Do I need my games to have photorealistic graphics? No.
But there is something about the occasional game with such an impressive visual fidelity it makes you stop and go “wow, that is pretty”.
It doesn’t make up for poor gameplay, but played on top of good gameplay it does create an additional sense of wonder/amazement.
I definitely agree and hear what you’re saying but strong art style achieves the same thing and invariably ages better. There are definitely occasionally those games going for photorealistic that make me pause and appreciate it but more often than not it’s the games that really own a distinct, creative, and well thought out visual style.
I think the obvious games that had this reaction for me were the Witcher 3 and AssOdyssey, but neither of those are photorealistic, they both just make smart use of lighting and environment design. They’re both gorgeous, stylized worlds.
AssOdyssey sounds like a very different kind of game.
