The public Beta of Malifaux V2 brought more than just rules and changes to models to the Malifaux community. The Public Beta brought some early looks at some of the new art for the upcoming models. Wyrd is updating all their art, presumably in preparation for the transition for models to plastic. This is further supported when you consider that the art for the current Storm of Shadows models has not been changed from what we saw in that book.
Part of the draw Malifaux has for me is an art style that I find appealing. I find that the majority of the art used for the game is in a style and has a look that I really prefer. Wyrd has done a fantastic job in transferring a very accurate representation of that art into the actual models that are produced. I have not found this to change at all with the move to plastic. If anything, some of the new plastic models better represent the art than the metal models do. In some cases this makes me very interested and excited to see some of the new models.
As with many of the decisions Wyrd is making lately, I am also disappointed with the direction of a fair amount of the new art. I want to first say (and wanted to start out this article) by pointing out the positives. There is a fair amount of art that I really like, even with the changes and evolution of the individual pieces from its V1 art. There is a nearly equal set of art that I just do not find to my liking. This is certainly a disappointing situation for me, as there was so much of the aesthetic that I previously enjoyed and appreciated which now has moved in a distasteful direction. Nino Ortega (pictured to the left) is one example of this move in art style. The first edition art had some fantastic style to it that is now completely replaced by what I consider a pretty bland looking gunman.
There is other art that is certainly nice art despite my dislike for the asthetic. Joss (pictures to the right) is one of these pictures for me. Joss used to be "Injun Joss" in the early sculpts, an American Indian in Malifaux who works as Ramos's enforcer and is wielding two powered axed linked to a generator on his back. The new art for Joss looks (to me) like a reject from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. He has a real "meld of machine and man" look combined with a strong post-apocalyptic feel to him.
I won't dive into a deep critique of all the new art, but I wanted to post a small article about it and my thoughts. Gaming on Tuesday evening it was mentioned to me that some people had not been able to get a look at the full art that was used for the new V2 stat cards. The cards were not "flattened PDF's", which made it fairly straight forward for me to pull the pictures out and save them off for upload. Now there is a
whole archive of the art in my flickr account linked here. Enjoy poking around and looking! This is all the art I could find in the Stat cards except the 10 Thunders cards, which do not seem to have changed.
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I actually dig the new Joss mostly because it illustrates that the characters are evolving with the story. Rasputina kind of took his arm as a message to Ramos in Book3, and its cool that Joss now has a mechanical replacement.
ReplyDeleteI can understand that, and I can even appreciate the evolution of the model to reflect the fluff. Overall I just do not like how his new art came out. As I mentioned (I hope.. now I need to reread my post), there is and will be lots of mixed reviews of the art. For me its mostly disappointing that there is so much I dislike, especially considering how much of the older art I liked.
DeleteSay what you want about the new Joss, But I hate the Lady J crew.
ReplyDeleteIn the new Lady J crew I like the crouching ghost rider headed death marshal. I am ambivalent to the DM vaulting the coffin. I really dislike the rest of it.
DeleteI did find it amusing to see that while Lady Justice appears to have received a MASSIVE boob reduction, Perdita apparently picked up all the enhancements she could find.
I might agree with you, with the exception of the ghost rider head. I hate the ghost rider heads. Undead (hunting)cowboys. what's so difficult about that? it's an awesome concept, and I don't really believe we need to add all the fancy flaming heads--it just distracts from the character concept. I don't mind it for a new model, but it shouldn't be the Death Martial. Heck, it'd make more sense for a witchling stalker, really. I do like the totem. but the rest of it is not good.
ReplyDeleteI really was hoping that there would be alternate heads on the sprue. EricJ's new art does not leave me with much optimism on that from though.
DeleteOn the totem, I am really not a fan. To me, he looks like he belongs with a WH40K Sisters of Battle army. It's too far into the gothic art style for my liking.
Of the new art I have seen (that posted in my Flickr), I really like the Skeeter, Ice Golem, Essence of Power, Young Lacroix, and the Steampunk Arachnids. I have a lot at the bottom of my list but the three I think I dislike the most are Myranda, Francisco, and Nino. There are a lot that compete for that spot however, so those three are a hard choice. Viktoria(s), McMourning, Seamus, Papa Loco, and Electrical Creation could easily swap into any of those three disliked spots.
I find that most new people to Malifaux like the new artwork and haven't taken the time to compare old and new styles. A couple other people like that Wyrd has solidified their style into their own style, I've heard it called "Comic Gothic," a fair name.
ReplyDeleteNow, I am about 50/50 on whether I like a given piece, much of the older stuff was better, but some of the old stuff was really tough. Gremlins as a whole are improved, while the Guild stays strong with the Midwest vib, Perdita/Nino and most of the family just don't work, IMO.
But thanks for doing this legwork, I did link it out on my gaming group's website to keep my push of M2E moving along...
Seeing your reference to "Comic Gothic" and considering some of the other comments I have heard along the same lines makes me wonder why there is such a fascination with the gothic style. I need to really go back and look but I don't think any of my favorite pieces of previous art were gothic in style. That might be a big reason I am starting to dislike increasing amounts of the new art.
DeleteIt seems obvious to me that most of the 10T artwork had this "new" style in mind. Matter of fact, it seems to me that Book 4 seems to be a bridge from old to new approach to their look.
DeleteI guess I am sad that Malifaux is moving away from "VictorianHorrorSteamPunkWildWest" (or whatever it exactly is) and into this new look that is less of a smash up and more of a single concentrated style.
Much like M2E rules, I think this is just the business model that Wyrd is currently following in an attempt to grow, and if I follow what you are saying, Bill, I disagree with you and feel that Malifaux will be more successful in terms of total sales/players. What I do agree with you is that they are doing so at the cost of their veteran players, which mind you, is exactly what started my strong dislike of GW. (there release of specialist games to only cease support almost immediately, the "dumbing down" of rules, the concentration on Space Marines, the imbalances in the game aka Codex Creep, etc)
Where I still hold hope is that Wyrd will not continue down GW's path. Time will tell. Until they do begin alienating players like me in favor of the teenager with his parent's checking account backing him, I feel they deserve my support, and my own view of M2E is that is remains enough of Malifaux Classic that I enjoy playing it (and mind you, try taking another approach when measuring your enjoyment of M2E... instead of comparing it to M:Classic, try comparing it to 40K/Necro/Infinity or other games... M2E remains head and shoulders above them) The fact that many more gamers in my own group are picking it up is a wonderful thing.
Anywho... really looking forward to your next GL. I still hold out hope that you come around enough to resume your previous role as Herald of Malifaux.
Every one wants to be Games Workshop.
DeletePersonally, I miss the western- steampunk themes, which were at least part of why I got into the game.
ReplyDeleteAnd I see them retreating ever farther from both.
(They will always be steampunk abominations and steampunk arachnids to me.)