I've got a few for this one. Art direction can really make or break a game. Look at Darksiders which has a very World of Warcraft style to the characters, but the backgrounds are the ubiquitous "browns, browns and more browns" in a lot of places. It creates an interesting dichotomy of colorful, overlarge characters that pop off the screen while the backdrop is dingy. So, now that I've rambled a bit, let's get to my favorite art styles!
First off, I love the cute stuff. I love seeing everyday objects and items used in imaginative ways. Two titles that do it and do it well are ilomilo and LittleBigPlanet. Both of these take the mundane and make them whimsical. In LBP, you can see the backdrops are made of cardboard, wood and glass. However, when those everyday objects are painted to look like trees or clouds, you get a charming "school project" feeling to it all. Throw in Sackboy, one of my favorite characters, and it all comes together in a way that melts my heart.
I won't belabor the point on ilomilo. Instead, just check out my review and enjoy the screen shots below!
Moving on, I also enjoy style choices that permeate the entire game. Deus Ex: Human Revolution did this very well with their "black and gold" filter. The game has a unifying sense of style and cohesion shown through the filter. It's great to travel from Detroit to Hengsha, China and have it feel familiar and alien all at the same time. This unifying art direction allows the player to see a shot of the game and say, "Oh, I know that game!"
My last one (lest I go on for ages) goes to games that step outside the box. Particularly, I'm speaking of games that take an unexpected style that may seem off, but ends up making it all right in the end. The first two in this category are Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and Metal Gear Ac!d. I know a lot of Zelda fans cried foul at the cell-shading done for Wind Waker. It wasn't the gritty, realistic Link and Hyrule that had been shown at E3 and it looked like a kiddy Saturday morning cartoon. But, what it lacked in over saturated browns it more than made up for with expressiveness. Characters popped off the screen and their larger heads and eyes meant that expressions of surprise, anger and happiness were exaggerated. This is charming! And the look of the world benefits from it, too! I haven't played much, but each area that I've seen radiates personality and charm because it's not trying to be realistic. Metal Gear Ac!d did the same on PSP. The two Ac!d games are card-based, strategy RPGs. If you've ever played a Metal Gear game you know that it focuses on stealth-action. This was a huge departure, and the art style reflected that. More comic book than action movie, the Ac!ds were more over-the-top and wild. This departure from the main-line series is nicely noted with the distinctive art direction.
Outside the box can also be changing things up. None do this better than El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. The overall art is cell-shaded and stylized. Where El-Shaddai takes the "path less traveled" is that each level of the Tower of Babel has it's own art direction. The styles range from pastel drawings like those of a child to Tron inspired neon cityscapes to ethereal realms with billowing clouds and shifting, almost like Japanese sumie painting. Direction like this marks each level as unique and you'll never see the same backdrops in other parts of the tower. The sense of progression and a long journey is chronicled by the ever-shifting art style.
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