Diablo 3 - The Phantom Menace

[Sweetleader]

Well unfortunately it's the only argument you are gonna get. You might have been reading a game manual trying understand the story for Diablo 2 back in the day, but I was reading stuff like Harry Potter, ect. that had an actual story. I played D2 for the hack and slash. Was there a story? Yes. Was it actually that good? Not really. At least I personally didn't think so. If I want a story based game I play a Bioware game. If I want to beat shit up or perhaps socialize I generally play an FPS game or a hack and slash.

You can get angry that people argue about the story but it's not gonna change anything. Everything video game/movie has a story, but it isn't necessarily good, and it doesn't have to be good. BF3 story was there just to give you some single player fun. Modern Warfare series was the same. Nobody played these games for the story. They played to shoot people online.

I'm not saying don't critique it, but don't use it as a main point as to why the game sucks.

[Elite Peon]

I remember the spring of 99, waiting in a line of over a hundred for like 2 hours so I could see the very first showing of the Phantom Menace, the first new Star Wars movie in about 15 years. I was too little to remember the other ones in the theater but the Star Wars franchise was one of my all time favorites, like just about everyone else on the planet.

I had no doubts it was going to be awesome, I mean, it was the freaking Star Wars franchise, there's no way they'd ever make a bad Star Wars movie, amirite?

I remember walking of of the theater not knowing what to think. I mean, deep down I knew it was a crappy movie, but maybe I was just processing it correctly. I actually saw it again the next weekend, there were parts that were cool, but it just felt cold and boring and at all interesting or compelling.

And what is the movie's legacy? Well the hardcore fans hated it, the critics hated it, it's legacy was that of a bad joke, a punchline, the long awaited but disappointing and downright embarassing follow up to the legendary Star Wars franchise. The beginning of the end of the legend of Lucas.

How could this have happened? How could they have made it so bad? I mean parts of it were good, but the bad parts are so bad and unnecessary, they could have easily been fixed. It's like the took all the charm, originality, and character and squeezed it out of the franchise.

Interestingly enough the movie went on to be a major finacial success, in fact, not factoring in inflation, it's the #10 highest grossing movie of all time.

Sound familiar?

Behold, Diablo 3, the Phantom Menance. It's taken me a few weeks to recognize my feelings towards the game but now I remember when I felt like this before. It was after my couple viewings of Episode 1

Not to be rude but NO video game has ever even come close to the epicness of the original starwars saga . Diablo 3 is no less great as d1 or d2 just the same unlike the newer star wars films which are movies that would have been straight to DVD if they did not have the star wars name attached to them . D3 is not like a bargin bin dvd it is enjoyable . It might not have much replay value to some people but its pretty fun overall ....unlike the phantom menace which is equal to getting a kick in the nut sack .

However don't get me wrong this game was in development for over 10 years it should have been 5 times longer and had many more new features . It is far from a bad game IMO but any game with 10 years of dev time should not have been just average like D3

[Leonard McCoy]

Well unfortunately it's the only argument you are gonna get. You might have been reading a game manual trying understand the story for Diablo 2 back in the day, but I was reading stuff like Harry Potter, ect. that had an actual story. I played D2 for the hack and slash. Was there a story? Yes. Was it actually that good? Not really. At least I personally didn't think so. If I want a story based game I play a Bioware game. If I want to beat shit up or perhaps socialize I generally play an FPS game or a hack and slash.

You can get angry that people argue about the story but it's not gonna change anything. Everything video game/movie has a story, but it isn't necessarily good, and it doesn't have to be good. BF3 story was there just to give you some single player fun. Modern Warfare series was the same. Nobody played these games for the story. They played to shoot people online.

I'm not saying don't critique it, but don't use it as a main point as to why the game sucks.

Oh d3 has plenty of other reasons why it sucks but to give the developer a fucking free pass on a story which was clearly an afterthought on their part is entirely unacceptable imo. If the only argument you can give about d3 having a shitty story is that d was never about the story then that's not much of a defence. It begs the question what else is and was an afterthought in that game?

[Hoticehunter]

Poor ncsoft. D3 has done nothing but flop and the weight on their shoulders has just gotten bigger and bigger. Should be interesting times

I would disagree with D3 being a flop. Developers can only hope people will put 100 hours into their game, and yet, that's a lot of people less than a month into release. The OP was weird. You don't play a game for a hundred hours and then go, "well this game is sure is shit." D3's problem was that it got too hyped up and would never meet people's wildly extravagant expectations. D3 is a damn good game. Is it the best game ever? No, and people need to stop expecting the next big thing to be the greatest game to ever be released for all time.
But ya, since I have no interest in Guild Wars 2, it'll be fun watching that game flame out when it's finally released and people realize it's actually not the greatest game that will ever be released.

[Leonard McCoy]

D3 is a damn good game.

No it's not. It's an unworthy sequel and imo a really shocking change up from Blizzards usual quality releases. I wasn't expecting the best game ever, I was expecting to have fun and boy was I sorely disappointed. As a long time Blizzard game player and a long time diablo 2 player this game has been the biggest let down all year. The torchlight 2 beta was VASTLY more fun. D3 is a 6/10 game, maybe 7/10 tops. But yes keep telling yourselves otherwise, this forum should help you reinforce that belief as erroneous and mistaken as it is.

[mercutiouk]

Well, for awesome games incoming I'm going to call it now. Planetside 2 will be WoW to FPS games.

[Elim Garak]

I actually saw it again the next weekend, there were parts that were cool, but it just felt cold and boring and at all interesting or compelling.

You watched Phantom Menace on Nightmare difficulty only? You should've watched it on Inferno - this is there the movie shines!

[Bigtimmy]

You watched Phantom Menace on Nightmare difficulty only? You should've watched it on Inferno - this is there the movie shines!

Inferno difficulty = do a shot every time the story makes no sense, and every time characters deliver dialogue sitting on couches, or walk through a huge lifeless cgi scene at a flat angle.

[jvbastel]

Oh d3 has plenty of other reasons why it sucks but to give the developer a fucking free pass on a story which was clearly an afterthought on their part is entirely unacceptable imo. If the only argument you can give about d3 having a shitty story is that d was never about the story then that's not much of a defence. It begs the question what else is and was an afterthought in that game?

Hack and slash games don't revolve around the story at all. Actually D3 is quite decent story-wise, compared to other games in the genre. Sure, it's cheesy and predictable, but it's a hack and slash, it's about killing hordes of abominations above anything else.

And it shines at its combat. It's very satisfying, especially in a group.

I understand that bashing D3 is the cool thing to do at the moment, but this is just getting silly. It's a great game, and definitely a worthy successor to the series.

If you want bad storylines, play PoE or Torchlight, both still really good games.

[Horrid Crow]

No it's not.

Yes it is. See what I did there?
Don't force your stupid opinions on others. And yes it's my opinion that your opinion sucks donkey balls.

[Flappy]

There must always be... a Lord of Terror...

You mean

"There must always be...a Lord of Tear-roar..."

[lordcanyon]

I'm so tired of this arguement on so many levels. First of all I'm sorry Diablo does have a story, the first game was great I remember staying up nights as a kid to read the manual that came with the game and listen to the tomes you would fine. That was well written and engaging. Furthermore just because you don't think the game is "all about" story doesn't mean that others don't like story and it also doesn't mean the games actual story shouldn't be judged. Why the fuck does it get a free pass because you've deigned that people who play Diablo shouldn't be concerned with story?. If that is so then the developers shouldn't have included one. If they didn't want it in the game or think it was worth adding the developers shouldn't have included one. They did. It should be critiqued as an aspect of the game and doesn't get a free pass. It's shit. I did better work in high school creative writing and it really feels like they threw it together over the weekend and phoned it in.

have to disagree about diablo 1.
i hack and slashed my way from floor 1 to floor 100 of the only dungeon in the game, killing what ever that was at the end and i noticed not even a tiny bit of story or even direction.

[Frozen Death Knight]

It required you a ton of hours of gameplay to figure out something like that for yourself? I have no words to describe you, at the moment.

[Leonard McCoy]

Hack and slash games don't revolve around the story at all. Actually D3 is quite decent story-wise, compared to other games in the genre. Sure, it's cheesy and predictable, but it's a hack and slash, it's about killing hordes of abominations above anything else.

And it shines at its combat. It's very satisfying, especially in a group.

I understand that bashing D3 is the cool thing to do at the moment, but this is just getting silly. It's a great game, and definitely a worthy successor to the series
If you want bad storylines, play PoE or Torchlight, both still really good games.

I'm not bashing it because it's cool, I'm "bashing" it because its sucks. I know it's hip to call everything Blizzard does gold but it's just getting silly. It's definetly not a worthy successor to the series. I'm still excited for future games (HoTS especially) but D3 has been such a massive let down on every level (especially story wise) that I think I'll take a closer look at HoTS before hand. Saying the genre has shit story lines is also sadly not a defense. Blizzard should be better, it had the time and the money and the hype around it to do more. Saying that the genre has shit stories in general is no more of a defence than the above poster who said well you shouldn't expect anything better.

---------- Post added 2012-06-05 at 07:47 AM ----------

have to disagree about diablo 1.
i hack and slashed my way from floor 1 to floor 100 of the only dungeon in the game, killing what ever that was at the end and i noticed not even a tiny bit of story or even direction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWXozMHrxrM

The equivalent to the tomes in d3 suck and lack any of the charm or appeal that the tomes in d1 had.

[jvbastel]

I'm not bashing it because it's cool, I'm "bashing" it because its sucks. I know it's hip to call everything Blizzard does gold but it's just getting silly. It's definetly not a worthy successor to the series.[COLOR="red"]

I can assure you that a high percentage of posters on this forum that are bashing D3, haven't played it. Hell, there are posts in this very thread calling it an MMO.

Even if you don't like the game, and that's perfectly fine, the game doesn't suck. It's a solid game, I think it's great, and it's definitely better than D2 was at release.

Sure there's some issues, especially with Set/Unique itemization, but overall the game is VERY enjoyable for fans of the genre, and updates are quite fast.

[oplawlz]

Gotta say, this is a spot on comparison on several levels. Just like I went home from the phantom menace and threw in the original star wars vhs tapes to get the taste out of my mouth, friends and I are already playing D2 to remind ourselves what we were hoping for in D3.

[Leonard McCoy]

I can assure you that a high percentage of posters on this forum that are bashing D3, haven't played it. Hell, there are posts in this very thread calling it an MMO.

Even if you don't like the game, and that's perfectly fine, the game doesn't suck. It's a solid game, I think it's great, and it's definitely better than D2 was at release.

Sure there's some issues, especially with Set/Unique itemization, but overall the game is VERY enjoyable for fans of the genre, and updates are quite fast.

Your personal assurances are meaningless. The game is a 7/10 TOPS. Not up to Blizzards usual standard and not worthy of being called it's successor. It fails as an rpg and it fails as a story. The only thing it may succeed in is being a revenue stream and if they took long getting RMAH sorted out it may not even do that. My friends list was populated by people playing d3 at one point at release, it has dwindled to only 2 or 3 hardcores left. Everyone else went back to warcraft or starcraft, better games.

[Deleted]

I wasn't expecting loot to be handed to me and that I have to work for upgrades. (Seriously? I spent the better part of a year getting loot for my Zealadin on D2 and he was never perfect)

I guess you will be happy to hear that the loot in Diablo 3 is about 100 times as random as it was in Diablo 2 so you can now spent the better part of 100 years getting loot for your Monk or w/e you play and still not get perfect gear.

But on the other hand you will have RMAH soon and if you have enough RL money you can get perfect gear in a day.

This game is made arround the (RM)AH wether you like it or not.

[Magpai]

I wish all the people who make all these long-winded complaint posts about games they've played would just get blogs.

[Leonard McCoy]

Fair enough. I am not gonna convince you otherwise. But you are just a stranger on a forum and your opinion only matters to you and not to us.

Tough titties that you dislike the game. Time to move on I guess? Take it like a man. It has happened to us all before and always will. There i no gurantee in the world that you will love every game you buy to the end of your life.

Patronize much? Sorry. That's now how it works. You may not value my opinion but I'm still free to express it so long as I behave and act within the rules that the moderators see fit to enforce. I will continue to do so. You may think the game is rainbows lollipops and sunshine but some of us have reasoned critiques that merit expression.