Diablo III

Diablo 3, the long awaited game of many PC gamers as well as Diablo fans has become the most pre-ordered PC game of all time on Amazon.com. As we are nearing the end of week two, there has been mixed feelings within the Diablo community leaving onlookers confused and indecisive. The all important question is still, “Should I buy this game?”. After getting to level 60 (maximum) on a wizard, I must say that D3 has been an emotional roller coaster leaving you full of confusion and doubt. Caution, spoilers and a long read ahead.

Having pre-ordered the game directly from Blizzard, I promptly installed it and started playing since release. The combat, graphics, and skills were all new and enticing to me and I wasted no to time to see just exactly what D3 had to offer. One thing I noticed straight off the bat was how dumbed down the quests had become. There is a quest tracker on the right side of your screen reminding you what you are supposed to be doing. Now this isn’t bad in my opinion, but what’s next is just plain “un Diablo like”. As you get closer to your quest objective, an arrow appears on your minimap telling you “Oh hey, its this way!” When you get there, you are greeted by a yellow dot on your minimap confirming the location of your task. This arrow and yellow dot has completely changed questing into a mechanical task of “Go here, do this, talk to this person, etc”. Back in Diablo 2, there were no markers and you would have to spend time exploring the map until you found what you were looking for. However in D3 I find myself running through the map until that fateful arrow guides me to where I need to go so I could get on with my life.

Questing aside, I found combat to be very fun and smooth. I easily tore through monsters with my spells and had no objection for this topic. But to fight, you need spells and now we approach the second bane of my Diablo career. Instead of the typical spell or talent “tree” we’re used to seeing, it has now been replaced by something more simplistic. You are now offered a set number of spells and by affixing different “runes” to them; you basically have modifications of said spells or otherwise “new spells”. It’s fun to experiment as you progress through the game but in the end I found myself using certain spells while the others sat there feeling neglected in the dark. To be honest, the “other spells” just weren’t as useful or effective as what I had already. I found myself using the same skills as I did at lower levels because they worked leading into a very boring repetition of using the same spells all day long. If that wasn’t bad enough, to survive at higher difficulties some skills were required and should never be taken off your skill bar. This in turn creates “cookie cutter” skill builds of boredom and widespread uniformity. It may be a far stretch but joining a game with 3 other wizards all with the same build makes me want to uninstall this game. Where is the diversity and why are we being forced to be clones/Stormtroopers? There has been some clever use of certain skills and abilities (wizards) which enabled them to complete the game on Inferno difficulty (hardest one) with ease. It incorporated fast attack speed, chance of critical hit, Critical Mass (Critical Hits have a chance to reduce the cool down of your spells by 1 second.), as well as Frost Nova. By hitting often, and critting often, wizards were able to spam Frost Nova allowing them to freeze nearby monsters infinitely. After this strategy become more widespread, Inferno monsters as well as bosses have become a joke. Question is, why didn’t the game developers know about this? I mean they made the game, the skills, how did they not foresee this happening? Isn’t it their job to make sure things like this didn’t exist in the first place? At this rate it looks like I paid $60 for Diablo 3 BETA.

Many Diablo players would agree the “fun” is finding rare and interesting items and sadly D3 doesn’t deliver. Back in Diablo 2, rare and legendary items were indeed “rare” to find, but in Diablo 3 you might as well start using an electron microscope. Sure you can stack magic find to boost your chances at finding items but here comes another backhand of reality. Items in D3 suck. I mean it, they suck. Instead of all the fun affixes we had in D2 such as “Chance to cast Frost Nova when struck” or even giving you spells of another class, the items in D3 are all mundane mixes of + strength/intelligence/dexterity/vitality and silly things such as “Increase gold and health globe pick up radius”. While the increased radius of picking up gold/health may make life easier, it takes up an important slot in an item which could have been something more beneficial such as a socket, resists, etc. After having 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor (Increase gold and magic find) at level 60, rare items are easier to find. Thing is, the majority of the items you find have crummy affixes which means they are worth nothing. Might as well sell it to the merchants to foot your repair bill. Set and legendary items are in the same boat. Sure you found the legendary sword “Azurewrath”, but guess what? This random blue (one step up from common) sword I found has 300 more damage. Why in the world would I use “Azurewrath” other than looking awesome in town? I mean, I’m going to switch to a higher damage item when I’m fighting monsters anyway and why exactly is a “blue” drop better than a legendary item? Heck, legendary items are supposed to be legendary aren’t they? As far as items go, D3 has seriously dropped the ball.

Next in line for the chopping block is the auction house. While the auction house isn’t completely a bad idea, I can’t even believe they want to incorporate real money for gold/items. At the rate gold fluctuates as well as items, I don’t see why you should be putting your hard earned money into a game which you already paid for, screws you over. Please for the love of all things holy and unholy, think before you act. Another issue with the auction house is that it has become the Holy Grail. Can’t do enough damage or survive in game? Well hop on over to the auction house and just buy some upgrades. Done and done. There’s no need for you to find items when other people are doing it for you right? All you need to do is farm gold. The more gold you have, the better items you can buy, the stronger your character is. Oh look, a concept that mirrors society. What fun.

Diablo 3 also introduces the Blacksmith as well as the Jeweler. This, just like the other new additions of D3 is a complete let down. At first crafting is fun and an interesting way to get new items but once you realize how much gold you have to spend it makes you want to puke. It is much simpler looking on the auction house for items rather than wasting time and effort to craft a piece of gear with decent affixes on it. Also, why in the world can we not repair out items at the Blacksmith? I mean how can you even leave that out? Instead of repairing at the Blacksmith, I need to walk over to a merchant to repair my equipment. Really Blizzard? Really? The Jeweler offers his services of crafting gems and removing gems. That’s cool and all but once again, it costs an arm and a leg to craft gems. Simply playing the game is enough for gems to drop. Gems now can be taken off your equipment for a price. That means you can reuse the same gem(s) as many times as you want which makes the gem market a joke.

Diablo 3 summed up simply is a $60 emotional roller coaster ride. Its new, its fun, it disappoints. The only reason I find myself playing this game is because my friends are playing it. I expected it to be good, no, I wanted it to be good but so far it hasn’t delivered. If you’re in the market for a new game, please steer clear of Diablo 3 until things have been fixed.

Update: Blizzard has announced a “Game Design Update”. More information to changes and fixes can be found here:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6018173/Game_Design_Update-5_28_2012#blog

I spent nearly 1000 hours playing Diablo III. I found the game to be very fun, but it lacks a reason to play it more than a year. As I said in the pros and cons Diablo III excels in its gameplay and fun factor, but it lacks in its longevity and there are a lot of reasons for that, some of which are design flaws.

The things Diablo III could have done better:

- Better item depth. Things like Rune Words, Jewels, and being able to modify items, rather than luck of the draw item rolls. Put a little bit of collection and skill back into items.

- More unique builds and characters. Getting rid of skill tree's and stat points makes the game more accessible, but it kills diversity and doesn't reward players for playing and designing their characters intelligently.

- More acts, and honestly I think it could have been one big connected world, with more of an ARPG/MMO feel to it. I guess that's pretty far off from what we got, but I was hoping.

- NO AH. It just kills feeling unique or getting that killer drop. Especially the RMAH.

To sum it up, I really think to be a great game this game needs an expansion dealing with some of those issues. I played DII on release and I'm not sure how well you guys remember but DII by itself was not very impressive. It wasn't till LOD that Diablo II became the legendary game that it is today. All I can do now is hope Blizzard can repeat the same success as previous expansions.

For a game that was so hyped up, and probably the most hyped up game in the last 10 years, this game didn't deliver for me.

Lets cut to the bare bones of the gameplay. The gameplay is similar to diablo 2, you click on an enemy with a skill/attack and you kill it. The problem is the game gets incredibly dull just to the atmosphere and repetitiveness of the game. And this is coming from someone who is OCD, and usually doesn't mind a little bit of repetitiveness, but this is overboard. And its not fun enough to keep me interested. Diablo II had a different feel that I can't exactly put my finger on, that made the game more fun to play.

Lets get to the game design, the graphics, music, story, etc. I guess the graphics are OK, for as low as the system specs are to run it. I wasn't expecting something cutting edge, so I'm not gonna knock the graphics on Diablo III.

The story reeked of mediocre, and wasn't even as Diablo II. At no point in time was I ever the slightest bit interested to the storyline, I just wanted to go back to mouse clicking on mobs.

Now to the general game design. I think this is one of the worst features of the game. First of all you got some combinations of elite/champion packs that just cannot be killed in inferno. Some of the character skills/abilities are either overpowered or woefully inadequate. Barbarian for example is woefully inadequate in doing what he is supposed to be able to do well => tank. Basically not enough health, not enough passives/skills to mitigate damage, and not enough aggro management., Threatening shout has a rune that gives a 3 sec taunt, but has a 10 sec CD. Barbarian has the same health per vitality rating as any other class, considering barbarian needs to be in the middle of the action, they should have at least 2-3x more health than a wizard, right? Make sense? In any other game the tank/warrior types got more health than ranged/mages. Its just basic common sense that blizzard completely ignored.

Now you got the drop rates, set and legendary items. Most of the set and legendary items, for as rare as they are, suck. You figure a legendary should be better than a blue of the same level range no matter what right? Considering the 1 in 1 million drop rate? Makes sense right? I guess blizzard derped again! Because most of the set/legendary items get beaten by a good magical item, or a decent rare. I'd say half of the noobs that found one probably thought they hit a jackpot, w00t! I'm gonna make millions because I found a legendary! Nope! You are probably going to keep getting it returned at the AH until you finally say screw it and vendor it or put it up there for super cheap just to get rid of it. Basically they aren't even rewarding if you happen to get lucky enough to find one.

Now for the difficulty levels:

Normal => easy, Nightmare = tougher, Hell mode => challenging, Inferno => overboard. My problem was mostly with the later. One of the motivations for playing a game like this is gearing up, and they make it where you have to play an absolutely insanely broken game to get to that point. Most of the ones who even beat inferno did it by exploiting broken skills, most of which have already been nerfed by now, which is besides the point. Mostly the issue is with the extremely broken elite/champion mob affixes, many of which you will find yourself not able to beat no matter what and are forced to die 5-6+ times just to run around them. In fact some of the videos of people "soloing" inferno, avoided all the elite mobs and used the most broken skill combinations so they could at least solo the bosses, most of which were easier than your average champion pack. This is definitely not a game that just anyone can get into.


Lets cut to the "always online DRM". Now I wouldn't be knocking this as bad, if they actually kept their servers up 90% of the time with no issues. But it seemed like every other time I logged on either it was down for maintenance, or the AH didn't work, or they were having issues with one thing or another. They always had a box in the side thanking everyone for their patience. Anyone else notice how much blizzard keeps thanking everyone for their patience? In Blizzard's effort to keep people from cheating in single player, instead they expose a player who might not have traditionally played games online to getting their accounts hacked, or not being able to play a single player game, in single player due to the DRM.

Which comes to my next point, hackers. There is a flaw in battle.net that is allowing people to get session ID hacked, and its been happening since release date, and blizzard has straight up lied to the gaming community about the issue, and are incredibly defensive about it. Even though they vaguely admitted that some people with authenticators have been compromised, which is about the best admission we are going to get from blizzard about the true problems at hand. I believe it will be fixed, probably during a very large update in the future, and the problem will be put to rest, and they just won't post about it in the patch notes. But the best way to avoid getting session ID hacked is to NEVER, and I repeat, NEVER play public games, and you won't get session ID hacked. Nor team with strangers.

Also another concern of mine, the RMAH. Once this goes live, basically what is going to happen is you are going to have one class of gamers who struggle to find halfway decent gear, then another who just buys all their gear from from the Chinese farmers, and hackers. Prices on anything good in the regular gold AH will be super inflated, meaning the people who want to play the game without spending money are going to find themselves in an even tougher position than ever before once they get to inferno and hit a massive brick wall because of how much more difficult it is going to be to gear up due to most people not wanting to trade anything decent for anything other than real money.

After being initially disappointed with the graphics style from the previews, I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised with the final product. The graphics aren't nearly as bright and cartoony as they seemed, and the game is actually quite enjoyable.

Like the previous Diablo games, Diablo III is an action RPG. This mainly means that when you attack the monsters, your attack goes fluidly and deals damage to their health. Many other RPGs, even real time ones, you can really see the "walk up to enemy, attack, roll dice" effect. While much of that is still going on, it is just a little bit more under the skin then your average third person RPG, which really makes a huge difference for gameplay.

There is an auction house in game, where you can bid on items using the gold you find in the game. While this can lead to an overpowered character if you get all your items that way, it can also get you out of a dangerous pit of not being able to find a half decent weapon. If used properly, it will enhance the game experience without ruining it. Also some good items you find for other characters can be thrown up there, to give you a much better return then a vendor would (for example, one ring I found went for 5000 gold on the AH, while it vendored for 300).

I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys RPG games, and encourage even people who aren't to at least give it a try. It is a very easy game to get started on, and your friends retail copies come with guest passes you can get to try the game out before buying.

So Diablo 3 is the sequel of Diablo 2, which came out about 12 years ago. Having not played D1 or D2, I basically got into D3 with the beta, as some friends of mine (who love D2), wanted me to try it. I was instantly hooked, and pre-ordered.

The game is great. Its been about a week since launch and i've gotten to level 60 with a Wizard already (50-something hours). The gameplay is great, and the variation in builds, gameplay style and so on is also great.

here are some weak points, however. Some areas of the game seem grindy (2nd half of Act 1, Beginning of Act 2), with you having to fight the same enemies over and over again in a bland environment with little area to move. In addition, the game ramps up difficulty in strange ways. While it does often use more enemy HP, mode damage and so on to increase the difficulty, it also uses some 'unfair' tactics. For example, giving enemies the ability to 1-shot you regardless of build, giving them invulnerability from EVERYTHING, giving them teleportation, freeze abilities, AoE fire / poison and so on. While this is fine in areas where you can move, it becomes horribly frustrating in small areas (as said before).

The co-op play works amazingly well. Grouping with friends is very easy, as is joining public games. While the lack of built-in VOIP is somewhat annoying in pub games, its not really that much of a problem. The only downside here is that you MUST play online. You cannot play the game without an internet connection. While there arent problems now, at launch, the servers were down for almost 6 hours.

In general, its an amazing game. Great gameplay, good story, good mechanics, good graphics, great co-op, and so on, but its also hindered by design. The lack of offline mode hurts it slightly, as does some of the tricks used to make the game harder.

I have only played a bit, through the first two Acts and with only two classes (Monk [Hard Core] and Witch Doctor), that caveat aside I'll give my intial impressions. [As of 5/17/2012]

The story is engaging and exciting, filled with clever twists and action. This should be not a surprise as Blizzard has a well developed reputation for writing. And in Diablo III all we find is greatness, so let's move on.

This game is very clearly a Diablo game. Not only does it keep the epic storytelling established in the first two games, it also keeps an identical playstyle; frantic clicking, fixed camera angle, exploration encouragement and piles of loot are all nostagically present. In other words, if you enjoyed the gameplay of the last game, most likely you'll enjoy this game as well. New additions like the 'Town Portal' becoming an ability and not a scroll is nice, the same goes for identify.

The new graphics engine is a pleasant addition. Clutter and dungeon backgrounds add to the immersion of the game in a way that the gaping emplyness and blackness of the formers did not. The destructable terrain is an excellent addition as well. The 3D graphics and the ability to zoom in, if so desired, further adds to the well deserved graphical embellishments that Blizzard has made to their old franchise.

By now you realized I've compared it a lot to the old games. That's because the game strives for the players to do that, a "Look I'm Diablo" feel permeates the game. Although this is not necessarily a bad thing, it certainly means there is less innovation than was possible. It's an old game in new clothes; a great old game that's worth playing, but an old game nevertheless. The changes, especially the loss of scrolls, make for smoother gameplay that focuses on the action, but for some reason I miss the painful bag management decisions. (No more celebrations when you come across the next waypoint.)

Speaking of the new clothes, I wonder why they are necessary. It doesn't look like a modern game, rather it reminds me of a well done game in the mid-'00s. Again, nothing wrong with it, but the Diablo "look" doesn't really lend itself to contemporary graphical innovations. The zoom feature might show how awesome the character looks, but the camera is so close as to make playing it that way problematic. They could've gone with something simplier and still had a great game (that keeps my computer cool).

Overall, this game is a must for anyone who enjoyed the old Diablo games. It builds on the old style in a pleasant way that changes it ever so slightly, but keeps it a welcome addition to the classics. The story is great, it looks pretty good and the new classes are just as fun an varied as the old. It's a nostalgia-fest and that's just fine.