Diablo 3 or Path of Exile?

[janamb]

Path of Exile reminds me of Diablo 2 with a final fantasy passive skill system. It seems okay and I may enjoy a bit of it until diablo 3 comes out. When Diablo 3 finally releases I won't even remember Path of Exile exists, they aren't really comparable. The smooth play and polish that Blizzard puts out is hard to match. Let alone many other factors.

[jeremynative]

the most terrible thing about diablo 3 is the real money auction house and the stupid pvp arena like wow

path of exile has real money shop also so it really had no advantage, diablo 3 is better.

[johnnysd]

In my view Path Of Exile is a better game in almost EVERY way:

Dramatically Better skill system and character development -the passive skill tree is amazing, FUN and there isnt a useless choice on the thing. It is spectacular and very deep

MUCH better graphics IMO. Has the grit and darkness of D2 and are terrific. Hardcore WOW people might prefer the cartoony WOW inspired D3 graphics

Better spell effects, especially fire

More polish -This has always been the cornerstone of Blizzard games. The production values and incredible amount of detail that they put into the UI graphics, fonts and layout was always the best in the industry. But POE with a tiny production company has produced a more polished game than D3 and I would have never thought that

Brilliant barter system instead of gold that adds a "horadric cube" like element to selling items

Terrific pacing

Playstyle leagues

And EASILY the best UI of any action RPG yet. It is minimalist and brilliant.

Terrific monster design

---------- Post added 2012-04-13 at 02:29 AM ----------

Could not disagree more. Path of Exile is extremely smooth and responsive and looks terrific, but D3 has horrible game stuttering lag and looks 5 years old.

[Ashnazg]

In my view Path Of Exile is a better game in almost EVERY way:

Dramatically Better skill system and character development -the passive skill tree is amazing, FUN and there isnt a useless choice on the thing. It is spectacular and very deep

One might say its exceptionally bloated and cumbersome with a number of filler upgrades that serve no purpose other than to make the tree pretty. Furthermore, several skill node locations make no sense. And regarding useless choices : depends on what you define as useless, I suppose. There are definitely keystone nodes that nobody specs into (or keystone nodes that are outperformed by skill gems).

MUCH better graphics IMO. Has the grit and darkness of D2 and are terrific. Hardcore WOW people might prefer the cartoony WOW inspired D3 graphics

Graphics are alright. I am not a big fan of cardboard cutouts in act2 (trees). Titan Quest had superior graphics (imho) and its 7 years old now.

Better spell effects, especially fire

Granted I've only seen a small subset of D3 graphic effects, but I've been pretty impressed with cold ray, arcane orb, some monk animations.

More polish -This has always been the cornerstone of Blizzard games. The production values and incredible amount of detail that they put into the UI graphics, fonts and layout was always the best in the industry. But POE with a tiny production company has produced a more polished game than D3 and I would have never thought that

Not sure how you arrive at that conclusion. PoE has many things, but a user-friendly interface is not one of them. Its true to its D2 roots, but its missing several user-friendly features (e.g. right-clicking items into the stash, auto-arrange inventory, etc.), missing a trading system that doesn't involve people blindly dropping stuff on the ground), lacks decent loot system (completely dis-incentivising pick-up groups). It is a good copy of D2, but its still stuck in the past, while the gaming industry has moved forward.

Terrific pacing

Not sure what you're referring to, specifically. Do you mean the speed with which you progress through levels?

Playstyle leagues

Sure.

And EASILY the best UI of any action RPG yet. It is minimalist and brilliant.

Hm. They all look identical to me. A minimap, two orbs, skill buttons.

Terrific monster design

Hm. I feel this is their weak side. Monsters don't really have a lot of differences between them. Mages attack with projectiles (not even casting any other spell), so they're essentially the same as archers. Archers come in different varieties, but again do not use any special attacks other than good old autoattack with multishot added in occasionally. For the melee mobs, they all try to close in and hit you in melee. Very few have anything special going for them (goatmen with leap slam, ashen pirates with flicker strike are the only ones that come to mind, frankly).

When I play d3 beta, at least occasionally, I go: ooh, thats a nifty looking mob, or oooh: thats a cool thing he did. When I play PoE (my highest is 60-something witch), I go: more waves of faceless zombies to slaughter, /yawn. The game actually starts to feel really grindy at 40+, with little to spike the interest.

[Demoncrash]

In my view Path Of Exile is a better game in almost EVERY way: *Snip*

Having played PoE i have to disagree with you, as each and every feature you listed as brilliant and amazing, i found to be mediocre and some of them, downright annoying. I honestly think the original Dungeon Siege was a much better game in every respect as compared to PoE, and that game is 10 years old...


But to each their own, and it's good to see competition. With PoE and Torchlight 2 things can only get better for the genre moving forward.

[xGr1mx]

Path of Exile did very well for such a small group of only several people! compared to Diablo 3 with hundreds working on it.

[Verdugo]

Path of Exile did very well for such a small group of only several people! compared to Diablo 3 with hundreds working on it.

I dont care how many people work on a game, when I play it i want to play a good game, not a crap released just so that creator could go buy a Big Mac.

[Algor]

Diablo III has a very gruesome and dark setting. The rumors to the contrary are remnants of ignorant conclusions drawn from a single screenshot released back in 2008.

[Reisori]

I did a bit youtube checking how PoE looks and how the gameplay works. It reminded me a lot of D2, the good and the bad parts. Mostly bad, potion guzzling, mana as a resource and a skill tree that is filled with passives like "6% more attack speed".
The graphics look ok but animations and effects look quite lame, they seem to lack power. A skill named sweep oneshotted all the mobs around the guy but the actual animation looked like somebody holding a 2h mace keyboard turning in wow with double speed.
All the skills in Diablo 3 just seem so much more powerful just because they usually send the poor enemy zombies flying across the screen dripping entrails on the ground as they fly.
If you really like the outdated game model of d2, play PoE but if you actually like to have fun while playing, play Diablo 3.

[johnnysd]

This thread I think once again shows how polarizing D3 will be. In trying to make it for a larger audience they have actually made a game that will really only appeal to on audience, albeit that audience might be the larger of the two. d3 is really more like wow than D2 and a lot of people really respond to that. They want an action game with WOW-ish graphics and no or light RPG elements. The other side wants a real successor to D2 that is as much a RPG as an action game and has a darker more mature atmosphere. This group will hate D3 and like games like POE and Grim Dawn more than D3. I personally think D2 is a terrible game made by developers who actually do not like D2 at all.

---------- Post added 2012-04-13 at 01:26 PM ----------

I did a bit youtube checking how PoE looks and how the gameplay works. It reminded me a lot of D2, the good and the bad parts. Mostly bad, potion guzzling, mana as a resource and a skill tree that is filled with passives like "6% more attack speed".
The graphics look ok but animations and effects look quite lame, they seem to lack power. A skill named sweep oneshotted all the mobs around the guy but the actual animation looked like somebody holding a 2h mace keyboard turning in wow with double speed.
All the skills in Diablo 3 just seem so much more powerful just because they usually send the poor enemy zombies flying across the screen dripping entrails on the ground as they fly.
If you really like the outdated game model of d2, play PoE but if you actually like to have fun while playing, play Diablo 3.

Actually I disagree with all points. And keep in mind POE is in true beta and has months of development and a huge amount of content and game systems that are not even in the game yet.

D3 follows the WOW design ideal of more and bigger. They want the screen to be filled with spell effects. I find the subdued and much cripser effects in POE to be much better looking and effective.

I think POE is significantly even in BETA more fun than D3.

I think that the passive skill tree which you seem to not like separates POE from D3 and gives it depth and a much better role playing experience than POE will ever have,

[Conbot]

I played PoE a few weeks back, it didn't blow me away. The main thing i got hung up on was the camera view. It was ok though.

BUT.

I just got my D3 beta invite last night (finally) and it has already met all my expectations. Super polished, fun, addictive. It's like a more action packed D2 (and I think that's a great thing).

---------- Post added 2012-04-13 at 01:30 PM ----------

Diablo III has a very gruesome and dark setting. The rumors to the contrary are remnants of ignorant conclusions drawn from a single screenshot released back in 2008.

Agreed. The setting is awesome. Love what i've seen in the Beta so far. Dark storyline, lots of gore, and tons of exploding corpses.

[Fumu]

Both. And when Torchlight 2 comes out, all 3! If you like the genre there's no reason to devote your time, existence, soul and firstborn to just one. Although whatever has the strongest, most thriving multiplayer community will seal the primary game slot for me.

[Drifted]

This thread I think once again shows how polarizing D3 will be. In trying to make it for a larger audience they have actually made a game that will really only appeal to on audience, albeit that audience might be the larger of the two. d3 is really more like wow than D2 and a lot of people really respond to that. They want an action game with WOW-ish graphics and no or light RPG elements. The other side wants a real successor to D2 that is as much a RPG as an action game and has a darker more mature atmosphere. This group will hate D3 and like games like POE and Grim Dawn more than D3. I personally think D2 is a terrible game made by developers who actually do not like D2 at all.

How the hell D2 was a RPG? Attributes were just a plastered front. Balancing just enough to equip needed gear and rest to vitality. No matter what you played. Skill system was getting a few main skills and maxing them and synegies as much as your skill points allowed. Where is the depth in that? How I felt according to beta Diablo 3 seems to have plenty dark and mature feeling in it. You want even more dark atmosphere go play Amnesia: The Dark Descend.

It's not wise going around grouping people according to your own norms. I want real successor for Diablo 2. I want endless hours of item grinding to get that ever eluding rare drop. I want smooth gameplay. To hell with graphics. To hell with story. All I want to do is slaughter monsters and collect loot.

D3 follows the WOW design ideal of more and bigger. They want the screen to be filled with spell effects. I find the subdued and much cripser effects in POE to be much better looking and effective.

Diablo 3 follows WoW? Because it has more spell effects on the screen than D2? I don't like usage of "lol" in forum posts but it would definetly fit perfectly here. Skelemancer with 20+ minions, Meteorb sorc spamming both her signatures, Light sorc spamming Chain Lightning, Javazon spamming Lightning Fury etc. They alone are epitome of shit loads of crap on the screen at the same time and when you get group of 8 full of these spammy classes all you see in your screen is constant light show. If anything Diablo 3 has tuned down spammy spell effects by adding cooldown to mass destruction spells like Meteor.

I think that the passive skill tree which you seem to not like separates POE from D3 and gives it depth and a much better role playing experience than POE will ever have,

We saw what passive talents did to WoW. Cookie cutter builds with no imagination because you had to take predetermined talents to pull of competitive damage. I don't see how it would be any different in PoE especially if it has higher and harder difficulties.

Not saying PoE will be shit game. As any sort of RPG fan, be it Baldur's Gate type or hack 'n slash like Diablos, I will prolly give it a try when it gets released. But when you said at the start of this post "This thread I think once again shows how polarizing D3 will be." to me it seems it's you who is watching the world through PoE polarizing sun glasses. Both games are in beta. Diablo 3 being pretty much ready but only minimal fraction of game seen (if you can even call act 1 a game seeing how easy normal act 1 was in D2) and PoE still being in heavy developement.

[Restos3]

D3 fo sho.
10chars

[Greenbull]

At first, I was really impressed by the size of the talent tree in PoE. It turned out to be quite boring and mindless. Although what really made to quit the game were the actual skills. Most of them felt clunky and completely pointless and I didn't even use more than 1 skill till level 17! The graphics and the overall atmosphere of the game is great but it's not enought to save the game from Diablo imo.

[Wildmoon]

PoE's skill tree is the best example of shallow skill tree hiding itself under huge amount of choices. 1 skill rune in D3 change character far more than 10 passives skill in PoE.

[Arfess]

I wasnt too impressed with PoE since i felt i could beat the whole game with just 1 skill. Not fast paced enough action for me, i also felt the animations were lacking. The game itself just didnt make me feel "awesome" playing my hero. The skill tree allows for many interesting builds but in the end its just stack stacking for your prefered weapon type, almost forcing you to pull out the calculator in order to reach the big active skills of your choice.

[mic129]

Personally, id say Diablo 3, Blizzard games are always epic and polished (aka user friendly, a lot of options for us (aka being able to re-organize your character order on your character selection screen in wow, which is not NEEDED) or being able to re-organize your stats panels in wow ( Spells > Defense > General > ect).

Path of Exile still looks good but thats the kind of game id play when i ever get tired og D3, just like i did when i played torchlight, the game is fun but just not as polished.

[Camo]

I have been playing PoE all day and night
It is awesome
I really dislike their skill and stat distribution method though, its in my eyes horrible and you can easily do something wrong (theres runes in game to correct it ofc)
The fact i spend scrolls of wisdom for items, is annoying aswell.
The rest of the game is fab.

Diablo 3 is better, but PoE is "indie hack and slash" and it really does it amazingly well.

[Waff]

I'd go with Path of Exile without even having heard of the game. Im just against D3 out of pure principle(right spelling?). Any game that enforces a buy to win system is 0/10 and unplayable in my eyes.