In anticipation of Diablo 3, I replayed Diablo I a bit in the last month. I was impressed by the uniquely dark feel to the game, and reminded me of how the game genuinely scared me when I first played it. The effect is subdued somewhat in Diablo II, but remained very much a signature element of the game. Relative to the times, the style was sophisticated, sometimes subtle, sometimes just raw and shocking.
With the screenshots of Diablo III now out, it's obvious that this element of the series has been mostly scrapped. From the environments down to the monsters' posture, the game just isn't very intimidating.
It looks like an isometric WoW with a darker color palette. Everything has that rounded pastel-ish cartoon look. There's an obvious disconnect between the graphics and the dark storyline. It's like having Charles Schulz illustrate Dante's Divine Comedy (from which, FWIW, Diablo could afford to borrow). The end result is just ridiculous.
It seems like Blizzard shifted the WoW artists to this game, but without much new direction. So the artists just remake WoW on a different scale.
im sick of it its diablo 3 shut th heck up you say 1 dang place have you seen the world map its not a walk in the park....people its not all about darkness and blood
At first I did agree on what you are saying, I missed the dark feeling that I had in the previous games. Then I thought again, we've seen so little of this game and we would probably say the same thing about Diablo II if they would've shown us something from Lut Gholein, of course depending on which zone but yet again. Give it some time and we'll see what emerges from the dungeon of Blizzard Entertainment.
Well, from looking at the trailers and screenshots, it looks like a lot of the artists for Diablo III were influenced by the look of the Lord of the Rings movies. Remember, those movies had not yet been released when Diablo II came out.
However, while the new DIII look has a LOTR feel, it does look somewhat darker than LOTR. Time will tell. Plus, even if it is not that dark, all that really matters is the gameplay. I don't think the graphics look to detract too much from that.
It still feels like Diablo and thats all the matters to me, sure the art style may be different but did you really expect something like this not to happen?
For the seriously gritty look you would have to take the art direction towards something like age of conan (high poly models, high system reqs), for blizzard thats not something they care about anymore, they want there games to have mass market appeal and sale lots of copies.
I like the new style, we don't even know yet if what we've seen is the highest quality of the game or for that fact the only style they've taken with the game in the environments.
Its obvious form what we've seen that theres a day/night cycle in the outside environment and weather effects, the shading of such things could greatly change how the environment looks and take it towards the more, dark gritty atmosphere of the other games.
Character models of the enemies, we didn't see much but they looked and behaved great.
I can't see how people can be so anal about something we've seen so little of in reality.
Completely agree with OP.
different artists make a different game.
WoW fans will be happy though.
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~
"[Diablo1+2] obviously had the gothic look to it, but, you they weren't, they weren't very uh, very colorful games."
"We want to take dark as an emotion, rather than an actual color art choice." -Rob Pardo
"Why the hell shouldn't it be for 'kiddies', it's a goddamn game afterall." -lethlan
I meant Blizzard North, wrote that the first time I wrote the thread, but IE crashed on me. Thanks for correcting that.
Quote from "Tiger" »
Diablo will always be more dark/scarey just because it was so "local" and "smalltown". A small grotty town with a single dungeon which was under a church.
To have multiple parts of the world like this makes no sense, they expanded into the world lore with D2, personaly I am very happy so far with D3, it was bound to become more epic and so loose some of the horror story.
Yes, that's definitely true. Also, when you increase the sheer volume of enemies on screen, it likely detracts from the horror aspect. So there it's a matter of preference, a balance of gameplay vs. style and feel. That said, the style of the characters, monsters, environments etc. differ in a relevant way as well.
For the seriously gritty look you would have to take the art direction towards something like age of conan (high poly models, high system reqs), for blizzard thats not something they care about anymore, they want there games to have mass market appeal and sale lots of copies.
Perhaps it was a bit much to expect high resolution models, but that's not an integral part of the style, as Diablo I & II demonstrate. The skeleton models of Diablo I & II look more lifelike (probably due to the darker color palette or something) than the Diablo III models do.
At first I did agree on what you are saying, I missed the dark feeling that I had in the previous games. Then I thought again, we've seen so little of this game and we would probably say the same thing about Diablo II if they would've shown us something from Lut Gholein, of course depending on which zone but yet again. Give it some time and we'll see what emerges from the dungeon of Blizzard Entertainment.
Of course, our conception of Diablo III will become more accurate as more information is released. But I'm not referring to an unfinished look/work. The monster models and environments have a distinctly cartoonish look that isn't a product of being finished or not. In other words, if you doubled the resolution of the screenshots, or polished it, it would retain the cartoonish look.
I skimmed the artwork for Diablo III, and the style there varies quite a bit from picture to picture, so singling out any one picture will give you an inaccurate sample. I looked for Diablo II artwork, but couldn't find one good source. Overall though, the latter is much more uniformly dark in style, and the Diablo I work even more so, eg [Diablo I work follows] Taking an overall average, D1 and D3 are very different.
.
The trailer did have a very LOTR feel, but that's not evident in the screenshots. Hell, I wish the trailer style carried over into the game, but it clearly doesn't.
I think I speak for the majority of the Diablo community when I say:
"Good enough"
It seems not. I'm not a negative person, it's just disappointing to see Blizzard take a step backwards stylistically. The style does not fit the story.
different artists make a different game.
Exactly. The artwork is different, more colorful, less photorealistic.
i will ask politely. gtfo please. you have no idea what the rest of the game will look like and probably barely paid attention to the game play footage and don't deserve to post this pointless and no weight opinion
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"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
I disagree. D1 was a bit scary, but the environments were also a bit bland. D2 was a vast improvement, imo. D3, the environments we saw in gameplay video looked like early D2 levels, but scarier and better.
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Ranger - Ranged Weapon Mastery (fire a bow or javelins like a machine gun!), Traps (MK style!), Pets (lions, tigers, and bears oh my!) - physical damage based
Demonologist - Bone Spells (Necro style!), Avatar (shapeshift into a demon!), Furies (evil spirits that hang around you, giving party bonuses) - mix of physical damage and magic
LEAP ATTACK!!!!! PLAGUE OF TOADS!!!!!
SLOW TIME!!!!!
I am so excited about this game. I like the look. I like the walkthrough: destructible environments, bloody body parts falling off of ledges, exploding enemies, boss death sequences, animations for characters, abilities and spells. It is totally orgasmic. I am ready to pre-order the Limited Edition right now. Hell Yeah!!!
Doryah, that's an excellent illustration of what I'm referring to. I didn't even realize how the darkness makes everything sharper and more defined. The monster models could stand to be improved/made darker of course, but lighting makes a world of difference. I probably would not have even noticed the change in style had only the lighting been made darker.
The skill bar reminds me of a pez bar.
Diablo is and always will be dark
Diablo is whatever Blizzard makes it. Bottom line is as someone said before, different people are making it, so the style is going to be different. Diablo 1 and Hellfire were made by different entities, and were rather different. Diablo III is no exception. Can't wait to play it, esp. because I'm curious to see how a different Blizzard team does it.
With the screenshots of Diablo III now out, it's obvious that this element of the series has been mostly scrapped. From the environments down to the monsters' posture, the game just isn't very intimidating.
It looks like an isometric WoW with a darker color palette. Everything has that rounded pastel-ish cartoon look. There's an obvious disconnect between the graphics and the dark storyline. It's like having Charles Schulz illustrate Dante's Divine Comedy (from which, FWIW, Diablo could afford to borrow). The end result is just ridiculous.
It seems like Blizzard shifted the WoW artists to this game, but without much new direction. So the artists just remake WoW on a different scale.
For instance, see http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/_images/screenshots/ss13-hires.jpg [The image is too high-res to post directly)
Has anyone ever seen the cow kings dance well i have its right here! http://youtube.com/watch?v=Cd2wyKQm13I
Oh and do you wanna see the new cows in d3 here they are
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TpMAqQ_pc0I
/l、
(゚、 。 7
l、 ~ヽ ------CAT IM A KITTY CAT AND I DANCE DANCE DANCE
..じしf_, )ノ AND I DANCE DANCE DANCE!!!
Come stay awhile and..its time for shedding our enemies blood not idle talk aww no one ever listens... lol
"Good enough"
You speak for at least me.
It's the decisions you make when you have no time to make them that define who you are.
exactly
Has anyone ever seen the cow kings dance well i have its right here! http://youtube.com/watch?v=Cd2wyKQm13I
Oh and do you wanna see the new cows in d3 here they are
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TpMAqQ_pc0I
/l、
(゚、 。 7
l、 ~ヽ ------CAT IM A KITTY CAT AND I DANCE DANCE DANCE
..じしf_, )ノ AND I DANCE DANCE DANCE!!!
Come stay awhile and..its time for shedding our enemies blood not idle talk aww no one ever listens... lol
However, while the new DIII look has a LOTR feel, it does look somewhat darker than LOTR. Time will tell. Plus, even if it is not that dark, all that really matters is the gameplay. I don't think the graphics look to detract too much from that.
I like the look and feel of the game, i personally think its going to be the best of the 3
For the seriously gritty look you would have to take the art direction towards something like age of conan (high poly models, high system reqs), for blizzard thats not something they care about anymore, they want there games to have mass market appeal and sale lots of copies.
I like the new style, we don't even know yet if what we've seen is the highest quality of the game or for that fact the only style they've taken with the game in the environments.
Its obvious form what we've seen that theres a day/night cycle in the outside environment and weather effects, the shading of such things could greatly change how the environment looks and take it towards the more, dark gritty atmosphere of the other games.
Character models of the enemies, we didn't see much but they looked and behaved great.
I can't see how people can be so anal about something we've seen so little of in reality.
different artists make a different game.
WoW fans will be happy though.
"[Diablo1+2] obviously had the gothic look to it, but, you they weren't, they weren't very uh, very colorful games."
"We want to take dark as an emotion, rather than an actual color art choice." -Rob Pardo
"Why the hell shouldn't it be for 'kiddies', it's a goddamn game afterall." -lethlan
Yes, that's definitely true. Also, when you increase the sheer volume of enemies on screen, it likely detracts from the horror aspect. So there it's a matter of preference, a balance of gameplay vs. style and feel. That said, the style of the characters, monsters, environments etc. differ in a relevant way as well.
Perhaps it was a bit much to expect high resolution models, but that's not an integral part of the style, as Diablo I & II demonstrate. The skeleton models of Diablo I & II look more lifelike (probably due to the darker color palette or something) than the Diablo III models do.
Of course, our conception of Diablo III will become more accurate as more information is released. But I'm not referring to an unfinished look/work. The monster models and environments have a distinctly cartoonish look that isn't a product of being finished or not. In other words, if you doubled the resolution of the screenshots, or polished it, it would retain the cartoonish look.
I skimmed the artwork for Diablo III, and the style there varies quite a bit from picture to picture, so singling out any one picture will give you an inaccurate sample. I looked for Diablo II artwork, but couldn't find one good source. Overall though, the latter is much more uniformly dark in style, and the Diablo I work even more so, eg [Diablo I work follows] Taking an overall average, D1 and D3 are very different.
.
The trailer did have a very LOTR feel, but that's not evident in the screenshots. Hell, I wish the trailer style carried over into the game, but it clearly doesn't.
It seems not. I'm not a negative person, it's just disappointing to see Blizzard take a step backwards stylistically. The style does not fit the story.
Exactly. The artwork is different, more colorful, less photorealistic.
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
Demonologist - Bone Spells (Necro style!), Avatar (shapeshift into a demon!), Furies (evil spirits that hang around you, giving party bonuses) - mix of physical damage and magic
LEAP ATTACK!!!!!
PLAGUE OF TOADS!!!!!
SLOW TIME!!!!!
I reckon a good choice would be making an option that masks it, just like that or in similar fashion.
This is a great day!
The skill bar reminds me of a pez bar.
Diablo is whatever Blizzard makes it. Bottom line is as someone said before, different people are making it, so the style is going to be different. Diablo 1 and Hellfire were made by different entities, and were rather different. Diablo III is no exception. Can't wait to play it, esp. because I'm curious to see how a different Blizzard team does it.