Funny story time! When I was in high school, my school decided that it would be a really great idea to bring in a genuine movie director to give a little speech about art and do a bit of Q&A. Very good idea in theory… Except the director they ultimately went with was some complete unknown who had only done unsuccessful indie flicks, so a lot of the sentiment was lost. At the end of his speech, when he asked if anybody had any questions, the entire room filled with hundreds of people (attendance was mandatory) fell silent… Except, of course, for yours truly, who completely failed to read the atmosphere. I had only one question for him – “Do you think videogames can be considered a form of art?” The answer he gave me was basically “I believe that videogames can have value to a lot of people, but I don’t think they can ever be art”. Oh, yeah, Mr. Director? You wanna take that bet? Well, here’s five games I’ve played which are more beautiful than most pieces of traditional art!
1. Child of Light
Let’s start off with a bang, shall we? “Child of Light” is a game designed from the grounds up to be an interactive picture book, like those many of us used to read (or, well, have read to us) as children, complete with a fantasy adventure in which a young princess taken to a strange land must find unlikely companions and discover her way home while defeating the evil queen who has imprisoned her there. The princess visits many peculiar places, like a city of mice dwelling within the belly of a giant, and best of all – every single line of dialogue is in rhyme. It’s fantastic! But best of all, the artstyle itself has been specifically made to resemble a living, breathing picture book. While the illustrations itself are simplistic, they’re colorful, fluid and vivid, and when seen in motion, they are beautiful! If you grew up with picture books, “Child of Light” will most certainly be a treat!
2. Limbo
Time for something a little bit darker, and I do mean that literally! “Limbo” is one of those unique games which are completely devoid of color, and yet still manage to be hauntingly beautiful – hell, it practically set the standard for those games! I don’t think it’s fair to call it a black and white game, considering that it’s mostly black and some shades of grey, but it seems appropriate enough, so let’s go with that! While the darkness does make things a little bit hard to see, honestly, the game wouldn’t have worked nearly as well if it was in color, as it tells the story of a little boy’s passage through Limbo and ascension into Heaven. The subject matter of a child’s implied death is already hard enough, but when you combine that with the fact that Limbo itself is a horrible place filled with dangers and lost souls… Yeah, you can see why black and white was chosen as the color palette. Still, I’d say it works spectacularly well, and the sheer fact that “Limbo” has spawned so many imitators in the “black and white art games” genre should speak for itself!
3. Journey
You literally can NOT make a list with influential, beautiful games that are works of art without mentioning “Journey”. It is, by far, one of the greatest videogame experiences out there. When it was first released this tiny little game scored dozens of “Game of the Year” awards (including a videogame’s first ever Grammy nomination), beating franchises with hundreds of millions of dollars behind them! And honestly, it’s not hard to see why. I mean, look at THAT! This right here is pure art. There’s not really a storyline, at least not one that’s explicitly stated to you. There’s no plot, no dialogue, no text, no characters. Just an experience. Emotions. And the all too beautiful vistas you go through on your journey to the mountain. It’s truly fascinating just how effective pure visuals can be in conveying a narrative in a game when you strip away almost everything else. Even without the nameless, faceless, gowned protagonist never uttering as much as an “oooh” or an “aah” during the adventure, you always know exactly what they’re feeling – mostly because you feel it too. When you see something utterly beautiful, you’re left marveling at it; when you’re being chased by something, you’re scared. For a game to achieve all of that without a word… Well, it’s got to be art, right?