Acts get shorter and shorter

[XingoJenkins]

Hello everyone,

I'm still in nightmare, playing at my own pace and yesterday I thought something. After finishing Normal mode, I noticed that most of my playtime were in acts I and II.

Is it just me or acts III and IV feel like "rushed" by Blizzard? Could it be longer and have more story like Acts I and II?

[Hodenkrieg]

I don't know about 3, it seemed ok to me, but I think act IV was intentionally "rushed", but its to convey an emotion. Diablo is in the process of destroying high heaven, and in turn, everything that exists. The archangel of hope has been taken and is powerless, pretty much every living thing in the world has given up hope of survival. The outlook is pretty grim (even if you didn't think so its what they are trying to make you feel) and being all "doo-dee-doo frollicking through side quests while the world is crashing down around me" would have been kind of dumb.

It sucks, but really extending it out to forever would have been kind of weird. someone will probably disagree with me and talk about "shortcuts" and "time constraints" but everyone gets their own opinion, so weh.

[StephanieMcK]

Act III was about as long as the other acts in my experience so that is fine. Act IV was quicker but I wouldn't call it rushed, it still had all the story elements it needed and conveyed what it needed to before you reached Diablo.

[Defaulty]

I don't know about 3, it seemed ok to me, but I think act IV was intentionally "rushed", but its to convey an emotion. Diablo is in the process of destroying high heaven, and in turn, everything that exists. The archangel of hope has been taken and is powerless, pretty much every living thing in the world has given up hope of survival. The outlook is pretty grim (even if you didn't think so its what they are trying to make you feel) and being all "doo-dee-doo frollicking through side quests while the world is crashing down around me" would have been kind of dumb.

It sucks, but really extending it out to forever would have been kind of weird. someone will probably disagree with me and talk about "shortcuts" and "time constraints" but everyone gets their own opinion, so weh.

I agree with this with some thoughts :P

If Act IV would have been extended it would have been practically beating a dead horse of just extending the game by mobs and mo' mobs. You were making a mad dash to the top of the spire to catch Diablo before it was to late; how cliche. Anyhow, you face many mobs still of higher difficulty (to those who herp when they derp). It would have been nice if there were more extensive mechanics to the mobs rather than destroying (2) Hell rifts.

So challenging. /sarcasm

Overall the whole game (opinion) is a wreck of just massive amount of hack n' slash by one of the most successful Game Developers to exist. God of War (only played first one) was far more challenging than Diablo (in comparison) and still had the same element as Diablo 3. But whom am I to judge how the game should have been developed, I just started playing Diablo. Sadly I was more into Command and Conquer during the time of Diablo 1/2.

[StationaryHawk]

I felt that act III was just fine, but act IV was obviously short. Not "rushed", but just shorter. The situation was much more dire, the entire act a race to stop Diablo.

[Deleted]

imo act 2 was quite boring and long, three and one pereftcly sized and 4 obviously smaller but just as much enjoyable

[Gorehowl]

Hello everyone,

I'm still in nightmare

this is why acts are still short for you. inferno, acts take forever to complete.

[Nalnik]

Act 3 might have been a little shorter, but it felt fine to me. most people I know skipped the barracks, which is decently long.

I have to agree with Hodenkrieg, Act 4 makes sense to convey a sort of haste. You get there and Diablo's getting pretty damned close to destroying the High Heavens. He has a head start on you, so going slowly would mean the end of the world. Run faster!

[Archangel Tyrael]

imo act 2 was quite boring and long, three and one pereftcly sized and 4 obviously smaller but just as much enjoyable

exactly what I thought.

[Deleted]

I really dislike Act II. the Blood and Sands quest when you're helping Kulle is just long and tedious.

[Fenixdown]

Personally I thought Acts 2 and 3 were too long. I can understand some of Act 1 being lengthy because in normal some of it is tutorial. For a hack and slash there felt like there was less hacking and slashing in some areas of 2 and 3 than in 4, where it's just wave after wave after wave of mobs.

[Ovacor]

I loved Act 1, it did the whole "dark and gloomy" feel perfectly. I really enjoyed going back and seeing previous characters pop up. Even simple things such as finding Maieve's (spelling?) journal put a smile on my face.

I enjoyed Act 2 about as much as I enjoyed Act 2 in Diablo 2. I enjoy the desert environment; however, I grew extremely tired of it after a while. Though I suspect it is the desert, it is not meant to be enjoyable. The gathering of the body parts kind of sucked (reminded me of putting together the staff in the previous game). Though all-in-all it was not terrible.

Act 3 is the act in which I enjoyed the most, the story was fantastic and I enjoyed the difficult champions that I encountered. I literally spent hours getting through the castle. I still think they could have made the final fight more difficult and a bit more enjoyable, though, the bosses are not really meant to be difficult so that is meh.

Act 4 is meant to have a rushing feel to it. Without giving any spoilers, you are kind of try to beat you know who to the top to prevent him from destroying the "you know what"; therefore, if they would have had a side quests of "lets go form this stranger's sword so he can remember who he is" type of deal it would have been VERY silly.

I believe that Diablo 3 is what you make of it, if you believe it is too short or rushed you are likely just disappointed. I am currently in Act2 Inferno on my Barbarian (-_-) and I am enjoying it contrary to getting my face pushed in by champions.

[Deleted]

There was actually a blue post on this before release, saying that the acts did get progressively shorter and this was to keep the player feeling like the pace was moving faster and faster through the storyline to a final climax.

Heaven is being destroyed and the world is falling apart with both angels and humanity on the brink of destruction, it kinda makes sense that you're rushing to kill Diablo at that point.

[Mandible]

Think you will see in most games, that by the end of it, it will feel somewhat rushed in the story departement. That they either fell short of contents for that bit / told too much to begin with or they started using more time on other things.

Another example could be all those traps you can use during chapter 1 and some in chapter 2 they suddenly vanish in chapter 3 and 4 to be replaced by the ones you have to avoid completely (I assume those have the same effect at least). Also quite alot less destructible items in the later chapters compared to the start.

Ofc on (yet) another note you could also make the assumption that D3 in areas is a recap of D2 when you revisit almost all the same places - making the (hopefully wrong) conclusion that D3 is just a setup for the auction house /tinfoilhat.

[Socialhealer]

also in diablo 2 act 4 was the shortest act.

[iceberg265]

Funny, Act 4 was by far the shortest in D2 also.

EDIT: someone beat me to it...

[Deleted]

I think act IV was intentionally "rushed", but its to convey an emotion. Diablo is in the process of destroying high heaven, and in turn, everything that exists. The archangel of hope has been taken and is powerless, pretty much every living thing in the world has given up hope of survival. The outlook is pretty grim (even if you didn't think so its what they are trying to make you feel) and being all "doo-dee-doo frollicking through side quests while the world is crashing down around me" would have been kind of dumb.
It sucks, but really extending it out to forever would have been kind of weird. someone will probably disagree with me and talk about "shortcuts" and "time constraints" but everyone gets their own opinion, so weh.

Yeah that's very much possible.
The only thing that really bothered me with Act 4 is the rather lackluster (in my opinion) intro cinematic.
I mean come on it's an invasion and you only see 2 characters? Doesn't really feel epic to me.

OT the total playtime is actually decent (roughly 25 hours to complete normal, taking my time) so it's fine by me.

[Ghul]

wasnt act4 in d2 also way shorter than the previous 3? wheres the problem here?

diablo is rushing to destroy the high heavens and you are basically chasing him down and at the same time bringing hope back to peoples minds. i really cant think of anything that could prolong the process in a reasonable fashion.. making us close even more gates to hell would get repetitive and annoying soon, even more if you have bad luck with finding them.

---------- Post added 2012-05-26 at 12:45 AM ----------

Yeah that's very much possible.
The only thing that really bothered me with Act 4 is the rather lackluster (in my opinion) intro cinematic.
I mean come on it's an invasion and you only see 2 characters? Doesn't really feel epic to me.

OT the total playtime is actually decent (roughly 25 hours to complete normal, taking my time) so it's fine by me.

yeah no really ver un-epic... i mean diablo fighting the leader of the angel army.. how boring can it get huh? Oo

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I just slayed Diablo and although it was challenging(for me). The victory was just so epic to me. I'm sure a lot of others will not feel the same but I felt very satisfied after defeating Diablo. I will continue to progress my character but nevertheless I am pleased with everything that came to pass. It was sad for Leah to die, I kind of liked her aside from the whole "just stories." As for Adria, I would figure we would face her at Heaven but we didn't.


I suppose some loose ends will be fixed in either a patch(Not likely) or an expansion which will be nice. Personally I would say the ultimate enemy is fighting all of the Evils in one stage would be awesome. Like say for example Act V would be bosses only. All the Prime Evil's you would have to fight.


I enjoyed it very much.

[Deleted]

12 years was obviously not enough time ...