[2021] Did this game ever look like the screenshots?

Originally posted by Sir Sparrow:

Originally posted by JimmyIowa: They aren't that different from what the game looks like on my system at 1080p with just about everything but HD shadows and blur turned on.

Weeeeeeell, to be fair, the screenshot with disturbed tourist and Arlene zombie differ very much from their in-game models.

At the moment, sure; But those ARE the models that have been shown to be replacing the current models in A20. So. As Rasa said, "some of them have zombies or items that were not yet in the current released version at the time the shot was posted."

Originally posted by Veneri: Show me a Screenshot with Zombies on top of multiple vehicles. This does not happen in Game.

The shots are staged. There are devtools in game that would allow even you to take such a screenshot, Let alone the actual developers who have a much more powerful suite of tools to play with.

There's a button you can press in developer mode to disable zombie AI so they won't roam around/move/attack things, and you can spawn zombies in at a position you're looking at. Spend 20 minutes setting the scene, getting zombies in just the right place, then go for a wide shot and voila.

The screenshots were taken in game.

To the OP's concern:
Just going to quote myself from a similar thread:

Originally posted by Shurenai: Most of the graphics demonstrated in the ingame store are available and witnessable in game. The world textures demonstrated are all accurate; The zombie models are all accurate (Though a few of them aren't quite in game yet; Likely to come in A20, many of them are); The sky is as seen in game, the block types are as seen in game..

The closest offender here is the 'god rays'..

..But you can see those, even on lower graphics settings when set up right. However it's not an all the time constant thing. There are moments during the day and weather and such that will have that effect. What TFP did with the pictures was basically to find a spot, set up all the zombies, plan out the screenshot, wait for the right moment, set it to 4k, and take an absolutely amazing screenshot that represents the best of what is possible visually in the game at this time. Just because you don't have god rays 24/7 doesn't mean they aren't there ever; And just because it's not there 24/7 doesn't mean it's misleading for them to show it in the store page.

Here's a few screenshots from normal users, not from the store, that demonstrate similar 'moments of beauty':
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2296981063
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2293998595
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2293715137
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2294882995
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2291990278

The time, The place, The weather, The angle of viewing, What is around you, The position of the sun in the sky relative to everything, the current fog level, the current graphics settings, and more; It all comes together sometimes to make a perfect screenshot. Not every sunrise IRL is amazingly beautiful....But the ones that are, Simply put, are 'Wow.' worthy. There's a lot more that goes into taking a beautiful picture than you might think.

Simply put: The amount of 'misrepresentation' in the storefront basically is only a couple zombie models that aren't yet in game, but will be very soon; The screenies were likely just taken from a version of the game not yet available to the public just yet.

TL;DR: Graphics settings, time, place, and much more make a big difference in what you see and how it appears.