I was just doing a comparison to the artwork to see how much of the art assets I would throw out if I was to do a Brood War refresh and I was surprised about how much I disagreed with the direction Blizzard 2.0 took and for certain reasons I question what the art team has been doing in this very long development process.
When you look at the attention to detail in BW over SC2 it is striking how much they added with sprites unlike these 3D models in max settings.
The best way to realize this is compare how closely the in game unit matched the unit portrait. The original models were closer to fully realizing what the unit portraits conveyed than SC2 units attempted to do again.
Another thing you'll notice is that the design direction was radically different. Original Terran and Protoss had had a very detailed metallic sheen they currently lack now. Both gained more curvaceous features that look badly in comparison to the angular flatter exterior of the original.
Zerg also gained curves but their problems lie more with color pallet and ostentatious artistic trimmings either in the form of a ridiculous number of extra spines and protruding bones or various parts getting fatter.
The only time the trimmings really worked was with the Hydralisk and the scourge.
The colors given to the zerg really washed out a lot more of their fleshy parts the more vibrant colors used in the original didn't.
Another problem with the art direction was the audio work used to give the units and buildings more depth are of an inferior quality to the original.
Unit animations were hit or miss but generally hit a little more often than missed. I really liked what they did with infestors and hydras for animations.
Building animations and unit portraits were the only two things I consistently was impressed with compared to the original and the building animations were a vast improvement over the original.
When I was done with my analysis I decided the art assets I would keep if I had the opportunity to throw out the rest were: Spire, Overlord, Hydralisk, mutalisk, Drone, evo chamber, ultra cavern, spawning
pool, extractor, scourge art for Zerg.
Dark Templar, Dragoon (if available), assimilator, cybernetics, beacon, forge, pylon, robotics, support bay, stargate, archives, scout art for Toss.
Battlecruiser, marine, SCV, Crucio tank, armory, barracks, bunker, refinery, command center, missile turret, supply depot, vulture, science vessel, firebat and medics art for Terran.
