Marvel Rivals has done a great job of showing everyone that stylized graphics for superhero games are a perfect fit. The upcoming Marvel Cosmic Invasion is also going to do this with its ‘90s aesthetic, so it looks like this is something that’s going to continue.
While we understand that realistic graphics are appealing, it’s good to know that superhero games are moving away from this trend, at least for the most part.
Insomniac’s Spider-Man games seemed to find the right balance of using realistic graphics in a superhero game. Character models were based on real people, and seeing them emote was a really impressive feat. But it did so with a really colorful art style and had a really vibrant city to explore.
There were also a lot of comic book costumes to unlock, which helped with the superhero setting.
Fans started having enough of the realistic visuals when Marvel’s Avengers was first revealed to the public. Although the visuals did get better, fans didn’t like how it tried to make everything realistic, and the live-service stuff didn’t help. While there are defenders of this game, including me, it is a shame that they didn’t go for a more stylized graphical style.
Eidos’ Guardians of the Galaxy still kept a realistic graphics style, but it was more in line with what we saw from Marvel’s Spider-Man. Unfortunately, despite looking and playing well, fans were burned by Avengers and didn’t think to pick this game up. It’s a real shame too because the story is great and the gameplay is solid, but some of those faces were off-putting.
One of the biggest culprits for realistic graphics in superhero games is Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite. This shooter moved to a different engine but attempted to use the same character models from Marvel vs Capcom 3, which didn’t work out. It led to one of the ugliest graphic styles we’ve ever seen in a superhero game, and it took Maximilian Dood to make this game look better.
We don’t mind when superhero games go the realistic route occasionally. Like we said, it works for Marvel’s Spider-Man and fans mostly like how that game looks. But with Marvel Rivals now changing the game and showing everyone whata stylized superhero game can look like, we hope this realistic art style is canned for a bit.
The future looks bright now that stylized games like Marvel Rivals and Cosmic Invasion are giving us more comic book-looking graphics. Maybe DC can learn from this and start adapting this style as well.
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