern engines to create timeless visuals, but it wasTerrariathat brought the style into the open-world genre.
This charming sandbox adventure game is like ifMinecraftwent 2D. Players explore a procedurally-generated world that combines beautifully detailed spritework with lovely shades of earthy brown and green. Dig down to mine for resources, then build up, up, up to create a home base.
Slime Ranchermakes space exploration lookcute and cozy!In this popular sim, players explore a remote asteroid in deep space, but instead of harrowing survival, they’re met with a cute and bubbly home away from home. The world ofSlime Rancherperfectly mirrors the slimes themselves; all soft edges and round shapes. The player never feels truly endangered while they explore and take it all in, even when the Tarrs come out.
The minimalist art design also means the game holds up very well visually. With the entire landscape constructed out of big, blocky shapes and a sparse population, there’s not really much to bog down the engine, making everything silky smooth. The vibrant painted textures and cel-shading also add to the game’s timelessness. This world of soft pinks, purples, and blues is a feast for the eyes, and it’ll stay that way long, long into the future.
The long-runningLegend of Zeldafranchise has seen its fair share of art style changes. With each new console generation comes something new. The N64 saw an epic introduction to a 3D Hyrule.Skyward Swordgave Link an acrylic painting-style makeover. But when it came time to bring the series into the open-world genre, Nintendo decided to combine their inspirations from several previous games to fantastic effect.
Breath of the Wildhas all the semi-realistic character designs of other recent 3D entries, likeSkyward SwordorTwilight Princess,but with all thecel-shaded charm ofWind Waker. The end result is a work of genius. Even after the Great Calamity, Hyrule hasn’t looked this good in years. Link and Zelda have fresh new designs that still look amazing after seven years and counting. Even its sequel,Tears of the Kingdom, only needed to tweak a few visual things in this gorgeous engine.
It’s been well over a decade sinceMinecraftwas first released, and it still showsno signs of slowing down. This epicenter of open-world gaming has to have the most iconic and timeless visual design of any video game:blocks. After all thechanges, updates, and new versionsMinecrafthas seen over the years, its ingeniously-simple graphics are still mostly untouched. There’s nothing quite as simple as squares, is there?
This simple design is also the reasonMinecraftis one of the most easily-modded games out there. Even a newbie to the modding community can easily learn to replaceMinecraft’sdefault textures with their own. There are countless skins and other aesthetic mods for players to try out, which means that there’s no shortage of ways to shake up the game’s graphics.Minecraftis just one of those games that will never get old.
