The Expersive Art Of Video Games

Video games are perhaps not what comes to the mind when thinking of art. From the days of arcade blockbusters like Pac-Man to the handheld mania of Tetris to the modern trend of battle royale like Fortnite, video games have traditionally been interactive entertainment which are designed to do little more than just offer some distraction from the busy day to day life.

However, given that it’s an audio-visual medium and often has atleast a rudimentary story-telling element, visionaries working in the field quickly realised its potential as art. Instead of just having space invaders being destroyed by the dozens or plumbers rescuing princesses, video game developers quickly started to explore deeper and more nuanced stories. As early as 1993, we can see games like Cosmology of Kyoto, which sheds the usual goal based objective model of typical video games and try a revolutionary concept of Open World exploration, which is becoming a staple in games now. Cosmology of Kyoto went even further and explored concepts like religion, history, mythology and Buddhist philosophy in the game.

Soon after that, taking cue from the wildly popular and imaginative Dungeons & Dragons and other similar games, Role Playing Games, also known as RPGs became more and more prevalent. These games had strong story arcs, wide array of character choices and multiple directions the story can go to, depending on the choices made by the player. Once again, Japanese games were leading the trend with classics like Castlevania and Final Fantasy gaining popularity across the globe. Over the years, modern games have explored some truly complex and subtle subjects. Spec Ops was inspired by Conrad’s masterpiece Heart Of Darkness to explore the moral ambiguity of war and the toll it takes on soldiers. Bioshock series looked into themes like capitalism, objectivism and how those we view as revolutionaries can turn into oppressors themselves. Papers, Please made the players struggle through the dichotomy of personal goals vs good deeds by putting them in the shoes of an immigration officer in an Orwellian state. That Dragon, Cancer was created by a couple who lost their child to cancer and shares their experience of coping through the traumatic experience.

Apart from great stories, video games often elevate other elements of the medium like visuals and even gameplay to artistic heights. Beautiful looking games are quite common now, with powerful hardware capable of handling heavy-duty graphics becoming more accessible to the public. Games like Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and Ghost Of Tsushima are landmark titles in terms of truly stunning visuals.

However, there are some games which don’t go down the route of traditionally beautiful visuals, but make something unique and memorable. Abzu let us explore a surreal ocean world, Ori and the Will Of The Wisps  looks like Pixar and Japanese manga art mixed in perfect harmony, while Journey a game without a single word, established a new paradigm in visual art style.

So, perhaps you can pick up one of the titles mentioned here, or any of the numerous others we couldn’t mention, because there are so many brilliant games to explore, and discover the immersive art of video games. Happy gaming!

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