People can't believe this indie game achieved such realistic faces with a retro technique

Since the 1990s, myriad techniques and technologies have been developed to improve realism in video game graphics, but sometimes it's an old trick that leaves people stunned.

GenZ gamers have been impressed by the realism of the faces in an upcoming indie game, and many are surprised to learn that the core technique used to achieve the effect is decades old (also see our guide to the best laptops for game development).

An X user challenged gamers to guess how Russian developer Studio Rassvet achieved such realistic facial expressions in its upcoming game I Have No Change.

Latest Videos From

For those who were gaming in the 1990s, the footage contained some clear giveaways: motion blur that isn't replicated in the background, a slim halo around the character if you zoom in, micro jumps between pieces of dialogue.

That's because the face isn't animated; it's full motion video (FMV). The developer recorded actors, colour-graded the footage and imported it into the game engine, as The Rooster goes on to explain.

It's very neatly executed, but veteran gamers have been keen to point out that it's not exactly a new technique. Many have piled on to the thread to cite their favourite FMV-using games of the past, from Return to Zork (1993) to Under a killing Moon (1994), Darkseed II (1995) to Myst 3 (2001).

Some also cited LA Noire, although it's been pointed out that Rockstar did something more complex, using multiple cameras to scan human faces and render them in the engine.

FMV is a video game narration technique that uses pre-recorded, live-action video or high-quality CGI instead of real-time 3D models to display action. Today, both cameras and compositing are better, and engines have more tools for lighting sprites in believable ways to make them feel more realistically part of a 3D scene. In I Have no Change, the limited viewing angle also aids the realism.

Some people are keen for a revival of the technique, recalling the atmosphere of games like Myst and Cradle. "People seem to forget we had this tech before in old FMV adventure games," one person laments.

"It actually still has a ton of potential, there are impressive ways of implementing it most people haven’t seen yet," someone else enthuses.

But others aren't so convinced.

"The reason it stopped is because it creates a strange uncanny valley effect where it's pretty clear the people aren't actually there," one person recalls. "Greenscreen borders are way too visible and break immersion," someone else says.

If you're interested to see how it turns out in the full game, you can wishlist I Have No Chance on Steam.

Do you have a favourite old FMV game? Let me know in the comments.