supernova8
Banned
I guess it still looks like fun but yeah I was kinda hoping for the dark, gritty fantasy vibe
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CamHostage
Member
I think people are too hung up on what they imagined in that original trailer, versus what was actually in it...
The original teaser wasn't necessarily fully a "dark, gritty fantasy" as in a photorealistic, gloomy world (and it's not like the actual gameplay reveal trailer is all sunshine and rainbows...) It still always had that embellished statue on the hillside, it still always had that weird not-real look to the establishing shot of the canyon, it had that cool but obviously bogus effect where one torch lights up an entire cavern, and then we see nothing of the final monster, just a lighting effect in the darkness. It still was always affected fantasy, not gritty. The lighting in the teaser generally favored greys and shadows, but there's basically only four shots in that sequence, whereas there's a lot more (and more from the ground-level of the player's perspective,) so lots more places for the chosen visual style to go wrong. There's no sequence in the gameplay trailer which has that pitch-black darkness of a cavern with 2 lightsources like the teaser, but that's not to say they couldn't turn lights off if called for. At some point, it's got to be a video game that you can play for 100+ hours, and the overall look flattened out and shows more seams.
We saw that original clip back in 2020 and extrapolated what it meant for a full game. (And imagination was especially uncontrolled back when we had high ideals of what "true next-gen" might look like...) Go back and look at it though; even at the time, its look wasn't fully cohesive or without quibbles.
For sure, the complete style has evolved over time, it always does (and it still is evolving in active development,) but I would be surprised if the developers actually considered there to have been a radical dustbin-and-restart redesign of the look from 2020 to 2023.
COMPARISONS:
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Gorgon
Member
Yes, NV was great, OW was ok but nothing special, and Pillars was good but more of the same that had been done for the last 20 years. Obsidian is a good studio but as I said before it's way overrated.
I think people are too hung up on what they imagined in that original trailer, versus what was actually in it...
The original teaser wasn't necessarily fully a "dark, gritty fantasy" as in a photorealistic, gloomy world (and it's not like the actual gameplay reveal trailer is all sunshine and rainbows...) It still always had that embellished statue on the hillside, it still always had that weird not-real look to the establishing shot of the canyon, it had that cool but obviously bogus effect where one torch lights up an entire cavern, and then we see nothing of the final monster, just a lighting effect in the darkness. It still was always affected fantasy, not gritty. The lighting in the teaser generally favored greys and shadows, but there's basically only four shots in that sequence, whereas there's a lot more (and more from the ground-level of the player's perspective,) so lots more places for the chosen visual style to go wrong. There's no sequence in the gameplay trailer which has that pitch-black darkness of a cavern with 2 lightsources like the teaser, but that's not to say they couldn't turn lights off if called for. At some point, it's got to be a video game that you can play for 100+ hours, and the overall look flattened out and shows more seams.
We saw that original clip back in 2020 and extrapolated what it meant for a full game. (And imagination was especially uncontrolled back when we had high ideals of what "true next-gen" might look like...) Go back and look at it though; even at the time, its look wasn't fully cohesive or without quibbles.
For sure, the complete style has evolved over time, it always does (and it still is evolving in active development,) but I would be surprised if the developers actually considered there to have been a radical dustbin-and-restart redesign of the look from 2020 to 2023.
COMPARISONS:
I agree with you, in hindsight. Unfortunately, what I'm seeing now is not what I imagined from the original trailer and it seems that a lot of people made the same (wrong) assumptions as I did. There's just something about the original trailer that screems "dark fantasy". Or maybe it's just that people are starving for darker fantasy, just for those hopes to be smashed now with the reveal. Not the devs fault in that regard anyway, but it's what it is. The plasticine-looking environment in some of the shots ain't helping either.
Astray
Member
That's a shame because the original art style was very appealing in that 1st trailer.
samoilaaa
Member
yeah the game looks like crap
Riky
$MSFT
"Talking further about the Avowed trailer, Briar Diem adds, “A lot of the game is being kept hidden right now, I think you will have to wait until the next trailer or some sort of presentation to really see it, but it is safe to assume it is very Obsidian. No, the entire game isn't all bright and happy town, no it is not all so indistinct visually"
Looks like there is a lot more to come, some shots look stunning already.
Looks like there is a lot more to come, some shots look stunning already.