Diablo 3 - The Phantom Menace

[Daverid]

Soon Guild Wars will be labelled the Saviour....

Guild Wars already has been labelled the Saviour. Like 90% of other MMO's it'll be good and 'Stand Alone' well enough in it's own right but in no way will it ever kill WoW.

More OT however I personally feel a similar way. The Story (Alot More-so after Act 1) was uneventful, disappointing and cliche/predictable. Only VO's I enjoyed was Leah and Deckard. Dungeon Crawling became hopelessly boring and I'm not a Stat/Gear Obsessed person in any game so that whole aspect was completely lame (In alot of SP RPG's I'll actually take gear that LOOKS better visually then better stats). I play my games in Easy/Normal and have no desire to move into more difficult modes, More interested in the story then the challenge.

So basically in my opinion I generally agree with the OP... Extremely Hyped, mixed feelings initially, then you realise it's complete rubbish. True for Phantom Menace and true for D3 (IMO OFC). However I only did 1 playthrough, maybe 10-12 hours of gameplay instead of getting to 100 and then realising it was crap :S Got for free with AP so whatever >.>

[Deleted]

This is very similiar to how I felt to Diablo 3, for the first few days after release I actually liked it, my first play through of normal I thought it might just live up to the hype. The more you play the worse it gets because you begin running into the game's numerous flaws staring you in the face like a hungry, rabid dog.

Actually I do have over 100+ hours played, have a guy half way through inferno. This is the type of game you have to play a long time to judge fairly.

So... assuming half of that time was fun, you had 50 fun hours before the game got bad for you... I'm not too sure what the problem is here.

I too am frustrated by the infenro grind at times but looking at it objectively I've already gotten more genuinely fun hours of gameplay out of this than I have out of plenty of other games with the same price tag so complaining that it's a bad game comes off as a little hollow. As great as you expected it to be after the hype? No. Perfect? No. Can't convince me its not at least good though.

[OneTripleZero]

I have to hand it to Blizzard that at least there is no "The Dutchman must have a captain" moment in Diablo 3. However the expansion hasn't come out yet, so I may have spoke too soon.

Except for the limpwristed final exchange between your hero and Tyrael, you mean?

Hero: "Do not be so sure. True evil never dies."
Tyrael: "Time will tell."
Cut to credits.

The storytelling in the game is so unbelievably hamfisted it's laughable. Maghda was the absolute worst moustache-twisting, plot-revealing villain I've had to suffer through in recent memory.

[DemoBytom]

I liked Phantom Menace :/
The Qui Gon + Obi Wan vs Maul is still my favorite duel in all movies.. I'm not the bigges fan of Jar Jar, but I still like the movie (and enjoy it even today). It's not the best movie I've seen by far, but it's more than good for me.

And I like D3 as well.. Not going to hop on hate bandwagon just because hating on this game becomes new trend :/ D3 is exactly what I was expecting from diablo game - pretty mindless hack and slash where anything that happens is just a reason to slay even more bad demons.. That's what I enjoyed in D2 and what I was expecting D3 to be like..
It has it's flaws, it's not perfect. There are things that annoy me and things I simply disagree with - but still D3 is a really good and solid game. Again not the best I've ever played in any category. But enjoyable enough to keep me occupied nearly each evening.


I think people should first - put down the rose colored glasses of nostalgia. And second - lower down expectations. Even Blizzard said that people expect too much from D3. Yeah it's Diablo franchaise - but still it's just a game, not some god knows how important legacy.... >.>'

---------- Post added 2012-06-01 at 09:48 AM ----------

The storytelling in the game is so unbelievably hamfisted it's laughable.

Anyone that really plays Diablo for story does it wrong IMHO.. Diablo never had really good story, except D2 vanilla cinematics which IMHO had better story than whole game.. What's more it's Blizzard - they never write good stories, that's just not their business. You want good story - you play for ex. Bioware games. You want games that are polished to diamond level - you play Blizzard games.

Seriously none of their games had particularly good story.. StarCraft + Brood War was OK (though very cheesy at some points).. Warcraft 3 + TFT was a total ripoff from SC to a point where even campaigns were pretty much lined up the same..
terran->zerg->protoss -BW->protoss->terran->zerg - bad/evil side wins..
in W3 ->humans (they are similar to terrans)->undead (zerg)->night elves(protoss - the ancient enemy of the evil force (demons and udead)) than if TFT it's Night Elves -> Alliance -> Undead - bad/evil side wins.
Last mission of SC was about an alliance of Terran and Protoss fighting zerg together.
Last mission of W3 was about an alliance between Humans, Orcs and Night Elves to fight Undead.
I could count more..
Diablo 2 story was so simple that it hurts when you tried to really experience it.
WoW never had strong story in the game either..

Blizzard isn't good at writing stories - people should learn it already..

[Valkari]

You know, although I don't agree with your original post, I have to laugh because I had the exact same thoughts about Diablo himself. :P

"You'll never destroy this final portal!!!"
"Dude, I just killed the thing protecting it, there are no other enemies here to stop me."
"Yes, there are! I don't care! Shut up, I'm still winning!"

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking there. He's all threatening you and saying the occulus will kill you or something, as you just walk over and beat it up... Thinking he had some secret second defense, they were just on lunch break XD

[CursedEmbrace]

You know, I'm not exactly sure whether I'm in the majority or minority here but I liked the prequels, having already seen 4, 5 and 6 long before that.

I had problems with them (like Jarjar and such), like anything, but on the whole I liked what they added.

But yeah, really liking Diablo 3 as well, for all the complaints I've seen about the story and the voice acting I thought they were all really good, with few exceptions.

[Ravenblade]

The OP makes a valid point but the Diablo fanbois just wont hear it,Diablo III is not even close to what is was hyped up to be and everyday you see people by the boatloads logging back into WoW business as usual,It's ok if you cant admit your long awaited game isnt what you wanted,we understand that it will take you time to finally admit it to yourself let alone your WoW friends.The majority of the ones playing D3 are pretty much cattle following the herd because thats what the rest of the "group" was doing.

Correct me if I understood the message right: People logging in to play D3 are cattle, people logging in to play WoW are ... ?

So carry on hardcore D3 fans i salute you for you will be the last and only ones playing a game that even you yourself question yourself daily why you even play it.It would be great if WoW actually did have some competition to push the devs even harder to keep the player base from dropping,but like we have seen year after year nothing can touch WoW and never will.

MoP says hi and looks forward to seeing you soon and hey look on the brightside all you annual pass owners...you got a really cool mount out of the deal!

World of Warcraft,Destroyer of MMO's since '04.

You were expecting two game products of different genres competing with eachother despite being produced by the same company?

Is it possible that people can play WoW *and* another game?

[WillFeral]

Correct me if I understood the message right: People logging in to play D3 are cattle, people logging in to play WoW are ... ?



You were expecting two game products of different genres competing with eachother despite being produced by the same company?

Is it possible that people can play WoW *and* another game?

As usual you completely missed the point,I'll give you a couple days and check back with ya and see if you have come to a understanding of what this thread is about.

[Ravenblade]

As usual you completely missed the point,I'll give you a couple days and check back with ya and see if you have come to a understanding of what this thread is about.

It wasn't me who talked about MMOs in a D3 thread. So who was missing the point? And we haven't met yet so don't get all personal please.

[DeltrusDisc]

I quit WoW last year as one of the grand 800k and didn't really care about Diablo 3 until maybe 2 weeks before it was dropped on us. I also never played Diablo or Diablo 2.

Put it simple, I'm 90% pleased with the game.

I would NOT compare it to the Phantom Menace.

[zephurwitch]

I got bored of seeing the same shit over and over again. "The game has a lot of replay value" Yeah maybe for 2-3 times. WoW is still better than Diablo 3, WoW just has many more paths you can take to max level, Diablo has the same layout every single time.

WoW and D3 are 2 completely different genres of games...not to mention, they aren't competing...seeing as (and this is the important part) they are the same company...

[Shiny212]

Well...star wars has always been full of plot holes, clichès and silliness. It's not like they were all good, even the old ones. The ones Lucas decided to direct himself were much weaker than the ones he used outside directors for; incidentally he did all the new ones himself.

[Lathais]

So it is somehow the game makers fault, or the movie makers fault, that you wear rose colored glasses, or over-hype yourself, or expect something to be something that it isn't.

Personally, I kinda agree on the Phantom Menace thing, they are nowhere near as good as the originals, for those of us that grew up on them. For my half sister, who had never even seen the originals, she loved the new ones. Going back and watching the Originals, she did not like them.

Same thing is happening with Diablo. The game is made for a different generation and an gamer who evolves and does not just dewll on past games being so great, when they actually were not, we just only remember the good parts about it.

If you go into something expecting it to be something else that was already done, you will be disappointed when it is something new.

[slikvik]

I always think criticisms like this are unfair. Eg, let's take the OPs criticism of Star Wars 1.

The first 3 films (Episodes 4,5,6) are almost EXACTLY the same style wise. They are written in the form of a 1950s B-Movie matinee with cheesy dialogue, basic plotlines and whatnot. The two films directed by George were absolute toss, and its only when Irwin Winkler helmed the second as a favour that they achieved some form of critical success. They still, however, had a bland, insipid script, one-dimensional characters, moments of danger/love etc, everything you would expect from a 1950s Flash Gordon era style matinee film. The same was with the Indiana Jones films, however, because people are so in love with both series due to them being intrinsically linked to childhood, they have become sacred cows, and are untouchable. However, seriously watch them again, and analyse the script, usage of screen wipes to cut from scene to scene, and you will actually see how terribad the first and second film actually are (ignore Empire, its actually good, but different director). However, they were right place, right time, never been seen before films that captured the imagination. But critically? They were shit.
Then people expected something different from the newer releases? They were basically a carbon copy formula. If you watch them in the SAME manner of expectation of the first 3, that of a Sunday Morning B-Movie matinee type film, they are actually very enjoyable. However, it was purely fanbase expectation that made them seem less than they were.

Now lets take the Diablo games. First one and second one were arguably "right place right time" games. If you play them now (especially the first one), and actually analyse them with the same critical eye of games we play now, they are actually pretty weak. Poor UIs, bad sound, poor gfx and whatnot. However, people garner a huge amount of enjoyment from them, so they remain oblivious (myself included) to their faults, and woe betide you if you attempt to criticise them, as like the Star Wars films, they are sacred cows and can do no wrong.
Then Diablo 3 comes out, does EXACTLY what its predecessors did game wise, and people are shocked? Its the same with the Star Wars films, but the issue isn't with the film/game itself (errors and silly online thing aside) but the playerbase expecting something vastly different as they had expecations of the same fulfillment they got with the second and first game.

TLDR version - Its player fault for expecting something different from a genre that isn't intended to be different.

Fucking Exactly, he has it spot on.

[kumduh]

The Qui Gon + Obi Wan vs Maul is still my favorite duel in all movies..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0mUVY9fLlw

I agree the story could have used some work. Belial the Lord of Lies is worse at lying than the Templar trying to say he isn't interested in the Enchantress, and Azmodan the master tactician of Hell gives away all his moves. LOOK OUT I'M COMING FROM ARREAT CRATER! I SNUCK IN YO KEEP, DON'T SEND ANY TROOPS TO THE BASEMENT FOR LIKE 5 HOURS KTHANKS!

Encounter Magda: She teleports away
Encounter Magda: She teleports away
Encounter Magda: She teleports away
Encounter Magda at her house: Cannot teleport away <- Is she restricted to a hearthstone or something???

[Raleina]

Who/what is the Jar Jar Binks of Diablo 3?

Error 37.....

[Leonard McCoy]

TLDR version - Its player fault for expecting something different from a genre that isn't intended to be different.

I expected to have as much fun as I did in diablo 2 farming gear. I don't think that's unreasonable. It is the phantom menace on every level I'm afraid.

[Korru]

Error 37.....

I was about to say Covetous Shen but that was a much better answer haha

[PhilCosby]

I expected to have as much fun as I did in diablo 2 farming gear. I don't think that's unreasonable. It is the phantom menace on every level I'm afraid.

It's cool I'm sure they'll nerf Inferno soon. To satiate the masses.

[Doggyballs]

"It was after my couple viewings of Episode 1" - so after typing 5 paragraphs saying how shit this movie was you viewed it more than once when it was released.

I watched Avatar 4 times and I think it's pretty bad. Wanna dis me mr. fanboi?
OP was clear, nice and un-biased. Or do you think that you see a film once/play a game once and that gives you enough to justify if it's bad or not? That's not always the case. I was hardcore D2 player, been a massive D3 fanboi and after clocking 80ish hours on D3, I'm dissapointed and sad. It's not what I thought it would be. But it's like what WillFeral said. Hardcore D3 fanbois won't hear a bad word against it.

In the past 2 weeks, I saw 14 friends on my list go from 100% Diablo to only 6 on Diablo. People are starting to realise it's not the game worthy of it's title. It didn't take 10 years to make this game, it's clearly been rushed in the past year or so. No doubt about that lol

To OP, you made perfect sense. A great comparison and I applaud you.