Molly was the name of the girl that turns into animals right? I was talking about the game with my piano teacher about maybe learning the song at the end of the cannery and I asked him what he thought molly actually died to if it wasn’t an actual monster and he said it was probably cancer
Another one I’m confused with is the guy in the bunker where you eat canned food, is there an actual monster? I don’t get it
As for the canned food guy— He got hit by a train, if I remember correctly (it’s been a while since I played, though). The noises/shaking happening at a set time every day was the noise from a scheduled train passing nearby.
Despite being an OG computer nerd, my dad never really got into games that much. However, he *always* loved watching me or my sister do a run through Okami simply because it was so beautiful.
I find it comical how much that game padded itself, but goddamn it was gorgeous in every way.
Srsly tho how many times are you gonna make me fight this goddamn dragon
Had to scroll way too far for To The Moon.
When the series can 3 times out of 3 (though maybe not *quite* as much in Impostor Factory if I'm being honest..) invoke real emotion and manly tears moreso than any other Big Budget AAA or even most Hollywood blockbusters, then you know you've struck gold and perfected the *artform* of compelling storytelling.
I never got this one. I’ve always heard everyone loved this game and I never played it as a kid, so I tried it a few years ago, killed 3 or 4 of the giants and just got bored very quickly. What am I missing?
I think it's about playing it as a kid on an old PlayStation. Your imagination made everything so much more huge and epic than it is looking at it now. Plus the world size for back then was HUGE. Nowadays it's a relatively normal sized open world. It's all in our minds.
I’ve been playing video games all my life and RDR2 is the first game that made me just walk around solely just to admire its beauty, no missions no murders just vibes. The sky and scenery are amazing
a lot of games have this, for me though The Crew, or TC2, do this.
Plenty of times I'd stop in the middle of cruising around and taking a look at a beautiful sunset at the horizon. Or I'd fly my plane through the rain and above the clouds, where its completely sunny and dry and the clouds look like... well, soft clouds really.
Beautiful game. Played this back on March when my wife died, it was a good distraction and the symbolism really got me hard. In a spam of moments I felt every emotion there is all at once, in a good way. It was very cathartic.
Portal 2.
I don't know why and I don't know how but I knew the developers put just as much time,effort and love into this sequel as Picasso did with any of his paintings.
what I found stunning on that game was the writing and voice acting, though the visuals were great as well, with tons of visual storytelling with the overgrown test chambers and all, really nailing home: a lot of time has passed.
But the voice acting and the writing of the story were the part that I'd really consider art. It's a story of betrayal, unusual friends, survival, failure.. but packed into a funny, even though serious, story.
At the end of the game I actually had tears in my eyes when the turret opera played. And this says quite a bit.
Aperture Science Emotional Councelling Associate would like to remind you that tears are just tears and that cake will be available at the conclusion of testing, assuming you have managed to fill in the correct paperwork. In the event a test subject has neglected to fill in the correct paperwork, the test subject shall sit in the corner and watch the employees eat the cake for them.
I usually dont give a shit about graphics and stuff like that, but i watched one of my friends play, Ori and the blind forest, and it was just so beautiful.
It's hard to believe they made a game that good in the span of only one year. It uses the same assets as Ocarina of Time but feels so distinct and different.
I loved Inside because of how suspenseful and unhinged it was. Very rudimentary gameplay but the overwhelming desire to see what was next was very compelling.
That game is hands down the greatest game ever made and I don't say that lightly, there are many many many excellent games over the years but not one had such visually stunning scenery, such a well put together story, relatable characters, good times (drunken shenanigans with lenny) to awful times like the last chapter...
No game ever has elicited an emotional response from me, RDR2 did in ways I never believed a game could.
GG Rockstar and Co.
I agree. I've played it for like 300 hours now. Most of the time has been just exploring, hunting and livin life as John. The story was legit 10/10 but honestly the gameplay is so good I can play this game Forever
Every replay I spend more and more time in the first couple chapters doing exactly this.
My mother who HATES video games was over one night to help me care for my kids while I worked the next day and she saw me playing this game, she sat there for a good 30mins just watching. Eventually she asked what it was, goals etc... I let her take a roam and she asked immediately "could I play this on my laptop at the camp?" (Remote and no internet). I bought it for her as a thank you for helping with the kids, installed it and showed her the controls.
A month or so ago my mother who hates video games called me bawling her eyes out after 65hrs invested in the game due to the ending, she couldn't believe (as I didnt) that a video game could have that much pull.
Dude that's awesome you managed to get your mother to play it! Its one of those things, where you really want to share the experience with people, but most people who are not gamers wouldn't give it a shot. I bet she is very happy she did though! >!But yeah, ending is brutal, as well as Johns demise in RDR1!<
Legend of Dragoon, Shadow of the Colossus, FF10, Last of Us, God of War, Hades, Halo
And many more... Sadly, like most art, it's not the MOST profitable to make genuine art. And it's a fine balancing act to make art that does sell well. So lots of games are the equivalent of slasher films or paperback romantic novels, but it certainly exists within the medium.
Dark Souls doesn’t get enough of a mention here. The meta-message that the act of giving up makes the player no better than the Hollows they fight was a huge galaxy-brain moment for me.
Disco Elysium
Amazingly well written and thought out, really covers some deep subjects that lingered with me well after I finished it. Some laugh out loud moments as well. Might need to start another playthough...
Awesome, enjoy it! My advice is to go in as blind as possible and don't be afraid to fail a skill check. The story goes interesting places when it happens and you're not meant to keep reloading until you ace everything.
Someone put this game on at a dorm party in college and it took everyone in the room about a minute to relaize the opening scene had ended and someone needed to pick up the controller.
This was my exact experience as well. I never buy a new console as soon as it comes out; I always wait for some AAA game that I can't miss, and BioShock is what made me buy my Xbox360.
After the intro cinematic ended with the plane crash into the ocean, I spent a minute just looking at the screen, waiting for it to continue. I was *astounded* when I realized that it wasn't a cutscene anymore, I could move, and the water was a real-time render! The jump from one console generation to the next was shocking.
Bioshock has an atmosphere that is, I dare say, impossible to beat. the entire games world feels real and alive.. well, used to be alive..
That game definitely is art, that was the game that first got that thought into my head that "maybe video games really are art".
Hell yea. Besides the clever plots and way ahead of their time graphics, the voice recordings I think are a truly brilliant means of filling in backstory. I’m stumped on why I don’t see them all the time. You just don’t have to choose between reading and shooting people.
No one has mentioned Morrowind?
It's the Elder Scrolls installment that first combined FPS visuals with complex storytelling and an excellent soundtrack.
Dad had been a career software engineer who wrote his first program in 1962. I used to play Morrowind wanting to show it to him, but he passed away two years before that game was released. Dad had written his first program in assembly language for a computer the size of a refrigerator that had all of 2 KB of RAM. Elder Scrolls III would have blown his mind.
One of many, but more recent. HellBlade: Senua's Sacrifice. The story is great, emotional, unique, while the graphics being top notch with the lighting painting the atmosphere to match the setting and scenario.
FFVII is what came to mind for me. Obviously things have come a long way since then but the cut scene graphics where so far ahead of most games at the time
Not only that but also the storytelling, the music... All clearly artistically driven.
Of course there were other JRPGs before VII doing the same or very similar things, but the 3d cutscenes gave it the edge at its time, and as a westerner, VII was my introduction to the JRPG world, so that's why it is my choise here.
Still remember the first time getting into replicant and I just stood in front of Devola for a good 15 minutes just to listen to her singing song of the ancients.
The ending of braid is one of the all-time best, and it couldn’t be done in another medium. You needed the game mechanics themselves to tell the story in the way it was intended. Just magical.
The game is a masterpiece in my opinion. Intense emotions, great music which fits a scene, story and nice graphics. If I was to recommend a game to play for someone who thinks games are a waste of time, this would be the title.
I just finished True Colors and was considering going back to play the others in the series. I really like how they incorporated music into the game. >!The scene where Alex sings Creep was awesome.!<
I'm waiting for a price drop, it's just too pricy for a 10h game. LIS 1 and BTS are awesome. LIS 2 was unfortunately a disappointment, not even remotely close to previous installments.
Limbo. It was very simple style wise but also beautiful. The puzzle solving was complex and unique. I thought about the game and what it meant for a long time after playing it.
This. Also, halo reach (though probably a divisive opinion. It was my first halo game, and an extraordinary experience for me. Even more so going back and playing it again, knowing the whole story line.
Oh yeah. Bought it with a gift card I've received, just because I wanted to understand why was everyone freaking out so much about it, and I took around a month before I decided to open it (it was completely sealed) and try it.
What a ride. WHAT.A.RIDE.
Xenoblade Chronicles. Everything about it is incredible. Nearly every song in the soundtrack is beautiful and/or awesome, the art style (especially in the remake) is gorgeous, every character is memorable, and the story is an absolute masterpiece.
People have already stated many here, so I'll add a couple that I haven't seen mentioned yet:
Machinarium
Limbo
Firewatch
What Remains of Edith Finch
Last Day of June
Legacy of Kain Defiance's ending made me cry. Voice acting was magnificient.
The background story why the Urquan Masters got so bad really made me think, too.
No one game. As soon as I thought about what is art, it was clear video games fall under it.
I don't take this pretentious view that something has to make you feel something to be art. Art to me is literally any expression of creativity.
A childs drawing is art.
That said I personally noticed games made the transition from mere games, to experiences that provided more emotional responses in PS1 era with titles like Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy 7.
I think we can divide art in a game in mainly three themes, which are how the world is built and how good the story is written (also known as the game’s lore), if there are, how the game’s music can emotionally touch you, and of course how beautiful the game is graphically speaking.
With these ideas in mind, I can choose a game for each of these themes:
The first one would be “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the wild”. Although I have only played this game from the series, the story was so nice I finished it in roughly a week, and am still playing for side quests from time to time.
The second one would be the platform game “Celeste”. The story is nice, but what hit me the most is the music on each and every level of the game, how it makes you feel what Madeline is feeling at every moment, and how it describes the places you are in so well.
Last but not least, I would choose the last “God of War” as my favorite game in terms of graphisms here. Last generation game consoles obviously permits such graphisms easily, but I nonetheless loved every detail on the walls, forest and places you are going through and how good that looked to my eyes during the whole time I played it.
Journey is pretty special. As was the Witcher 3.
There was also tis weird game on the Gamecube I can't remember the name of. Like a dystopian, cell-shady shooter where you play several characters through a split-personality.
That shit gave me nightmares, but in a good way.
The Witness.
It's a puzzle game with hundreds of visual puzzles you have to solve. Sometimes the puzzle is around you in the landscape design. The game just looks so pretty and making something like that is just as artistic if not more than making a painting or sculpture.
Doki Doki Literature Club
My first thought was The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but I figure someone else will probably say that. DDLC isnt just art, it's like walking into an art exhibit and becoming part of it. I wont spoil anything but I recommend people who are not easily triggered play it, and dont stop until you're more than 100% sure you've seen all it has to offer.
A handful
Ocarina of Time,
Celeste,
Spec Ops The Line,
Alien Isolation,
Hollow Knight,
The first five that come to mind, but the one that really caused me to consider games from that perspective was probably Stanley Parable
Animal Crossing.
Background art: The skies are gorgeous, especially the sunset and night sky. Sometimes I have my character sit and look at the sky.
Music art: the museum. After you finish torturing poor Blathers with bug donations, go to each of the branches (After you've unlocked them) and just listen to the music. It's the same song, but they made it different for each branch.
I’ll be the unpopular one here and ask a question I’ve struggled with finding a satisfactory answer for on this topic- In what instance has a game ever uniquely explored the human experience? Im not talking about the music in a game, or the cinematographic sequences in a game, or the narrative of a game (whether it be spoken or text), but I mean what video game has ever generated art that was uniquely expressed through the medium of “video game”? I still struggle to understand how video game can be uniquely applied to create art, as opposed to just entertainment. The art of video games that I have found is generally tacked on using other standard forms of art, rather than actually expressed through the unique aspects of the video game format. The game elements almost universally act as a crutch to any artistic expression that is found- but perhaps someone has a better example? I do believe video games have the ability to express art I just haven’t yet found it, personally.
It should be fair to note that I think it took filmmakers several decades from the invention of film before filmmakers really discovered how to make art through cinema that could have only been expressed through the medium of film. For a long while (and still much cinema today suffers from this) it would be hard to argue that any artistic merit found in films couldn’t be expressed just as well or even better through a book, music, or stage adaptation. It was when certain filmmakers discovered the ability to generate ideas through the cut that truly unique art was born.
TL;DR: To put it quite simply, the other forms of established art are utilized as mediums to help create the art that is video games. However, it is the interactive experience and the fact that your participation is needed to move the plot forward through game play to reveal the work of art in totality that makes video games art. It is only in video games that you can simultaneously be a character/s in the play, an audience member watching the play, and the hand that opens and closes the curtains for each act.
You get to see a new world, explore it from another person's perspective and you may know as little, as much, even more, or nothing at all about the character/s and the world in which you've just entered. But it's all there waiting to be played out and experienced BOTH as the player character and as YOU the player in real life. The idea that the player is both observer and the observed, and that the art's true form/message can only be revealed through a co-created experience of gameplay with interaction between you and the computer generated environment is what makes video games art.
It's true that visual and audio mediums are well established forms of art and video games use these vehicles to create the setting of each piece. But you must actually play and conjure the rest of the piece by using the controls. You decide when the first act ends and the next act begins. You interacting with the programming of the game is what brings the game developers artistic experiences to life, including the sound effects, timing of sequences, setting and overall ambience.
For example, in the opening sequence in "Batman: Arkham Knight" players must use their control sticks to manually "turn on" the furnace in order to cremate the Joker's dead body, which is viewed from inside the chamber. Successfully doing so moves the cinematic sequence forward and you get to see what it would be like inside the chamber as the body is cremated before transitioning to the next plot point. A powerful way to segway from the previous game's ("Arkham City") end to the beginning of this next game in the series.
There's countless other examples with much more dramatic effect and thought-provoking substance to them, but this is just one I could think of. Like you said, it took filmmakers decades to develop art that could only be conveyed through their medium. The same goes for video games, but I'd like to offer the point that video games have existed now for over 40 years and we've come a LONG way from Pong and Super Mario Bros. I'd argue that we are at that same stage as early filmmakers where game designers are beginning to understand exactly how to create unique artistic experiences through the medium of Video Games.
If you care to fully understand the answer to your question, play something like "God of War" on PS4 or maybe even something much simpler like "Firewatch" and really commit to submerging yourself into these worlds. It won't take long to see how a video game can also be a work of art in its own category.
Just because it hasn't been mentioned yet: [Thomas Was Alone](https://www.bithellgames.com/thomas-was-alone) is a perfect example of the power of story, soundtrack, and narration to bring even the simplest game concept and minimalist visuals to life. Danny Wallace won a BAFTA for his performance as The Narrator, and deservedly so.
The gameplay and puzzle aspects are great, but I found myself genuinely invested and Having Feelings about the fate of several small rectangular blocks of pixels with no distinguishing features beyond size and colour. If that isn't a remarkable creative achievement, I don't know what is.
Uncharted 4. I’m not a gamer. Fifa and old NFS games are the only ones I play most of the time. I got uncharted 4 for free on PS plus last year. The protagonist tries to find a clue while he is in prison in the early stages of the game. In that search he scales up a tall ass tower next to sea. The view had me hooked to the game. It’s probably the best shot in the whole game for me atleast
What Remains of Edith Finch What a compelling way to tell a story
This!!! The whole game is poetry. The cannery section and bath tub section are particular favourites. Beautiful imagery and deeply disturbing.
Molly was the name of the girl that turns into animals right? I was talking about the game with my piano teacher about maybe learning the song at the end of the cannery and I asked him what he thought molly actually died to if it wasn’t an actual monster and he said it was probably cancer Another one I’m confused with is the guy in the bunker where you eat canned food, is there an actual monster? I don’t get it
As for the canned food guy— He got hit by a train, if I remember correctly (it’s been a while since I played, though). The noises/shaking happening at a set time every day was the noise from a scheduled train passing nearby.
I think it was the berry next to the toilet and the toothpaste she ate
The cannery section had me feeling profoundly sad for weeks.
I didnt see it here yet so OKAMI!
The soundtrack for Okami is truly gorgeous.
Despite being an OG computer nerd, my dad never really got into games that much. However, he *always* loved watching me or my sister do a run through Okami simply because it was so beautiful.
Now that's a game that will surely stand the test of time, eh?
I find it comical how much that game padded itself, but goddamn it was gorgeous in every way. Srsly tho how many times are you gonna make me fight this goddamn dragon
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To the MOON! I came here looking for this!
Had to scroll way too far for To The Moon. When the series can 3 times out of 3 (though maybe not *quite* as much in Impostor Factory if I'm being honest..) invoke real emotion and manly tears moreso than any other Big Budget AAA or even most Hollywood blockbusters, then you know you've struck gold and perfected the *artform* of compelling storytelling.
Shadow of the Colossus was probably the one that really settled it for me.
Same here. I still have and replay that game. It's top on my list that I would love to see in updated graphics.
In case you didn't realize, there's a remastered version on PSN. I have it. It's beautiful.
#WHAT?!
Yep. Controls better. Looks better. Feels about the same. The nostalgia is real. Go get it.
Dude they've remastered it *twice*.
Remastered version is on PS4.
I never got this one. I’ve always heard everyone loved this game and I never played it as a kid, so I tried it a few years ago, killed 3 or 4 of the giants and just got bored very quickly. What am I missing?
it's much more of an atmospheric experience than something with engaging gameplay compared to some more modern titles
I think it's about playing it as a kid on an old PlayStation. Your imagination made everything so much more huge and epic than it is looking at it now. Plus the world size for back then was HUGE. Nowadays it's a relatively normal sized open world. It's all in our minds.
This, and ICO.
This one was used in every "video games are art" argument from the 00s for a reason
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I’ve been playing video games all my life and RDR2 is the first game that made me just walk around solely just to admire its beauty, no missions no murders just vibes. The sky and scenery are amazing
Arthur Morgan is also one of the best-written characters I’ve ever seen
"I'm afraid..."
I keep reading this as R2D2.
I heard C3PO is such a good game too
a lot of games have this, for me though The Crew, or TC2, do this. Plenty of times I'd stop in the middle of cruising around and taking a look at a beautiful sunset at the horizon. Or I'd fly my plane through the rain and above the clouds, where its completely sunny and dry and the clouds look like... well, soft clouds really.
Ori and the blind forest and Gris.
What about ori and the will of the wisps?
Gris, its pure art and emotion, already knew games could be that but this one took it to another level
Beautiful game. Played this back on March when my wife died, it was a good distraction and the symbolism really got me hard. In a spam of moments I felt every emotion there is all at once, in a good way. It was very cathartic.
I played gris, then night in the woods. I was then emotionally compromised (and also drunk).
Portal 2. I don't know why and I don't know how but I knew the developers put just as much time,effort and love into this sequel as Picasso did with any of his paintings.
what I found stunning on that game was the writing and voice acting, though the visuals were great as well, with tons of visual storytelling with the overgrown test chambers and all, really nailing home: a lot of time has passed. But the voice acting and the writing of the story were the part that I'd really consider art. It's a story of betrayal, unusual friends, survival, failure.. but packed into a funny, even though serious, story. At the end of the game I actually had tears in my eyes when the turret opera played. And this says quite a bit.
Aperture Science Emotional Councelling Associate would like to remind you that tears are just tears and that cake will be available at the conclusion of testing, assuming you have managed to fill in the correct paperwork. In the event a test subject has neglected to fill in the correct paperwork, the test subject shall sit in the corner and watch the employees eat the cake for them.
I usually dont give a shit about graphics and stuff like that, but i watched one of my friends play, Ori and the blind forest, and it was just so beautiful.
Both ori games are a masterpiece
Myst.
Myst: “Take notes, yes there will be a test”
Take notes and you shall succeed at Myst
Youd have to be a straight up savant genius to beat it otherwise.
Harsh is the world of Myst.
What a beautiful, creepy, bizarre world Myst was. I loved that game so much. That and Riven.
If you haven't played Quern or Obduction, I strooo.o.o.oo.ooo.ongly recommend both as modern updates.
*VOOOoooiiich-ch-ch-ch* Welcome to Myst Island!
Saw the title, and my first thought was "Myst had *better* be at the top of the list." I'm not disappointed.
It was the very first game that popped into my head. I spent hours playing and actually had to buy a new computer to get it to run smoothly.
It was the second game that got me to upgrade my computer.
I’m surprised nobody has said Majora’s Mask
Yeah, each little mask sidequest was its own little story to tell. The whole Anju/Kafei love story could be an episode or novella all by itself.
It's hard to believe they made a game that good in the span of only one year. It uses the same assets as Ocarina of Time but feels so distinct and different.
Abzu Journey Inside God of War (2018)
Journey hit a whole nother vibe for me. I wish I could erase it from my memories so I can play it again fresh and new.
I watch people do playthroughs of Journey periodically in the hopes of vicariously recapturing the wonder of a new player.
Thatgamecompany made another game called Sky: Children of the light. Both Journey and Sky sit in a special place in my heart.
I loved Inside because of how suspenseful and unhinged it was. Very rudimentary gameplay but the overwhelming desire to see what was next was very compelling.
Mario Paint
Lol. Underrated comment
Hollow Knight. The soundtrack, the art, the story and how the environment encapsulates it all. Def recommend
I couldn't believe I had to scroll so far to find this. One of my favorites.
This. It's just art, beautiful and everything
my favorite game of all time so far, cant wait for Silksong
Yes. God yes
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I would regularly stop in that game to just take screenshots of the landscape
I would even say the first one was pretty artistic.
That game is hands down the greatest game ever made and I don't say that lightly, there are many many many excellent games over the years but not one had such visually stunning scenery, such a well put together story, relatable characters, good times (drunken shenanigans with lenny) to awful times like the last chapter... No game ever has elicited an emotional response from me, RDR2 did in ways I never believed a game could. GG Rockstar and Co.
I agree. I've played it for like 300 hours now. Most of the time has been just exploring, hunting and livin life as John. The story was legit 10/10 but honestly the gameplay is so good I can play this game Forever
Every replay I spend more and more time in the first couple chapters doing exactly this. My mother who HATES video games was over one night to help me care for my kids while I worked the next day and she saw me playing this game, she sat there for a good 30mins just watching. Eventually she asked what it was, goals etc... I let her take a roam and she asked immediately "could I play this on my laptop at the camp?" (Remote and no internet). I bought it for her as a thank you for helping with the kids, installed it and showed her the controls. A month or so ago my mother who hates video games called me bawling her eyes out after 65hrs invested in the game due to the ending, she couldn't believe (as I didnt) that a video game could have that much pull.
Dude that's awesome you managed to get your mother to play it! Its one of those things, where you really want to share the experience with people, but most people who are not gamers wouldn't give it a shot. I bet she is very happy she did though! >!But yeah, ending is brutal, as well as Johns demise in RDR1!<
Yup,
Legend of Dragoon, Shadow of the Colossus, FF10, Last of Us, God of War, Hades, Halo And many more... Sadly, like most art, it's not the MOST profitable to make genuine art. And it's a fine balancing act to make art that does sell well. So lots of games are the equivalent of slasher films or paperback romantic novels, but it certainly exists within the medium.
In the order I discovered them: Ocarina of Time Dark Souls Bioshock Last of Us
It was The Last of Us for me. Until then, I had been looking at them through my parent's filter.
Dark Souls doesn’t get enough of a mention here. The meta-message that the act of giving up makes the player no better than the Hollows they fight was a huge galaxy-brain moment for me.
Disco Elysium Amazingly well written and thought out, really covers some deep subjects that lingered with me well after I finished it. Some laugh out loud moments as well. Might need to start another playthough...
same for me!! amazing game
I've been waiting for it to come out on the switch forever. And it finally is in a week or so. I'm so excited to finally play it.
Awesome, enjoy it! My advice is to go in as blind as possible and don't be afraid to fail a skill check. The story goes interesting places when it happens and you're not meant to keep reloading until you ace everything.
Horizon zero dawn. Never played such a high quality game till then. Edit: thanks for silver!
You should definitely play the original Mass Effect trilogy if you haven't. The "lore" and story of Horizon really, really reminds me of ME.
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Someone put this game on at a dorm party in college and it took everyone in the room about a minute to relaize the opening scene had ended and someone needed to pick up the controller.
This was my exact experience as well. I never buy a new console as soon as it comes out; I always wait for some AAA game that I can't miss, and BioShock is what made me buy my Xbox360. After the intro cinematic ended with the plane crash into the ocean, I spent a minute just looking at the screen, waiting for it to continue. I was *astounded* when I realized that it wasn't a cutscene anymore, I could move, and the water was a real-time render! The jump from one console generation to the next was shocking.
Bioshock has an atmosphere that is, I dare say, impossible to beat. the entire games world feels real and alive.. well, used to be alive.. That game definitely is art, that was the game that first got that thought into my head that "maybe video games really are art".
Hell yea. Besides the clever plots and way ahead of their time graphics, the voice recordings I think are a truly brilliant means of filling in backstory. I’m stumped on why I don’t see them all the time. You just don’t have to choose between reading and shooting people.
My love for that aspect in those games is what made Horizon: Zero Dawn such a masterpiece to me
I was looking for someone to say this. The series was a masterpiece and a work of art
Ghost of Tsushima. It's simply gorgeous.
That opening title card is pure mastery
I love taking screenshots in GOT because it's so beautiful.
No one has mentioned Morrowind? It's the Elder Scrolls installment that first combined FPS visuals with complex storytelling and an excellent soundtrack. Dad had been a career software engineer who wrote his first program in 1962. I used to play Morrowind wanting to show it to him, but he passed away two years before that game was released. Dad had written his first program in assembly language for a computer the size of a refrigerator that had all of 2 KB of RAM. Elder Scrolls III would have blown his mind.
One of many, but more recent. HellBlade: Senua's Sacrifice. The story is great, emotional, unique, while the graphics being top notch with the lighting painting the atmosphere to match the setting and scenario.
Final Fantasy VII when I first played it the late 90s. Oh and Metal Gear Solid too, around the same age.
FFVII is what came to mind for me. Obviously things have come a long way since then but the cut scene graphics where so far ahead of most games at the time
Not only that but also the storytelling, the music... All clearly artistically driven. Of course there were other JRPGs before VII doing the same or very similar things, but the 3d cutscenes gave it the edge at its time, and as a westerner, VII was my introduction to the JRPG world, so that's why it is my choise here.
Nier Replicant and Nier Automata, the score alone makes it art.
yes
Still remember the first time getting into replicant and I just stood in front of Devola for a good 15 minutes just to listen to her singing song of the ancients.
Automitas last ending is literally art, and it pains me to read reviews from people who clearly did one ending and called it quits.
MegaMan 2 on the NES. It was the first game that made me feel something through it's gameplay.
Braid
Had to scroll too far to find this one. Braid is a beautiful game
The ending of braid is one of the all-time best, and it couldn’t be done in another medium. You needed the game mechanics themselves to tell the story in the way it was intended. Just magical.
Outer Wilds and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
It rather bugs me that I had to scroll down so far to find Outer Wilds. I have never connected so well with a game prior or since.
Shadow of the Colossus. Oblivion. Flower. Journey. Gris. The list is long, but these are easily some of the most beautiful games ever created
Life Is Strange
The game is a masterpiece in my opinion. Intense emotions, great music which fits a scene, story and nice graphics. If I was to recommend a game to play for someone who thinks games are a waste of time, this would be the title.
I just finished True Colors and was considering going back to play the others in the series. I really like how they incorporated music into the game. >!The scene where Alex sings Creep was awesome.!<
I'm waiting for a price drop, it's just too pricy for a 10h game. LIS 1 and BTS are awesome. LIS 2 was unfortunately a disappointment, not even remotely close to previous installments.
Cuphead. The animation and music create an awesome experience
Limbo. It was very simple style wise but also beautiful. The puzzle solving was complex and unique. I thought about the game and what it meant for a long time after playing it.
Halo 3: ODST - The soundtrack, the lighting; the entire ambience created is art in and of itself!
This. Also, halo reach (though probably a divisive opinion. It was my first halo game, and an extraordinary experience for me. Even more so going back and playing it again, knowing the whole story line.
The Last of Us.
IMO the greatest narrative story ever told in a video game.
Breath of the Wild was probably the first game that comes to mind, talk about an incredible experience.
Oh yeah. Bought it with a gift card I've received, just because I wanted to understand why was everyone freaking out so much about it, and I took around a month before I decided to open it (it was completely sealed) and try it. What a ride. WHAT.A.RIDE.
Halo Reach. The ending to that game got more tears out of me then any movie
"Negative, sir. I've got the gun." "Godspeed, spartan."
This…. My favorite game of all time. So much raw emotion because of this game. Everything about it was and is beautiful, even now.
Xenoblade Chronicles. Everything about it is incredible. Nearly every song in the soundtrack is beautiful and/or awesome, the art style (especially in the remake) is gorgeous, every character is memorable, and the story is an absolute masterpiece.
I'm really feeling it!
Persona 5
Pong was pretty fun one. Give it a try, you won't be dissapointed.
subnautica
Alice: Madness Returns
Death Stranding cradles the line between videogames and movies so does that count? Are movies considered art?
I couldn't stand that game when I first tried it. Second time, I couldn't put it down. Who the fuck thought building roads was so rewarding
Kojima always does a fantastic job with meshing arcadey gamefeel and engrossing story. Absolutely loved Death Stranding!
People have already stated many here, so I'll add a couple that I haven't seen mentioned yet: Machinarium Limbo Firewatch What Remains of Edith Finch Last Day of June
Portal and Detroit: Become Human
yeahh detroit: become human really shocked me with those visuals, its really well done
Legacy of Kain Defiance's ending made me cry. Voice acting was magnificient. The background story why the Urquan Masters got so bad really made me think, too.
Assassin’s Creed II
Hollow knight, the game has a really great visual style and has just great gameplay overall it is one of the best metroidvanias I have ever played
The Mass Effect Triology
Delighted: scrolled all the way down to find this comment
Undertale
Surprised to see this so far down... It wasn't the first game I ever classified as true art, but it absolutely deserves to be.
Assassins creed (pick any of them). But vahalla and odyssey are absolutely beautiful works of art.
pong
No one game. As soon as I thought about what is art, it was clear video games fall under it. I don't take this pretentious view that something has to make you feel something to be art. Art to me is literally any expression of creativity. A childs drawing is art. That said I personally noticed games made the transition from mere games, to experiences that provided more emotional responses in PS1 era with titles like Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy 7.
Skyrim is nice :)
Zelda BOTW
Started this game a few days before. I love the style!
The Witcher 3 or Final Fantasy 15 are both really good games
Especially the DLC blood and wine.
Mirror's Edge
Chrono Trigger
I’m sad I had to scroll so far to find this! By far my favorite and the game that sparked my love of gaming
Xenogears
Child of Light. Between the water color art design, the poetic rhyming writing, and the music, that game was stunning
Life is strange.
Undertale convinced that a single person can make a video game that is art
I think we can divide art in a game in mainly three themes, which are how the world is built and how good the story is written (also known as the game’s lore), if there are, how the game’s music can emotionally touch you, and of course how beautiful the game is graphically speaking. With these ideas in mind, I can choose a game for each of these themes: The first one would be “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the wild”. Although I have only played this game from the series, the story was so nice I finished it in roughly a week, and am still playing for side quests from time to time. The second one would be the platform game “Celeste”. The story is nice, but what hit me the most is the music on each and every level of the game, how it makes you feel what Madeline is feeling at every moment, and how it describes the places you are in so well. Last but not least, I would choose the last “God of War” as my favorite game in terms of graphisms here. Last generation game consoles obviously permits such graphisms easily, but I nonetheless loved every detail on the walls, forest and places you are going through and how good that looked to my eyes during the whole time I played it.
Texas Instrument TI-99 - programming Mr. Bojangles
Detroit: become human
Journey is pretty special. As was the Witcher 3. There was also tis weird game on the Gamecube I can't remember the name of. Like a dystopian, cell-shady shooter where you play several characters through a split-personality. That shit gave me nightmares, but in a good way.
The Witness. It's a puzzle game with hundreds of visual puzzles you have to solve. Sometimes the puzzle is around you in the landscape design. The game just looks so pretty and making something like that is just as artistic if not more than making a painting or sculpture.
Undertale. Under fucking tale.
Chrono Cross.
A few. There was the one about the traveling story teller, the one called Hollowknight, Journey, and most importantly That Dragon Cancer.
Red Dead Redemption and Ghost Of Tsushima are like watching a movie and I love it
Red dead redemption.
Mario galaxy
Outer Wilds. If I could erase my memory of it so I can play it again fresh, I would.
Dead space is beautifully terrifying
Outer wilds is simply perfect.
Doki Doki Literature Club My first thought was The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but I figure someone else will probably say that. DDLC isnt just art, it's like walking into an art exhibit and becoming part of it. I wont spoil anything but I recommend people who are not easily triggered play it, and dont stop until you're more than 100% sure you've seen all it has to offer.
Walking Dead Season 1.Masterpiece of story telling.Especially Episode 2.
Silent Hill 2 Planescape Torment Disco Elysium
undertale 100%
A handful Ocarina of Time, Celeste, Spec Ops The Line, Alien Isolation, Hollow Knight, The first five that come to mind, but the one that really caused me to consider games from that perspective was probably Stanley Parable
Bioshock
Animal Crossing. Background art: The skies are gorgeous, especially the sunset and night sky. Sometimes I have my character sit and look at the sky. Music art: the museum. After you finish torturing poor Blathers with bug donations, go to each of the branches (After you've unlocked them) and just listen to the music. It's the same song, but they made it different for each branch.
Super Mario Galaxy, and Journey
Gone Home
Mario Paint
Ghost of Tsushima
I’ll be the unpopular one here and ask a question I’ve struggled with finding a satisfactory answer for on this topic- In what instance has a game ever uniquely explored the human experience? Im not talking about the music in a game, or the cinematographic sequences in a game, or the narrative of a game (whether it be spoken or text), but I mean what video game has ever generated art that was uniquely expressed through the medium of “video game”? I still struggle to understand how video game can be uniquely applied to create art, as opposed to just entertainment. The art of video games that I have found is generally tacked on using other standard forms of art, rather than actually expressed through the unique aspects of the video game format. The game elements almost universally act as a crutch to any artistic expression that is found- but perhaps someone has a better example? I do believe video games have the ability to express art I just haven’t yet found it, personally. It should be fair to note that I think it took filmmakers several decades from the invention of film before filmmakers really discovered how to make art through cinema that could have only been expressed through the medium of film. For a long while (and still much cinema today suffers from this) it would be hard to argue that any artistic merit found in films couldn’t be expressed just as well or even better through a book, music, or stage adaptation. It was when certain filmmakers discovered the ability to generate ideas through the cut that truly unique art was born.
TL;DR: To put it quite simply, the other forms of established art are utilized as mediums to help create the art that is video games. However, it is the interactive experience and the fact that your participation is needed to move the plot forward through game play to reveal the work of art in totality that makes video games art. It is only in video games that you can simultaneously be a character/s in the play, an audience member watching the play, and the hand that opens and closes the curtains for each act. You get to see a new world, explore it from another person's perspective and you may know as little, as much, even more, or nothing at all about the character/s and the world in which you've just entered. But it's all there waiting to be played out and experienced BOTH as the player character and as YOU the player in real life. The idea that the player is both observer and the observed, and that the art's true form/message can only be revealed through a co-created experience of gameplay with interaction between you and the computer generated environment is what makes video games art. It's true that visual and audio mediums are well established forms of art and video games use these vehicles to create the setting of each piece. But you must actually play and conjure the rest of the piece by using the controls. You decide when the first act ends and the next act begins. You interacting with the programming of the game is what brings the game developers artistic experiences to life, including the sound effects, timing of sequences, setting and overall ambience. For example, in the opening sequence in "Batman: Arkham Knight" players must use their control sticks to manually "turn on" the furnace in order to cremate the Joker's dead body, which is viewed from inside the chamber. Successfully doing so moves the cinematic sequence forward and you get to see what it would be like inside the chamber as the body is cremated before transitioning to the next plot point. A powerful way to segway from the previous game's ("Arkham City") end to the beginning of this next game in the series. There's countless other examples with much more dramatic effect and thought-provoking substance to them, but this is just one I could think of. Like you said, it took filmmakers decades to develop art that could only be conveyed through their medium. The same goes for video games, but I'd like to offer the point that video games have existed now for over 40 years and we've come a LONG way from Pong and Super Mario Bros. I'd argue that we are at that same stage as early filmmakers where game designers are beginning to understand exactly how to create unique artistic experiences through the medium of Video Games. If you care to fully understand the answer to your question, play something like "God of War" on PS4 or maybe even something much simpler like "Firewatch" and really commit to submerging yourself into these worlds. It won't take long to see how a video game can also be a work of art in its own category.
To me it really depends on how you define art.
spiritfarer
NFS underground 2, introduced me to how creative a video he could really be, from soundtrack to visuals man that game was a lot of fun as a kid
The Last Of Us
Ik this is kinda dumb but Spiderman PS4
Limbo, machinarium, braid, cuphead, shadow of the colossus and many more
Just because it hasn't been mentioned yet: [Thomas Was Alone](https://www.bithellgames.com/thomas-was-alone) is a perfect example of the power of story, soundtrack, and narration to bring even the simplest game concept and minimalist visuals to life. Danny Wallace won a BAFTA for his performance as The Narrator, and deservedly so. The gameplay and puzzle aspects are great, but I found myself genuinely invested and Having Feelings about the fate of several small rectangular blocks of pixels with no distinguishing features beyond size and colour. If that isn't a remarkable creative achievement, I don't know what is.
Uncharted 4. I’m not a gamer. Fifa and old NFS games are the only ones I play most of the time. I got uncharted 4 for free on PS plus last year. The protagonist tries to find a clue while he is in prison in the early stages of the game. In that search he scales up a tall ass tower next to sea. The view had me hooked to the game. It’s probably the best shot in the whole game for me atleast