It's not just Strafe. Definitely
not just Strafe. And, you know what? Not only am I fine with it, I *welcome* it. I know, shocking. Ensue the "BURN THE HERETIC!" gamer meme tropes -- but, wait, it gets worse, just read the whole thing and you'll probably be burning with rage by the end.
I think it's about time gamers stop being self-entitled, elitist pricks. Some developers opt to go a pixel-art route, others decide to go for a low-poly "early 3D" aesthetic. Some of them do it out of laziness, others genuinely believe it's a means to better convey what idea they were going for. Yet for other devs, it's the easiest, most cost-effective way to develop a game. Some pixel-art and/or low-poly 3D games will be bad, for sure. Others won't. Some of them are actually pretty good, and a lot of people will miss out on amazing games just because of the art direction the developers -- for whatever reason, more or less "legitimate" -- decided to go with. And that's fine. All of us will always be missing out on something we would have probably enjoy, sometimes out of downright not knowing about the games, other times because some aspect or other put us off. That's just the way it is, there's no way around it. I'm not going to try and force or persuade you to suddenly see the beauty, charm and artistry of games made today using "retro" aesthetics. But just because *you* and, seemingly, almost every one around you dislikes something, it doesn't automatically mean it "should" or "must" DIE. Maybe we, the people who enjoy pixel-art and low-poly 3D in modern games are just not as vocal as you anti-retro looks seem to be. Perhaps -- give it a thought, if you will -- we're tired of being made fun of, being berated, belittled and often even *bullied* by the "anti-retro" posse. Because, let's face it, the vast majority of anti-retro modern games people is noisy, whiny, aggressive and utterly lacking when it comes to understanding and respecting whatever they perceive as different (or "inferior", or "harmful", or whatever you'd like to call it). We are definitely less vocal than the other side, that's just a fact -- for every "this looks gorgeous" comment on a low-poly or pixel-art game coming out today there are probably seven or eight comments of people complaining about the art direction. But, when all is said and done, we still buy and enjoy our games. Pixel-art and low-poly 3D, no matter how much some people hate them, still sell. Lots and lots of people buy games like these. Lots of us, even though we may not make much noise, actually want *more* games like these to come out.
Yes, some devs use these looks because it's trendy to do so. Yes, some do this to try tapping into that ever present weakness in every gamer: nostalgia. And, yes, retro-looking games are not truly retro, because they use filters and tech that wasn't available back in the day when those kinds of graphics were the norm. This is all very true. But why should you care? You're not going to buy these games, anyway, so why not let those who like them decide for themselves whether they're worth it, or not? I'm really sorry, but you're not going to change our mind about retro-looking games just because you think it's crap (I stress: some of them *are* pretty crappy, others are not, but that hardly has anything to do with the graphics). And, if you're not going to change our minds about it, as long as there's demand for it, they'll keep developing these "inferior/annoying" games that "should die, already".
Now, for the really enraging part: I don't get the hype around Deus Ex or the Baldur's Gate series (or most cRPGs, for that matter). I really think they're just OK games that some people really like a whole lot. For the record, I bought Deus Ex in 2000. Bought it again on GOG just a few years back. I've been trying to get into it for 17 years, now. I keep trying to this day, always giving it the benefit of the doubt. But I never actually manage to. Advertised as a true "play-it-your-own-style" game, I find it to be very lacking in this regard. It's either steallth or stealth, at least for the early parts of the game, which I find to be too long and boring to invest in. Plus, if I want to play a stealth game, I can always play the first two Thief games, which came before Deus Ex and both did stealth better. Personally, and I apologize to Our Lord and Savior Warren Spector, I don't find Deus Ex to be that well designed at all. As for Baldur's Gate, I just found them boring, revelling in your generic pseudo-Tolkien fantasy stuff. As with Deus Ex, I think Baldur's Gate takes way longer than it should to get going, so the early game is basically a snore fest. I'm also not fond of the elitism the Baldur's Gate games tend to entice, with the whole lot of uninteresting boatload of information you need to master *just in order to START playing them*. So, am I being fair towards these games? No. No, I am not. Pretty much everyone in the gaming community reveres them, and they can't all be wrong. It's just that I, individually, tend to think they're not as good as everyone else thinks they are. Having said that, I'm not going in, guns blazing, proselytizing the stuff I like while belittling the stuff I dislike. There's room in the gaming world for just about anyone and anything. There's a place for Deus Ex and Baldur's Gate just as much as there is a place for Owlboy and Hyper Light Drifter or Enter The Gungeon or EITR or OMNIBUS or Strafe or what-have-you. Remember a time when point & click adventures were thought to be dead? Well, just look at them now. As it turns out, there's still a place for them, as Wadjet Eye and Daedalic Entertainment, among many others, big or small (count TellTale as one of them, if you so choose, I won't judge) can be seen as evidence of. Remember how, at one point, turn-based combat in RPGs was thought to be going the way of the dodo, being replaced by more "cinematic" action-oriented mechanics? Divinity: Original Sin was a *huge* success, and many other recent cRPGs seem to be going back to this more tactic approach, with the likes of Torment: Tides of Numenera, to name just one.
The only thing I ask of people is to think twice before starting going around spreading hate for retro-looking games. You wouldn't like me to diss the games you like and hold dear just because *I* don't like them. There's nothing to gain from that, it's just stupid and shows a severe lack of respect and understanding towards "the other" people. We're not the other people, you're not the other people: we all enjoy video games, and we should be celebrating what we have in common instead of pointing out how "the others" are more or less ridiculous, more or less intelligent, more or less inferior just because they like things we don't.
Bottom line is that, for now, indie games and retro-looking titles, specifically, are going nowhere. No one's forcing you to like them or even appreciate them for what they are, it's your prerogative to hate them and all they stand for all you want. That's fine. But, please, just let those of us who like them feel free to do so of our own accord. Maybe we're "dirty casuals", maybe we're "plebs" and "peasants" and whatnot. Fine. But we're entitled to like the things we like and have fun with them. And as long as we keep buying games like these, they'll keep delivering and developing more and more. Sorry, I guess, if we're helping "pollute" your video game garden with our "crap". Sorry if we don't "know any better". We just like what we like, and we want to be able to have fun with it. Is that so offensive? You probably like something I don't, should I get all worked up about it and start offending you and making fun of you for something you enjoy? I don't think so. Then again, maybe that's just me.
Yeah, I know, "TL;DR LOL!!!!!!" Feel free to not read this, any of it. I'm too tired to summarize all of this into those handy little one-liners at the end of a huge WALLOFTEXT. Just... enjoy the games you play and let others enjoy the games they play, as well, without having to feel guilty about it.
Happy gaming!
