MA Games Design Research - 'Unrecord' & Hyper Realism in Games

 Hyper realism in games & 'Unrecord'

    Whether you want to call it hyper realism or photo realism, there is a certain push towards ever more realistic graphics in videos games, especially in the FPS genre but not limited to that. There seems to be controversy and split opinions over whether this is actually a good thing or not and whether it can in some cases provoke violent or negative reactions from something being too realistic. This debate over graphical fidelity and realism has spanned many years, such is the case with the original Doom and other titles sparking criticism for being too realistic in it's graphics and a possible driving force for violence in young impressionable minds. 

    However the main thing surrounding a game's popularity and success is how fun it is to play, after all that's why they exist in the first place, in order to elicit enjoyment and fun for the player, otherwise games simply wouldn't be made as they are a very costly endeavour. Sure there are many other reasons to making a game but ultimately it's for the consumers. 

    Now when it comes to realism the main focus point as I said earlier for most people is the graphics and how real it looks, however the underlying fun factor typically is held within the gameplay loop, mechanics, story etc... along with the visuals.

    An interesting article I found questions the fun of realistic mechanics that are forced endlessly upon the player in games such as Red Dead Redemption 2, where skinning a deer you've just hunted is not a skippable action, however I believe there is an option to skip this in RDR2 so either the article was published before this feature was added or they misspoke perhaps.

    But they bring up a good point of realism being forced upon a player for the sake of it being faithful and whether or not that contributes to the fun of the game or hinders the overall experience. My opinion in the case of RDR2 is the attention to detail is something that blew me away and while yes could get repetitive sometimes, most of the time it was still a feat of ingenuity that the developers spent time meticulously crafting in order to perfect it into a state that felt natural.

    If you would like to read the article it can be found via this link; 
https://www.thebubble.org.uk/lifestyle/gaming/the-absurdity-of-realism-in-video-games/

    Shifting back over slightly to the visuals debate, after all I come from an artist's perspective and I will admit that I have purchased games or been interested in them based on purely how they look, but not always because they look realistic more so they look visually stunning (high resolution, incredible environments, etc...) but yes sometimes because they do look realistic. 

    If you have yet to see the news surrounding a project in development named 'Unrecord' or even the early gameplay trailer itself I urge you to follow this link to the trailer and watch it;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qvVNzsJyB0&ab_channel=DRAMA%2F%2FUnrecord

    Above are some images from the game that is being developed by a French studio named DRAMA, however the trailer does it much more justice as it is not only the visuals but the sound design and lighting that lend to the realism of the experience.

    Now many people all over the internet from internet personalities to gamers are being fooled into thinking that this game is actual body cam footage and it is all a hoax. However the devs have come out and released another video of them loading the project up in UE5 and messing around in the exact same location the trailer is shot in, proving that this really is just a video game.

    But this is again sparking the debate of can a game be too realistic and what implications does that have on people and the fun of the game? Well I think right now it's a matter of only time will tell. But even I felt somewhat uncomfortable watching the trailer, however I believe this comes from the fact it is more of a thriller, detective style take on a police officer so there are some horror elements within the trailer.

    It is again impressive to see the level of details from the sound design to the mechanics of the pistol and then the lighting, that all come together to make something so believable, but still in this early gameplay trailer the keen eye can spot things that lead to that uncanny valley effect of everything being realistic and then the slightest thing being wrong or not perfect throwing the rest of the feel off, from barrels and the npc's textures feeling off or simulated may be a better way to put it.

    I've watched a few different reactions to this trailer on youtube to gain multiple perspectives, we have a trained US Marine reacting to it from a more tactical standpoint of whether the combat actions are believable and realistic; 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27hvWKZuafo&ab_channel=CombatArmsChannel

    We have internet personalities such as; Moist Critical, a famous youtuber/streamer who reacts to everything and voices his opinions on topics, Jackfrags, a well known FPS youtuber and even Linus from Linus Tech Tips, weighing in on the topic as well. All links to each video will be below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbLADEbceag&ab_channel=penguinz0 - Moist Critical

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvrRCBlTmDE&ab_channel=jackfrags - Jackfrags

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZNzGDljDws&ab_channel=LMGClips - Linus Tech Tips

    Each voice has their own take on it from all kinds of different perspectives, however something that sat with me was taken from Moist Critical's video, time stamp; 

https://youtu.be/HbLADEbceag?t=428

    But Moist is talking in his video about the debate of whether these kind of hyper realistic shooters will lead young people to more violent tendencies but he goes on to say "I don't think you can shelter people from Art" which caught me off guard as being something profound and very true.

    Throughout history many times have people, governments, the media tried to censor more traditional forms of art, however most people forget that video games are a version of art or perhaps they don't view it through that lens but I do and I agree with Moist where censoring or sheltering people from these kinds of things just can't be done without then taking something away from the creators and the people you are trying to safeguard.