Many people voiced complaint about bright colors, the altered screenshots focused on that, and thats what they chose to respond to. I've already said the colors aren't an issue for me, and I have to wonder how many people who are irked by the art are aware of what is actually bothering them.
Something like Titan Quest would be fine as a 3D realization. Most environs are bright, dungeons aren't dark enough to obscure anything and yet light radius remains for the flavor, enemies range from semi-realistic to slightly cartoony, theres no problem figuring out what is going on. D3 has conciously chosen a non-photorealistic, stylized look that they acknowledge shares some inspiration from Warcraft, between the exaggerated proportions and smooth textures with minimal depth. In this series thats about as immersion killing as laser guns. But then this team is cut from the Warcraft cloth and not B. North.
That said I don't fault them for ignoring their fans. They're in a position where they can make it look however they want and still sell it, so they will stick with what they enjoy doing. It's just too bad that Schafer & co went and sunk their fortunes in HG:L and left Warcrafters to write the next in this IP's line. On the other hand, that probably means we will get sturdier coding and better balance, which matters more in the end.
Something like Titan Quest would be fine as a 3D realization. Most environs are bright, dungeons aren't dark enough to obscure anything and yet light radius remains for the flavor, enemies range from semi-realistic to slightly cartoony, theres no problem figuring out what is going on. D3 has conciously chosen a non-photorealistic, stylized look that they acknowledge shares some inspiration from Warcraft, between the exaggerated proportions and smooth textures with minimal depth. In this series thats about as immersion killing as laser guns. But then this team is cut from the Warcraft cloth and not B. North.
That said I don't fault them for ignoring their fans. They're in a position where they can make it look however they want and still sell it, so they will stick with what they enjoy doing. It's just too bad that Schafer & co went and sunk their fortunes in HG:L and left Warcrafters to write the next in this IP's line. On the other hand, that probably means we will get sturdier coding and better balance, which matters more in the end.