Soleron on 09 October 2010
How about designers don't deliberately go for 'gritty' or 'colourful' but instead employ art direction that fits the gameplay and game atmosphere? So as long as players can see where they need to go / what objects' functions are, and the environments serve the gameplay style, that's the art that should be used.
The example I'm thinking of here is Metroid Prime. Neither dark nor colourful, nor do those descriptions make sense. The design served how the game was intended to be played, and the world looked and felt 'right' for that reason. Not technically impressive compared to HD consoles but I think it looks better than the majority of HD games because of the art direction.
