The Cool Kid said:
TallestGargoyle said:
The Cool Kid said:
snip your post for sake of WOAH LENGTH
snip my own post for sake of WOAH LENGTH
As much as the orks in DoW were good, they were sadly not a great reflection of the actual orks. They are meant to be stupid brutes, but foremost violent and bloodthirsty.
Having a scene of actual light isn't making something light hearted, it's introducing contrast to the atmosphere. Giving "relaxation" to the character isn't necessarily a good thing as it would break the flow as you are relaxing and not in the broody atmosphere.
Though as you've said, contrast (not relaxation) is always a good mechanic as it helps the player not to get too assumed to the surroundings and to remember where exactly he is venturing - some forsaken pit. When used correctly it does add, not break, the atmosphere.
And The Butcher was actually a big demon with a cleaver...
Well they certainly show a violent and bloodthirsty side. Everything they say is related to the betterment of the Orks, defeating their enemy... But they do it in a comical way that keeps the gameplay lighthearted despite the intense battles taking place.
A better method for contrast is having things deteriorate. Start off in a colourful, peaceful land that begins to get infested with strange monsters and demons, and eventually it becomes a dark, isolated world rules by them with one glimmer of hope (player character) to revert it. Having the player involved in the build up would also help drive home a lot of the themes 'dark and gritty' games employ.
I was never a big fan of Diablo 1. Most I ever did was get to the Butcher which I swear must have been bugged on my game because nothing I did would damage it nearly enough before I was out of health and mana pots. Hell, I had to clear the level BELOW HIM in order to be levelled up enough to do decent damage, and even then by that time I was out of health and mana pots so couldn't heal from his attacks. Big demon or not, he's the first boss, he shouldn't have stomped me so hard, especially in a gameplay setting which prevents me from actively dodging his attacks (played as the warrior guy). In the online I was quickly given dups of high end gear and taken into Hell via the Town Portal, and easily demolished the final boss.
Now I have other reasons for hating Diablo 3, but the graphical style is certainly not one of them. While I would love to have played Borderlands in its original, darker setting and more 'realistic' graphics, it turned into a game with a wonderful atmosphere and aesthetic (that was admittedly let down by a poor plot and text-driven MMO-style quest system). Just strikes me that before release people can be so insistent their ideas of the game are correct despite having yet to play it for themselves, seeing thirty seconds of trailer footage or whatever as definitive.
Left 4 Dead 2 was a huge example of people ignoring the fact they hadn't yet played (or hell, at the time the very unsuccessful boycotts occured even SEEN) the game before calling it a mere clone of the first, despite adding new levels, characters, weapons, enemies, updating the engine, changing the aesthetic design a little, improving load times, adding new features to the gameplay elements that the first overused way too much... And people had the nerve to demand this as a free update to L4D1. I have a friend who still to this day believes he was right to never buy L4D2, despite loving L4D1 and having like 200 hours of playtime on his account. The £26 he spent on the first game apparently doesn't translate to the 200 hours of amusement he had, and while I'm normally against dictating a game's price based on playtime, 200 hours of fun for £26 is a lot more than most single player games are capable of giving. Funny thing is, this guy has told me he was boycotting Modern Warfare series for such tiny playtime. Yet he caved.
I honestly don't know where I'm going with this, I've got a long day of programming ahead of me so I'm just wasting a little time before heading into uni xD. If anything, I'd say wait until you've played it before complaining. There are probably very detailed reasons why they have taken a more stylistic approach to the visual design buried within hundreds of pages of design documentation that most of the people complaining will likely not even know exist, let alone understand or comprehend the reasons why they make choices like this. I'd like to think it's to allow them to put the game on as many systems as possible, which makes sense, but the themes of the game may have been a dictating factor on the change of design (as was the case with Borderlands and Team Fortress 2).
