Darkfall doesnt has a realistic style, and sometimes it is more silly than darker, to tell the truth, some elements are very, very cartoonish, a good example is the black knight, check the images (there are some concepts there too, but what matter is the original idea).

We can find Black/Shadow/Death/Dark/Chosen Knights in many MMORPGS, but the one is Darkfall is almost as cartoonish and goofy as the one we see in WoW.

Age of Conan, Warhammer and even Aion have more of a "gothic/darker" style than Darkfall...  About realistic style, the only one that has it is AoC.

...

Originally posted by Umbral

Originally posted by javac

I greatly prefer Darkfall's art direction over WoW/War/AoC/Aion.

 

The character models are not as detailed as some of those other games but that is deliberate, for high framerates in huge battles. The world and environment of Darkfall are hands-down better - Darkfall has graphical features the others can't even manage, like full dynamic shadows on all world objects and tree branches moving in response to the weather.

Dynamic shadows, tree branches moving, complexity of models are related to technical details and not art style.

It doesnt matter if it is caricature oriented, anime oriented or realistic oriented, all these can be executed in a solid and expressive way... or not, as we can see in Darkfall, where what supposed to be darker became goofy for pure inconsistency.

...

of course it's part of the graphical style of the game -- realistic shadows and movement add realism. what are you calling goofy?

Originally posted by javac

 

of course it's part of the graphical style of the game -- realistic shadows and movement add realism. what are you calling goofy?

 

Javac, it seems you are not able to understand the difference between graphics and art style...

Age of Conan, Bioshock, Mafia are games with realistic Art Style, Darkfall is not realistic, it is stylized, but in a bad way for all the inconsistencies.

Check the black knight, the hammer, the halberd, it is not a realistic/fantasy style, dynamic shadows and the bad animations wont change that...

Keep in mind, lack of realism is not a bad thing, lack of art direction is.

What am I calling goofy? Are you serious?

...

Im gonna get the bow cause archers are almost like snipers

Love the artwork, love the graphics.  I dont REALLY care about graphics but this game is going to turn me into a graphics hoar!  No more cartoonish style art! 

I will be crafting and using the 2h axe.  It looks amazing.

Originally posted by Isane

Originally posted by Bammetje

Unfortunately because of the width of the used graphic, I cannot read the text in full. Next time better use a graphic not wider than the "thread-window".

 

Next time learn to use the scroll slider.

You should practice what you preace there bro , considering you where so quick to jump on him you didnt scroll down yourself and see that he replied to a post about it before you came along and decided to be an A_ _

Originally posted by Umbral

Originally posted by javac

of course it's part of the graphical style of the game -- realistic shadows and movement add realism. what are you calling goofy?

Javac, it seems you are not able to understand the difference between graphics and art style...

Age of Conan, Bioshock, Mafia are games with realistic Art Style, Darkfall is not realistic, it is stylized, but in a bad way for all the inconsistencies.

Check the black knight, the hammer, the halberd, it is not a realistic/fantasy style, dynamic shadows and the bad animations wont change that...

Keep in mind, lack of realism is not a bad thing, lack of art direction is.

What am I calling goofy? Are you serious?

I agree with others here, you don't seem to know what art direction and style are; you simply don't like Darkfall's graphics, we get it. Darkfall's lore and art are closer to Tolkien than most MMOs, in the sense that Darkfall is trying to immerse you into a world that could really exist, unlike recent MMOs which have been tending more and more toward a purely fantastic and stylised form.

The signature weapons come from different races, they are supposed to look nothing alike.

- the halberd looks sinister and evil, like the Alfar

- the hammer looks compact and powerful, like the dwarves

- the bow looks bright and magical, like the elves

- the claws look violent and feral, like the mahirrim

- the sword looks regal and distinguished, it suits the humans

- the axe looks crude and shamanistic, like the orcs

 Definetely Ilshard, I just love halberds.

Originally posted by javac

 

I agree with others here, you don't seem to know what art direction and style are; you simply don't like Darkfall's graphics, we get it. Darkfall's lore and art are closer to Tolkien than most MMOs, in the sense that Darkfall is trying to immerse you into a world that could really exist, unlike recent MMOs which have been tending more and more toward a purely fantastic and stylised form.

 Dont play with words to defend the game Javac, you are the one that doesnt understand artstyle and all the time you use arguments about technical graphics to defent it, you and the ones that are defending the game just avoided all my arguments related to art, because you just have no knowledge about it.

Tolkien was the first one to illustrate his tales, then Pauline Baynes was his favorite illustrator, check his art, it has absolute nothing to do with Darkfall artstyle and is the closest you can get of a visual interpretation of Tolkien´s work, as he was the one that choose Pauline.

Of course you have some different interpretations of Tolkien´s work, from Erik Fraser to Bakshi, but your argument that Darkfall is the closest game related to Tolkien´s art is just B.S.

Beside that, Lord of the Rings is high fantasy, Darkfall try to hold the moral concept of low fantasy, it seems you dont know that.

The signature weapons come from different races, they are supposed to look nothing alike.

- the halberd looks sinister and evil, like the Alfar

It looks like a toy, a toy version of the real one and probably has grape flavor.

- the hammer looks compact and powerful, like the dwarves

The hammer is totally "WoW like", cartoony...

- the bow looks bright and magical, like the elves

This one try to hold a "tolkien like" visual

... Understand the lack of art direction? It doesnt matter if they are weapons of different cultures, you can find the same cultural distinction in weapons droped and crafted in many games like GW, AOC, Warhammer and they still belong to the same universe.

 

 

Originally posted by javac

Originally posted by Umbral

Beside that, Lord of the Rings is high fantasy, Darkfall try to hold the moral concept of low fantasy, it seems you dont know that.

OK you appear to be brain-damaged as well as have poor taste in art.

 

Note that YOU'RE the only one here who is complaining about the art, we all love it.

Hold your offenses

Can you give me one argument about the Low/High Fantasy detail you quoted? Do you know the difference?

About Tolkien related art you just didnt know nothing about, right? As I thought... and how can you judge my opinions about art if you are not even able to see the difference between shaders and artstyle?

Im the only one, right? And all the other people that said about Darkfall´s lack of consistency on artstyle and wow like weapons are just invisible to you?

..

Originally posted by javac

 

Darkfall is its own world. If you don't like it, go back to your low-polygonal World of pyjama pants and candy-canes.

 

 

Ok, you edited, so, can you tell me what World is that?

I would love a darker, cruel and decadent MMO...

...

The art is beautiful, it have that nice old european touch. And since when does orcs have good taste in designing weapons??