14 DAY TRIAL // After a very long time, Valve has finally delivered another one of its promised stretch goals from The International 4 Dota 2 competition, in the form of the new character model for the Faceless Void hero. At the same time, the studio also shares some hilarious concept sketches with what the original hero could have become.
Dota 2 went through the biggest eSports tournament of all time last year, in the form of The International 4, in which fans could buy a digital compendium to supplement the prize pool and receive various rewards. Some were offered immediately, like various cosmetics, while others were promised after The International 4, such as rework for the voice of Spectre.
The Faceless Void remodel is more a facelift
Now, another goal has just been delivered to Dota 2 via the latest update that's now live on Steam, in the form of a new character mode for Faceless Void.
Valve confirms on the official website that it was surprised to see that fans wanted a new model for Faceless Void, a popular hero with lots of user-made cosmetics. As such, it asked the community what exactly wasn't so great with the existing character and ultimately decided not to redesign the hero, instead just to offer a facelift that ensures that existing customization sets still work.
As such, the new Faceless Void now benefits from a more detailed character model, a slightly more upright position, new feet, and a general increase in quality with more polygons and effects.
"When Faceless Void won the Model Update vote in last year’s Compendium for The International, we admit we were a bit unsure about how to proceed. We decided to give old Faceless a facelift. We rebuilt the hero from scratch, using largely the same design, but with better model execution and texture quality. We added more detail, adjusted the face design, and gave him a new set of legs (it turns out Time Walk is tough on the ankles)."
Hilarious sketches were also offered
Valve also decided to share some utterly hilarious designs that could have been made for the Faceless Void redesign, which re-imagined the hero as a humanoid with long blonde hair, as a giant T-Rex dinosaur, as someone wearing a lobster costume, as a chimaera with various animal parts, or even a really ghastly giant Face with arms and legs poking out.
The whole series of sketches can be admired in the gallery below. You can check out the new Faceless Void inside Dota 2 right now.
