I would preface this by reminding people that just because the game clearly looks “better” does not mean it looks right.
Warcraft has always had a distinct artstyle that was more or less that of a painting. If you look at WoW, it essentially is one massive painting. Even all of the modern models in WoW use a very basic geometry and all of the details are expressed through textures. Probably 95% of all creatures in WoW don’t even have eyeballs, and their eyes are just a texture. But you probably didn’t even notice that because it is made so well.
The level of unnecessary realism that the artstyle in reforged is trying to achieve will hurt not only the style and theme but also the readability and gameplay. From the demo gameplay I’ve seen, both footmen and knights wore similar metal armor that had unnecessary shine and glossiness to it, making it so when they are clumped up in a group they just blend together and lose silhouettes.
I would argue also that this can lead to further problems with unit’s armors changing ‘color’ depending on amount of shine and reflection is currently on their armors depending on what locations your units are in.
Also, the level of realism makes it hard to give the footmen the giant shield they are supposed to have without making it look ridiculous. If they use their iconic defend ability and held their shield upfront, would you even be able to notice it in a clutter of battle?
I would say the structures themselves all seem very good and feel like the warcraft style.
As for artstyle, I would argue that the only thing that made Uther and Arthas recognizable to me was their armor and voice. Them and all other units don’t look like they belong in the Warcraft universe, especially now when we already established how the Warcraft universe looks like with WoW and it’s cinematics. I think they should try to stay true to how characters look from other games instead of trying to re-invent it.
Tone down the realism, take notes from WoW while also using the size and silhouettes of the original warcraft 3.
I see a lot of people dismissing people in this fashion and it’s pretty unfair. We wanted a remastered version just as badly as anyone else, if not more. And we don’t wanna feel disappointed.
@Fermon
I assume you are talking about artstyle? I think the best style they can go for is the original warcraft 3 mission select screens but in higher texture resolutions.
What I’m talking about is the footman at the gate in the human mission select, or the orc by the campfire. Remeber the night elf in the jungle? Both in RoC and TFC night elf mission selects. If they could do THAT artstyle for the entire game but in higher rez, I think it would be perfect.
Unfortunately I doubt the artists that are outsourcing this game will have the skill to do that. Realism is easy to do, but it takes real talent to make great textures and make a game look good with minimal geometry.
Making an HD version of the original is the best option. But I also like the idea of a faithful redesign. A more WoW-like style wouldn’t be that bad either. But the last thing I want to see is realism.
Yes, my sentiments exactly! The original styling with the artstyle that matches with it appeals to me. And would do justice to most of the different communities that would play the game.
I’m really happy with it, I’ve always wanted to see this art style for once, Blizzard has made every other game in a semi cartoonish way, I’ve always wanted to see a Warcraft game just like its cinematics.
My biggest concern about W3 Reforged is that it looks so hazy and gray. It’s so desaturated it doesn’t have any resemblance of the original. Looks like SC2 to me, but even more desaturated. Where is the crispiness of colors ? They push the realistic aspect too much, footmen are too epic looking, knights are too gray as well, where is the rich gold and white armor that stood out perfectly. I know its not an easy task to achieve good readability since i work in game industry myself. For from what i’ve seen so far riflemen are best working model so far. Arthas neck is sooooooooo long, looks so weird!! Jaina doesn’t have shoulder covered by her cloak, there are some iconic design changes, that don’t work for me personaly. Buildings have changed geometry, they remind of the original but still feel too far off. Anyways looks promising, i keep my fingers crossed since i played the original for more than decade now and sentiment is strong with me i do belive that they still can change the look of the game that will please both new audience and old. Less realistic and foggy, more readable silhouettes and we are home! Cheers
Honestly, while none of the models look bad (I do actually like the new ghoul, for example), things clash pretty hard.
Ideally, we’d have WoW and HotS model rips blend fairly seamlessly in with the remastered models. That seems like a fairly good test for keeping the style consistent.
To those that want the style to be the way it currently is: Why? In what world is it a good thing to take a massive departure from a franchise’s established art style “just because maybe it might be cool idk”
I looked everything i could and yeah Stratholeme is like that due to original weather, but still feels so dull. I must agree with you tho, that screens so far are so bright I cant imagine playing game bright like that for longer periods of time. Also i need to mention new Taurens, I never liked WoW taurens but loved the ones from W3, like new one has those bright totem weapons it hurts my eyes. Where you compare it to original tauren which are dark and you can tell from afar you see that particular unit.
I think they should’ve gone with the art direction that they’ve got in the Heroes of the Storm - Alterac Pass map for the Alliance and the Horde minions.
This is part of the reason I think they should have left Reforged cooking a little bit. Shown us a straight up level with all the textures and lighting and particles completed in a month or two, instead of having these somewhat incomplete visuals that are too bright and lacking polish in several areas.
I really appreciate that they’re showing it to us this early for the sake of getting fan feedback, but I think many people would be less apprehensive about the visuals if we saw something slightly more complete.
Back in the day, the art style meant to represent something.
A certain spirit and culture the game possessed.
Its obvious the development team have been immersed in the process of creating the game. Because man, was the lore immersive, the artstyle impressive and the game was just so… ROCK AND ROLL
You can’t ‘reforge’ it by just giving it HOTS inspired graphics. You can’t just be like ‘hey they wont be able to complain because objectively the graphics are higher level and also in the current gaming market there is a trend for realistic graphics’
Screw that. We are complaining. Video Games at their core are art. (When done right) So just slamming some ‘objectively’ better textures wont cut it. You want to re-imagine the game? First turn on your imagination and connect to what the original developers were experiencing at the time of making the game. Because what they experienced - That was the real deal. That was the sh*t.