Diablo 3 art direction

[Annonchinil]

I am sorry but the old Diablo look aside from a few places looks so plain and boring when placed near the newer much more detailed one. I can't believe people are complaining that the new style isn't dark enough; just comparing the screenshots it has more atmosphere than the past two games. The use of fall colors, the overcast lighting, the presence of decaying monuments and dying trees (I love what they done to birch trees) gives it a 'dark look.’ The fanshots completely destroy that in favor of dark=better.


Blizzard also stated that the light radius did not look good in 3d so they decided to remove it aside from maybe a few locations where it actually works.

Then there are the people who assume that there would be no gore in the game...what? Have you not read the interviews?

 

[shihonage]

I am sorry but the old Diablo look aside from a few places looks so plain and boring when placed near the newer much more detailed one. I can't believe people are complaining that the new style isn't dark enough; just comparing the screenshots it has more atmosphere than the past two games. The use of fall colors, the overcast lighting, the presence of decaying monuments and dying trees (I love what they done to birch trees) gives it a 'dark look.’ The fanshots completely destroy that in favor of dark=better.


Blizzard also stated that the light radius did not look good in 3d so they decided to remove it aside from maybe a few locations where it actually works.

Then there are the people who assume that there would be no gore in the game...what? Have you not read the interviews?

It's not about the darkness, its not about subduing brightness, its about subduing COLORFULNESS.

 

[Raapys]

It's about everything. I don't think there's a single thing about that new graphics style that I actually like. Given the choice, I'd pick Diablo 3 with the old Diablo 1 graphics any day. These look plain ugly and have no atmosphere at all, least of all a dark and scary one.

 

[kingcomrade]

This is how things begin to become parodies of themselves.

 

[Pegultagol]

Blizzard could opt for scaling graphics detail as well as testing the game with reducing colour palette to see if they can satisfy those in both camps. The game is still probably a year or two away, still have a plenty of time. I do not think that Blizzard would go apply the WC style colour scheme of bright rainbow variety to environments such as hell. To me, Diablo 3 looks fine, I would not mind having some colour vibrancy after all the drab and lifeless areas of the series.

 

[sportforredneck]

As long as there's variety what does it matter? Hell there's a jungle in Diablo 2, and the sand place. Those aren't exactly the most "dark" places, sometimes the dark places are too dark and it's hard to see without keeping my lights off.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I personally thought the fact that there was a jungle and desert and icey mountain in diablo 2 was retarded. The caves fit, the catacombs fit, the dark tower fit, hell fit, the worldstone keep fit, the fucking shiny desert and brightly coloured jungle hobbits did not fit. The mountain would have been okay, except all the demons were so generic it hurt. They looked like they'd already been beaten to death before I got there. The enemies in act 1 were retarded too. Undead bikini warriors? Wow, sign me up. Sexy AND scary.

It's a pity. The architecture and gore looks quite good, the use of 3d space is nice, but having glowsticks laying around every 5 feet couldn't make it look any more retarded than it already is. It reminds me of oblivions fagtastic glowing magical items and green light sources and BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

 

[Annonchinil]

I am sorry but the old Diablo look aside from a few places looks so plain and boring when placed near the newer much more detailed one. I can't believe people are complaining that the new style isn't dark enough; just comparing the screenshots it has more atmosphere than the past two games. The use of fall colors, the overcast lighting, the presence of decaying monuments and dying trees (I love what they done to birch trees) gives it a 'dark look.’ The fanshots completely destroy that in favor of dark=better.


Blizzard also stated that the light radius did not look good in 3d so they decided to remove it aside from maybe a few locations where it actually works.

Then there are the people who assume that there would be no gore in the game...what? Have you not read the interviews?

It's not about the darkness, its not about subduing brightness, its about subduing COLORFULNESS.

What the hell does that mean? You can have a gothic style and still be colorful, have you ever been inside a gothic cathedral?

The desert and the jungle were boring specifically because they lacked atmosphere not because they had color.

I simply can't believe people look at the artstyle of Diablo 1 and think 'WoW, that’s amazing!' or that they think Diablo 2 is in any way consistent with Gothic fantasy.

Undead bikini warriors? Have you seen the concept art for the rogue or what about the Succubus?

There was even an interview with Leonadr Boyarsky where he stated that Diablo 2 lost some of the horror of the original, and they wanted to recapture that.

My favorite scene in the D3 demo was when they got to the bridge and you see the statues head in the river, but everyone was just looking at the rainbow

 

[shihonage]

What the hell does that mean? You can have a gothic style and still be colorful, have you ever been inside a gothic cathedral?

Ever been inside a gothic cathedral that's filled with poisonously green and vomitously blue lighting ?

My favorite scene in the D3 demo was when they got to the bridge and you see the statues head in the river, but everyone was just looking at the rainbow

Willingly or not, you pinpointed the problem here.

The thing is, Diablo1 was canon for the Diablo series. Diablo2 strayed into wacky territory somewhat, and Diablo3 looks even wackier.

 

[Araanor]

Diablo 3 looks pretty enough, but I miss the horror theme and the ambience of the first game. This was also what Diablo 2 lacked.

As far as mutilated corpses, blood and burning crosses go, they're not going to budge due to the pursuit of lower age ratings. But they could've made it more creepy.

I'm curious to the problems with light radii.

 

[MetalCraze]

They pursue lower age ratings? Where's that info?
Hey, Beth proved that ridiculous gore is possible with M rating, I don't see why normal gore can't be done in diablo 3.

 

[The_Pope]

Speedo man fights teletubbies with a sparkler is not an art style I find appealing.

 

[silver crowaxe]

My favorite thing to do in Diablo 2 was killing the enemies that released their soul when they died. I hope they do that in the next game.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Ummm, yeah undead bikini warriors. http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/monste ... ogue.shtml

MMORPG covers have more reasonable clothing.

The succubus I don't mind- it's sexually themed to begin with and isn't supposed to be wearing armor. They'd be better off completely naked imo (Oh noes! Someone will see pixel tits!) The fucking rogues are warriors wearing bikinis in a temperate climate. It's bad enough the amazon needs to wear a chainmai l bikini, I don't see why the enemies need to be dressed in thongs. If they want that in the game, throw some succubi into the monastary or some other sex themed fantasy monster- theres about a billion of them.

It's exactly that kind of generic sameness to all other fiction that killed the atmosphere in D2 that can be seen in D3. The barbarian looks like every other barbarian and has the same lines as every other barbarian. The weapons glow more brightly than ever because the focus groups thought they looked more powerful- nevermind that thats because brighter, shinier weapon usually = rarer and that the impressiveness of those effects will wear off the instant you check the stats and see they equate to +3 ice damage.

Fuck. They should just add elves sex and guns and be done with it.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Burning crosses and ritually mutilated bodies from D1 are mentioned again here, and I'll mention again that there's no way Blizzard will get back to these things, because I remember reading somewhere that they've been almost sued for that, because some groups of retards found these to be propagating occultism/satanism/whatever.

 

[Jasede]

The thing is, Diablo1 was canon for the Diablo series. Diablo2 strayed into wacky territory somewhat, and Diablo3 looks even wackier.

This is how things begin to become parodies of themselves.

 

[Ryuken]

I'm curious to the problems with light radii.

=> from the MTV multiplayerblog

Another part of the game that some hardcore fans missed was having a light radius follow the player’s character. Because some of the areas of past “Diablo” games were so dark, the player had a circle of light following them around to help them navigate the depths of dungeons. Wilson said the team tried to make use of the light radius, but it just didn’t work with a 3D engine. “It looked really bad,” he admitted. “If you took an environment and you basically lit the whole thing up with just a flashlight, it works way better in a 2D game… we’ve really found that you needed other light sources to be able to make the game look good.” However, that doesn’t mean the beloved light radius won’t show up in “Diablo III.” “Not in all dungeons, but there might be in some,” he revealed. “I think people really remembered it in like one or two places where it was prevalent in ‘Diablo II,’ but forget that it almost didn’t exist in the other 90 percent of the game.But if we can find one dungeon where it’s really good to use it, and we can create a lot of gameplay out of it and make it look cool, then yeah, we’ll do it. And it’s not like within the team there’s a lack of desire to do that, it’s just that we don’t want to do it if it’s not going to play well or it doesn’t look good.”

 

[Black]

But half the point with the games was that they were 'scary'; now it looks anything but.

If I wanted a scary game I'd play Silent Hill, replay Vampire: Bloodlines OceanHouse Hotel or some other shit. If I wanted to kill gazilions of mobs and collect phat lewt I'd play Diablo. There.

 

[DraQ]

But half the point with the games was that they were 'scary'; now it looks anything but.

If I wanted a scary game I'd play Silent Hill, replay Vampire: Bloodlines OceanHouse Hotel or some other shit. If I wanted to kill gazilions of mobs and collect phat lewt I'd play Diablo. There.

Would you still pick Diablo, if the mobs you mentioned consisted of cute, pink bunnies and the scenery was blooming meadow?

I wouldn't. Diablo 1 was awesome in that it was your archetypical, braindead H&S, but an addictive and atmospheric one. Weakening the mobs, moving large part of the action outside and adding bizzare things disrupting gothic, pseudo-medieval atmosphere like catwomen and animated tree monsters in Diablo II didn't help. Making Diablo III colorful, fast paced GFX-fest will only exacerbate the problem.

 

[made]

In case nobody linked it yet (cba to read the thread):

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/di ... ternet.php

 

[J1M]

I get a strong sense from this thread that the dissenters just want to rebel against something. The arguements are so disparate and inconsistent it is giving the prestigious magazine a bad name.

 

[Black]

Would you still pick Diablo, if the mobs you mentioned consisted of cute, pink bunnies and the scenery was blooming meadow?

But it doesn't and won't. Silly speculation.

 

[gromit]

I still don't understand why you wouldn't play that.

 

[RGE]

The desert and the jungle were boring specifically because they lacked atmosphere not because they had color.

I liked the desert and the jungle in D2. They weren't gothic, but I think they had great atmosphere. Well, maybe not the dungeons in the jungle, but the actual jungle felt just as fetid and twisted as it should have. The ancient tombs in the desert were awesome. Even better than the first Tomb Raider game, which had plenty of atmosphere in the second and third parts. The River of Flames looked awful though. Way too many bright colours, and that's where high level characters ended up grinding.

I don't remember disliking the D3 graphics while watching the gameplay video, but it did surprise me that the outside seemed so... cheery. By then the game had already lost me though. That happened when the glowing weapons came out. NWN taught me to hate glowing weapons. Fuck glowing weapons. Unless maybe it's a ghostly white glow, or a burning weapon where you see flames rather than just something orange. But to be on the safe side, just fuck them all.

The screenshots I see make D3 look worse though. Fuzzy, simmering colours. I guess I just prefer crispy pixels, and I remember how people complained about D2 having too pixelly graphics. I guess you can't please everyone.

 

[J1M]

The desert and the jungle were boring specifically because they lacked atmosphere not because they had color.

I liked the desert and the jungle in D2. They weren't gothic, but I think they had great atmosphere. Well, maybe not the dungeons in the jungle, but the actual jungle felt just as fetid and twisted as it should have. The ancient tombs in the desert were awesome. Even better than the first Tomb Raider game, which had plenty of atmosphere in the second and third parts. The River of Flames looked awful though. Way too many bright colours, and that's where high level characters ended up grinding.

I don't remember disliking the D3 graphics while watching the gameplay video, but it did surprise me that the outside seemed so... cheery. By then the game had already lost me though. That happened when the glowing weapons came out. NWN taught me to hate glowing weapons. Fuck glowing weapons. Unless maybe it's a ghostly white glow, or a burning weapon where you see flames rather than just something orange. But to be on the safe side, just fuck them all.

The screenshots I see make D3 look worse though. Fuzzy, simmering colours. I guess I just prefer crispy pixels, and I remember how people complained about D2 having too pixelly graphics. I guess you can't please everyone.

So you hate the game bcause they turn on AA when they take screenshots?