Yes, you read the title correctly, this article is about why interactivity in video games is better than higher resolutions and clearer pictures. Increases in visual fidelity have their place in gaming, of course, but recently the scales have shifted towards 4K and it’s annoying. It’s annoying when the beautiful world developers craft through thousands of man-hours are about as interactive as PONG.
DON’T HATE ME FOR THIS
I won’t lie, the game that inspired me the most to write this is Horizon Zero Dawn. On one hand you have a beautiful, photorealistic game, a visual masterpiece but on the other hand your character can shoot fire arrows in water that never cease to burn. It’s such a shame that there is never enough focus on making a game FEEL more real instead of only looking real.
BREATH OF HORIZON ZERO DAWN
Take a look at The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. A game nowhere near as pretty as HZD but a significantly more memorable experience because of the crazy things you can do in it, no matter how small. I once shot an arrow through an apple and watched it roll downhill due to wind and gravity. That’s what I look for in next-gen games. The realism of being able to climb without jumping like an idiot or being blocked by invisible barriers. That should be the future. I understand that the focus of the games mentioned might be different, but when you strive for realism and you’re good at crafting beautiful worlds, it’s a damn shame the magic stops once you try to jump over a few rocks.
A SHIFT OF FOCUS
AAA games are becoming harder and harder to develop because of the increasing team sizes, high budgets and man hours needed for making 4K/high resolution assets and making sure everything is cohesive and works inside a huge world full of complex interactions and clashing AIs. I believe it’s time to scale things down and focus on giving meaning to all those pretty things on-screen. Expensive projects need to yield extremely high profits to be considered successful. The sales numbers needed in order for a company to make it are becoming more and more insane. The gaming industry will collapse if this goes on.
WE’RE READY FOR THE FUTURE
I hope more developers follow Nintendo’s example and I don’t mean not using cloud saves. Games don’t have to be visually photorealistic in order to achieve realism. They just need to give you the ability to manipulate the environment around you in ways that feel natural as a human being. It’s time for a revolution in interactivity in games. 4K gaming doesn’t need to stop of course; it just needs to be accompanied by being able to jump over those ultra-realistic looking rocks without having to watch a jerky animation sequence.
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