Why are they still going in a cartoony direction with the graphics?

[HNation]

The graphics for 7 look far better and somewhat less cartoony than 6, but they still sort of have that feel instead of the more realistic-looking textures of 5.

The animations themselves look good, but look at the buildings, the rocks, or the grass. They don't really have that gritty level of textural detail.

 

[fy00sh]

probably because lots of people think it looks good, me included

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Modern audiences are more used to cartoonish graphics, see popular games like Fortnite, TF2, etc. While Civ6 did lose some old fans over its art style (myself one of them) I bet they gained much more newer ones

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

Easier to model.
i'd say it is now more on Heroic deform scale. think of Game Workshop's Warhammer franchise.

 

[HNation]

probably because lots of people think it looks good, me included

You can think it looks good, but do you really think it looks better than photorealism?

 

[fy00sh]

You can think it looks good, but do you really think it looks better than photorealism?

yeah
edit: to be clear, i mean no hate to people who want photorealism. its just a matter of taste, and im lucky to be in the demographic that the graphics seem to have been designed for

 

[God of Kings]

Perhaps this is a compromise made to allow it to run on the Nintendo Switch and I am a huge fan of the game's art-style as it reminds me of many Nintendo Switch games.

 

[user330977]

It's an indication of the audience the developers are going for, and a compromise to get the game to run on prehistoric hardware. A red flag in both cases.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

I don't agree that art style has anything to do with hardware requirments, plenty of ancient games that look more realistic than Civ6 and Civ7

 

[xphantomx]

lol artstyle and aesthetic choices in video games aren’t chosen based on hardware power

I like the look a lot. Especially for a fantasy strategy game that you spend a lot of time looking at it. This feels more fun and engaging to play with than if it looked more realistic and drab like a zoomed in google satellite map.

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

It seems like a halfway between V and VI, and it looks great.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Probably because Civ V graphics were awful! I don't get the cartoony complaint, just don't see it.

 

[Thenewwwguy]

ngl, realism always ages poorly. Civ V graphics looked cool when the game launched but now a lot of those models look borderline creepy. The stylism of Civ VI hasn’t aged in the same way—you don’t get a feel of “outdated” in the same way. You might not like the stylization but if not for it, you’d probably be feeling that the game would look outdated now, 8 years in.

 

[King Jason]

You can think it looks good, but do you really think it looks better than photorealism?

Yes. Civ5 looks like the entire game was dumped in dirty dishwater. There's nothing wrong with color. The world is filled with it and it's beautiful.

 

[LastSword]

Nice render of promotional image.

This whole cartoony/realism classification is wrong anyway. Game either looks good or not.
You don't want goofy stuff (like builders animation).

 

[Nikolai II]

You can think it looks good, but do you really think it looks better than photorealism?

Yes.

 

[Lord Lakely]

What cartoony graphics?

Also, Civ5 was an UGLY game. The map looked the worst it has ever looked. The Civ6 map was better, and the Civ7 map looks to be the best-looking map in Civ so far.

 

[King of Prussia]

Civ5 is not a good looking game imo. Civ6 took some getting use to, but i think its aged very well compared to 5. Fog of war tiles aside, i think the map looks great.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

I have the opposite impression. I went back to Civ5 after getting tired of 6, and I think it's beautiful (5, not 6, though 6 is pretty in its way, but the cartoonishness is major turn-off)

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

What i like more is that now there's a simple paddle canoe.