Right now, the SC2 Terrans just seem too perfect, everything is cleaned and polished. It doesn’t generate the hardship or wasteland feel. It needs to capture the magic of the original Terran where they are fighting a hard war, but they don’t give a dam and continue pushing on with whatever equipment or scrap metal they have left. It would be great if the units are able to get the same effect too.

*how doese the terran faction look visually*
i think the terran marines lack detail and therefor look sort of cartoony

*how doese the protoss faction look visually*
brilliante

*additional feedback you would like to give*
all together i think the game is great tho i wouldnt mind the warp ray being turned back into the capital ship and the carrier turned into a primary defensive ship
i also think the firebats are fairly pointless as they are the unit that quote everybody loves but nobody uses.

yep. space platform FTW!! also, the jungle environment has vastly improved since the PC gamer video. it is now less saturated and just looks better overall especially with its swaying grass. the ’shakuras’/twilight tileset(the one with the hexagons tiles) looks really awesome. other tilesets still need work like the desert and ash/ice environments(the one with the overlord)

* How does the Terran faction look visually?

Terrans are ok. But I guess a little more grit to the overall look to them would be fine. btw I think the nomad sucks. its colors just make it look like a toy with its overuse of yellow. the auto turrets just look ridiculous.

* How does the Protoss faction look visually?

Protoss look really fucking awesome. from the glow of their psiblades(preferably blue) and pylons and the new look of the power fields, shields, warping animation of the buildings and all of their units just look really beautiful.

* Additional Feedback you would like to give

I’ve read some negative comments about “glow effects” especially in protoss. they think it looks stupid or something. I don’t. I think that without those “glow effects” protoss would look really bland. unless they meant something else.

Additionally, here are the SC2 Blog’s questions for this topic:

1) Are you satisfied with the general artistic direction of the units in the game, which are mostly comprised of 3D versions of the old designs?

yup. but I need to play the game first before I can REALLY make any comments cause for the time being I’m just basing it on screenshots and videos which may or may not look like what it actually is (lighting and angles may be different)

2) Do you feel that the new look, compared to StarCraft 1, is more, less, or equally “cartoony”?

some of it looks cartoony, especially the NOMAD and its auto-turrets. I don’t think it really fits into starcraft.

3) Which of the returning units from StarCraft 1 has received the best StarCraft 2 design? Which is the worst?

BEST:
zealot – I don’t get all the “ninja school girl” comments about the zealot. It looks really beautiful IMO. In fact the sc2 design and animation of the zealot is EXACTLY what I imagined a zealot would look like in real life. and If you look at some artworks in SC1..you can see my point. the sc2 zealot OWNS the sc1 version.

WORST:
siege tank – though this really isn’t that bad. actually I’m torn between the old design (the WWI design) and the new design

* How does the Terran faction look visually?
The Terrans need to have a more gritty look (e.g. rust, random flaws in
models). The marines run in a… fake way. They don’t look real.

* How does the Protoss faction look visually?
It looks great, but the phoenix looks like stained glass you would find in
church.

* Additional Feedback you would like to give
I think it would be awesome if you would include a day/night mode. Night
battle scenes would resemble World War II. Tank/machine gun/bomb
explosions flash in the night sky. One more thing, I think the Terran death
sound effects suck. I want infantry units to explode in a gory way, hearing
their gargled screams as their intestines spurt out of their torso.

1) Are you satisfied with the general artistic direction of the units in the game, which are mostly comprised of 3D versions of the old designs?
I think the art is good, but for Starcraft I had expected to see something so
amazing that I would not know the difference between the game and
reality.

2) Do you feel that the new look, compared to StarCraft 1, is more, less, or equally “cartoony”?
I think that Starcraft needs to be as least cartoony as possible, while
balancing gameplay of course.

3) Which of the returning units from StarCraft 1 has received the best StarCraft 2 design? Which is the worst?
I think the Protoss Carrier is completely awesome. I love how it launches
the fighter by swinging back it’s fighter bay. In my opinion, THE THOR IS
THE WORST. It has WAY TOO MANY GUNS!!! I think it needs to look more
like an Imperial Walker from the Empire Strikes Back.

“I would like to see Blizzard add NEW components to the game, not just a make over of SC1.”
–battlearmd

Both of these express exactly of what I’m thinking. A lot of the comments above run along the lines of “X doesn’t have the same feel as Starcraft 1, please change it back.” Before playing starcraft 1, we had no preconception about what a Zerg or Protoss should look like. Now we have this notion, so we expect new units, etc. to fit into it. But maybe we just haven’t had a chance to get used to the new look. I think the comments about zerglings are a good example. When I first saw the new zergling, I thought it was pretty ugly. Who wants to attack with grasshoppers? But then I thought, maybe there’s an upgrade that let’s them hop cliffs, similar to reapers. That would be pretty cool, and then the wings would make sense. And then I thought, Swarm of Locusts is a classic plague, and 100 flying zerglings swarming your base would probably be pretty terrifying. Now I like the new zergling, and I haven’t even played with it yet!

Change is good. This isn’t your old starcraft.

3) Which of the returning units from StarCraft 1 has received the best StarCraft 2 design? Which is the worst?

The best – The zergling. I like the wings! More bug-like in my opinion. Just what I’d expect from the self-perfecting evolving zerg.

* Do you like the new look of the landscapes?
Yes. But objects and models seem a bit bulky and removed from the landscape — they do not blend well with the foreground. Warcraft 3 also faced this problem. Of what I’ve seen of Starcraft 2, it is a huge improvement over Warcraft 3, but that is not to say that it cannot be better. Also, will weather effects play a role? This is something that I would like to see in the landscape, and something that would be really interesting to balance into the game mechanics!

* How does the Terran faction look visually?
Pretty good! The default Terran cyborg advisor is nicely animated, but looks more like a shiny robot than a cyborg. Although I would like the new starcraft to capture a new look of its own, I do think I prefer the look of the more cyborg-like advisor in the first starcraft. The Terrans look quite clean and polished. Maybe some dirt, decay, scratches and rebellious street art could give these Terrans more character.

* How does the Protoss faction look visually?
Like shiny robots. I would like to see more of the scaly texture of Protoss skin. The templar of starcraft 1 looked a bit more spiritual with their unit movement. I do not like the permanent light blue outline of cloaked units. The new dark templar are looking pretty badass (I especially like their concept art), but I do not like the controlling player’s view of them on the battlefield. The carrier’s interceptors could perhaps look more like vicious interceptors rather than binoculars. And for fun, the carrier could use a pair of beefy arms and boxing gloves.

* Additional Feedback you would like to give
The animated transitions of the unit avatars could use some attention. In starcraft 1, this avatar transition screen was a fuzzy black and white static.

1) Are you satisfied with the general artistic direction of the units in the game, which are mostly comprised of 3D versions of the old designs?
Yes.

2) Do you feel that the new look, compared to StarCraft 1, is more, less, or equally “cartoony”?
A racial cursor would make the game more cartoony. I feel StarCraft 2 is a little more cartoony. Just a little. The only cartooniness I can think of off the top of my head is that terran advisor. She looks like a cartoon. Cartoons aren’t bad, and I think Starcraft 2 has done a wonderful job thus far.

3) Which of the returning units from StarCraft 1 has received the best StarCraft 2 design? Which is the worst?
The best – the dark templar
The worst – the reaver (is this still in the game?) I miss the little teeth it would pull itself by.