I read through the forums and most people dislike Warcraft 3 Reforged Graphics but they seem to have very different opinions on what is wrong.
I will say what i believe is wrong and i want you guys to tell me your opinion. Do you Agree or Disagree with what i think is wrong and what do you think the problem is?
I believe the Core Problem is the Incompatibility between the Detailed/Realistic units and the Cartoony Environment/Buildings.
I believe that in order to solve this problem there are 2 ways:
Update the Environment/Buidings to match the detailed units.
Make the units look more cartoony to match the cartoony Environment/Buildings.
I would prefer the first one because i was very impressed by Spellforce III graphics.
1 - units must be easily distinguishable from a top-down perspective for competitive multiplayer, I wonder if they can try to re-scale units to better match their original size and shapes
2 - a lot of people seem to be disagreeing about the graphics, obviously things are not done yet so hopefully they will improve over the next year… now some people think the graphics could be more cartoony, but I actually want to see it be darker, with more grittiness and gore!
I think the character models are alright, although I would like them to be more iconic and distinguishable from other troop types. The landscape and buildings don’t seem like they’re on there max potential yet, so I would assume Blizzard will pay attention to that.
Make the environment/buildings more realistic to match the realistic units.
I already said this; they should pick one, real or catoony and stick with it.
Obviously things aren’t done yet. This was stressed multiple times. I have a suspicion that they’re going for all realistic but have only done the units for now.
Models looked like they were outsourced to some korean f2p mobile game company. Would love to see more of a Blizzard look to them - not necessarily cartoony, but something like in WC3 cinematics.
Everyone really should just calm down. It is still very much a work-in-progress and there’s much to be done in any case. This is however a better topic: Blizzard knows what they are doing, what is left for us is opinions.
And in my opinion the realistic look is great, so I’ll choose number 1.
The fundamental problem is that many of these models make the game look way too cluttered and visually grating on the eyes.
There’s so much hd, shiny, extremely detailed models, that everything gets lost and turned into a big schmear of HD pixels during battle.
Look at any Warcraft III screenshot and it is immediately clear exactly what units are present, how many of them they are, and exactly what is happening in the battle.
In Reforged even in it’s early that it seems way more cluttered and there is way less character to every unit.
The fundamental problem is that the new style as of new just isn’t as good as the original because the original didn’t have these visibility and character issues.
I think the new graphics could get there, but they need quite a few changes and updates to become more like their originator.
I think that the problem is that some units have too much details, the prime example are the Human Footman, they look TOO heroic, with an excess on details when they are supposed to be the basic human unit. They should tone it down with the details on some units, leaving the highly detailed ones for special, heroes and high tier units. Also I think the scaling is a bit too much for the units in comparison to the buildings, they should scale down the units more, specially if they are proposing more realism.
Many colors clash making scenes uneasy on the eyes. An easy example is Jaina’s breast plate it is extremely dark and blue, the rest of her costume is a lighter color. The artists aren’t being honest about each others work. I doubt at any moment they constructively criticized each other to make improvements. They are in a safe space making smiling potatoes.
A lot of people say that units can be hard to recognize but it may be because you are not used to them. It might not be that hard to find them after a few games. When i play Warcraft i always see whats on the battlefield but when a friend that played Warcraft but never competitive games (played other RTS like Starcraft II , AoE though) looks at the battlefield he never sees what is happening.
Blizzard could fix this if it will become a real problem by making every unit have a specific element that units used to have in the past (For example Grubbys White shield line)
Not being used to them may be part of it, but look at any new screenshot compared to an original screenshot and it should be clear that Reforged is just objectively more cluttered and less clear.
That’s the biggest problem to be fixed with the graphics in my opinion.
I agree with darker theme, like look at SC2 it is all not cartoony and faster pace. War3 will be still more fancy colors not that desaturated but make it dark. And yes distinguishing units for competitive play is leading.
I posted my suggestions here:
us.forums.blizzard. com/en/warcraft3/t/questions-design-suggestions-games-graphics-and-as-an-esport/435/2
And yes pls make Bnet ranks like the leagues in sc2 and mmr but war3 themed, not a just level and icon.
And here I think is a good idea taken from sc2 map with war3 assets what is better than the current trailer environment:
I like very much the more realistic look, but i agree that sometimes they put to many details.
Just look at Tauren Chieftain Weapon. What is that? A spear? A halberd? An Axe?
And man, why are all the Trolls cyan color?..weren’t they originally dark blue?
They made the decision to maximize the similarity of the new game models to the new cutscene models (from all angles). Rather than maximizing the similarity of the game models to the old game models from the default game angle/perspective.
This, to me was a mistake. But its obviously for World of Warcraft players. There is always a letdown when you see the characters in the game (especially your own) and they look nothing like the movie cutscene characters. Technology is there now to make them more similar. So for the “lore tourists” they will make the most money from–this makes the most sense. From a hardcore historical gamer perspective it makes none.
Personally, it doesn’t matter to me that much as long as when gaming the models are distinct and discriminable.
Believe it or not but I do actually like the unit styles for the most part. Some human units do look a little off to me (Footman, Paladin) but for the most part I love the look of the remastered units. I do think that there might be some in-congruence with the buildings as the OP mentioned, but I would like to see more buildings before I totally jump on that wagon.