Diablo 3 Review
- Thread starter Slycne
- Start date
I never was a huge fan of Diablo or isometric dungeon crawlers (stopped playing D2 halfway through because I got bored), but I'm having fun with D3. To me the fact that I can quickly respec my character and start playing in a different way makes the game more varied and less prone to boredom.
In comparison, Torchlight bored me to tears. It's a good game, but I didn't see any reason to keep playing. I may try T2 but I'll probably wait until a sale or price drop, also because I don't want to play 2 dungeon crawlers straight in a row.
In comparison, Torchlight bored me to tears. It's a good game, but I didn't see any reason to keep playing. I may try T2 but I'll probably wait until a sale or price drop, also because I don't want to play 2 dungeon crawlers straight in a row.
I'm loving Diablo III, so far it's my Game of the Year. It's the first Diablo game I've played so obviously I'm not feeling that the game just feels like the others or that it's more streamlined because it's all I know of the Diablo series. However after playing and liking Diablo III so much after I'm done with it I'm going to pick up the first 2.
The only thing I don't like about it is the chance system on the crafting, you spend your gold and resources to craft an item and have a fairly good chance of getting something completely useless. The other night I went through 13k gold and over 100 Subtle Essence just to craft myself a chest piece and I was getting increasingly frustrated every time it gave me something useless, the crafting isn't exactly cheap. Like I said, I haven't played other Diablo games so I don't know if it was like this in the others, but yeah, not a big fan of the crafting chance system.
The only thing I don't like about it is the chance system on the crafting, you spend your gold and resources to craft an item and have a fairly good chance of getting something completely useless. The other night I went through 13k gold and over 100 Subtle Essence just to craft myself a chest piece and I was getting increasingly frustrated every time it gave me something useless, the crafting isn't exactly cheap. Like I said, I haven't played other Diablo games so I don't know if it was like this in the others, but yeah, not a big fan of the crafting chance system.
Sounds like Open Battle.net to me. Good stuff.darkszero said:
Emphasis mine.darkszero said:
I recall not even being upset that death took it's toll of however many tens/hundreds of thousands of gold from me on the occasion that Duriel pasted me agaisnt a wall. Hearing players tell me that gold is actually relevant in D3, as opposed to being something to feed Gheed when I'm bored, interests me.
As of patch 1.13 (I believe), D2 now includes as a quest reward one free re-spec. In my opinion, D3's ability to allow near-constant changing of your skills is a very, very good thing; as has already been stated, instead of replaying the Monk, you could just play one of the other 5 classes.darkszero said:
See, I've played through Vanilla LoD with all 7 characters on every difficulty (yes, I'm vividly aware that I'm a geek, thank you), and I've found that, for the most part, I picked a skill set that matched my playstyle from the get-go and ran with it. Since I played Hellfire to death in the same fashion, it was fairly easy for me to know what I'd like, so there was no contest between Spearazon or Bowazon for me. The times that I did try different builds afterwards were just for that - to try different builds. I haven't completed the game on anything but normal with those alternate builds.
To me, it seems like trying those builds would be incredibly less time-consuming in D3.
This part doth bother me a bit.darkszero said:
Yes, I'm already familiar with simply ignoring White/Grey items for the most part (except having to check for socketed items... that was annoying). One of my favorite D2 mods actually removed all low-grade items from the drops (anything below white), which seems what D3 has done. However, in my opinion, it would've been nice to see these items simply go away.
Example: I play Dungeons and Dragons (surprise), and I'm the primary DM for my group (surprise, surprise). I would never, ever, ever have a locked, trapped chest that housed a non-magical sword, some sundries and a few gold pieces in it. That chest, unless I'm Troll-DMing, has a magic item or quest-relevant item in it. Why clutter up the game with dross? I would rather have items simply drop less often and make them more meaningful as opposed to the Monty-Haul concept that the Diablo franchise has been so heavily invested in for ~20 years.
Sounds good for normal, considering "normal" is intended to be how the game is more accessible to new players. My intention for my first playthrough for normal is to get the story, much like my first playthrough of D2/LoD, so I expect it will take a while, and in higher difficulties I'll be ignoring and clicking through dialogue while my girlfriend goes, "Wait, what did he say?!"darkszero said:
Someone else already mentioned the lack of "new" places, and I have to agree. I would love to see more of Sanctuary than the Desert, Arreat and Khanduras.darkszero said:
However, if the core play is essentially the same as D2/Lod, but improved? I, like many others, still own D2 (and D1; in terms of aesthetics and mood, I really feel the first is still the best, gummy-bear graphics and all), and still love it. Blizzard has allowed me to continue to use their Battle.net servers for free for over a decade, and has still been kind enough to continue patching and improving that game. For. Free.
Sure, that can be seen as an investment for them to keep people hot for D3, but if I get to have even more fun than before, and can FINALLY play with some new skills (as a Hellfire lover, I'm just going to play a Monk and go silly-bananas), I'm in.
Oh, in case anyone didn't notice, I do not own D3. My little brother does, and he loves it, but I still wasn't convinced. Reading darkszero's summary/review of the game has been the tipping of the scale, and now I'm certain that I will shell out the $60 for a game that is largely a simple improvement over it's incredibly fun predecessor.
In D2 I purposely avoided crafting (it isn't crafting in the sense that you're probably used to, but we called it crafting), and crafting in D2 was infinitely more predictable, if less "accesible." I plan on making it a point to do the same in D3 (which will likely make the game more difficult for me, which is exactly what I want).Kungfu_Teddybear said:
My point is: if you can get by without it, I suggest you try, otherwise we've just replaced gambling in D2 with crafting in D3.
Good design is stopping not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing you can take away, to paraphrase.
I know right? After all, WoW has been a tornado of hackers and dupes!rolfwesselius said:
The only thing that has been a problem for wow is costum servers (which isn't really a problem for the legit users), bots (which still requires a lot of time to useful, and are banned by the houndreds every day), and gold sellers (which blizzard has so brilliantly avoided entirely with D3).
Yes, of course they do it to gain money. Money to be used for further supporting the game. How is that a bad thing? Especially considering you don't have to pay a cent. All they require is for you to be online while playing it.
This is the main difference between Blizzard and Ubisoft. Ubisoft only takes, treating their costumers like rambling idiots in the process, while Blizzard takes and gives. No one is hating Valve, even thought Steam is practically one gigantic DRM machine. But they give so much back, its worth it. (Valve is also bathing in money in the process. You're telling me this is only ok if its not Blizzard doing it?)
Yeah, of course maphack and dupes will run.rolfwesselius said:
And whenever they get banned, Blizzard gets $60 from idiots who forget that banned account = banned cdkey.
Also, you should calm down with your zealotry. You look like a fundamentalist who can't stand someone liking something he doesn't.
The world really, really doesn't revolve around you.
captcha: mea culpa. I guess that's true. I'm sorry I burst your precious bubble of self-importance.
"Diablo 3 core gameplay is same old as Diablo 2" like in "Torchlight has the same core gameplay as World of Warcraft" or "Divinity has the same core gameplay as Champions of Norrath" or like in "Diablo 3 is an third person isometric view action RPG that resolves around hacking and slashing monster to gain xp and loot but mostly loot when you hit the level cap". Like in telling me "they did not turn Diablo 3 into a FPS or cooking simulator". Good job for clarifying that.
The orbs, the new 3 monster mob elite monsters, who's abilities get frigging weird on harder difficulties, the individual "mana" for each character which will make every character's energy usage and replenishment different, no these are minor changes that I almost didn't notice and was thinking I was playing a Diablo 2 clone.
The orbs, the new 3 monster mob elite monsters, who's abilities get frigging weird on harder difficulties, the individual "mana" for each character which will make every character's energy usage and replenishment different, no these are minor changes that I almost didn't notice and was thinking I was playing a Diablo 2 clone.
There is a subtly complexity having to do with the synergy between abilities or spells. Also the shear number of spells available is hidden behind the rune system. There are only 6 slots for spells you can use at any one time. However there are 4 or 5 spells that can go in each slot and each one of those spells can be augmented to make it the equivalent of a whole new spell. Learning which spells and runes to use together can be like a science, it's very fun. Also learning how and when to use which spells can change the game play completely. A lesser developer would have botched it up by just giving you a spell book full of 100s of spells.Devoneaux said:
I've played less than 10 hours, but I really like it. The dozen or so people I know that plays it all freaking love it. I think people are being whiny and see the previous games with nostalgia-tinted glasses, and D3 with the obnoxious cynicism that's so goddamn widespread in gaming audiences.
Precisely. You can also turn on elective mode, which means that you can choose any 6 skills you want, so you can take several from the same group and ignore other groups.praus said:
Hey, I'm glad my post was useful for someone!
(Except if the speech is part on an event, those you have to wait. It's easy to know.)
Also, spoiler:
.
Someone said earlier that you can use your pet in Torchlight to buy potions and tp/id scrolls.
You don't have such a thing in Diablo 3, because there's no mana potions neither scrolls. And health potions drop in a sufficient rate to give you how many you'll need, at least it was that way for me.
The Health Globes mechanic is fantastic, and gives an interesting twist to combat and helps to keep the place.
Health Potions are instant, heals a fair deal and have a 30+s cooldown (never bothered to check). They certainly are relevant, however you can't depend on then.
Except it's not a hacker's free zone. I stayed very, very far from that thing.vengerofthelight said:
I started playing Nightmare yesterday. Not a single speech was completed, and most didn't get the chance to begin. Blizzard understood that story is only relevant the first time and allows you to skip everything.vengerofthelight said:
(Except if the speech is part on an event, those you have to wait. It's easy to know.)
Well, you do visit many places in those acts with different stuff.vengerofthelight said:
Also, spoiler:
you visit the High Heavens
I've played enough Diablo 1 and 2, however I never bothered much to go to really depth lengths.vengerofthelight said:
Someone said earlier that you can use your pet in Torchlight to buy potions and tp/id scrolls.
You don't have such a thing in Diablo 3, because there's no mana potions neither scrolls. And health potions drop in a sufficient rate to give you how many you'll need, at least it was that way for me.
The Health Globes mechanic is fantastic, and gives an interesting twist to combat and helps to keep the place.
Health Potions are instant, heals a fair deal and have a 30+s cooldown (never bothered to check). They certainly are relevant, however you can't depend on then.
D3 has no subscription either, the only "problem" is that you need to be connected to Battle.net, which the majority of people have no problems with.Frostbyte666 said:
Customizable Characters in TL2 is a load of bull. Change face, hair and hair color, which after 15mins of play will be covered up by a helm. Male and female option is like in D3.
The skills are exactly like in TL1, which means that you'll hoard points. And stats is the same, you really only put points in one or two of the four stats available and further down the line there will only be one or two "optiomal" builds anyway, sounds similar to D2?
Then again the skills overall in TL2 are shitty and the pot spamming necessary doesn't help. It's like because they know a lot will make mods for the game, so they deliberately didn't put any effort into the skills of the main characters.
Comparing the skill and rune system to D3, it has ALOT more options for unique character builds.
Moddability - Yeah this is the one and only thing that i consider is better then D3, but only because D3 doesn't have it at all.
I also wish that TL2 beta could have showed me a better story because right now it's a copy of D2.
It's a shame that they haven't improved it more om TL1, but i guess the multiplayer coding took a lot of time. Well next up is TL3 the MMO.
We'll just have to agree to disagree then. I see complexity where you do not. I know how much work it takes to get Diablo 3's system of spells to seem easy to use and master when it could very easily not have come out that way. The shear number of abilities and their different combinations could have come out very badly if done by some one else. At least you've played it and come to an opinion, I can respect that. I've read several other posts where people seem to have decided they know everything about the game without even playing it.Devoneaux said:
I wish that was what Blizzard did! Instead we got a Diablo made by a dev team that doesn't know what made the original games so great. Now it is just a resounding "meh". It seems they cut a bunch of content to add later in expansion packs I'm guessing. Don't worry, once you spend $180 you'll get a full game...Denamic said: