It’s award season here at Twinfinite, and there are plenty of games that deserve to be recognized as visual standouts. Voted on by our editors and staff, here are the games with the best art direction of 2020 that provided some of the most screenshot-worthy moments of the year.
Best Art Direction of 2020
Honorable Mention: Demon’s Souls
Reviews Editor Zhiqing Wan: FromSoftware’s games aren’t typically pretty in the conventional sense of the word. Their games are often grotesque, somewhat morbid, and even a little disturbing to look at at times. But even so, that doesn’t mean you can’t still find some semblance of beauty and uniqueness in FromSoft’s most grotesque imagery.
Demon’s Souls got a much-needed remake and facelift at the end of 2020, launching alongside the PS5 as a launch title. Remade by Bluepoint, who are well-known for touching up classic games and making them look damn good, the Demon’s Souls remake actually looks like the vision that FromSoft had in mind a decade ago.
Save for a couple of art direction missteps, like the Fat Official redesign, everything else has been kept intact, but polished to a shine.
The little grooves on the Tower Knight’s shield are now visible, and he looks menacing as ever, and the iconic environments like the Shrine of Storms feel properly epic and imposing now that we get to experience them in 4K.
