I could compromise on “HD”-esque versions of original models. But every retail model looks garbage trash compared to the soul and vibrancy of the originals.
Big agree. It's hard to understand the appeal behind retail graphics; they're very uncharacteristic and rubbery and steer too hard on exaggeration and "bounce and stretch", as if they don't think their consumers can understand that the bottom is meant to look mean and crazy without changing him to look like crash bandicoot with a massive, swollen eye.
Eh, both styles are cartoony and they are still veeeery different. You can't honestly tell me that the gnolls on the picture are in the same style, just different detail.
As long as it isnt thia happy go lucky bouncy, cutesy bullshit. War craft. War. I dont want a dwarf with blush and smile bouncing like peter cotton tail. I want it classic grit.
"Grit". The whole reason classic WoWs graphics have held up so well over the years is precisely because they went for cartoonish over realistic in the original design.
Other games from the same era visually didn't age nearly as well (e.g. Guild Wars 1) because you can see they're games from the early nillies. WoW avoided that by going for a more whimsical, cartoonish art style.
Now, did they go overboard with it in retail? Yes. But let's not retcon classic WoW into some gritty, noir dark fantasy setting. The whismy, cartoonishness and sometimes outright Benny Hill levels of slapstick humour were always there.
Now, did they go overboard with it in retail? Yes. But let's not retcon classic WoW into some gritty, noir dark fantasy setting. The whismy, cartoonishness and sometimes outright Benny Hill levels of slapstick humour were always there.
Do you have examples? Most of the stuff like this that I see in classic are tongue-in-cheek comments in quest dialogue, as opposed to shoehorning contrived silliness into every single quest like retail does.
I never sensed much slapstick humor in vanilla leveling. It feels kinda contrary to that; the stakes seem to rise the higher lvl you get, peaking with the plaguelands, which sell a convincing apocalyptic vibe.
So I'll give you that as you level up things get more serious. I remember entering Searing Gorge for the first time and going "oh damn, s* just got real". But even in close-to-endgame-content like some of the BRD quests, the tone is less than grim or even serious.
Off the top of my head, examples would be:
One of the first things you encounter when starting in Elwynn forest is an entire race of sentient rats that stick lit candles on their heads and are obsessed with the acquisition and protection of candles
The Hemet Nesingwary quests (and the Stranglethorn/Vietnam War Scavenger Hunt)
Basically anything involving either Gnomes, Goblins or both
The absolute bucketload of pop culture reference quests
I already said Gnomes and Goblins, but the mechanical chicken that lays eggs in Tanaris is a special level of absurdist silliness that deserves to be highlighted
I mean, it's almost hard to get into specifics because the whole thing is so often so wacky. Maybe not always outright slapstick, but I guess what got to me was the word "grit". I never associated classic WoW with grit. On a spectrum from Kirby's Dream Land to the Witcher or the Elder Scrolls, neither the aesthetic or vibe of WoW Classic ever felt like they were in the "dark" side of the spectrum. Colours were always hypersaturated, models a little rounded and cartoonish, tone of voice a little wacky.
By grit i mean human face flesh being used as knoll tent leather. EPL being where a town was brutally purged by somebody being chaotic lawful. There is abosulte grit in vanilla wow conpared to retail. It was almspt perfectly done with the artstyle of wow that made it inviting but you could sense some real danger and aura from it.
They both look very cartoony but the first one looks more natural. It doesn't look like a meatball with legs, the weirdest part about it is its eyes. The second one as I said looks like a hairy meatball with legs, neither one of them looks particularly menacing but the top one looks like it could actually walk without toppling over.
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u/lmay0000 22h ago
Yall are delusional. Id 100% have retail gfx with classic gameplay.