That was exactly what I was getting it. Ever since D3 was announced, all I've heard was people say it looks like a crappy WoW-Clone or a Cartoon. It clearly looks like neither. Diablo 2 had a lot of bright effects, from Spells, to bright areas, to dungeons full of monsters that were a solid bright color.
But it does look like a wow clone. Look at the comparison photos posted above, please. The stone railings in the D3 shot are generic. The screenshot, at it's current resolution, could easily have come from some GENERIC orange cave in WoW. There is nothing in it to indicate what society this cave belongs to, what era/act/tribe/civilzation/wizard group. There is no architectural detail to them. There is nothing. It will look exactly like all the other caves and catacombs in the game. They will not be memorable, or have any tacticle placement because of this. There is no way you can replace the kind of visceral emotional attachment that dungeons like 'The Hole' or "The Spider Cavern' & 'The Maggot Lair' add to the gameplay eperience. It is lost. Forever.
In Diablo 2, the details for each environment sprite object were carfeully designed to be part of a large, fully-fledged and harmoniously tuned backstory that rivals the complexity of middle-earth. The catacombs in the graveyard after defeating Blood Raven are obviously man made, with a neo-christian gothic construction influence that flows from the ruined buildings, the ruined forts, corrupted sites, the base camp, catacombs and barracks of The Sisters of The Sightless Eye.
Wew. *clears throat* When you make it to Andariel, and into Act 2, you realize that the design team has painstakingly crafted what looks like a complete nation for you to play through in the second act as well, with it's own history, art style, character development complexities (unique to the eastern province social theory), and unique plot devices that don't get ripped off elsewhere in the game (nice).
You don't get that with stuff from Blizzard (South). It all looks the same, plays the same, lacks cultural significance, fails to instill emotion, is not memorable, feels hallow even withstanding a well-stocked rewards system. They suck at their job. They should be ashamed of themselves. Good thing there are enough kids who somehow think they are the largest gaming demographic in town, because the adults know better than to get lost in shitty devlopment title like WoW.
The only thing I can compare the scale of what-the-f*ckery that is going on here, is to reference the loss of quality between Morrowind and Oblivion. It is the same problem we are experiencing here, and it has been discussed at length elsewhere.
The game world in D2 was,what can I call it, ... Psychologically Engineered. Much like the claustraphobic interiors of Doom 3, and the boundless brushed nickel towers and walls of Forerunner architecture in the Halo Universe. It was designed by a mastermind, you can't just get a bachelor's in game design at a community college and replicate that kind of experience and sheer devotion. This game was doomed from the start, once you make that realization, and then the one invloving the fact that the game will still set sales records regardless. Its a goddamn shame
ehm, the new graphics look wayyy better. are you blind?
They
look better, in that the edges are anti-aliased, the lighting is more discerned, and they have managed to use a decent color palette. However, the
design of the graphics lacks anything that we can intuit as skillful execution of inspired architectural/cultural theory. It is devoid of any style. It is not immersive. It does not make us feel anything. It is not memorable. It is generic.
If my post hasn't bored TPU members yet, allow me to cross-reference another interesting thing about D2 and D3:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2357226&postcount=109