5. Returnal
As a hopeful PS5 system seller, there was a lot of pressure on Returnal to look amazing. By and large, it does. Although the environments are a bit limited, the game shifts through several very different landscapes. It’s motion capture and lighting effects are definitely some of the best we’ve seen all year.
3. (Tie) Kena: Bridge of Spirits
It looks like a charming, animated film. Kena: Bridge of Spirits is colorful, inviting, and inventive. All the more impressive coming from a relatively small team, Kena is proof that excellent art direction and beautiful visuals are not the exclusive domain of developers with budgets equal to those of small countries.
3. (Tie) Resident Evil Village
If Kena is at the far end of the charming scale, Resident Evil Village is at the other extreme. It uses its graphics and detailed environments to set the scene for tension and terror. Two things stand out (and no, they don’t belong to Lady Dimitrescu…well, not entirely). One is the obsessively detailed art direction, detail and architecture. The other is the game’s grotesque character design and performance capture. Resident Evil deserves to sit at the head of the “good looking” table.
2. Forza Horizon 5
There isn’t just one thing that stands out about Forza Horizon 5 when it comes to visuals. There’s the car-porn attention to the vehicles and all their curvy, reflective surfaces. Then there are the arresting Mexican environments. Finally, there are the weather, time of day and lighting effects. They all add up to one of the best-looking racing games ever made.
1. Ratchet and Clack Rift Apart
Every damn thing about Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart screams “polish.” The platforming is calibrated perfectly. The story is engaging and the voice acting is superb. Finally, the graphics and art design elevate this game to the top of our list. Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart looks less like a videogame than a big-budget Hollywood film that somehow we get to interact with. Anyone who argues that graphics don’t matter hasn’t played Rift Apart.
Thank you for keeping it locked on COGconnected.