I am not a graphics freak. I don’t need my games to have the highest level of fidelity. In fact, I much prefer a game with bad graphics and a good art direction than a game with hi-fidelity graphics and decent art direction.

That’s because I understand the merit of working in a constraint and trying to produce something that looks good first.

Video games are a culmination of many art forms.

The visuals of a game are intrinsically inseparable from the game itself. Even if the game looks as barebones as possible—a spreadsheet or free Unity assets—that’s still an artistic decision. One that informs players what your game is about and how to treat it.

Just this morning, I woke up and checked Board Game Geek, and saw there was a Concordia special edition coming out, and it’s currently getting review bombed even though it’s not out yet. That’s due to the suspicion that the art was AI-generated.

Within the slew of 1’s denouncing the use of GenAI, there is the occasional 10 claiming that reviewers shouldn’t be reviewing the game, not the art…

I just want to make this clear;

The art present in board games and video games is the game. They cannot be separated, and if the art doesn’t jive with you, you likely won’t like the game that much.

gets off soapbox

Alan Wake II takes a very realistic approach to its art direction, but they’re very intentional about what that realism looks like.

It’s always right at golden hour, dusk, or early morning. Most areas start with the sun casting a golden hue, and as you get deeper into the area, it gets darker and darker.

The trees are dense, and in some areas, it’s difficult to understand where the path is. It’s easy to get lost in the forest. The dense shrubbery isn’t just there for the sake of graphical fidelity. It’s there because the characters are dealing with a self-losing threat that could divorce them from the reality they know.

They’re getting lost as they go deeper and deeper into the case.

Alan Wake II is a mixed-media experience. There’s a lot of writing to find, radio shows to listen to, and movies to watch.

Remedy is known for using full-motion video in its games. That means cutscenes are occasionally videos.

These moments are very effective, and that’s partially due to the fidelity of the game.

When we see characters being played by their real-world-actors, it works. They actually look like their 3d model. We don’t have to guess who is who. Alan looks like Alan.

Alan Wake II is one of the handful of games that actually feel mature.

Being rated M doesn’t mean a game is made for an adult audience. It simply means there’s enough content in it that parents should probably check it out before their kid plays it (parents, please check it out for the love of God).

There’s something about the graphical fidelity in Alan Wake II that makes me feel like the game is mature. Beyond the rating, Alan Wake II is a very mature video game. The art direction makes me feel like it fits in with other stories from across media. Movies, books, and television. It fits in with the canon of FBI agents getting suced into a sinister plot that’s much darker than they originally thought.

I’m not saying that games that aren’t graphically intense are not mature (see mouthwashing), but in the case of Alan Wake II, it helps the game feel more mature and grounded.

Alan Wake II is a very grounded-looking game.

Darkness is dark, and the fog and rain have a weight to them. Darkness can be suffocating when it needs to be. Objects in the world are easily identified:

But then there are moments when they mess with that. Certain enemies are unidentifiable. Is that a person in a lake? Is that 12 arms?

The grounded reality gives space for horror visuals that feel alien.