Compare that to the latest cutscenes in wow like the arathi story line.
Even with the super limited facial expressions from back then there is more atmosphere and impact in every shot than anything we got in the latest Legacy of Arathor update. And this isn’t only due to the presence of the lich king as the entire part of the scene before the lich king’s arrival is also better than what we have now.
The question is why after 17 years are WoW’s cutscene’s devolving? The technology has definitely improved since then but the results are worse than 17 years ago. In the wrath gate cutscene there were less facial animations but the lip sync actually lines up better than those cutscenes we have today. Also there is way more effort in the camera work in the wrath gate cinematic. There is panning, close up shots, action shots etc. And of course in terms of story Wotlk is peak warcraft so that’s hard to beat but still even the side characters are so much more interesting and so much is conveyed in so little time within those scenes. The small rivalry / comradery between dranosh saurfang and bolvar, Grand Apothecary Putress who oozes villainy with his voice acting.
Bonus mini rant:
Why does faerin lothar use a lance as a weapon in dismounted combat? I know it’s a fantasy game and it asks you to suspend your disbelief but it’s the same as holding a spear the wrong way around…even in a fantasy game this just looks silly and non practical.
Speaking of non practical… why is Khadgar in a wheelchair…that floats…? What’s the point of the wheels on the chair if it’s floating anyway…It seems they just added the wheelchair for the sake of inclusivity which is fine but at least make it make sense.
Time and budget. Wrathgate was basically a machinima and took a large number of people to create. The latest cinematics now use the in-game tools and can be knocked out by a handful of people, or in the case of the Garrosh cinematic from Shadowlands, a single person. Lipsyncing is also relatively expensive, hence everyone talking with flappy mouths.
My theory is that someone on the design team really likes Oon from Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. But as for practicality, it’s a short lance and would be used as a spear. So actually more believable than many of the other weapons in WOW where our characters regularly stab themselves in the head during attack animations.
He’s a wizard, Zujambi.
From a visual storytelling standpoint, it conveys that he’s magical, old and badly wounded in a way that him sitting in a regular chair does not. From a practical standpoint it saves them from having to animate the wheels or worry about his model clipping into the ground and the like.
You are talkin about Wrathgate. Together with “father… is it over” probably the best cinematic in game (with few other like im my scars).
I can agree the story lately is poor but 17 years ago wrathgate was near the conclusion of the main warcraft story. An end we were watin for since w3. I was there 17 years ago, gandalf…
The problem is, now the game is old and nothin give us chills.
Everything the devs can give us it will be… disappointing.
Comparing the two is like comparing apples to oranges.
The wotlk cinematic was the lead in to the big confrontation at the end of the expansion (hell, even more; finally the big Arthas storyline we’ve had since WC3 was ending). Part of a big patch.
It was also one of a very, very, very, very small amount of such cinematics to be featured in the game back then.
The Arathi cutscenes in comparison were part of a much smaller storyline. It was ‘something extra’, part of a small ‘in between’ patch. There were also several cutscenes throughout the questline.
So their context and function are just completely different.
Wrathgate came out 17 years ago and it still looks better than what Blizzard is making now. The tech and models back then were worse, but the cutscenes had atmosphere, tension, and proper pacing. Every shot had impact, even the lip-sync looked tighter.
Now the tech is way better, but the output is worse. Lifeless faces, flat camera angles, and weak dialogue. They hide behind excuses like inclusivity, but the final product is nothing to be proud of.
Khadgar floating around in a wheelchair is stupid. He can open portals, bend time, but apparently, he can’t beat arthritis even when you can resurrect the recently deceased. It looks stupid and breaks the world completely. It would make more sense if you put a bullet in his head and resurrected him back to full health.
Faerin, walking around with a lance, is just as dumb. A dismounted lancer is carrying dead weight. It ruins immersion and looks like cheap cosplay. The devs don’t put any thought into the actual use of what the characters are using.
Blizzard had worse tools back then but more passion. Now they have better tech but no standards, and it shows in every scene. This is what happens when you hire people from social media and DeviantArt rather than professionally trained artists. If you made this game in Germany or Italy and only sourced talent from elite art academies with centuries of tradition, you wouldn’t see this nonsense.
Holy blazes people still whinging about this damn cutscene… We’ve had tons of horrible ones but ofc when some imbecile makes a video about it all the lemmings come out to parrot.
Just some random clip of Asmontard whinging about how terrible WoW is at the moment using the Arathi clip as example. Don’t have a link but its floating around twitter/X.
wrathgate was original faerin cinematic according to influencer gamer opinion
saurfang jr is introduced, literally only exist because famous dad, moralizes for 30 seconds, then dies as a prop to motivate bolvar. it’s basically a hallmark of shallow storytelling: insert npc, immediate noble death = emotional payoff with no effort.
bolvar is there to represent alliance righteousness, but does he do anything? no. he monologues about justice, then eats fire. he’s a plot device, not a person. if he didnt show up alliance side in that crypt ud forget he exists
putress is the only one with narrative weight, and they immediately toss it by making him a cartoon villain. “Did you think we had FORGOTTEN?!” such epic line, but it’s just villain theatre. he dies like 2 quests later and ud not even know it if u were horde.
you all mock faerin for having no build-up and being forced into center stage, but saurfang jr is literally a guy you meet at a campfire and then blizz says “care.” faerin’s writing is clunky, but wrathgate is not deep, it’s loud. it feels like it matters because it’s grayscale and everyone is yelling over each other.
also, that scene is the origin of the blizz formula:
everyone has a point
everyone is wrong
we all suffer
cut to black
just say you liked it because the camera zoomed dramatically on dragonfire and move on. don’t act like wrathgate was shakespeare.
Just use a spear then? Spears can look really cool too and they make sense to use dismounted. It doesn’t matter how cool they think her lance looks, when they choose to use a weapon based off of the real world then you expect it to be used in a believable way. It’s the same as if they would give her a mace and then make her only do thrusting animations with a mace. It just looks silly, even in a fantasy world.
Lances are weapons meant for cavalry charges. Fighting with one dismounted is very impractical and silly in reality and in any fantasy universe that uses weapons based on reality. If you want a rangey poke weapon then you use a spear when you are dismounted. If you want a more in depth explanation go ask chatgpt why using a lance dismounted is ridiculous.
Would you say it’s unreasonable to expect wrath gate to become the standard after 17 years and all the success, wealth and fame blizzard have attained since then and all the technological developments sinds then as well?
No problem with wheelchairs. Just the floating ones…makes the wheels pointless.
100% agree
We are monthly subscribers and have the right to demand better quality for our cash. Say what you want about asmon but him drawing attention to this low quality cutscene is a good thing. We deserve better.
Nah where i’m from complaining gets things done. We pay monthly subs and we deserve better.
