Video games love photorealism. In the ’90s and ’00s, when realism wasn’t possible, we had a lot more variety of art styles and a greater variety of artistic expression. That still exists in places today (The Artful Escape, Persona 5, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Borderlands, etc.), but we seem to be moving away from it, especially at a triple-A level. In the ’10s, video games thought they had realism down, but into the ’20s now we’re convinced we really do have realism down, so it’s time to remake all the games from the ’10s. No prizes for guessing what will happen in the ’30s. The Last of Us is the latest game to get this treatment, having already had a graphical update once, and it just feels hollow.
