Best art style/direction of 2015

So we have a very interesting thread about the best looking game of 2015.

Yet a lot of great looking games don't have a place in that thread because they can't stand up to the production values of AAA studios' games. These games do often have a very nice art style/direction though. Making for some amazing sights.

Which artstyles from games that came out in 2015 stood out the most to you ?

These are my picks:

• Life is Strange.

I only started playing this game today. But the minute I started playing it, I fell in love with its art style. It obviously takes some cues from adventure games (Telltale games) gameplay wise. But I also see its artstyle is very close to The Walking Dead or later Telltale adventure games.

I did find that it does look a lot better than those aforementioned Telltale games. It has the same use of very bright colors. But they just pull it off way better than Telltale did.

• Apotheon

A game about Greek mythology in an artstyle based on Greek pottery. It's a perfect blend of setting and art style. I'll let the game speak for itself:

Yoshi's Woolly World and Ori and the Blind Forest.

Definitely. The production values of Ori's sound and visuals is just outstanding.

I was amazed that a team that is just devided all over the world managed to pull something like that off. I need to play more Ori.

I have not played Yoshi but it does have a great art style, judging from what I've seen.

Ori or The Order.

With the order you mean the steampunk-esque setting combined with a historical setting ?

Bloodborne.

Splatoon and Xenoblade Chronicles X for me. Yoshi is pretty good though.

Bloodborne

Good to see a lot of love for Ori.

They said they were inspired by Rayman Legends and Origins, which were amazing looking games as well.

Good pick as well. Knew this was gonna show up !

It's art direction is like the complete opposite of the colorful Life is Strange :D

Ori & Bloodborne

@R4gn4r0k: yep, the fictional history with all its steampunk influences. The somber tone is helped by the lighting, the camera angles, the small effects like dust settling, light clinching off areas, it all is part of a wonderful art style.

My picks for 2015 (in no order, only games I have played):

Ori and the Blind Forest

Life is Strange

Witcher 3

Pillars of Eternity

Divinity Original Sin EE

Darkest Dungeon

Satellite Reign

The Book of Unwritten Tales 2

Apotheon

The Long Dark

...and maybe I've forgotten some...

Yeah, the first time they showed off the game I was immediately intrigued by it's setting and art direction. And wanted to see more of it.

RAD went all out on graphics and art style.

Ori and the Bind Forest.

They really nailed that old look in the Unity engine.

I'll also add Killing Floor 2, it had a really nice stylized slow motion mode.

1. Ori and the Blind Forest
2. Splatoon
3. Yoshi's Woolly World

Purely on art there are some other lookers as well: Bloodborne, The Witcher 3, Book of Unwritten Tales 2, Transformers Devastation because G1 Transformers is the shit, but those 3 are exceptional across the board. Would argue Splatoon has the most consistent aesthetic across the board, right down to music.

Graphically The Witcher looks fantastic but I think the actual art style is pretty shit outside of the monsters.

Wow, I think the absolute opposite is true. The art style in Witcher 3 is pure visual gold.

But well, opinions, opinions... ;)

@jg4xchamp: Transformers kind of slipped my mind (I tend to forget about Activision existing at times) but it's great to see how close it came to the cartoons.

Ori and the Blind Forest, by far.

nope

@mems_1224 said:

@LordCrash88 said:

@mems_1224 said:

Graphically The Witcher looks fantastic but I think the actual art style is pretty shit outside of the monsters.

Wow, I think the absolute opposite is true. The art style in Witcher 3 is pure visual gold.

But well, opinions, opinions... ;)

nope

Allow my contribution to this discussion, as I think that picture fails to show any kind of art direction.

Tearaway Unfolded

Trine 3 looks nice.

• Ori and the Blind Forest
• Batman Arkham Knight
• Life Is Strange

@R4gn4r0k: like i said, pretty game but those are just generic fantasy settings. wouldnt say there is anything all that special about what you posted. geralt still looks stupid as **** in the shots you posted too

@Eikichi-Onizuka said:

Trine 3 looks nice.

Ah yes, Trine 3.

The Trine games always had beautiful graphics and a good art style to boot.

I wanted to purchase this game in the sales, but I just read that it's such a disappointing game compared to 1&2.

Yeah, good point. I thought those screens look really nice, but it doesn't stick out with its head and shoulders above other fantasy.

And yes, I went for the stupid style with Geralt, I had his hair cut by a drunk and stuck with it :D

@R4gn4r0k said:

@mems_1224 said:

@LordCrash88 said:

@mems_1224 said:

Wow, I think the absolute opposite is true. The art style in Witcher 3 is pure visual gold.

But well, opinions, opinions... ;)

nope

Allow my contribution to this discussion, as I think that picture fails to show any kind of art direction.

Every major region of the Witcher 3 offers a different colour palette ON PURPOSE in order to underline the specific intended atmosphere of this very region. That's part of why the art design of Witcher 3 is just exceptional and at least one level above every other comparable fantasy game.

And really, the art design of Witcher 3 is bad because somebody doesn't like Geralt's face? The only valid answer to that is "facepalm"...

Yes, I did notice that. It's been a while since I've played the game unfortunately.

What do you mean with your last sentence? These are just some screenshots I took where I think the game's visuals and art style shines.

First the "art style is shit", now "the setting is generic"? Seems like you just want to shit on the game for whatever reason...

I fail to see how a generic setting automatically leads to a shitty art style. And if you still think the art style was shit I'd really like to know why.

Sorry, that one was targeted at @mems_1224

the art style is more than just the setting. the world is alright, looks pretty but its pretty standard fantasy shit. almost all the armor sets are awful and look stupid, almost all the clothing in the game for geralt and other characters is down right atrocious. like i said, the monsters look cool, the cities and open world are alright but nothing special and everything else is pretty subpar. its a pretty game but there isn't anything special about the other stuff. its definitely not as good looking as something like Ori

The "Gesamtkunstwerk", that's what special about Witcher 3. It's just a consistent world that looks natural and believable which is something no other game of that size has managed to do, well, basically ever, to that magnitude and detail.

@LordCrash88: lol hyperbole ftl

The world isn't all the believable. It's big but there is a whole lot of nothing in a lot of that world when you're not on a mission. Its a pretty standard RPG world just bigger and prettier.

Bloodborne and Splatoon

Yoshi's Woolly World.

Witcher 3, Bloodborne, and Batman all looked the best art wise to me

• SOMA
• Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
• Splatoon

Dude, this is about art design, not about interactivity or something else. The art design creates a world that LOOKS believable and consistent. And no, no other 3D RPG has the same visual consistency and attention to detail on that level of fidelity. Not even close.

I agree with the open world being kind of empty, but that's a topic for another thread.

@LordCrash88: like I said. It's impressive from a technical stanpoint but I think all the the design of the cities is pretty generic and the games European fantasy style is pretty ugly

I think the game's (Eastern) European fantasy style is rather unique and exceptional, with Novigrad being one of the most natural, detailed and organic cities ever created in (3D) gaming. Just because a game is deeply grounded in our real world history like real world architecture and stuff doesn't mean it's generic by default. But well, at this point I think we just have to agree to disagree. To each their own.

I love games that use a particular aesthetic, so Yoshi's Wooly World and Apotheon using specific art as its graphics are on top.

Have you played Shelter 2? It has a very particular aesthetic as well.

Bloodborne's style is REALLY good.

Ori just looks sad and depressing to me. Bloodborne has a nice art style but it all looks the same. I'm enjoying Syndicate's old London art style, very detailed and beautiful. Trine 3 is pure eye candy despite the tiresome medieval theme and I liked what pics I saw of Arkham Knight though not the kind of game I'd really play much of. I liked the neon lit city in Satellite Reign. Witcher 3's art direction was uninspiring to me, pretty vista's but nothing that hasn't been done before for medieval fantasy, a style that's been a bit long in the tooth for quite some time imo. I'd like to see more AAA RPG's that move a bit away from the medieval worlds or maybe I'm the few that is just tired of seeing dragons, swords and castles all the time.

It's not like Fallout 4 was released this year as well or Mass Effect Andromeda is about to be released next year.

But yeah, all they offer are medieval worlds all the time... ;)

Sci-fi and post-apocalyptic settings are getting pretty tired too tho. Developers should really start using some unconventional settings.

Like?

Remember, we still talk about mainstream (AAA) gaming. Unconventional is a term the suits usually hate...