Yesterday’s Square Enix stream brought us our first new look at Babylon’s Fall since 2019’s State of Play, and while the game’s action and effects certainly looked impressive, there seemed to be a general lack of focus. As in the stream looked kinda blurry.
Most of us probably ignored it as just stream compression, but it turns out that’s not actually an artifact of E3’s digital presentation–Babylon’s Fall is supposed to look a little burry. It’s by design.
Take a look at the screenshots Square shared yesterday and you’ll see that even in still images the game has a sort of washed-out look to it, like a watercolor painting in video game form. Take a closer look at both the trailers and screenshots and you’ll see that Babylon Fall’s art style opts for simple textures and models that look out of place for a PS5 game.
Babylon’s Fall sort of looks like a step up from Valheim’s ultra-simple textures, where each flat side of a model has its own simple design. On top of that, Babylon’s Fall has characters that all feature a solid piece of hair rather than individual strands. Another strange choice, given how Ratchet & Clank’s fur looks better than anything we’ve ever seen.
Throw in some intense fog effects and Babylon’s Fall is just a blurry, washed-out game. Some did note the lack of visual fidelity during yesterday’s stream and expressed disappointment in Platinum Games on social media, especially given their previous titles have always been a visual feast.
Maybe the game’s art style was a deliberate choice to focus on super-fast action and ensure that Babylon’s Fall can maintain a high frame rate even on the PS4. If so, hopefully we’ll see some better visuals on the PS5 and PC versions of the game.
E3 continues today with presentations from Razer, Take-Two Interactive, and the Indie Showcase.
