The one thing I need to know about Reaper of Souls.

[Malckeor]

Okay, so I'm aware that the game is a million times more fun to play now that they got rid of the Auction House and the HORRID old loot system with the Loot 2.0 update. The gameplay is pretty much in check for me now. There's only ONE thing I need to know for certain before I purchase the expansion...

...Is the story quality better? Act V was apparently written by someone else. Is there a NOTICEABLE improvement in writing and story quality like there was with Halo 4? Does the plot make sense? Diablo has such awesome lore (from what I've seen) and I'd really like a narrative that can capture a piece of that lore and portray it in a terrific way. Basically, I'm hoping for a Halo 4 situation with this new Act. Does it deliver?

[Fhi]

I don't have the expac... but I'm pretty sure you don't play Diablo games for the story.

[Mormolyce]

Diablo's not really story driven. D1 and D2 had very basic plots. It's fine for the kind of game it is.

I'll come back and tell you about the plot once I get a chance to actually play the game haha. Still have to pick up my box from the store.

[xskarma]

Euh, story is no better or worse then the first part of D3. To be honest I liked the narrative of the original better, since Malthael doesn't really get enough air time and build up (only 1 act, even if a long-ish one) and I personally liked Leah and her transformation plottwist better. What happens in RoS was more predictable I feel.

[mistahwilshire]

I don't know how you could consider any Halo writing including 4 to be even decent, but even at that 4 is the worst.

Anyway RoS and D3 in general aren't very story driven games. Basic predictable RPG dialogue to fill in some space to give your hacking and slashing some sort of fictional purpose. It's never been and likely will never be a focal point for the series or even genre really.

[Malckeor]

Diablo's not really story driven. D1 and D2 had very basic plots. It's fine for the kind of game it is.

I'll come back and tell you about the plot once I get a chance to actually play the game haha. Still have to pick up my box from the store.

Indeed. I felt Diablo 2's story was excellent, MUCH more excellent than what we got with the original four acts of D3. That's what I'm basing my "dungeon crawler plotline" standard on. I mean, the story of D3's first four acts was definitely intact, but it was so painfully predictable and the dialogue was very meh. I saw a guy in one of the threads saying that the dialogue was much better and that the cinematics actually ADVANCE the story rather than just being villain monologues or straight-up exposition, which sounds good, but I wanted to get others' opinions on it.

[Buu]

I don't have the expac... but I'm pretty sure you don't play Diablo games for the story.

Yup, there are people who play Diablo for the story. It's Gears of War no one play for the story.

[Delekii]

Okay, so I'm aware that the game is a million times more fun to play now that they got rid of the Auction House and the HORRID old loot system with the Loot 2.0 update. The gameplay is pretty much in check for me now. There's only ONE thing I need to know for certain before I purchase the expansion...

...Is the story quality better? Act V was apparently written by someone else. Is there a NOTICEABLE improvement in writing and story quality like there was with Halo 4? Does the plot make sense? Diablo has such awesome lore (from what I've seen) and I'd really like a narrative that can capture a piece of that lore and portray it in a terrific way. Basically, I'm hoping for a Halo 4 situation with this new Act. Does it deliver?

No. The story is a piece of shit, just like the rest of D3's story.

Thankfully, the play is quite a bit better than it was on release, speaking as someone who played for the first few months then not again till a couple of weeks ago. I still doubt it'll last in any large capacity, but it's better than it was.

[Malckeor]

I don't know how you could consider any Halo writing including 4 to be even decent, but even at that 4 is the worst.

Anyway RoS and D3 in general aren't very story driven games. Basic predictable RPG dialogue to fill in some space to give your hacking and slashing some sort of fictional purpose. It's never been and likely will never be a focal point for the series or even genre really.

To each his own. Halo is the deepest and most fantastic universe I've ever been a part of, and Halo 4 in particular was a billion steps ahead of Bungie's cheesy portrayal of the universe. Back in the Bungie days we had cheesy lines like "TO WAR...!"; now we have EPIC lines like "The others scatter like embers over sand. And yet, the Librarian's champion is unmoved."

Halo 4 finally did the universe justice. Thank goodness that 343 Industries aren't afraid to reference the book series in the games. The opening cinematic alone is one of the greatest things to come out of the series, and is certainly one of the best cinematics for anything I've EVER seen thanks to both the dialogue and the visuals.

And thank you for your opinion on RoS's story. I'll take it into account.

[Fencers]

Story is no better. However, it is totally subjective as to what qualifies as "better". If the qualifiers only exist in your imagination and not calculable by an objective standard of operation then the question/desire is rather pointless.

Seems like a misguided question in all honesty.

[Malckeor]

Story is no better. However, it is totally subjective as to what qualifies as "better". If the qualifiers only exist in your imagination and not calculable by an objective standard of operation then the question/desire is rather pointless.

Seems like a misguided question in all honesty.

Yeah...you're right. After reading a bit of what others have said, I think I'm going to pick up the expansion after I'm done with Burial At Sea Episode 2 and check it out for myself. I honestly have nothing to lose considering most of my friends are playing it right now.

Thank you all for your replies. I appreciate it.

[kail]

Malthael isn't anything special tbh, but at least he isn't embarrassing like Diablo, Belial, Azmodan. His spotlight is a bit meh, and I was a little disappointed at a certain boss that felt rushed.

It takes far more than one Act to redeem D3's silly story, Act V I'll rate as "OK".

[Fencers]

Hope you enjoy yourself despite the story quality. And who knows? Maybe you will like the story!

[Jakexe]

Diablo 3 story is trash, predictable and cliche but it's enough of a vehicle to drive the game forward. RoS on the other hand has a much better story imo but it isn't fleshed out very well and comes to a disappointing conclusion but the story aspect that leads onto the next game/xpac is terrific and I fully expect it to be ruined come game time.

[Frozen Death Knight]

Indeed. I felt Diablo 2's story was excellent, MUCH more excellent than what we got with the original four acts of D3. That's what I'm basing my "dungeon crawler plotline" standard on. I mean, the story of D3's first four acts was definitely intact, but it was so painfully predictable and the dialogue was very meh. I saw a guy in one of the threads saying that the dialogue was much better and that the cinematics actually ADVANCE the story rather than just being villain monologues or straight-up exposition, which sounds good, but I wanted to get others' opinions on it.

I suppose that would be me, then.

Well, I still stand by that the story was more enjoyable than Vanilla D3's. While it is not "the best story evah!", it does serve a point of furthering the story without needing to be giant exposition dumps that your character just needs to check off on his or her to-do list while going from point A to point B. If you just run through the Act without reading all the conversations and lore books along the way the story will feel very bare bones, but that's why it also works better than in Vanilla D3 that just dumped all the exposition on you while completely forgetting how to write characters that the player would actually care about. If you want the full story, you go out and find it, and you may be satisfied with what you find out as well as care for some of the characters.

---

P.S. I also disagree with Fencers' comment about the quality of a story being completely subjective (that is just utter nonsense if you ask me). There is always an objective stance to take in regards to storytelling when discussing things like pacing, structure, character arcs, premise, setting, climax, resolution, etc., etc.

Film makers, authors, and people from various other fields deploy story telling techniques to make their stories work better and to say that it is a completely subjective matter is like saying that you can just throw paint at a wall and expect the Mona Lisa to eventually pop up on its own (not saying that RoS's story is the Mona Lisa, though). It doesn't mean that you have to enjoy RoS's story or that you can't be subjective, but if someone is going to argue that the quality of a story is completely subjective then that person has completely shot him-/herself in the foot if then arguing as well that the story is of a certain quality (saying that RoS's story = Vanilla's story is judging the quality of both stories). No one is able to make that kind of judgement with such a stance when you have nothing objective to base your argument off to begin with.

[MoanaLisa]

Story is standard stuff. Atmosphere and art is very good, music is great and first time through (not finished yet), production values are through the roof. All of that combined is working for me. Honestly, if the story was that bad I wouldn't be finding it difficult to leave the game. There are some interesting side plots involving a revolution against the king among other things. It might be the side stuff is better than the main plot line which in these things is kill bad stuff until you get to the worst bad stuff, kill that and start over. One thing I've read more than once is that the boss dialogue is not quite so cheesy this time around. All very subjective and I'm not to the end yet.

[BenBos]

Do not play a dungeon hack/slash for its story. Ever.

BUT...

They did delete the need to wade through the story endlessly now !

After completing the full story ONCE, you can go in adventure mode. No more stories and challenging game play with awards in a free to roam world.

That will help big time.

[Karon]

Okay, so I'm aware that the game is a million times more fun to play now that they got rid of the Auction House and the HORRID old loot system with the Loot 2.0 update. The gameplay is pretty much in check for me now. There's only ONE thing I need to know for certain before I purchase the expansion...

...Is the story quality better? Act V was apparently written by someone else. Is there a NOTICEABLE improvement in writing and story quality like there was with Halo 4? Does the plot make sense? Diablo has such awesome lore (from what I've seen) and I'd really like a narrative that can capture a piece of that lore and portray it in a terrific way. Basically, I'm hoping for a Halo 4 situation with this new Act. Does it deliver?

I wanted to reply, but then I saw that you think that Halo 4 has an improved Story.

kk dream on, lol

Post constructively

[Malckeor]

I wanted to reply, but then I saw that you think that Halo 4 has an improved Story.

kk dream on, lol

I'm assuming people who feel the way you do about Halo 4 are the same people who thought Bioshock Infinite's ending was bad, in that you didn't pay enough attention to the dialogue and themes throughout the narrative and likely didn't bother watching the terminal cutscenes after you finished the campaign, even though the campaign pretty much told you everything you needed to know and was epic enough on its own. You also probably didn't give attention to the side-story in Halo 3's terminals where the new lore developments in the books and the events of the new game were flawlessly foreshadowed more than five years in advance.

TL;DR My opinions are my opinions. Halo 4 told one of the most consistent and best stories in the gaming industry and I consider it to be both one of the greatest games and narratives of all time because of this. I don't have to dream for what's already reality.

Anyway, I think this thread is finished. Thanks again for the replies, everyone. Really appreciate it.

[Deleted]

I bet most people who say the story sucks will just spam space through any and all story they can.
If you do that then you have no right claiming the story sucks.

That would be like reading the first page of the book and then reading every 50 pages to the end and
then claim the books story sucked.