Diablo III Dev: Adventure Mode is Worth The $40 Price Tag

[Steven Bogos]

Diablo III Dev: Adventure Mode is Worth The $40 Price Tag

Diablo III's Kevin Martens says that Reaper of Souls' new "Adventure Mode" changes the game completely.

Diablo III has made some pretty PC Gamer [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132584-Diablo-IIIs-Massive-Free-Loot-2-0-Patch-Goes-Live] that the expansion's "Adventure Mode" makes it worth the price of admission, as it completely changes the way the game is played.

"I don't know about pricing as such, but I would say that the Adventure Mode changes the game pretty much completely. It's totally different," said Martens when asked his feelings on the game's price. "Once you get into Adventure Mode and you see the promise of everything random that Diablo does; that makes replayability the point of the game. It's not linear anymore so you're experience is different everytime you come in," he added.

Martens also reflects on the mistakes the team realized after the game's release, such as the Auction House and itemization. "The auction house decision didn't come easy. It's not like the day we realized it was a mistake was when we could shut it down," he said. He claims that player feedback is a very important tool, and most of the recent changes to the game have been centered around that feedback.

Finally, Martens tries to coax back players who tried the game at launch and were disappointed. It's crazy awesome now," he said. "Everyone gets a shot at it now. Legendaries are dropping now from Level 10 onward, and we have put code in to ensure that everyone gets some legendaries, and a chance at the wacky powers as well."

Source: PC Gamer [http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/02/28/diablo-iii-interview-lead-designers-reflect-on-their-mistakes-look-ahead-to-reaper-of-souls/]

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[Neta]

Maybe if it comes out on the PS3 I'll buy it. But never on the PC.

 

[StriderShinryu]

The new class is one I'm very interested in, and the Adventure mode sounds cool.. but that price tag is still a little high for me right now. I can see myself picking it up at some point when I really feel the urge to play a kill and loot again though I'm sure by then the price will have gone down at least a little bit.

 

[Steven Bogos]

The new class is one I'm very interested in, and the Adventure mode sounds cool.. but that price tag is still a little high for me right now. I can see myself picking it up at some point when I really feel the urge to play a kill and loot again though I'm sure by then the price will have gone down at least a little bit.

It's true, Blizzard have had sales on their stuff in the past. I remember at one point you get get World of Warcraft with all its expansions for like $40.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Is. It. Coming. To. The. PS3?

I was always under the impression that all this stuff was coming to the PS3, and yet as the day draws nearer, I seen nothing saying that it is coming. I've found info that it will be on the PS4, but nothing on whether it will be on the PS3. This all sounds like it will be so much fun and totally awesome (plus, I would love to actually be able to get some Legendary items that are actually useful to my Demon Hunter), but I haven't found anything saying that I'll get to play it. Has anyone heard differently? And not just rumors, but actual reported evidence?

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

For a moment there, I thought they were offering the single player offline mode for $40. That might have been enough to get me to play it.

 

[BQE]

For a moment there, I thought they were offering the single player offline mode for $40. That might have been enough to get me to play it.

Wait a second, can you play the console version offline then? Or must you still connect to battle.net servers?

 

[Lost In The Void]

Cut out the DRM and we'll talk. Seriously, it seems like a good game but I refuse a single player experience to be dictated by whether or not I have my computer connected to the internet.

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

After the Loot 2.0 patch that came out last week I decided to retry the game and WOW is it already so much more fun. Even without the new expansion it's already peaked my interest again. I don't think I'll be getting the expo day 1, but it's certainly on my radar.

REALLY glad that Blizzard is listening.

 

[black_knight1337]

I think it's at least on par with LoD in terms of content. LoD had 2 classes, 1 act, runewords and charms. RoS has 1 class, 1 act, enchanting, transmogrification, bounties, rifts and more active and passive skills. Or if you only include the differences, LoD has 1 class, runewords and charms while RoS has enchanting, transmogrification, bounties, rifts and more skills. So it's not that RoS has less content than LoD but rather it has different content to LoD. And personally I think the new ways to play the game that RoS is bringing along with enchanting puts it leagues ahead of a class and a couple of types of loot.

And $40 is a "hefty price tag"? How? It's the standard expansion price that's been used for over a decade. Hell, LoD launched at $40 and with inflation (+~$13) it actually makes RoS quite a bit cheaper. And another note on the pricing, here in Australia buying the physical collector's edition of RoS is STILL cheaper than buying most games on release ($10-20). So I don't think anyone can realistically complain about it's price, it's definitely worth it.

 

[Steven Bogos]

I think it's at least on par with LoD in terms of content. LoD had 2 classes, 1 act, runewords and charms. RoS has 1 class, 1 act, enchanting, transmogrification, bounties, rifts and more active and passive skills. Or if you only include the differences, LoD has 1 class, runewords and charms while RoS has enchanting, transmogrification, bounties, rifts and more skills. So it's not that RoS has less content than LoD but rather it has different content to LoD. And personally I think the new ways to play the game that RoS is bringing along with enchanting puts it leagues ahead of a class and a couple of types of loot.

And $40 is a "hefty price tag"? How? It's the standard expansion price that's been used for over a decade. Hell, LoD launched at $40 and with inflation (+~$13) it actually makes RoS quite a bit cheaper. And another note on the pricing, here in Australia buying the physical collector's edition of RoS is STILL cheaper than buying most games on release ($10-20). So I don't think anyone can realistically complain about it's price, it's definitely worth it.

I actually agree with you, that the $40 is well worth it, but it is quite hefty compared to the DLC prices of around $20 max that people are used to paying for.

 

[Falterfire]

And $40 is a "hefty price tag"? How? It's the standard expansion price that's been used for over a decade

Not really. Very few companies still sell full expansions, most usually break what would have been an expansion into smaller chunks of DLC. The only company I can think of off the top of my head that still does proper expansions is Firaxis (XCOM, Civilization) and they sell their packs for $30 on launch day.

I can't think of anybody else that regularly puts out full sized expansions off the top of my head, but most DLC tends to be $10-$15.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

They also said $60 was worth it for the main game...

I completed it once on the only available difficulty and decided never to touch it again because I don't feel like crawling through the exact same dungeons over and over. Adventure mode helps this issue, but you're still farming the same old content in a different order.

Action RPG's are just dull, so asking me to spend $100 in total on one is out of the question.

 

[black_knight1337]

Not really. Very few companies still sell full expansions, most usually break what would have been an expansion into smaller chunks of DLC. The only company I can think of off the top of my head that still does proper expansions is Firaxis (XCOM, Civilization) and they sell their packs for $30 on launch day.

I can't think of anybody else that regularly puts out full sized expansions off the top of my head, but most DLC tends to be $10-$15.

So because expansions are becoming less common the standard price for them, even though most if not all are still around that price, somehow changes? In the past it's floated around $40-50 and currently it's still the same. Not sure where you're looking but both of Civ 5's expansions are sitting at $50 which is also the price for XCOM's expansion. So yeah, it's definitely pretty standard pricing. Of course nowadays it's mostly small DLC packs which are quite cheap (which is presumably why people are so up in arms about this) but when added together usually run up much more than what an expansion would and in a lot of cases offer much less content.

 

[MoltenSilver]

Sounds like they've got some real enthusiasm in what they've made and towards improving it; the interview certainly drew my interest.

Now lose the always-online garbage and I'll consider buying it

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I think it's at least on par with LoD in terms of content. LoD had 2 classes, 1 act, runewords and charms. RoS has 1 class, 1 act, enchanting, transmogrification, bounties, rifts and more active and passive skills. Or if you only include the differences, LoD has 1 class, runewords and charms while RoS has enchanting, transmogrification, bounties, rifts and more skills. So it's not that RoS has less content than LoD but rather it has different content to LoD. And personally I think the new ways to play the game that RoS is bringing along with enchanting puts it leagues ahead of a class and a couple of types of loot.

And $40 is a "hefty price tag"? How? It's the standard expansion price that's been used for over a decade. Hell, LoD launched at $40 and with inflation (+~$13) it actually makes RoS quite a bit cheaper. And another note on the pricing, here in Australia buying the physical collector's edition of RoS is STILL cheaper than buying most games on release ($10-20). So I don't think anyone can realistically complain about it's price, it's definitely worth it.

lol maybe it's because you're used to australian prices..but the last time I spent more than 20 dollars on a full game...it's been probably since mass effect 3. Hell I'm getting south park: the stick of truth on release and I'm spending 40 bucks, and that is me at my maximum for a whole game, not just an expansion pack. Thanks to steam sales/GoG/greenmangaming/humble bundle I haven't spent more than 10-15 bucks average on most of my library, for a grand total of ~400ish games, I see no reason why I should remotely think about giving blizzard 40 dollars for this, they might catch my interest at 15 bucks, but even then, that's going to require me reactivating my account through blizzard because my account got hacked 2x because of D3's horseshit always online shit.

Now I am spending 40 dollars on south park, so I can't exactly talk much, but I am getting it for a whole game, and this is a once a year sort of purchase.

 

[otakon17]

For a moment there, I thought they were offering the single player offline mode for $40. That might have been enough to get me to play it.

Wait a second, can you play the console version offline then? Or must you still connect to battle.net servers?

Console does not have always online bullshit that the PC does. That makes it the superior version already if you ask me.

 

[Shjade]

Adventure mode just unlocks all waypoints and all difficulty levels, while removing the story mode?

How does just giving you control over what you experience when really improve replayability?

The two other new features are bounties and nephalam rifts. Wow what are those?

Bounties are MMORPG-like quests: Kill this monster/boss for extra xp/gold. Yawn.
Nephalam rifts are a random mix of monsters/level elements that create weird combinations of maps. It sounds kinda interesting to me.

From what I'm reading, it seems like RoS took notes on Path of Exile's "endgame" and is trying something similar.

I'm not sure if that's what happened, or if that's a good/bad thing, but it certainly sounds like it has a fair amount in common with PoE's "maps."

I think it's at least on par with LoD in terms of content. LoD had 2 classes, 1 act, runewords and charms. RoS has 1 class, 1 act, enchanting, transmogrification, bounties, rifts and more active and passive skills. Or if you only include the differences, LoD has 1 class, runewords and charms while RoS has enchanting, transmogrification, bounties, rifts and more skills. So it's not that RoS has less content than LoD but rather it has different content to LoD. And personally I think the new ways to play the game that RoS is bringing along with enchanting puts it leagues ahead of a class and a couple of types of loot.

While this seems like a good attitude for comparing the expansion additions, it seems like you're forgetting something fairly important:

Diablo 2 already had enchanting and transmogrification (via Horadric Cube) in the base game, so it didn't need to add those in an expansion.

When you consider that, it's LoD's extra class, runewords and charms vs RoS adding bounties, rifts and skills.

 

[synobal]

Ya no all adventure mode do is give you random quests (that were already in the game and part of the story) to do and once you do them you get a special box reward that gives you a map you can go clear for better loot. They basically said "lets copy torch light, and path of exile" I might of bought that had they made new quests but no you just do story quests you've already done, like kill the wraith king or save deckard cain to get a map you can go to.

Not worth 40 dollars at all.