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Most of the screens in AO/AE had only two depths of field; the foreground elements and background elements.
Those epic vistas could be easily recreated with a series of matte paintings. In fact, you could wrap said paintings around a very simple, low poly "landscape" set only a short distance from the foreground camera and it would look magnificent. The sky could be a static matte. The foreground would be where the most polygonal and atmospheric detail is applied.
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But normally the background was made up of a large number of elements, spreading quite far back. The best example that I can think of, off the top of my head, was Feeco Depot, which had those massive storage warehouses filled with crates.
Also, think of the Monsaic Lines (my favourite level and if it doesn't look awesome in Abe HD, I'll put a curse on the lot of you); there was a back wall in the distance, things coming down from the rooftop, massive statues, the platform that Abe steps on, then occassionally rocks and things in front of that platform. Also consider the screens where paths are in the background, whether accessible (as in the Stockyards and in much of AE) or future/past paths shown in the distance (like in Paramonia).
There's a lot more going on than a close, low-poly landscape could display well.