Have you ever stopped playing a game because you could not stand the art direction? (Expedition 33...)

I played almost 200 hours of Warframe and while I enjoyed the gameplay, I was put off by most of the character and enemy designs the entire time.
 
MastAndo said:
I played almost 200 hours of Warframe and while I enjoyed the gameplay, I was put off by most of the character and enemy designs the entire time.
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I've got a friend that tries to get me to play Warframe occasionally and I just can't get past the character design.
 
I didn't like the blurry overworld, but lowering settings fixed that (though I know it's an artistic choice, I didn't like it. Same goes for CA).
It's not the best looking game but I think it looks pretty damn good.
 
Gacha games and Tales of Arise, or any cel-shaded game when done wrong. And it's completely the opposite when done right like Borderlands and other jrpgs or the newest gacha game like silver palace. GTA5 cel-shaded art style is average to me.
 
Screenshot in the OP is incredible. I adapt to art direction. I have never had an issue with any art direction in any game. For me art direction can only be a positive. Strange and off-putting art direction can make a game BETTER because it feels more foreign, more fresh, different.

Here's the answer:
No Way Funny Meme GIF


This is JUST like asking "has plating ever made you not finish your meal" and even if that had happened to me before in life, it would be as rare as a lighting strike. It is not relevant. The answer is no. This would be a hundred times no for any goty candidate. Those games you might expect to not be targeted towards you but also to be good, so trying out weird art styles would be par for the course on goty candidates. In this case the art style is actually excellent, so I do not get this OP.

In this very thread the best games of all time are listed and then shat upon because someone CLAIMS they didn't like it for the artstyle. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad. "1st world problems" don't cut it mate. "1st world ran out of shit to complain about's and it's a slow news day" maybe. Imagine if a dev got everything right and then you were like "nah, don't like the art style" and they were like "the graphics are great(iq, rez, fps), no bugs, great gameplay, goty candidate, runs perfect, your genre, beta tested for a year, best story ever in gaming" and you were like "Pass, screen too busy." What have they done to us? What is this world? It's worse than IGN. 7/10 too much water. It is so arbitrary my friends, so arbitrary.
 
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No, but I have stopped reading a thread because of the opinions it leads off with.

J/k…everyone has their own taste! I hope you find a game you enjoy visually as much as I enjoyed E:33
 
Windom Earle said:
I did for Expedition 33. The game is good but I simply can't stand the art in the sense of how overloaded/tacky/kitschy everything is. In most instances there are a million things on screen. I like a clean approach to art and it literally makes me not want to play it anymore. It feels unnerving to me. This is not me hating on the game, just a matter of personal taste.
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same thing happened to me with this game and many others, had to drop it after barely 8 hrs in disgust lol
 
So "Clair Obscur" is actually an art treatment contrasting light and shadow unevenly. Are those who don't like E33 saying they don't like the Clair Obscur art style or is it another part of the graphics? I think we can separate the creative from technical decisions somewhat. The world is supposed to feel like a painting and it does to me. I also find the character designs and VO in E33 spectacular.
 
As a general rule, I dont play a game with an art direction I dislike.

Then, there are cases like DMC V, that starts being good and at some point it becomes extremely boring looking.

I found the DmC reboot fucking ugly too. I finished it only because I had already paid for it. No more.
 
XCOM 2.
I found the graphics and design generic and uninspiring as hell.

Fable 2 and Bioshock Infinite.
People praised these games, but I couldn't stand their puppet design.
 
TerribleAtThisGame said:
I tend to really dislike 2.5D games. The backgrounds always feel dull and cheap and don't do anything for my imagination like even an NES game with 60% black space does. I can't put my finger on it but it's an immediate turnoff and no-go.

Bloodstained is so fucking ugly to me for example, I played the demo for like 20 seconds and uninstalled it. Couldn't do that Prince Of Persia one, hated Metroid Dread's look and the Metroid 2 remake they did is hideous.
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I fully agree. These 2.5D games always look cheap as if the developers were lazy to draw true 2D animation.
 
My case is not entirely the same but close. I really liked the Call of Duty franchise. And when MW2019 was released, I was head over heels for it. I LOVED the authentic military and military-adjacent aesthetics! I spent money on the cool authentic skins they were releasing at first. My style sensibilities were thriving.
The day the first goofy player skin hit the tower, I closed the game, uninstalled it, and haven't played any CoD since then.
 
Tried playing Immortals of Aveum last night, something just looked off with the characters and setting.
Combat felt ok though.
 
Modern Final Fantasy games with the emo 'tude, belts, leather, trendy hair. It started with FF7-FF8 and I stopped playing them entirely with the PS2 games.
What I've seen of FF15 represents everything I dislike about FF distilled.

final-fantasy-15-director-gets-advice-from-series6ta51920-1440893318795.jpg
 
Avowed - Never even got to the woke part just because every piece of subjective art was offensively hideous. You really have to go out of your way to make a game that garish looking. Ugh.

Immortals of Avenum - Tried this on Gamepass over the weekend. By the time I got done with the intro walk n talk and then run (but don't gun!), I just quit out and uninstalled it. You'd have to surpass the very crests of Elden Ring gameplay to make a game that poorly styled tolerable for however long it is. I'm not sure anyone on the internet has even finished it. Never heard anyone comment about its length. I assume it remains a mystery.

Oblivion Remastered - more like, look at how they re-massacred my boy. Gonna save my current day playthrough for Skyblivion. I can't deal with Bethesda quirks and UE5 quirks at the same time. I'd just as soon take up Pogs or something.
 
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Parazels said:
how dare you GIF
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Well, you can't blame me, not like i hate pixel art, more like i get sick of it after long time play with it on nes and snes, and can't help with back then we had CRT TV to help smooth pixel alittle, even now i am playing FF pixel remaster, but have to turn on CRT mode, but most of pixel game, especially indie game doesn't has that mode, so everything look so broken
 
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If a game doesn't have anime teeny almost naked girls... why even bother?


Seriously... tastes... you dislike what you dislike
 
Pejo said:
Lots of times. Art direction is probably number 2 on my list of important facets of a video game, only behind gameplay.

For instance, I still haven't picked up Street Fighter 6 because of the dogshit art direction of the 3D models. Not that Street Fighter has ever really looked "great" since they went with 3D models, but how does it actually get so much worse as tech improves? Even Ryu, their iconic character, looks barely recognizable in the face (not just because of facial hair).

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I can't believe how ugly this game is. As a life long sf fan, I don't want to even touch it.

And that is just to standard designs. Brilliant move allowing people to stretch and contort their online avatars into freakshows so that every space is an eyesore.
 
Pixel Art games. It's not necessarily that I avoid these games because they suck, it's just market saturation that is the issue for me. I think its even more off putting when they first show a cool looking trailer with high end graphics etc then it shows gameplay and its in retro pixilated sprite based design or yet another Doom clone.

I tried a few times to play the Switch Zelda game, the first one, and hated how it looked, not counting the blur and no AA etc on a system level (had other issues that stop me even trying to continue too outside of presentation) I really disliked the art design of everything.

From the first reveal of Clair Obscure I loved it. Was happy that it was turned based, had seemingly adult actors / actresses and themes, and wasn't your typical weeb stuff. Been graving for a game like that for years. Not to say I can't stomach weeb stuff like Dragon Age XI, but I do have to zone out from the dialogue and most cutscenes.

It is great we have choices and options, but can be a bummer not being to play a game you enjoy because of the presentation.
 
There's a lot of modern so-called pixel art that is really just vector art or pre-rendered sprites with a filter to make them look low-res. It often looks like shit.

The other thing, often going with that, is "flash" animation where the sprites are stretched and rotated. It looks so fucking cheap.
 
Links Awakening's for Switch turned me completely off on wanting to play it. Link looks like a Gnome and it's just an abomination.

Also BotW is ugly and turned me off. I'm used to the doom and gloom Zelda's. Not sugar and rainbow Zelda's.
 
Metaphor refantazio, ugly ass game and that before taking the lack of AA and Switch 1 like textures into account.

edit: I thought Clair Obscur expedition 33 looked quite nice except for the lack of hdr.
 
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Windom Earle said:
I did for Expedition 33. The game is good but I simply can't stand the art in the sense of how overloaded/tacky/kitschy everything is. In most instances there are a million things on screen. I like a clean approach to art and it literally makes me not want to play it anymore. It feels unnerving to me. This is not me hating on the game, just a matter of personal taste.
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Preferred art style is highly subjective. If something doesn't click for you, that's perfectly fine and I don't think anyone should crap on you for having your own subjective tastes.

That said, in the case of Expedition 33, the art style of the game was quite literally in the games title. 🤷
 
Any of the cozy games that go for anything akin of the corporate memphis look. Never will give those games a second glance, because it's the most safe, nothing to say, no talent to produce crap I wouldn't waste my time with when I'm spoiled for choice elsewhere.

Most of the time though, art won't make or break a game for me if the gameplay is good, and I'm more forgiving of character art if the environments/world are neat looking to be in.
 
I don't play games if I don't like the art style, it's not something I discover later. Like for instance I never gave Need for Speed Unbound or Rider's Republic a chance.

My standards and taste have definitely changed over the years. 10 years ago I wouldn't give Persona or Promise Mascot Ageny a chance.
 
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I was a little bit thrown off by the character's eyes. It was to the point where I started counting the seconds until one blinked. It always seemed like they were staring at something or surprised. It's not all the characters that have this issue, though. What got me to stop playing had nothing to do with the game itself though. POE league started and I am addicted.
 
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