Reforged graphics looks so bad not because of bad art. It's how it is implemented in the game. The new models looked glorious in the trailers. What they should do is to make the game look as good as how they marketed it.
Well some models look bad because they are of wrong size, or maybe they look too epic for a weak creep they are made for. Only limited amount of art needs to be redone I think.
It is because of bad direction and in result bad art. I dont dismiss fidelity of it and effort put into creation of the assets, but they are just incredibly unfitting for the "remaster" and remake. Designs can work given proper execution and art style, as seen by reclassic fan made remakes in original artstyle, and would be great for extra variety. Problem is that Brian Sousa was a stuck up fool who did not respect nor care for Warcraft or even Starcraft for that matter and done a very basic "triple A realism shiny look" as his "artstyle".
He openly mocked the og game on the panels on blizzcon and his inadequacy was laid bare on blizzcon panels aswell as GDC panel on remastering/remaking games that he took part in and lead a presentation detailing work on Starcraft Remastered, and his disrespectful demeanor even to Starcraft which is only title he worked on directly at blizzard back in the day shows. For a man who worked under Samwise didier he shows complete ignorance and lack of any resemblence to artstyle Samwise didier created for the games.
Reforged assets are so bad in terms of fitting in with blizzard/samwise didier aesthetic that it looks neither like wc3 nor like World of Warcraft, past general design ques. Take Jaina and Thrall for that comparison's sake both in their Heroes of the Storm and more recent WoW renditions. It looks like rendition of those characters for some crosspromotion with completely different non-blizzard game. All of this rests on catastrophicly misguided vision and hung ups on modern technology, complete ignorance in terms of respecting og artwork and assets and Sousa not artpassing things to same standard. To a point that lots of the assets dont even fit together across the objects and unit types and to game world itself. And its something that is impossible to reconcile, as this approach would require COMPLETE remake of wc3 on the newer engine like one used to Stracraft 2, but even then all the rest of issues remain.
This game needed more gentle approach, that would pull it towards technical fidelity of World of Warcraft more than anything else, while respecting og artstyle in it's entiriety and adding to the games asset roster on top of that with alternate designs, not replacing them. In practical terms it should serve as ulra high detail setting for the original game, so it looks uniform for all players for most part. And rest of the effort and funding shouldve went into things we actually needed, rewrite of the engine to run at more cores, better use of performance of modern computers and stability.
Instead it was blown on outsourced, overblown and overdone "hightech" vision of some fool who bailed from the company before release, leaving the rest of the team for dead and to take the brunt of the backlash both in and outside blizzard. And then to add insult to injury split the community into two completely incompatible camps, instead of properly unified group.
Business decision regarding pricing in comparison to original warcraft iii prior to 2018 and SC:R are also a stain on the whole situation.
None of this needs any apologism.
Having said that. I am not for "deleting" HD graphics, no matter how distasteful, ill-fitting and awful i personally find them. There are people who do enjoy it, tho i would argue they would enjoy it and the game if these were more faithful to original game in the first place. What is done is done and it's here to stay. Even if it means it's effectively to subcommunities within one. Which can be both good and bad. It lets people do more things technicly, but also means not everyone within the community can experience each aspect of it anymore, especially if they refuse to buy full version of Reforged. I would just preffer version of the game that didnt create those divisions and problems, and let the game grow.
We recently seen it finally go on a sale recently, which is atleast something....After years of stubborn 30/40€ or $ pricing, but i think the game should be reduced in price permanently so more people give it a try and join in...which is what this ...abominable remakster was meant to do. So lets hope it can do that
Whether fan art or not, the fact that its from a blizzard artist shows me there was (is?) a desire to make Reforged look closer to the original. I can imagine the discussion about the art direction was quite heated, until someone decided on the current look. And then many sad faces...
That someone was Brian Sousa and there were no debates, he just done more of what he did with SC:R except noone stopped him from going overboard this time, in terms of SC:R he said he was forced by focus groups and executives to bring it closer to original. So that full just "let loose" with Reforged...just to bail before it released.
What that GDC panel:
He was unfit for this position even then. It's especially striking in comparison to art lead for Crash Bandicoot remakes that comes after Sousa.
