IO: Games don't have to be photo-realistic to be "real"
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days has a gone in a completely different direction than its predecessor in many ways, but one of the most noticeable changes is its visual style.
Speaking with VG247 in an interview published today, game director Karsten Lund explained to us IO's inspiration for the new visuals, stating that games don't "have to be photo-realistic to be perceived as real".
When most people think of grainy videos and shaky-cam footage, low-quality YouTube submissions come to mind - and this is exactly what the developers were going for with Dog Days. The visuals gives the sequel a look of its own by giving it a rough and less-crisp look - which fits well anti-heroes, Kane & Lynch.
This new style for the game has the camera following the duo from behind, with the screen shaking upon impact. While this makes the game appear similar to a streaming video, rest assured, its 100 percent HD.
"Something that always interests me is to see how far you can go with credibility and realism, and see if there’s a different way of doing it that what other people are doing," Lund told us. "Photo-realism is what people are trying to achieve, and they’re doing it with texture resolution and photo-textures and stuff like that, and I don’t think that that’s actually what you need to do.
"I think there are lots of other ways of exploring this, and we’re proving it here. You don’t have to be photo-realistic to be real, to be perceived as real.
"Our goal is to push the boundaries a little bit. And I think the world needs that. Everybody’s playing it very safe these days, and I don’t think you have to.
"As long as you’ve got a good experience going on, and I think we do, I think we need to try and do something new."
Square released the first trailer for the game back in December, giving gamers their first taste of this new visual style - and it was met with a grand response.
Some of the screens for the game were released today, but stills just don't seem to do it the visuals justice.
Game's out for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 during the second part of the year.