Diablo 3 Review

[Don Savik]

Every time I look at Diablo 3 I just see blizzard reiterating WoW.
Once you see it, it cannot be unseen.

Spoiler

Hahaha...that's what I keep saying! And I'm a fan of WoW and Diablo 2 so its not like I'm talking out of my ass or anything, but nobody seems to believe me!

That's the problem I have with this game, its trying to blend 2 IPs to attract fans from one game. Because honestly, was anyone asking for an auction house in their action rpg? really?

And how is it even an rpg? The questing is linear. The progression is linear. There are no dialogue options. There are no character customization besides loot, but you don't even get to decide what you wear anyways because you just use whatever has better stats at the time.

I don't get what the game is trying to be. Its not grabbing me as a D2 player, and its not as a WoW player.

 

[Excludos]

Can't believe the amount of haters for such an excellent game. I've played it for around 7-8 hours now, and I'm only on act 2 still. The Auction house is completely optional and isn't even implemented yet. Sure the always online thing is a bit of a hassle if you want to play it somewhere completely without internet, but having it not be completely broken in the endgame with hacks and third party sellers is a good tradeoff, lets be honest here.

Of course, that might not be your cup of tea. But dismissing it completely because it always requires internet when you are always connected to the internet in the first place anyways, is, at best, random nerd stubbornness.

 

[Excludos]

The thing thats making me a bit sad is that I don't think the reviewer played through the game either, considering in the video there are about 5 seconds of footage from the very very beginning of act 2, and the rest of it is act 1. Sure you can blame it on blizz for not handing out early review copies, but in the end I'd still wait for a proper, completed review than having it 2 days early.

Its sort of like reviewing a final fantasy game upon its first 5 hours.. Kind of disappointed.

 

[zefiris]

Of course, that might not be your cup of tea. But dismissing it completely because it always requires internet when you are always connected to the internet in the first place anyways, is, at best, random nerd stubbornness.

Nah, it is, at best, random fanboi stubbornness to defend this kind of DRM.

There is literally nothing about this that is good for the players. As the launch proved, it's bad, bad, bad. This nonsense is hurting the industry hard right now.

If you don't want to admit that, that's your choice, of course. If you like mediocrity, hey, whatever floats your boat.

 

[Abedeus]

Don't fix what isn't broken seems to be working out well for Diablo 3. The only problem I have with it is the occasional lag and DC.

Exactly. People keep forgetting that Blizzard definitely was trying to get something more and new in beta, but testers most likely found it worse than D2.

Im just gonna ask 1 question how is ubisoft always one drm unacceptable but diablo drm bad?
love how pc gamers love to whine about always on but when a game comes out with it they eat that shit up.

HURRR DURRRR ONLINE DRMMMM

Because Ubisoft doesn't have hackers to worry about, dupers, cheaters, maphack or other shit that ruined D2 online. Hey, you found a rare item! Too bad all the dupes and bots that run 24/7 lowered the prices so fast, you'll get 200 times less than when ladder started. Tough luck.

They solved the problem and in my opinion it wasn't a Pyhrric victory. The item, drop tables and monster tables are on the Blizzard server. Client has only textures that are useless to people making dupe methods.

 

[darkszero]

My opinion:

Always Online: doesn't matter, I would be playing it on battle.net anyway, so I can jump in with some friends whenever I want. That's exactly what I just did, playing with some friends with a character I spent some quality time playing solo earlier.

Auction House: Using the gold auction house (the RM one isn't up, I don't really care for it so it's irrelevant for me), I sold some items for some extra bucks so I can throw it in the gold sinks. Hey, money is relevant in this game, what a change from Diablo II!

Customization: I'd take D3 free-swap anytime to Diablo 2's "hey, play the first 20 levels without spending a single skill point, so you can dump it all on this single skill" mechanic. I've spent quite a while trying different skills, looking for a new gameplay for my wizard. Much better than trying to guess what skills does in D2, then wasting skill points in useless skills.
When I played Torchlight 1 I said "this is boring" to half the skill tree. Obviously I didn't spend a single point in these "obvious boring" skills, so I basically had almost no skills.
In Diablo 3 I said "this is boring" to a half a bunch of skills/runes, but I tried then anyway. A surprising number of then were actually really fun and now are my skill of choice. Take that!

Inventory: you're actually intended to ignore the white items after the beginning. Also, your inventory is big enough you can pick all blue/better items for a while before it fills up. In fact, the game flow is done in such a way that your quest will bring you to town before your inventory fills up, giving you a chance to dump it however you fells.
Also, if your inventory DOES fill up when on the run, you could use this as an opportunity for a quick break, use your town portal, go to town and clear the bag, check if any item is a good upgrade, repair, talk to NPCs for idle chatter and check if any of your new skills are interesting.

Length: it took me 16 hours to beat normal. Some idling, solo play, multiplayer with friends and with random people.

Gameplay: indeed, it's more of the diablo gameplay, but with new places, different skills and classes and fun. Hey, did I tell you it's FUN? That thing you play games for?

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

I will never cease to be annoyed by people saying "Making it more accessable at the cost of better players".

Heres a handy hint. If youve NEVER played a game before. Pick easy. If you have. Pick medium or hard. There. No one is hurt by this. Its an OPTION. There could be an OPTION to make the game full of unicorns that do 1 damage and have 1 health. That wouldnt change anything. Since better players KNOW they are better they can challenge themselves on the harder difficulties. The easy levels are not made for you. Dont play them and complain. It would be like you visiting a childrens theme park and complaining the rides are too slow. Theres an adult theme park RIGHT OVER THERE! What are you doing here?!

 

[Rawne1980]

I'm just curious, how long does it take to play through the game the first time on normal? Because I keep hearing it only took 6 or 7 hours to complete. Diablo 2 took at least twice that long to finish.

Can be done in 4 hours.

There are achievements for doing the acts in under an hour.

I'm just coming up to the end of act 3 and i've playing it for around 5 hours.

Glad my wife got it free, if i'd paid for it i'd be incredibly annoyed.

 

[Frostbyte666]

Heh more I read about DIablo 3 the more I'm glad I didn't get it, then I thought lets see what torchlight 2 has to offer (below is cribbed from steam, and yes I am aware that with steam it's not truly offline):

Multiplayer - Play co-op with your friends via LAN or over the Internet for free. No subscriptions, no item sales. Our new matchmaking service lets you find friends, start new games, and join existing games. And, as always, you can play single-player offline as well.

Customizable Characters - Players will create and customize a character from one of four brand new classes. Each class can be played as either male or female, with customized cosmetic features and looks to make each individual character stand out. All new skills and loot give loads of opportunity for unique character builds.

Moddability - TorchED, the Torchlight II editor, will give players the ability to create their own mods, adding even more content to the world. Have your friends download the same mod and play together. TorchED will be available as a separate download very shortly after launch

This is also only going to cost £15 quid. Yeah will be getting this I think and encouraging my mates too as well so we can play lan coop, like we did with Diablo 2.

 

[Squidbulb]

I've never understood the point of unlockable difficulty settings. Difficulty shouldn't be seen as a reward, it's just there to keep each type of player happy.
Also, I've never played Diablo anyway so I'll probably just wait for Torchlight 2.

 

[hotsumota]

Other than the huge fiasco that the incident with error 37 at launch was, I found the game to be quite fun. Normal difficulty feels pretty much like a tutorial. After that, the difficulty starts to go up really fast.

Some of the unique monsters my buddy and I have been finding are just really insane to fight, but they are still fun to engage against. Like for example, there is a unique monster that can trap you, and then they place laser beams that are spinning in its own axis. If one of those bad boys goes your way, it will hit you like a truck.

It is in deed a lackluster that they made normal difficulty very unappealing, but then again, once you got the hang of it in Diablo 2, it was a breeze in the same way. Plus, let's be honest, no one ever cared for normal difficulty ever. Except in Diablo 1. Normal difficulty was still really hard some times.

Also, I really do not care about not having the need to re-roll another character. I actually kinda like it. It was annoying, before resets mind you, to level up another assassin just to make her a trap assassin instead of a phoenix kick assassin.

I have been having a blast with the game, yet I can see how people would like to have full control over how their character can build. I actually do kinda miss it, but I have been mostly having full control over my glass cannon witch doctor with gear itself. Which, wasn't gear the whole point of Diablo in the first place?

I will definitively try out Torchlight 2, but it will probably feel like torchlight 1 felt: it was only catching up.

 

[Legion]

I'd probably give it a shot, but no way in hell am I buying a single player game that requires constant net connection, especially as my net has been somewhat unstable recently (idiotic phone companies need to sort that crap out).

 

[kouriichi]

Honestly, i like it. While i was really against it, i end up getting my copy free, from someone i couldnt turn down.

The thing about Diablo 3, is that its a terrible Diablo game. Other then the lore and grimdarkness, its got nearly nothing diablo to it other then the aesthetics.

But in all truth, its possibly one of the best Hack and Slash games ive ever played(and ive played A LOT!). If they had named it "L00t Wh0r3: Qu35t 4 L00T", and completely ignored the Diablo Brand, people probably wouldnt have reacted as strongly.

What im trying to say is, its a great game, but a terrible Diablo. I can see it being worth 60$. While it is a bit short (10 hours if you dont feel like exploring every nook full of monsters), its got a lot of replay-ability. Smacking something so hard with an axe that its meat literally EXPLODES off its bones really doesnt get old. But thats just me.

 

[Crazy Zaul]

I've pretty much given up on this game now, after 2 failed attempts to buy it. All the shops had no stock and all the online retailers had no stock except Asda which for some reason just wouldn't accept the transaction. Buying it straight from Blizz is a total rip off at £45 and now that Amazon and Play have it back in stock again the price has gone up to £60.

Might try Torchlight 2 though. I was gonna try the 1st one but then I saw that it only had 3 boring classes. The new ones look better.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

Well, always online DRM is a dealbreaker. I'll pass on Diablo 3. Maybe if it will come to PS3, where it will be naturally playable offline, then maybe.