A Thread About Aesthetics

Music, sound effects, flavor text, rad boss death animations, all that kind of crap is what makes a good game into a great game for me. That's not to say that heavy graphics and big live orchestral whatever is a deal breaker, but I like it when the people in charge of the art direction in a game take the time to tweak as many of the little things as they can think of.

I LOVE the new Act 1 music. I really enjoyed the old ones, but I liked Act 2 more. Now Act 1 is just great. There's a strong hint of Fallout's style mixed in there, it gives a great sense of loneliness and futility.

Monster sounds are way more interesting too. I dig the screams that Mervail's Attendants make.

Fairgraves' new text is significantly clearer, and gives a much better idea of why this guy wants to kill you all of a sudden.

Finally, Mervail's lair and the Warden's Quarters or whatever it was called are substantially more interesting. I love the huge throne of gold that evaporates into wood or mud or something, and that door splintering away to reveal the Act 2 entrance was great. I wanted to give props to whoever is working on the art and music of the game, they knocked it out of the park with the latest additions.

This game has an amazing art style, music, sound effects, and in general is just really high quality. Considering the size of the team this group really deserves some props for everything they have accomplished and will accomplish in the future. Honestly I believe it looks better than most AAA titles out there, even D3 (although that is just a preference in style).

That being said the one thing aesthetically that really irritates me is the Witch's skill effects. I think most if not all of the melee skills look great and feel rewarding when you use them because of the flare they bring. However when I play a Witch (the mage, in most games is the flashiest of all classes with spells that "pop") I feel so underwhelmed.

I do not know if this is something they are still working on but I sure hope it is. As it stands skills like Fireball could pass for an auto attack in other games. Mage classes are where the animators/artists can go a bit crazy and make some really neat stuff because it is "magic", something that has no limits because we have nothing to compare it to in reality. I would just like the spells to be given a little more "uumph" graphically.