Former designer of Thief: The Dark Project, game director Ion Storm and sometimes Spielberg collaborator Randy Smith Evergreen has shared his possibly inflammatory view that photorealistic video game graphics don’t need to be any more advanced than Remedy’s original Alan Wake. For context, Alan Wake came out in 2010, when some of you were screaming babies. Every touted breakthrough in visual fidelity since that golden year? An unnecessary indulgence and a reckless parody. A middle finger stuck God’s nose.
Smith Evergreen is completely wrong, of course: the video game’s graphics are actually complemented by the PS1’s MediEvil, which definitely remains the most faithful and convincing depiction of an incompetent walking skeleton known to science. That said, we’re talking about an OG Thief designer. Let’s listen to the poor soul.
“The loyalty curve has become scandalous,” Smith Evergreen told the RPS fanzine. PC gamer in a recent interview. “It became a spectacle. I remember when Alan Wake came out, I was like, ‘OK, this is relatively photorealistic. I know 100% that I’m on a ferry. I see I’m going to an island in the Pacific Northwest. Why do we need more graphics? Because they cost a ton. “Like, I get it 100%. I get the vibe. It’s good. What else are we doing with this graphics arms race, right?”
I myself have quite vivid memories of this ferry. The slow approach to the city. The comforting rumble of the engine and the ashen hue of the storefronts and signs. If the graphics had stopped there, I wouldn’t have shed a tear. “I think Alan Wake is the fidelity that everything must achieve,” Smith Evergreen continued. “Wherever you are, I get it. I get your vibes. I can tell what’s going on, and anything beyond that is gravy.”
Smith Evergreen is of course very casual in its wording. Talking about “more graphics” makes no sense. There isn’t a single Graphics that is getting bigger as people like Tim Sweeney pour more and more money into it. Even photorealism, often treated as some kind of neutral criterion or artistic defect, is not a monolith: there are practitioners and specific styles or traditions of photorealist art.
In fairness, Smith Evergreen narrowed the scope of his follow-up remark a bit, arguing that immersive sims, in particular, don’t need to be as expensive as “AAA” blockbusters like Ghost of Tsushima and GTA 6. “Of course, would gamers prefer an immersive sim offering insane spectacle and great Arkane Lyon-quality views?” he said. “Of course they would like that. But is that necessary for the reason you came to immersive simulation? I’m not sure that’s the case.” Indeed, blowing the budget by ensuring a Dishonored game has, I don’t know, hairstyles as fine as you’d find in a Ghost of Tsushima might be “a bad read for the size of the audience for immersive sims.”
The ridiculous width of the frame aside, I like the underlying sentiment here that we don’t need to keep spending gobs of money to make this year’s cobblestones look 13% cobblestoner than last year’s. Where do you draw the line for graphics to be “good enough”? Again, we’ve established that MediEvil on PS1 was the watermark, but I’m interested to hear your false opinions nonetheless.
