I was just thinking about this the other day, and it became even more apparent after playing an indie title called The Ascent. It's a cyberpunk ARPG, and in playing it and exploring its various districts as you ascend up the dystopian, ecumenopolis, you can see how distinct each district is based on the cultures, people, and cleanliness (or lack thereof).
It's not so much that art-style is amazing, but the art design is. I was thinking about it because it feels so much more cyberpunk than Cyberpunk 2077, the latter of which feels like a slightly different GTA V clone.
The Ascent did a fantastic job of making their world feel alive, dangerous, unique, enticing, and disgusting, all at once. The hodge-podge of cultures fused with technocratic over-branding gives the game this desperate, yet corporate-controlled look, which ties in well with its lore:
https://i.imgur.com/aBYmYRf.png
(sorry for the resolution/quality, these were captured from the Steam Deck)
You actually get a great sense of scale, and the inspiration from Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner, Syndicate, and Shadowrun are definitely noticeable:
https://i.imgur.com/z6saMID.png
It's not so how much how good everything looks, but rather why things look the way they do in making the world feel lived in and telling a story about the world visually:
https://i.imgur.com/wzoApY5.png
You can actually get a sense of dread, depression, and sullenness from the NPCs. The fact that most areas are over-crowded and gun-fights can break out anywhere -- where you see people screaming for their lives, running for cover or cowering in fear as bodies explode around them and limbs can flying in every which direction -- you get an actual sense of how scary it is to live in a place like that:
https://i.imgur.com/r2Quk4i.png
They really managed to capture the spirit of a cyberpunk dystopia, which is where you have people partying in a cool looking night club...
https://i.imgur.com/OLYIQB8.png
While a guy in an alleyway sells you weapons designed to maim, burn, and dismember:
https://i.imgur.com/GDy1exc.png
The architectural design gives the impression that people are just trying to get by and do whatever they can to make the best of an awful situation...
https://i.imgur.com/MtygWdT.png
Many turn to drugs, drinking, or in one case steroid addiction, all as a means to distract them from a crumbling infrastructure governed by corporations who force people into indentured service to escape from whatever planetary hellscape they tried getting away from...
https://i.imgur.com/3YbW2SE.png
As a result, you see how these poor people left one dire situation only to end up in another, where crime, poverty, over-consumerism, and violence rule the day. You can visually see how this mentality of low IQ immigrants have caused the place to turn into just another junkpile of destitution and poverty...
https://i.imgur.com/FbK0MBi.png
At the same time, there are some wondrous locations and design elements that make it apparent why some people would find the planet alluring and the prospect of paying off their indentured servitude to escape..
https://i.imgur.com/wVYAaPn.png
But you have to work your way up through the drudges...
https://i.imgur.com/m0s7Vhe.png
...and the dangers to get there...
https://i.imgur.com/WcZ1Nhc.png
Basically, the game isn't a graphical masterpiece, but it is, in my opinion, a visual masterpiece.
The Swedish developers -- less than a dozen -- managed to churn out a game with a lot more life and visceral worldbuilding through structure and world-design than the millions that CDPR dumped into Cyberpunk 2077.
But the main difference is that The Ascent isn't trying to hit diversity check boxes, it's trying to tell a story about desperate people working as "indents" under an oppressive corporate structure that forces people to work, to consume, and to kill in order to survive.
https://i.imgur.com/Lp87YP0.png
World-building wise, I think The Ascent did a good job of pulling me in visually, telling stories without having to explicitly tell the player what's going on; the overcrowded streets, the acid rain, the abundance of violence, and even the way the safe zones are structured (with massive 20mm autocannons guarding the entrance/exit ways to the main city hubs), all tell a story through images.
It's not unlike how Edgerunners did a better job of depicting Cyberpunk 2077's world than Cyberpunk 2077 did, simply through the characterisation of visualisation.
I was just thinking about this the other day, and it became even more apparent after playing an indie title called The Ascent. It's a cyberpunk ARPG, and in playing it and exploring its various districts as you ascend up the dystopian, ecumenopolis, you can see how distinct each district is based on the cultures, people, and cleanliness (or lack thereof).
It's not so much that art-style is amazing, but the art design is. I was thinking about it because it feels so much more cyberpunk than Cyberpunk 2077, the latter of which feels like a slightly different GTA V clone.
The Ascent did a fantastic job of making their world feel alive, dangerous, unique, enticing, and disgusting, all at once. The hodge-podge of cultures fused with technocratic over-branding gives the game this desperate, yet corporate-controlled look, which ties in well with its lore:
https://i.imgur.com/aBYmYRf.png
(sorry for the resolution/quality, these were captured from the Steam Deck)
You actually get a great sense of scale, and the inspiration from Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner, Syndicate, and Shadowrun are definitely noticeable:
https://i.imgur.com/z6saMID.png
It's not so how much how good everything looks, but rather why things look the way they do in making the world feel lived in and telling a story about the world visually:
https://i.imgur.com/wzoApY5.png
You can actually get a sense of dread, depression, and sullenness from the NPCs. The fact that most areas are over-crowded and gun-fights can break out anywhere -- where you see people screaming for their lives, running for cover or cowering in fear as bodies explode around them and limbs can flying in every which direction -- you get an actual sense of how scary it is to live in a place like that:
https://i.imgur.com/r2Quk4i.png
They really managed to capture the spirit of a cyberpunk dystopia, which is where you have people partying in a cool looking night club...
https://i.imgur.com/OLYIQB8.png
While a guy in an alleyway sells you weapons designed to maim, burn, and dismember:
https://i.imgur.com/GDy1exc.png
The architectural design gives the impression that people are just trying to get by and do whatever they can to make the best of an awful situation...
https://i.imgur.com/MtygWdT.png
Many turn to drugs, drinking, or in one case steroid addiction, all as a means to distract them from a crumbling infrastructure governed by corporations who force people into indentured service to escape from whatever planetary hellscape they tried getting away from...
https://i.imgur.com/3YbW2SE.png
As a result, you see how these poor people left one dire situation only to end up in another, where crime, poverty, over-consumerism, and violence rule the day. You can visually see how this mentality of low IQ immigrants have caused the place to turn into just another junkpile of destitution and poverty...
https://i.imgur.com/FbK0MBi.png
At the same time, there are some wondrous locations and design elements that make it apparent why some people would find the planet alluring and the prospect of paying off their indentured servitude to escape..
https://i.imgur.com/wVYAaPn.png
But you have to work your way up through the drudges...
https://i.imgur.com/m0s7Vhe.png
...and the dangers to get there...
https://i.imgur.com/WcZ1Nhc.png
Basically, the game isn't a graphical masterpiece, but it is, in my opinion, a visual masterpiece.
The Swedish developers -- less than a dozen -- managed to churn out a game with a lot more life and visceral worldbuilding through structure and world-design than the millions that CDPR dumped into Cyberpunk 2077.
But the main difference is that The Ascent isn't trying to hit diversity check boxes, it's trying to tell a story about desperate people working as "indents" under an oppressive corporate structure that forces people to work, to consume, and to kill in order to survive.
World-building wise, I think The Ascent did a good job of pulling me in visually, telling stories without having to explicitly tell the player what's going on; the overcrowded streets, the acid rain, the abundance of violence, and even the way the safe zones are structured (with massive 20mm autocannons guarding the entrance/exit ways to the main city hubs), all tell a story through images.
It's not unlike how Edgerunners did a better job of depicting Cyberpunk 2077's world than Cyberpunk 2077 did, simply through the characterisation of visualisation.