Visuals that have aged exceptionally well

[Beans00]

A lot of late 2d stuff still looks great today.

Arcanum, baldurs gate, icewind dale ect still look great today.

Late 90's RTS's also still look great. Starcraft, age of empires, tiberian sun and red alert 2. Early 3d rts's don't look nearly as good 20 years later.


Going to throw in a few games here I didn't notice mentioned in the thread

Edit- another one I'm surprised wasnt mentioned

 

[Elthosian]

Metroid Prime looks remarkably well for a game released more than 20 years ago. This is on Dolphin (without texture packs), but it can look pretty well too when played on a GameCube/Wii on a reasonably sized TV.



The Longest Journey had beautiful aesthetics but suffers from similar issues as other games with pre-rendered backgrounds. Dunno if they ever released higher resolution versions.

 

[Melan]

Among positively ancient games, The Lords of Midnight (1984) holds up very well. Its graphics are simplistic, but they are also iconic, drawing on Tolkien's artwork (the pieces he did himself). Not even the remake messed with them, and this is to its great benefit.

I am surprised nobody has brought up Quake yet. In Quake, the jagged / dirty look is part of the whole rusty aesthetic the game goes for, so it just does not age at all. Doom does, a little bit, but Quack is eternal. Don't even switch on the filtering. Stay with software rendering, stay PVRE.

 

[anvi]

Original Dune (1992) was really good

 

[ds]

The Longest Journey had beautiful aesthetics but suffers from similar issues as other games with pre-rendered backgrounds. Dunno if they ever released higher resolution versions.

The backgrounds are fine as is - it's the primitive 3D characters that stick out. That, and the absurd character animations in the pre-rendered cutscenes. Still, nothing that should affect your ability to enjoy the game.

 

[toughasnails]

I am surprised nobody has brought up Quake yet. In Quake, the jagged / dirty look is part of the whole rusty aesthetic the game goes for, so it just does not age at all.

Agreed. This is one of my issues with much of modern Quake mapping, that original grungy/rusty/nightmarish surrealism is often abandoned for much cleaner (high) fantasy aesthetics. Arcane Dimensions maps sometimes look like locations ripped from a WoW expansion.

Speaking of rusty/grimy, anyone here played this?
https://www.mobygames.com/game/1852/azraels-tear/screenshots/
Fully 3D adventure (with a bit of action) from '96. It had remarkably detailed environments, great lighting and texturework. Some stills could easily pass for a prerendered adventure from around that time.
(And it's a pretty worthwhile if flawed game, in spite of its obscurity)

 

[Zoo]

Maybe the nostalgia, but I was always fond of Contra (NES).

D&D Tower of Doom and Shadow over Mystara are pretty, too.

Jagged Alliance 2 criticized back than because of its outdated graphics, but it has aged well.

Almost all of the prettier adventure games are beautiful today and will ever be. One of my favourites is aestethics is Legend of Kyrandia 2, but it had already mentioned. So I go this time with The Curse of the Monkey Island. It's a shame that all of the subsequent Monkey Island games are hideous, including MI1 Special Edition. MI2 SE is a bit better.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

 

[Darkozric]

The longest Journey is rich in backgrounds and there's also an hd mod.
https://tljhd.github.io/

But the game is a bit overrated imo. Still, worthy of a play-through, just for the backgrounds and the ambiance.

 

[:Flash:]

Alpha Waves (1990)

Frontier: Elite 2 (1993) (The later Frontier First Encounters aged way worse due to the textures)

The Need for Speed (1995)

Knights of Honor (2004)

 

[Beastro]

Lol, funny that people are bringing up Marathon now after the recent announcement. Before that I rarely ever seen anybody talk about those games. They would only appear in conversations about Halo. Those games were pretty much forgotten.

The only place I ever found discussion about Marathon was on the Codex looking it up online, from several years ago, from what I saw a lot of development on the source ports came from Bungie re-releasing it with Halo. I don't really like Halo and Marathon is a clusterfuck mac fps but playable with a map.

Usually when I see discussion of an older product and they want to re-release it I just think of manipulative marketing, there is a chance people remember it but companies can always just produce more marketing to pretend there was already a market in the first place for it.

The first major mention I came across it was from the eyebrows kid (wish he kept making videos):



Wouldn't be surprised if he posted here now or in the past.

 

[Beastro]

Knights of Honor (2004)

Looks like AoE2s art assets

 

[Eirinjas]

 

[KIss My Ass]

Alot of good examples posted in the thread. Imo I still believe Resident Evil Remake is the best example because it didn't remotely resemble anything else made in 2002 or before it. Character models and lighting were both ahead of their time. People will bitch about the pre-rendered backgrounds and call it cheating but that doesn't take away from the fact they looked great and mixed in seamlessly well with the 3D stuff. REmake is the GOAT. I'll always stand by that. Silent Hill 3 (which I mentioned alongside REmake) has aged a bit worse. Heather's hair looks awful.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

Moonstone from 1991 holds up nicely. I still hear the joystick sounds when I look at this gem...

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight "TRIVIA: The game was banned in Germany because it was considered too violent for children. It is still banned in Germany today and consequently is considered a rare and collectible game there."

 

[ds]

Looks like Moonstone's "ban" expired in 2017. It was also on List A meaning that it was legal to sell to adults but not even legal to advertise to kids which means normal stores won't bother. Still ridiculous but not as bad as e.g. Left 4 Dead where the uncut version was illegal to sell to anyone (but still legal to posses).

 

[Rahdulan]

I think out of all P&C adventure games Broken Sword 1 and 2 probably stand out the most to me as they didn't have the advantage of an exaggerated art style that would make them timeless in comparison to some realism chasing. Artists simply put in amazing effort.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS OK MY FIRST CANTITATE IS BLACK FOR OG FAGBOX

BROS FUCKING GAME LOOKS BETTER THAN MOST NEW SHIT IT ALL FOCUSES ON HOW GOOD THE FUCKING GUNS LOOK AND ANIMATE



OF COURSE 2D SHIT KEEPS CURRENT BUT BLACK STILL LOOKS SOUNDS AND FEELS AWESONE

SHELL CASINGS ARE LEFT ABF ALL BULET MARKS STAY AND THERE IS TERRAIN DESTRUCTION

EVEN BEST IS WHEN YOU SHOOT AND BREAK UP THE ENEMY CONCRETE COVER YOU MAKE SO MUCH DUST YOU JUST AIM AT THE MUZZLE FLASH

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS LOLLLOLOL THE VIDEO I PISTED MUST BE PLAYING ON EZMOADE

YOU GOTTA PUMP MUST MOTHERFUCKERS WITH HALF A CLIP TO KILL THEMA

 

[luj1]

Moonstone from 1991 holds up nicely. I still hear the joystick sounds when I look at this gem...

moonstone is a prestigious title

designed like an adventure boardgame

 

[luj1]

really hotseat friendly too

 

[luj1]

Fallout Tactics is 22 years old

Last Blade 2 is 25 years old

Heart of Darkness also 25 years old

 

[Cyberarmy]

Moonstone is really ahead of it's time and still holds up, still better than most AAA garbage.

Dig 1995, one of the reaasons I love sci -fi THIS MUCH.

 

[Lagi]

Dig is a fantastic game at the start, so clever dialogs. But once you start exploring island it's better to watch it on yt.