WoW art style peaked with Wrath of the Lich King, or is it just nostalgia?

[Mihalik]

So, not to discuss the merits of gameplay, hardcore v casual or whatnot, but rather the aesthetics of World of Warcraft.

I strongly feel that Blizzard never managed to produce anything as internally consistent and aesthetically unique as Wrath was.

There was something about Northend, its art, its music, its inhabitants, the lore of the creatures inhabiting it, its world building that somehow never been replicated in subsequent expansions, even if certain zones, creatures or bits of lore stood out, they never been as coherent and meaningful again.

Icecrown as a whole felt like it captured the best of what made Outland great and then managed to amplify it.

Even the emptiness of something like Icecrown (the zone) somehow felt...fitting, it somehow managed to be empty, but full, dull, terrible and beautiful.

Northrend felt as an ancient land, one that could have truly been the home of Old Gods, scuttling spider horrors, giant Vikings, Valkyries, dwarves, ancient machines, legions of zombies, tombs of dragons, dense forests, lost jungles and herds of mammoths roaming the tundra.

From the moment you set foot on any of the southern corners, your progress northward made sense, filled with horrors and surprises, but made sense.

Everything after, just felt....disjointed. All over the place. Brief moments of brilliance but otherwise uninspiring.

[Jaggler]

I think in terms of art WoW has been getting better with every expansion. IMHO especially Zandalar, Kul Tiras and Pandaria are the best continents they ever created.

[Varodoc]

I completely disagree, imho Kul Tiras, Zandalar, and Pandaria look much better than Northrend. That's not to say Northrend doesn't look good, because it does, but it's exaggerated to say it's the peak of art style and everything else is worse, aside from a few cases of brilliance. Also Kul Tiras and Zandalar are a lot more cohesive than Northrend, most zones in Northrend actually feel rather self-contained, there doesn't seem to be a cohesive aesthetic theme in the western region, where you have a bleak tundra next to a frozen lake and a pristine jungle.

Also why do you refer to Northrend as Icecrown?

[ONCHEhap]

Honestly,I feel like WoW's art style has been losing focus in several areas over time.

Zones are still excellent,but there are other areas where it has been getting weird,notably mounts. Earlier in WoW,mounts made sense within the context of WoW,they felt grounded.You could find a few wacky and odd ones here and there,but it mostly made sense.This is not the case nowadays,mounts are made according to the rule of cool regardless of if they fit.
Nowadays we have stuff like mini zeppelins,small flying gilded boats,and all kinds of weird shit. Do they look good? Of course they do,but do they fit within the universe of WoW? Not really,they're nice but very out of place.

TLR : In various areas,WoW artists stopped really trying to do stuff that fits within Warcraft,and just go by the rule of cool

[Lei]

Well. it's unfair to compare a 2019 created zone to a 2009 zone in QUALITY for one. WotLK was already new on many levels compared to BC (we started to get a real3d world, with heights, before wrath, the zoens were really flat) and then Cata was again something very new in world building. For sure a 2019 zone will look better in quality, no question. But as cohesion, theme, art style I'd say it peaked in MoP. MoP was beautifully detailed. Then with WoD something new started in wow's art.

The mounts, armor sets is a different question. I'd say it peaked in Cata, MoP's eastern style was very limited, but still there were amazing sets. Didn't like anything from WoD and on.

[Gaidax]

Heck no. MoP was easily stronger in that department by a mile, especially because it wasn't beating a dead horse and came up with completely brand new stuff. Heck, Legion's Suramar completely tops just about everything there.

BfA is certainly much more advanced there too, a lot of WoTLK areas are flat and barren with little detail in comparison.

[Kyphael]

Disagree, WoW's art team and music are the game's one constant. They never disappoint. The game always looks beautiful and well designed, even when the game's systems and game play itself falls short.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Unpopular opinion: I never liked the cartoony almost-cellshaded feeling of WoW's artstyle. It's also inconsistent, with some parts being looney-toon levels and others being fairly high fidelity. I think this becomes especially clear when you look at the flora in the zones (like Zandalar) and compare it to the architecture. The plants look properly proportioned, at worst just fantasy, but buildings and ornaments all look wonky and wrong.

[Candy Cough]

Thats kinda biased isnt it?

Since WoW primarily has had 2 art styles. Pre Mop and post MoP.

Vanilla to cata had its own thing going. Very gritty and rough art style, not really as caryoony as today. So if it peaked it was in Cata not wotlk

MoP and past we went away from that into a new era with much more polygons, fluid animations and bright colors

[ShadiHD]

absolutely not, art-wise the newer expansions are much MUCH more aesthetic

[Soon-TM]

<snip>

WotLK art was great, no doubt. I loved the Scourge/Norse theme, and the exceptions (Sholazar and Zul'drak) were also top notch. In fact, Zul'drak was one of the most immersive zones in WotLK, along with Howling Fjord and Icecrown - it was also a rare gem, since it's the only thing we've seen in-game about the ice trolls.

But Pandaria, Legion and yes, even BfA are aesthetically beautiful, they really don't have anything bad, as far as visuals are concerned. Only Zuldazar and Krasarang stand as somewhat dull zones, but the rest rocks. I wouldn't be surprised if we learned that the art team are the ones carrying WoW for quite some time now.

[melodramocracy]

I think overall setting and themes may have peaked with Wrath, so I'd agree with you, but Northrend has its flaws as well (Borean Tundra is largely dull / underwhelming when compared to everything around it). The art itself though has unquestionably gotten sharper and more detailed over the years though.

[Shakana]

WoW's art has always been the best part of wow, every expansion has some amazing art in it's own original way. Music too is the best.

[Master Factician]

I didn't have much fun playing BfA but it's definitely the best WoW has ever looked:

[Lochton]

No, I don't agree. Think it is mostly nostalgia.

[RobertMugabe]

So, not to discuss the merits of gameplay, hardcore v casual or whatnot, but rather the aesthetics of World of Warcraft.

I strongly feel that Blizzard never managed to produce anything as internally consistent and aesthetically unique as Wrath was.

There was something about Northend, its art, its music, its inhabitants, the lore of the creatures inhabiting it, its world building that somehow never been replicated in subsequent expansions, even if certain zones, creatures or bits of lore stood out, they never been as coherent and meaningful again.

Icecrown as a whole felt like it captured the best of what made Outland great and then managed to amplify it.

Even the emptiness of something like Icecrown (the zone) somehow felt...fitting, it somehow managed to be empty, but full, dull, terrible and beautiful.

Northrend felt as an ancient land, one that could have truly been the home of Old Gods, scuttling spider horrors, giant Vikings, Valkyries, dwarves, ancient machines, legions of zombies, tombs of dragons, dense forests, lost jungles and herds of mammoths roaming the tundra.

From the moment you set foot on any of the southern corners, your progress northward made sense, filled with horrors and surprises, but made sense.

Everything after, just felt....disjointed. All over the place. Brief moments of brilliance but otherwise uninspiring.

It's just nostalgia.

Every expansion has been a huge step up in terms of art and quality. If anything, this part has been something that has always been better and better each expansion.

[Thage]

I have to side with the disagree crew here. Despite the game's various flaws, the art team has consistently and splendidly knocked it out of the park every single expansion, finding new ways to outdo themselves even on a little junk heap scrapyard of an island like Mechagon. You'll rarely if ever see me giving the art team lip as they're the only ones who seem to give half a fuck anymore.

edit: One of, if not the biggest tragedy of Warlords of Draenor, was that the art team poured their hearts into designing this alien, primal world with jagged, powerful Iron Horde architecture and sweeping, beautiful draenei architecture all over, and the game designers absolutely failed to provide compelling reasons to go out and explore this beautiful world, instead relying on restrictive travel and late-endgame bribes to get people out there.

[zlygork]

strongly disagree MoP+ art is infinitely better than Cata and earlier art. The only thing that I would argue for is music, BfA's is pretty meh, but Legion's was still fine, so we'll see.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

strongly disagree MoP+ art is infinitely better than Cata and earlier art. The only thing that I would argue for is music, BfA's is pretty meh, but Legion's was still fine, so we'll see.

Indeed. MoP set the gold standard for video game art design. The Jade Forest, VotFW, Kun-Lai, and the Vale are the most beautiful zones in WoW (though Shadowmoon Valley and Stormsong Valley come close), not to mention how fantastic the raids look.

I'll give props to 7.3 and BFA for Philip Zhang's skybox art. He did the jaw droppingly beautiful sky boxes of Argus, the burnt out Teldrassil, and Nazmir blood moon. They make the world feel ginormous! You look up to see towering clouds and massive planetary plates, and worlds that go on forever.


Argus 1 https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oqlYz
Argus 2 https://www.artstation.com/artwork/5go9J
Argus 3 https://www.artstation.com/artwork/yPyG8
Argus raid 1 https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mokGE
Argus raid 2 https://www.artstation.com/artwork/6gXyn
Nazmir https://www.artstation.com/artwork/o4ZOO

[Hugnomo]

I disagree as well. Art wise, WoW has exponentially improved with every expansion, with a particular leap from MoP onward. Cannot wait for Shadowlands!

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wow art peaked with WoD and stayed at that level. MoP was nearly there but WoD added significant improvements all around.

Yeah I more or less second this. MoP was a significant leap, but WoD was where they really stuck the landing. Legion and BfA I think managed to improve but more or less stayed in that top quality bracket that WoD is in.