Why didn't they use Heroes of the Storm art style?

General Discussion
1

There is something wrong with the models, they look too realistic, uncanny valley. I dunno, there is no identity what so ever to the hero models now. They look like they could be from Warhammer 4k (a game franchise notorious for making generic looking models).

I am quite disappointed. Also I am confused why they didn’t use the Heroes of the Storm art style, Heroes is a perfect balance between Warcraft III classic and World of Warcraft. It is so strange why reforge artists spent so much time inventing a brand new way to visualize the game that isn’t even aesthetically pleasing.

Sorry I can’t inline the links, you’ll have to copy them manually into your browser.

Grubby did a video on the models, I feel is it safe to talk about.
hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVnR0jK_NxI

Anyway back to the Heroes of the Storm comparison.

Look how cool Uther looks here, big muscles he is cool strong paladin.
hxxps://heroesofthestorm.com/en-us/heroes/uther/

Now check out this stick figure with his stick hammer.
hxxps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/876262.jpg

What about Jaina? Here she is not evil queen yet, her aura projects her original personality
hxxps://heroesofthestorm.com/en-us/heroes/jaina/

here she looks like a blowup doll, with no Blizzard shoulders (iconic gag at blizz).
hxxps://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/876264.jpg

I could go on, it’s all the same.

What is going on? smh…

1 Like
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I could be wrong, but i really like that Reforged use unique style of graphics and do not repeat that clean cartoonish style from all modern Blizzard games.

10 Likes
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The Heroes of the Storm artstyle is really stunted and bloated. A lot of characters in that game look a bit “stumpy” with their proportions and also very overblown. Uther and Thrall come to mind right away. Even Maiev looks a bit funny. It works way better for some characters than it does others.

In discussing it at BlizzCon’s announcement, they pointed towards the Warcraft cinematics as one of their sources of inspiration for the artstyle. It’s not really that brand new.

4 Likes
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A lot of Heroes of the storm artwork is like vanilla windows xp web design UI and the models are hella cartoony and Disneyd out af. Much pref if art was more like in diablo

3 Likes
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One anecdote - It looks like Reforged’s model proportions are closer to WoW than HOTS.

Look at the Tauren. It looks almost exactly like the WoW counterpart, proportion-wise. If this is true, then it means that this is going to be much better for custom maps that use WoW assets because they should fit the game more than being used alongside other made-for-RTS styled units like in HOTS. So I can sorta see why they would go with this new style. It will open up a lot to custom maps, given that people can make proper normal maps for WoW units to make them fit Reforged better.

3 Likes
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I think even WoW’s models are too cartoony for this. Someone will have to test it.

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Here’s a comparison of the two without shaders

Keep in mind, much of what makes Reforged’s models look realistic isn’t the textures, it’s the shader work. Normal maps and PBR metals make a huge difference. Most WoW models will lack both, which is why they’re much more flat and cartoony looking in WoW.

4 Likes
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I like the current art style, stop it!

2 Likes
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because nobody wants to be reminded of that crappy f2p cash grab.

1 Like
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I am so happy tauren and trolls look amazing. Those races are probably the hardest to make since they are not human like.

11

I really like it.

There are only 2 things that bother me:

  1. The lack of lip-syncing looks really weird with models of this level of detail.
  2. The team-colours aren’t bright enough, and on some models there isn’t enough of it.
1 Like
12

Heroes of storm style? eww yuck

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Also there is one good thing that shaders are now better in Beta and are actually looking alot more cartoonish like WoW\Hots\WC3

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Idk, malthael is looking pretty amazing in that game. I always play him lol. (That and Kel’Thuzad)

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I prefer what we have now.

Nothing against Hots, i’ve played it casually from time to time and i liked the art but i like that W3R looks different.

2 Likes
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God okay side by side properly, I take back a bit of my criticism on the Reforged tauren. They’re still a bit… friendly? Personable? Looking to me but they’re not as anthropomorphized as the MMO tauren. Not quite in the middle where maybe I’d like to see them more at, but better.