Taking a good old crack at making an exciting upcoming videogame game as unexciting as possible is this short, strangely detached look at one of the classic baddies returning in Blizzard’s upcoming Diablo sequel. The Fallen Ones are coming back, as proven by a new video that is, to my mind, very much trying to reassure crazy fans that their treasured murky colour palette isn’t entirely replaced by – oh grud don’t make me say the bad words – ‘WoW gayness’.
More casual Diablo fans will remember the Fallen Ones as the little impy guys who resurrect themselves in huge numbers unless you nobble the Shaman lurking at the back. New (I think) to their first 3D iteration is the splendid Lunatic – a toad-chested chap who, at a guess, stabs himself in the fiery belly to wreak high-temperature havoc on anyone close enough. The video beneath the cut shows concept art and some brief in-engine animations of the various Fallenses – it’s frankly a dull piece of footage, but it’s there to excite the fans, not to sell the game to a new crowd. Two more screenshots to pore over too, which also seem deliberately dark.
Certainly looks a bit more Classic Diablo in tone and colour than the controversial brighter stuff we’ve seen so far. While I was never quite massive enough a Diablo fan to care a whit about the colour scheme of this one, I do find this apparent promise of contrast and variety very appealing. Also, fat mad things are always funny, right?
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You can’t tell the atmosphere of a game until you play it, but part of of what made Diablo feel so gritty was that it had a very realistic and detailed look. Detail and grittiness isn’t the same thing, but the detail intensifies the grittiness. The world is messed up and it’s shown in great detail.
It’s the difference between saying someone was beaten up versus going into great detail about it. A cartoony, stylized art style conveys different things than what a realistic art style does. You like or dislike the new art style all you want, but there are factual things you can say about it too.
I don’t care how many pentagrams and torture chambers they throw in there, it’s not the same, because it’s different, it’s inarguable. They took out the corpses and persistent blood anyway, which is too bad.
I was having worried discussions about Diablo III’s art style in 2007, before the game was even announced! Lots of people want it to look a certain way. The new art style won’t make the game bad, it won’t stop people from buying it, but you can still have valid complaints about it.
And that field you filled in, it’s a name field and not a topic field…
@ Wulf, nobody uses ‘gay’. Someone did a long time ago and people are just referencing it
@Wulf
I think you’re kinda looking over the fact that these are screenshots of a very, very early alpha build of the game. Compare the screenshots of Starcraft 2 released recently to its very first screens and you’ll find a massive increase in quality and visual cohesion.
That said, I’m still totally miffed that the game’s graphics technology is already dated compared to the likes of Titan Quest (released 3 years ago, no less) and Sacred 2, and even their own Starcraft 2. Why, Blizzard…? Why…?!
Diablo 2 wasn’t even good back when it was grimdark.
Wow my last comment was removed, didn’t think it was THAT bad but will keep that mind. Still I’d like to make the suggestion that it would have been interesting if they’d created a new interesting cell shader technology that made the game look more like a grim gothic nightmare/noir. Realistic has been done as has the kind of cartoony way their going now, I’d be interesting to see a really detailed engine that makes the game feel like you’re in a nightmare you can’t escape without going to far over board. Sadly me saying this will make no difference, they’re gonna do what they’re gonna do. Fact is they’re going to be successful when they release this game because they ARE Blizzard and it is Diablo 3. Those two facts will sell the game no matter how it looks.
I am strongly disappointed that this article is not entitled “It’s Hard Out Here for an Imp.”
Honestly, all the “OMG IT’S LIEK WOW AGAIN !!§§111″ is amusing to read.
Anyway, there’s one thing i’d like to see back from Diablo 1, the randomized quest part. Sometime, you had to kill the Butcher, other time it was King Leoric, or the Hall of the Blind.
That was awesome, and gave many more reasons to go back into the old church from the start, seeing new locals and .. stuff.
Also, randomized dungeons / landscape. That’s the thing that killed Titan Quest for me. You couldn’t replay it without having the exact same layout for every part of the map, every little dungeon. It was awfully boring.
I really hope they’ll tell us more things about D3 at the next Blizzcon, and not just the random crap from the (awesome) gameplay video from the WWI in Paris. Seriously, rewatch that video. The first thing they’re excited to tell us abous ? Shortcuts for skills.
Seriously.
Wtf.
“What does bother me is that there’s very little cohesion in the art direction. ”
Maybe that’s my problem with the art direction. I’ve had a ton of trouble talking about my dislike of the Diablo 3 art (except their animations which are amazing). Either people call me a goth-dark-wanting idiot or they are one themselves. It’s not that I don’t like the cartoony look but I think it’s the lack of cohesion like you say. The game looks less like a single scene and more like a bunch of elements tossed in together.
“And I’m sorry if I’ve killed Diablo III”
Yes you have killed diablo 3 for everyone who was looking forward to it by your post you have the power. WTF are you thinking
If you don’t like it, no Diablo III for you. Simple, yes?
Also,
“For effs sake Obsidian/Blizzard/Bioware hire some of Squaresofts guys already”
Because throwing a bunch of belts and making everyone have blue hair helps!
“I think that you’ll find that the Fanatic Enslaved were already in D2. They’re the explody dudes in worldstone keep. (Well, I’m not sure if they’re Fanatic Enslaved by then – they’ve upgraded into the hell spawn or whatever, but that’s just a name change)”
True, they were even in that first siege area near Harrogath but that wasn’t a Fallen One and didn’t look nearly as funny as this incarnation of the kamikaze concept. Just look at that fatty run! :)
Yeah, those critters in act 5 were a different base monster type. So it looks like they’ve added that ability to a good old staple monster. Though I did like the interaction between the “totally not orcs” and the slavers in act 5.
For all that they’re basically red goblins, I’m fond of diablo’s fallen ones diablo. Their predictable cowardice made them more interesting to fight than most monsters. Combined with the ever-resurrecting shaman and (now) the leader-types, there’s even more potential for interesting tactics and behaviour. Well; interesting by diablo standards anyway.
I think the graphics look ok for the most part but I hate the heavy use of purple and green colored lighting. That’s by far the most “WoW-ish” (or heck, late-90’s-FPS-ish) part of the graphics for me and it seems like it would be easy to change it to white/red/yellow/orange lighting that would make for a more Diablo-ish atmosphere.
I really like the look, and despite not having played either of the previous Diablos, I can’t wait for Diablo 3.
@ Wolf – I’m hoping that by the time the game comes out of development the engine will be a bit more cohesive – I guess they are still tweaking a lot, especially now that they’ll be getting all this lovely feedback about stupid “gayness” etc and so forth.
Whit.
I can’t believe they spent actual time and money putting that video together. No wonder it costs $50m to make a video game these days.
“Amazing art direction is practically what Blizzard is _built on_. I dunno what you’re smokin’ dude.”
Was built on. Was.
By now, they only have one art style and one storyline, both of which are recycled over and over. They have great concept artists, and the concepts are translated into samey, bland in-game assets with none of the punch of the concepts.
Look at their new Protoss – they’re Draenei.
Look at any of their new games – what is up with the ridiculous shoulder pads.
Blizzard’s simply gone stale and samey.
In game, Diablo does a bad job of conveying the true horror of what’s happening and I don’t think I’d blame the art alone. When you see the concept art, watch the cut scenes, read the lore, all these terrible acts and things seem detached from the actual game.
For example, the palace in the desert in Diablo 2. The prince casually explains how they had to lock the palace down because it’s overrun. That’s all these helpless women being trapped in the dark as demons overrun the harem and tear them to pieces or eat them alive. And there’s just no sense of this horror, nothing to immerse you in the events. Nothing really subtle or clever to what they do. Death is represented by yet another big pile of bodies, the occult is represented by yet another candle-lit pentagram drawn in blood. These things may as well be furniture for the amount of impact they have.
It doesn’t affect the actual fun and addictiveness, of course. But the whole presentation, from graphics to sound (apart from the music) doesn’t do much for the game.
(Opinion away!)
This looks like a cool game and I may want to try it. When does this game come out and how much does it cost?
I support what DK says and raise him one clear comparison: when the ‘WoW gayness’ broke out, those touched-up versions were produced showing visuals more in tone with Diablo were circulated. Despite what people claim, that “oh these people just want shades of brown and grey”, the edited pictures were very colourful. If anything they had considerably more depth and use of colour than Blizzard’s WoW-ised art direction.
Yes, the way it is being done IS bland, it is WoW-like and it’s a distraction. The 80s called: they want their shoulder-pads back.
It will not be the wow people want, but It will be a good wow. OOOPSS!!!.. Diablo!… I DID SAY WOW!?? FORGET THAT, IS DIABLOE, DIOABLO!!!.. DIAOBLE!!!!! curse u, my tongue, you are a liar, bad liar.
“Despite what people claim, that “oh these people just want shades of brown and grey”, the edited pictures were very colourful.”
Infact, many of the touched up recolours only changed some RBG values. More red and blue mostly, less of the rest.
There’s two blizzard defending reactions I’ve heard the most:
“It’s not like Diablo2 had so little colour! (spelleffects, monsters, etc.)” – To that I reply, Then what’s your issue with staying with the old art direction.
“You just want brown and grey/pitch black!” – to that I say, look at the retouched screenshots. They are colourful – it’s simply a more moody colour palette. And the old style had a distinct, atmosphere building gameplay element – light radius.
May I also point out that Left 4 Dead makes extensive use of an artificial artistic light radius and ’stylised darkness’ to achieve the effect Diablo 2 had: the feeling of a horror scenario.
OMG, L4D is WOW GAYNESS!
@jalf, actually, the point is the opposite. L4D uses the lighting techniques of the old Diablos.
The real point is that Diablo 3 could look like a plateful of vomit in a cave and it would still sell a million billion copies and people would play it for years and years.
The main thing Blizzard has as a running theme in their games is not the look or the play style.
The secret ingredient is that they are all stinkingly addictive.
Again to draw attention back to the whole point which is that there is now a running theme in their games centred on the art: ‘WoW gayness’.
Just think, fifteen years from now ‘WoW gayness’ could become the new thing in architecture if Blizzard keeps playing this same tune long enough. Our corridors and hallways will be lit by purple-green lights, with plasterboards painted luminous stone-colour. Instancing will make them bigger on the inside. Buildings will be made wider at the top to make them look taller when viewed from above, at an isometric angle.
i like the classics why ruin a good thing i hope they bring back the cow mobs from cow lvl and some other classics. the big thing for me is that the specs can have very broad trees that all work well i hate when all the mages will be fire since time will be weak i want a good balance and broadined tree field with good options :)
Awesome game!
We travelled together. east… always to the east!!!
god, I loved the video scenes so much.