A Diablo 3 Impression from a Long Time Blizzard Player

[Frozen Death Knight]

I think you think I'm arguing that Runic's members can claim some sort of exclusive title as fathers of Diablo. No, Blizzard has their fair share. I'm only suggesting that Torchlight isn't a ripoff, but a continuation.

You were explaining stuff I already know. I responded by clarifying my position and the situation.

I personally find the word rip-off meaningless. Pretty much anything could be a rip-off by the standards I adressed the games on. I, however, used the word since Hedleyazg used it to undermine Diablo. Only used his logic, nothing more.

[PizzaSHARK]

You were explaining stuff I already know. I responded by clarifying my position and the situation.

I personally find the word rip-off meaningless. Pretty much anything could be a rip-off by the standards I adressed the games on. I, however, used the word since Hedleyazg used it to undermine Diablo. Only used his logic, nothing more.

The only way I'd describe D3 as a ripoff of Torchlight is that both games have ridiculous bright, colorful, cartoony graphics.

[Window]

The whole Diablo 3 beta seemed a more child friendly version of previous games, the skeleton king and some of the mobs seemed like they were about to break out in this is halloween and try and save christmas
It seemed to be missing what made the games great the darker undertone i found it impossible to take serious with the humorous voice acting

I guess thats the nature of the beast with blizzard games of late

[Frozen Death Knight]

The only way I'd describe D3 as a ripoff of Torchlight is that both games have ridiculous bright, colorful, cartoony graphics.

The previous games may not be as colourful as Diablo 3, but the times it did become colourful it made the graphics not feel so bland. My first problem with Diablo 3 when it was announced was that the zones lacked some of that creepy atmosphere and gory imagery the previous two had. That, however, has changed. I am quite relieved they did not water down the colours, since that would have made the game look incredibly boring.

[Charge me Doctor]

They took all boring things from D2, refreshed video engine, added awesome lore, and people still bitch about a game. It is not Alien Shooter Demo, it is Beta test of Diablo3, you can't just play(i remember beta tests of some games where you had 50% of textures as pink-white squares, or just orange walls with name of texture on them, and huge amount of PHs) beta and say "omg short part of a game on easy dif. is boring, so all game must be boring, lets bitch about it on forums"

And again, people compare Hack&Slash game to RPG games. Some people just can't explore, they just faceroll through halls, kill the boss, get gear, kill next boss, finish game. And by the way, in D3 they added journals (which is awesome) so you can explore tombs to find something interesting about what is going on there.

And boss grinding is dead (as blizz mentioned somewhere), they want us to run around the world and find rare spawns (they have better drop).

And as someone mentioned cinematics, they get much, much better, movie with falling star is amazing, none of D2 movies can be compared to it!

[cateran100]

You two are obviously talking about two completely different things.

Yeah, you do farm bosses. Question is, when do you farm bosses? Sure as hell ain't on the first run through normal.
Later on, yes. First run through, no.
I don't know about you, but the first time I ran through Diablo 2, I didn't sit and farm Andariel 20 times for gear before turning to act 2 in normal.

The question is which thing is more "important"? To explore the game which is impossible thanks to the random map generator or get the bosses and moving forward in the game (in single player) or reach the most "easy to farm for loot" boss (in multiplayer)? Or how many people played with the D2 for the lore? (ohh ofc there was many of them, but we talking about the majority in a H&S game...For storyline I`m going to play traditional rpgs (however my personal opinion is the World of Diablo and the background -as far I know- is awesome)

[Deleted]

The whole Diablo 3 beta seemed a more child friendly version of previous games, the skeleton king and some of the mobs seemed like they were about to break out in this is halloween and try and save christmas

I love Diablo 3 so far, but I agree with this. Feels like they took the skeletons from Army of Darkness or something. It could definitely be more creepy.
And I hope you have to explore the act levels more like in Diablo 2 on release, because in the beta it's too much teleport here and there.
The more colorful graphics, imo, are nice. The problem isn't that. They can still make the game creepy, but they don't, which is a shame. Overall it's an improvement over D2. The health orbs, that you don't have to portal in and out in and out of town every fucking 5 seconds, combat got even more addictive, the really nice graphics. I miss the talent trees though and the dark atmosphere which wasn't simply because of the graphic style. Now a corrupted enemy is referring to the dark side as "brotherhood", there are laughing skeletons with high pitched voices, zombies don't look rotten and disgusting like in D2 but instead more kid friendly, there is no over the top bloody explosions, no tortured corpses and blood spray on the walls, not enough darkness, etc. In D1 and 2, the enemies seemed just much more evil and agressive (And the enemies in D3 are really slow). Some people were corrupted, yea, but they didn't just become redeemed after being beaten (Lame as fuck) or had cheesy lines delivered in a cheesy way (Skeleton king) and felt alot more dangerous in their attitudes and the way they mercilessly tried to beat you

[Frozen Death Knight]

I love Diablo 3 so far, but I agree with this. Feels like they took the skeletons from Army of Darkness or something. It could definitely be more creepy.
And I hope you have to explore the act levels more like in Diablo 2 on release, because in the beta it's too much teleport here and there.
The more colorful graphics, imo, are nice. The problem isn't that. They can still make the game creepy, but they don't, which is a shame. Overall it's an improvement over D2. The health orbs, that you don't have to portal in and out in and out of town every fucking 5 seconds, combat got even more addictive, the really nice graphics. I miss the talent trees though and the dark atmosphere which wasn't simply because of the graphic style. Now a corrupted enemy is referring to the dark side as "brotherhood", there are laughing skeletons with high pitched voices, zombies don't look rotten and disgusting like in D2 but instead more kid friendly, there is no over the top bloody explosions, no tortured corpses and blood spray on the walls, not enough darkness, etc. In D1 and 2, the enemies seemed just much more evil and agressive (And the enemies in D3 are really slow). Some people were corrupted, yea, but they didn't just become redeemed after being beaten (Lame as fuck) or had cheesy lines delivered in a cheesy way (Skeleton king) and felt alot more dangerous in their attitudes and the way they mercilessly tried to beat you

What exactly could be more over the top than enemies combusting when hitting them hard enough? Also, I was 9 when Diablo 2 came out and I along with many in my age group thought it looked badass. Now, when I look back at those enemies, I think they look a bit goofy because of the outdated graphics and animation. Can't really say the same regarding the units in Diablo 3. Does that not make Diablo 2 look more kid friendly, or what? It kind of does, to me.

[Morogoth]

I almost had a nerd attack when I heard the New Tristram song. Just like in D1.

Other than that, I liked the demo so I guess that the rest of the game can only be better. (I just hope that the beta was not something like 3/4 of Act1 , if yes, it's too short.)

[Frozen Death Knight]

I almost had a nerd attack when I heard the New Tristram song. Just like in D1.

Other than that, I liked the demo so I guess that the rest of the game can only be better. (I just hope that the beta was not something like 3/4 of Act1 , if yes, it's too short.)

I think they said that it's about 1/3 of act 1, or something like that.

[illegitimate]

You read three sentences of my post. Clearly you are qualified to tell me what I know and what I don't.
You're misconstruing my intentions. Take your bloviated attitude elsewhere.

Well, I do know for a fact that you don't know anything about this game apart from the few hours you tried it out for. We're getting well reasoned conservative estimates of a 200+ hour game to finish inferno on several toons. Judging a game in it's beta, roughly 1% of what the game has to offer, isn't a particularly smart thing to do.

[Deleted]

What exactly could be more over the top than enemies combusting when hitting them hard enough? Also, I was 9 when Diablo 2 came out and I along with many in my age group thought it looked badass. Now, when I look back at those enemies, I think they look a bit goofy because of the outdated graphics and animation. Can't really say the same regarding the units in Diablo 3. Does that not make Diablo 2 look more kid friendly, or what? It kind of does, to me.

It wasn't ridiculous because of the general creepy atmosphere of the game. They could make improvements to this and have like only powerful spells blow monsters to pieces and have melee attacks decapitate or something. I like the fat guys who explodes and sends out worms from his belly in D3 though

[Callace]

Gotta hand it to Blizzard. They're STILL making the most addicting games in the market. I think I've killed the Skeleton King on 3 different characters a total of about 15 times over this open beta.

I went back and ran it quite a few times myself. Strangely, I have the guitar feedback from the music when you kill Leoric stuck in my head.

---------- Post added 2012-04-23 at 06:23 PM ----------

Well, I do know for a fact that you don't know anything about this game apart from the few hours you tried it out for. We're getting well reasoned conservative estimates of a 200+ hour game to finish inferno on several toons. Judging a game in it's beta, roughly 1% of what the game has to offer, isn't a particularly smart thing to do.

If I fall in love with a game it happens almost right away, not after I beat it 30 times. I know what I feel. If you think the gameplay will feel like a different game in less than a month from now, you need to get real. The topic is how the game feels, not how obsessively compulsive it is after 200 hours.

[Ravenblade]

I love Diablo 3 so far, but I agree with this. Feels like they took the skeletons from Army of Darkness or something. It could definitely be more creepy.
And I hope you have to explore the act levels more like in Diablo 2 on release, because in the beta it's too much teleport here and there.
The more colorful graphics, imo, are nice. The problem isn't that. They can still make the game creepy, but they don't, which is a shame.

Creepy is not a distinctive term and many people I knew of being hardcore D1 fans said that D2 was "Diablo for kids". I usually take this kind of argument with a grain of salt especially if use of colour is positively noted.

Now a corrupted enemy is referring to the dark side as "brotherhood", there are laughing skeletons with high pitched voices, zombies don't look rotten and disgusting like in D2 but instead more kid friendly, there is no over the top bloody explosions, no tortured corpses and blood spray on the walls, not enough darkness, etc. In D1 and 2, the enemies seemed just much more evil and agressive (And the enemies in D3 are really slow). Some people were corrupted, yea, but they didn't just become redeemed after being beaten (Lame as fuck) or had cheesy lines delivered in a cheesy way (Skeleton king) and felt alot more dangerous in their attitudes and the way they mercilessly tried to beat you

You have played the tutorial part of the first act. I wouldn't go yet and flat out compare it with completed games of the past including their expansions and countless of corrective patches.

I also think you haven't looked close enough then, there were people nailed to the wall and on crosses with parts of the body missing (to use a less descriptive language) and blood spattered over the ground in the cathedral. Also the constant presence of bowls with blood and impaled (the Vlad Tepes way) victims on walls and in pits made me think it's even more detailed imagery than in previous parts there.

Also I recall D2 normal with the first overland area and its very slow lumbering zombies, the idea annoying ever-fleeing imps and their toothless shamans aside from Bishiboshi. You had a difficulty jump when encountering Coldcrow which reminded me of Tarnesh in Baldur's Gate 1, by level of difficulty spike I mean. If they learned from it and introduced progressive difficulty increase then it's the best lesson they have learned.

Which people are you referring to as being redeemed after being beaten? Jondar? I don't, I would not call a Coup de grace a redemption.

The skeleton king in D1 said: "The warmth of life has entered my tomb. Prepare yourself,mortal,to serve my master for eternity! Hahahaha!" Cheesy enough?
In my opinion there is only so much personality you can hand out to an undying sack of bones. In previous Diablo games skeletons were mostly mute enemies, now they are a bit more chatty and the embodiment of maniacal. Blizzard-maniacal.

[Frozen Death Knight]

It wasn't ridiculous because of the general creepy atmosphere of the game. They could make improvements to this and have like only powerful spells blow monsters to pieces and have melee attacks decapitate or something. I like the fat guys who explodes and sends out worms from his belly in D3 though

An atmosphere that is now lost in an age where 3D graphics make the environments of Diablo 2 look like boxes. In retrospect, a lot of the game is quite outdated, while Diablo 3 has stuck with the times and got us some interesting environments and unit designs.

As for your suggestion about blowing up monsters with spells and stuff, that is already in the game. It happens more often with the Barbarian, though; since that class is built around heavy hitting melee attacks.

[Dhrizzle]

I disagree. It came as a rude shock to me when my barbarian found a bow and was told he couldn't use it. Why the fuck not? Who gives a shit if I can't use Bash with a bow, why am I not allowed at least the option of using it? For that matter, why are my stats assigned automatically instead of being allowed to select them myself? Why even have stats if you're just going to automatically assign them? For window dressing?

Is it so hard to imagine that the reason your character can't use a bow is because...he can't use a bow? Maybe his fingers are too podgy for the teeny little arrows, or he can't shoot straight as he never learned because axes.

I remember reading dev commentary saying that Vitality was too strong in D2; that, after each character met the stat requirements for their chosen weapons and armor, they dumped everything into Vitality. Okay, fine, I understand that, and I agree that assessment is correct (for the vanilla game...)... so why don't you fucking balance the stats, then? Make Strength more important to dealing damage with melee weapons. Make Dexterity more important to using shields, daggers, and ranged weapons. Make Energy more important to dealing damage or making effective use of magical abilities. But don't fucking get rid of a mechanic that's been a core part of the Diablo experience for damned near twenty years.

Stats still exist in D3, each class has a primary that is most effective for their damage dealing but all stats will offer some sort of mitigation (Str increases armour, Dex increases dodge, Int increases magic resistance, Vit increases HP). Initially you'll be customising your stats through gear but as you start getting class-specific sets you'll be more reliant on gems. Personally I think tying this in to crafting / farming / the player economy fits D3 better than simply paying in to a gold-sink to get the exact stat you want or having to reroll if you made a mistake many levels ago and can't change it.

But what bothers me more is that with this "online only," bullshit they're using to try and curtail piracy, they're also effectively killing off the modding scene - something that's becoming increasingly common among publicly-traded companies these days, and which is generally a very bad idea. I still play Diablo II twelve years later because there are some great mods for it - mods that add new skills, change the stat system, make things easier or harder, change the item system... if you can think of it, it's been done at least once. It greatly extends the longevity of the game... for free.

Which is probably why the greedy damn investors calling the shots hate it, come to think of it.

[/QUOTE]

Are you kidding? Supporting mods is a cheap way of gaining positive press amongst PC gamers as well as - like you said - extends the longevity of the game... for free. What investor wouldn't like the idea of having their product made better for free?

There is no reason D3 couldn't support always-online and mods (which Blizz could probably profit on more easilly than the RMAH) but Blizz decided they didn't want the game to be that way.

[rhorle]

What exactly could be more over the top than enemies combusting when hitting them hard enough? Also, I was 9 when Diablo 2 came out and I along with many in my age group thought it looked badass. Now, when I look back at those enemies, I think they look a bit goofy because of the outdated graphics and animation. Can't really say the same regarding the units in Diablo 3. Does that not make Diablo 2 look more kid friendly, or what? It kind of does, to me.

Indeed. I don't know how anyone can say http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byy723gTSQQ is inferior to http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...6rtn_Vg#t=113s

D3 actually adds a lot more interaction between you and your skills and the effects they have on the monsters. Instead of the same death animations and the same red blood.

[Dhrizzle]

Indeed. I don't know how anyone can say http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byy723gTSQQ is inferior to http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...6rtn_Vg#t=113s

D3 actually adds a lot more interaction between you and your skills and the effects they have on the monsters. Instead of the same death animations and the same red blood.

With my Wizard I noticed anything killed with an arcane spell glowed purple for a while whilst enemies killed with my electrosplosion thing glowed purple. On my way up from 12 - 13 I was mostly AoE blasting my way through with Arcane Torrent (spraying it everywhere whilst giggling maniacally) and was amazed at the carnage - furniture and even gargoyles and fonts were shattered and the debris knocked around along with all the books, corpses and even individual candles (which stopped glowing when hit). It's so spectacular that I frequently found myself just annihilating everything in a room for the sheer hell of it - for which Blizz gave me xp!! (About 56xp for destroying 18 items in rapid succession, not to be sniffed at :-)

[rhorle]

With my Wizard I noticed anything killed with an arcane spell glowed purple for a while whilst enemies killed with my electrosplosion thing glowed purple. On my way up from 12 - 13 I was mostly AoE blasting my way through with Arcane Torrent (spraying it everywhere whilst giggling maniacally) and was amazed at the carnage - furniture and even gargoyles and fonts were shattered and the debris knocked around along with all the books, corpses and even individual candles (which stopped glowing when hit). It's so spectacular that I frequently found myself just annihilating everything in a room for the sheer hell of it - for which Blizz gave me xp!! (About 56xp for destroying 18 items in rapid succession, not to be sniffed at :-)

Yeah when I come across the rooms with bookshelves and desks in the Cathedral I always go in and smash everything to bits, even if there is no enemies in there. It can get pretty fun trying to chain those destruction bonuses together in order to get more XP. I think my highest was like 16 objects and 30 demons.

[alanm26]

Have you had the simple joy of smashing a skeleton and its shield spins on the ground like a top? Made me giggle the first time.