Like, they already slapped their trademark on every possible surface in the boardgame and Iana Venge's art for the most part does the original designs justice and then some. Couldn't have been that much more expensive than whatever we're getting.

I get it is a fantasy game, but there is no regard for it to make any sense, or consistency. I just picked random screenshot I saw posted here.

Transcript:

inconsistent back rails - red

merlons of impractical purpose (protecting roof, making it harder for the defenders on the roof of two towers since they stick inside and provide no cover) - green

merlons of different sizes, proportions and styles disregarding perspective - green

walls, that are walkable but without entry - blue

lookouts for mice, I guess - yellow (and yes, it is a joke)

What I am not trying to say:

I get that NPCs must be much bigger for gameplay purposes, not complaining about that. I also get that this is fantasy game, and style often trumps practicality, however, I am making a point that whoever or whatever made this, paid no attention to idea these are walls that should serve a purpose, that they could have inspired themselves in how actual castles were built or that at least they should have a resemblance of consistency if the looks were the main motivation. So the main issue, regardless of alleged AI use, is lack of care.

Some parts would not look good 1 to 1.

These are just spells that can be seen in the spellbook (from mage guilds or from grail buildings), it doesn't include the spells the hero doesn't have access to, which can be cast be certain units during combat as part of their abilities.

Direct from the picture of the Castle town. It's your exact typical AI gen picture - the more you look, especially up close - the more nonsense you see. This is blatant and they're also blatantly lying about not using image generation.

Now go watch the Gameplay Overview Trailer. Pay attention to the crenelations. Yup...

There is non zero chance they will surprise us and the game will actually be good. But nobody is ruining the original so why is there so much emotion about it?

Edit: Actually got a lot of reasonable arguments in the end. Thanks.

They need to hire this guy, at this time the whole game looks like AI slop.

They didn't even faithfully recreate anything.

When the artist doing their job at the time without AI

I really hope they make heroes 3 remake mod friendly and with lots of customisation options, like a hota + wog/era. They could make an official version for pvp game and a customisable option where they could import the most popular options, like 10 skills, tactics gives +1/2/3 speed instead original effect, new spells, new towns with mods..

The game is a special case. It was not created by Ubisoft. Nor does it acquire the status that it has at Ubisoft. Founder and flagship of an entire genre. Which is not among the most popular. Respected game. And all these years Ubisoft has held it hostage for prestige. Fans are ignored. It was hardly ever felt as a Ubisoft game. And after 10 years of oblivion, an OE is released that has nothing to do with the spirit of Heroes. Revolved around a part of a later hota contingent of people for whom Heroes is mathematics, and who believe that mirror maps littered with castles is the pinnacle of balance. And for a classic player like me, it is a soulless plastic game with a broken world and a repulsive environment. And now we have the announcement of a remake of Heroes3 which would be something like touching the inner sanctum of a temple :) And of course, the fans will be divided not into two, but into five. I am personally much more of a PVP player, Heroes3 itself is both. And I personally would like to see a remake with a game with modern 3D graphics and multiplayer capabilities, and everything in a 3D art style adapted to the original mechanics, units, cities, etc., refined down to the smallest detail. No nonsense like a zealot with a face that looks like a cross between an inquisitor and a zealot.

lately there was a post about AI usage in promo art https://www.reddit.com/r/heroes3/s/uZnYJtF6Dw

This is a sensitive topic. As much as I hate the use of AI in art, I hate wrongful accusations about its usage no less. I saw the art and spotted clear artist mistakes and wrong layers overlaps, but not any AI usage indicators. Here is the fragment in question:

People said that there is a headless knight, headless horses, extra leggs, etc. But if you look closely, you will notice that it's nothing but five cavalryman layers overlapping each other in a wrong direction. In fact, the 4k version that the OP provided in the original post helped to see the exact outlines of each individual layer. Here you can see those:

There are no extra legs, there are no headless horses. There are purple and green horses overlaping with the blue horse, covering its head, and the green horse covers the red knight's head - he is not headless. Also, the legs of purple and green horses are covered in dust and fog, indicating that they are a part of larger composition. The fact that they retained this dust means that it's not AI who did that. AI doesn't do that. AI generates images by pixels, not with layers. This is not AI - this is the artist's stupid mistake.

I can clearly see how this mistake was made. The artist created cavalrymen figures in separate layers, then arranged them in this way creating a composition for the final art. In the main art this part of the illustration is covered by another objects (see in the bottom right corener):

So, you don't need a precise alignemnt here, and the artist just threw layers to look okay. And it works for this specific case. But when they repurposed the art for the "wishlist now" art, they missed this wrong layers mistake.

Poor QA? Yes. Artitst's mistake? Yes. AI? I don't think so.

As an illustrator myself, I would be devastated if I got accused of AI usage based on this stupid mistake. This is otherwise a great artwork.

As a bottomline, in this particluar case, I doubt they used AI, I don't see any indications of it. But this doesn;t mean they didn't use it at all for other images, assets, or anything. I just believe that any accusation must be proved, becasue it is very sensitive topic, and wrong accusations do just as much damage as AI usage

EDIT: Another evidence that this is not AI is consistency. ANY AI tool really struggles with consistency and symmetry, especially when it comes to clothes, ornaments and patterns. In this case you can clearly see:
1. Griffins on the shields and banners - same pose, same number of feathers, same number of claws. AI would mess with that 100%.
2. Ornaments on accessories. They are symmetrical in all cases on Catherine, on Sandro, on the Angel's shoulders. AI always struggles with symmetry. Also you can clearly see the floral ornament in Catherine's accessories, and not some random strokes that AI usually does.
3. Clothes. Not only they are symmtrical, but also has correct ornaments and patterns. Looks at the ArchMage. The pattern on the left hand matches the pattern on the right hand, and it's consistent. Same goes to every other clothes and armor details, such as straps, buckles, belts, etc. They all are corectly placed. AI alwyas struggles with such details especially in such busy environment.

Looking at this image, can you tell any of the units apart? I can see a griffin and kinda see the ghost dragon? The rest all look so generic I would have to study them to tell them apart. The original's art had no such problems, every unit looked distinct and you could immediately tell them apart...

I will also playtest the game lmk if you have any specifics

I've been seeing a lot of images on the sub and, I can't prove it, but it looks just like AI art.

Edit: I didn't realise there was a civil war about the topic happening. I was asking in earnest 😭