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Blizzard’s old manual art is a real nostalgia tripAhh… That’s the stuff!
Ahh… That’s the stuff!
Image credit:Blizzard
Image credit:Blizzard
I’ve gone on record as not being a huge fan of the artstyle choices used in the newWarcraft I & IIremasters. It’s crisp and readable, sure, but I’m never exactly thrilled to see all the roughness of older sprites completely done away with, especially when I always felt some of that ruggedness was the point. The tendency of remasters to treat every characterful oddity as a blemish is a wider topic than the scope of this article, but one day, Bluepoint will remasterBloodborne, and the world will feel my pain.
Anyway. Nowadays, I’d say Blizzard - or,World Of Warcraft, at least - is pretty much synomous with a softer, more colorful approach to fantasy worlds. While I don’t pine for a return to the more boobily ridiculous elements ofFrank Frazetta’s style, I do often wish that some of the more expressive, pained, and physically grounded elements of classic Sword And Sorcery art was a bit more common. I’m no art scholar, and there’s undoubtedly a bit of tunnel vision of my part to this assertion, but as far as as pop culture goes: I see the Blizzard version of fantasy more than I see the Frazetta version, and I don’t exactly love it. Same goes for the older, punkier, less uniform sci-fi art from things like 2000 AD and Warhammer 40,000. Edwin touched on some of this inhis excellent Space Marine piece.
Here’s the piece in question. Shout out to CMaster on the Discord.
Image credit:Blizzard
Thing is, I’ve most definetely seen this piece before, because the originalStarcraft manualthat houses it was primo toilet reading back in the day. But it was still a shock seeing it again, especially considering how different it is to the style I associate Blizzard with currently. Here’s a few more for the Zerg and Protos.
Image credit:Blizzard
Image credit:Blizzard
Image credit:Blizzard
Image credit:Blizzard
If you prefer this more recent piece, I absolutely get it. While I’m not a fan of the softness and stylisation myself, it’s very distinctly a Warcraft orc. This could just be an effect of familiarity, sure, but you could identify that as Blizzard immediately, while the older piece could be from any number of DIY, grungy OSR manuals. Personally, though, that’s why I love it.
Here’s a human. Sorry about the text. Bloody love their text, humans do.
Image credit:Blizzard
Anyways, that’s it, that’s the post! As I said, figured a few of you might get a kick out of seeing the old art, especially if it’s your first time. Also, I’m contractually obligated to write ‘orc’ at least twelve times a week.
