While the games industry has continued to push for more advanced graphics with technoilogy such as hardware-accelerated ray-tracing, BioShock creator Ken Levine believes we’ve hit a level of “diminishing returns”.
Levine, who is currently working on his new Baldur’s Gate 3-inspired game Judas, explained that the industry has proven itself to be more about unique aesthetics and less about cutting-edge technology.
The BioShock and System Shock 2 lead explained that they’ve never “been a company that was like, ‘oh my god, we need the latest and greatest technology”’. Instead, they like to focus on providing players with unique looks, hence the heavy cel-shading of BioShock Infinite.
“[Realism] doesn’t age as well as more stylistic things,” Levine told IGN. “BioShock still looks good, I think, because it wasn’t trying to get every nut and bolt super realistic.” Combined with players’ want for more accessible hardware, such as the Nintendo Switch 2 and even the Steam Deck, Levine posits that hardware is good enough for anything developers want to do.
“Look at say, the Switch 2 and [even] the new Steam Machine coming out,” he continued. “Those are not massive technological upgrades. That wasn’t their strategy. I think, people are realising we’re hitting a bit of diminishing returns with that.”
Levine argues that developers need the “right art director and the right approach” to make a game that will always stand the test of time. “You don’t need to be on the cutting edge of technology all the time,” he continued. “Even the stuff we’re doing in Judas, all this narrative stuff we’re doing, it’s not CPU intensive. It’s work intensive on our side.”
When it comes to games that are often heralded as the best-looking games of all time, they almost always rely on strong art direction. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Okami, Metroid Prime, Super Mario Sunshine, and many others, stand the test of time because of their unique looks. Hell, out of all the games released on the original PlayStation, Mega-Man Legends stands out as one of the best-looking today, a fully unique-looking game for its time.
Even when it comes to games that slant towards realism, this is still true. Red Dead Redemption 2 is less technically advanced than many games releasing today, but its strong art direction keeps it going as one of the best-looking games of all time. Hell, even Uncharted 4 has some degree of stylisation.
Judas currently has no release date at the time of writing.
