Diablo III

[Yeargdribble]

The Hype
So over 4 years ago, when Diablo 3 was announced, I care and was excited. About 2 years ago I started to not care and by the time we were anywhere near launch I just couldn't have cared less. Beyond that, I've been heavily fatigued by the incessant coverage from all of the various gaming sources I follow to the point that I almost wanted to try to set filters on my RSS feed to rid myself of anything Diablo related.

The one thing I did want from Diablo 3 was the ability to have a nice, small-scale game that I could play with my wife that allowed jumping in and out and a little mindless fun. After a long dearth of such games, suddenly this year we'll get Torchlight 2 and Borderlands 2 just to name some of the ones that are most on our radar.

Well, Diablo 3 got here first and while I didn't care at first, my wife got it free from a WoW promotion. She played a little and convinced me to pony up $65 for a copy.

My thoughts

The game is a bit of mindless fun for us. It's always fun for us to play together and a loot game works well for that. The game is almost laughably easy though. I suppose we could mess with difficulty settings later, but at default it's a joke. Yes, the characters can feel very powerful, but ultimately the combat is dull. People complain about the dullness of MMOs where you're just hammering a handful of macros over and over, but this takes it to the next level with only a handful of abilities effectively available to you at any given time. Needless to say, it gets dull fast.

Also, gear is cool, but it doesn't even make a noticeable difference. I mean, I can stay partied (harder monsters) and go solo... and it's still a joke. Am I going to notice if I get a marginally better weapon or armor? Not really, because I'm absolutely smoking everything as it is. It didn't take me long to realize that gear with marginal HP Regen was just laughable with health globes dropping everywhere and monsters barely scratching me. The gear seems like a panacea at best.

Perhaps as we get deeper in it will matter more. We have enjoyed some of the harder, longer boss fights that actually took some thought and strategy, though not much.

What happened?

I think the hype was borne out of Diablo II and D2 fell at a mostly pre-MMO time. It had amazing replay value and a group mechanism that was pretty fresh at the time. A loot game to play with your friends 12 years ago was fresh and exciting.

Now we're in a post MMO world. We're used to that and we've grown accustomed to deeper gameplay. Even in something like WoW you need a decent bit of strategy to succeed. There is satisfaction in overcoming a difficult obstacle. When you're a demi-god smashing everything it just starts not mattering.

I think Diablo III is just a bit late to the game and hasn't evolved as much as it might have. The game feels old.


On the positive side

I do like the skill system. It's in step with the direction I'm seeing a lot of games going these days by not confining the player; by not locking them in and making them be concerned about mistakes of misplaced skills or attributes. I enjoy that as I recall being paralyzed about decision making in games like D2. I would run around with unspent points because I wanted to make a good call. It really traps you into too much min-maxing and metagaming when you have to worry about those thing and end up looking up and researching builds online exhaustively. That's great at the highest tier of play, but shouldn't interrupt those who just want to casually enjoy a game without hamstringing themselves.


Final thoughts

I know I just shat all over the game, but it is a good game. It's an obviously well polished, Blizzard quality game. It kept what players loved, made a few needed updates while not pissing off too much of the base (which is one hell of a tight-rope as I'm sure everyone knows who has followed any of the development). I can't fault it for not making as much progress as I might like and I can't know that I'd like it more if it had.

I'm sure I'm going to enjoy it plenty with my wife, but I really don't foresee it having the legs that D2 had and don't even really see it being extremely notable. If anything it's a victim of it's own hype in that way.

[Peegee]

This is why I didn't buy the game - I saw it as a single/multiplayer RPG shooter (is it like Skyrim in the sense the perspective can be changed from first to third?) that I'll blitz through like Diablo 1 and 2

Perhaps this means RPGs are going down, or MMOs need a revamp?

[Bunny]

How far are you exactly? The first few acts of Normal are pretty easy, but during Act III and IV, things get a bit tougher. Nightmare and Hell are where the differences are made and where the deaths begin to happen.

[CimminyCricket]

UGH ALL THIS TALK IS MAKING ME MISS EoFF D2 NIGHTS WHERE IS TAVROBEL WHEN I NEED MY FIX

[Madame Adequate]

Diablo: Lord of Error.

[Tavrobel]

ur bad at dis gaem n u shud feel bad mang

[CimminyCricket]

I knew I could count on you to show up <3

I've decided. I'm buying it.

[Shlup]

I was wondering when one of you butts would make a D3 thread.

I agree that so far it's really, really easy. BJ and I are enjoying it because we like feeling like badasses. BJ's reaction when his monk takes out eight guys at a time is pretty adorable. Right now we have two games going, one where we both have level 9 monks, and one where he's a level 18 barbarian and I'm a level 19 witch doctor. I haven't decided which character I like better yet.

We're having a lot of fun jumping around to our friends' games. Yesterday our higher-level friends kept jumping into our game, shooting lasers everywhere, then jumping out again.

I'm looking forward to starting again in nightmare mode. Right now it's fun to just rush in and trash the place, but a game where we have to stop and think will be fun too.

[Tavrobel]

Everyone was too busy playing D3 to make one. I'm currently working my way through Hell, and I've been able to tank it so far with the right items. The only reason why I'm not 60 yet is because of the maintenance.

Serinde#1979

[Shlup]

I think we all know that we had plenty of time to make one while the servers were down.

[Tavrobel]

No, we were spamming our password for our account so that we could log on before everyone else.

[theundeadhero]

've only had time to finish act 1 because of other commitments but I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Sure, it's easy, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun. I love that they took out stamina and skill trees but added things to make it more enjoyable. I thought about making this thread Tuesday and Yesterday but I was surprised one hadn't been made yet and wanted to see how long it would take for someone to make it.

I wish I could have ported my Beta character over. It was better geared then my monk was at that point in the game

[Marshall Banana]

Bit#1766

[Necronopticous]

Pixelblip#1658

[Tavrobel]

8:36, beat Diablo in Hell, I'm level 59. Can't do Inferno because it requires level 60.