Could Blizzard Rectify the Story?

[Beazy]

Akara: "Our mental discipline is matched only by our skill in archery... I only hope these are enough to withstand this awful trial."

Tyreal, Izual: "Tyreal was a fool to have trusted me! You see, it was I who told Diablo and his brothers about the soulstones, and how to corrupt them. It was I who helped the Prime Evils mastermind their own exile to your world. The plan we set in motion so long ago cannot be stopped by any mortal agency. Hell, itself, is poised to spill forth into your world like a tidal wave of blood and nightmares. You and all your kind... are doomed."

I dunno. I read the second quote in my head, using the voice of Skeletor instinctively.

OMFG ME TOO! I thought I was the only one! I love Skeletor. Best bad guy evar!

[ro9ue]

To be honest. I didn't know a damn thing about the 'story' in D2 and didn't care. I had a blast playing that game. Unfortunately, D3 didn't have the same effect.

[Durandro]

Because, if you take out the terrible script, the story wasn't actually half bad.

Gunna agree with this, for sure. The bare bones of the story was fine, it was the details and execution that was screwed. Not to mention there was a definite vibe that they were trying to emulate Diablo 2's locations, Act 1 and 2 are shockingly similar in D2 and D3.

Voice acting was such a mixed bag. For every good performance (Male Barbarian, Cain) there was an utterly horrible one (Leah). It was very jarring, especially considering how much Leah talks.

The plot twists were so painfully obvious that I was predicting things correctly time and time again. There wasn't a single suprise in the entire story, other then how cheap Cain's death was (yeah, great, have the heroes just stand there and let him die, no explaination given).

I think the main problem was they tried to add more story then was required. Diablo 2 was simple, and it worked. Diablo 3 added Leah, who was trying to add a human side to the conflict and help new people catch up... by being a complete idiot who never shut up.

...anyway.

As for fixing it, they just need to minimise the story. Bad guy shows up, kills stuff, heroes go and kick ass. The end.

At least Leah is gone, she can't ruin it any more.

[Baracuda]

I think a good story has a lot of plot twist and is hard to predict. Kind of like both Batman TD and Batman TDR. The only thing you knew for sure in those films was that the bad guys would lose AND it wasn't totally obvious who was the bad guy, kinda like in MoP.

Maybe not having some bosses be killed off right away could've been a good plot twist in Diablo, letting them win for a while etc, like Charon the ferryman beats you the first time in God of War. Not like Magda or what that lame boring stupid looking boss' name was in D3.

[BowieFunes]

I love the story and i think it's pretty good. I want to know more about the characters, i want to know the fate of Leah's soul, Adria, and how is Tyrael doing up there.

Your point is invalidated, sorry.

[Repefe]

I love the story and i think it's pretty good. I want to know more about the characters, i want to know the fate of Leah's soul, Adria, and how is Tyrael doing up there.

Your point is invalidated, sorry.

I don't think you understand how arguments work.

[BowieFunes]

I don't think you understand how arguments work.

My mistake, you're right: he said that the story is bad without arguments, just implying that needs fixing when it's clearly only "broken" to a fraction of the playerbase.

The OP just states as a fact that the story of D3 is bad, he even says that we have to "face it", like if that's the absolute truth. It seems that there's something wrong with me because i like it, i don't know.

[Repefe]

My mistake, you're right: he said that the story is bad without arguments, just implying that needs fixing when it's clearly only "broken" to a fraction of the playerbase.

The OP just states as a fact that the story of D3 is bad, he even says that we have to "face it", like if that's the absolute truth. It seems that there's something wrong with me because i like it, i don't know.

No, actually what he said (if you read his post) was that the script is horrible, not the story. Well at least the premise is not bad. And if you really don't see it this is not a thread for you. I stated the same thing ever since I played through the game. High production cgi, pretty graphics in game, but script is written by some unpaid high school intern. There are bits and pieces that are good, but then it gets mixed with such a nonsense both in the cinematics and in the game itself.

Feels as if somebody got fired after he got half way throught act 2. The whole act 3 how the boss reacts to you slaughtering his every champion, how Adriana gets away without any closure, just blop, how beyond stupid Imperius and Tyrael act, Imperius is supposed to be this big archangel of valor and all he does is talk, does not do anything the whole game, just talks and gets stabbed ... the scene when Ty "decides" that he will be wisdom is one of the most wtf moments I have seen, the guy is stupid, not a problem when you are justice, but wisdom ?

[dokilar]

Playing Diablo for the story is like watching porn for the plot.

ive watched some porn vids that actually had fairly decent plot points, unlike anything that was present in d3

yea thats right, i went there

[Deleted]

Actually rethinking this, the companiens and the books you find around are pretty good stories. Especially the thief had a rather interesting story, would like them to elaborate that. The books where good for backstory and some good sidelore. The logs about monsters was some nice extra

Something D1 and D2 never really had

[dokilar]

What story? None of the games had a decent story . . . .. The first one had a laughable story, the 2nd one had about 10 paragraphs of story and now all the sudden people think the story sucks hard in the 3rd installment?! LoL the story sucked before blizzard even had control of the diablo franchise. LuLz As a matter of FACT blizzard has never given a video game a good story. . . . (aside from SNES Justice League fighting game from the late 90s, which was EPICCCCCC). I never even noticed it. I just like to watch their epic CGI sequences, because they look so damn awesome.

i think the warcraft rts's have had a pretty good story and i thought the Wings of Liberty campaign could probably make an argument for one of their best games

---------- Post added 2013-06-08 at 07:52 PM ----------

Actually rethinking this, the companiens and the books you find around are pretty good stories. Especially the thief had a rather interesting story, would like them to elaborate that. The books where good for backstory and some good sidelore. The logs about monsters was some nice extra

Something D1 and D2 never really had

yea i thought that the companions story and some of the little books you found along the way were interesting little tid bits. if it wasnt for the absolute terrible predictability of the story it might not have been so bad. that and the one thing that really bothered me, and will probably get made fun of for, was the fact that we were these super badass heros but it seemed like at every obstacle or door we required the follower to open it or knock it down.

really? i can kill diablo but i need leah to knock down that makshift blockade across the road? i can pummel 30 demons in one hit but i cant open this door? i guess because of magic, i dunno

[Zaqwert]

Metzen is a hack, everyone pretty much knows it at this point, he's recycled the exact same story in every single game he's involved with.

How they handle the story in the xpac will speak volumes as to whether or not they learned anything from all the criticsm.

The problems with the D3 story have been touched on a billion times, and in this thread.

It's dull, predictable, cliches we've seen a million times before. The villains are not mysterious or scary in any way. They come across like cartoon villains childishly taunting you and telling you exactly where to go and what to do, it's just pathetic.

[Flaks]

My mistake, you're right: he said that the story is bad without arguments, just implying that needs fixing when it's clearly only "broken" to a fraction of the playerbase.

The OP just states as a fact that the story of D3 is bad, he even says that we have to "face it", like if that's the absolute truth. It seems that there's something wrong with me because i like it, i don't know.

I guess I didn't really outline what I disliked about the story because it's been discussed to death already.

I also said the story was overall OK bordering on good but the writing was the worst of any game that's ever tried to tell a story that I've played.

The things that were wrong with the writing have been mentioned. I'll reiterate: cliche bosses, 180 degree turns on character arcs established in previous games for no reason, lines spoken during the cheesiest cartoon shows. If you need examples just play through the game and actually LISTEN to what the bosses are saying and how characters like Tyrael USED to be.

[Redmage]

I myself, and from what I have seen most other people who followed the games progress pre-launch, had the entire story figured out before the game was even out. It was pretty obvious when they released the art for diablo and his vaguely feminine form that Leah was diablo, and her character even existing had most people correctly guessing that cain was going to die. It was obvious we were going to the high heavens from blizzard spending 1000% more time talking about the heavens than they did in the last two games.

Nothing surprised me in this game, the entire plot of act 2... i can't even call that a twist... or a plot. It was just sad how bad of a villain Belial turned out to be. That witch chick from the beginning, the one who kills Deckard, what a forgettable character she was.. having her be the one who kills one of the most beloved characters Blizzard had ever created was a joke, I didn't mind his death so much as how it happened.

The whole Tyrael thing just felt unnecessary, him becoming human (which doesn't even make sense lore-wise when know what humans are in the diablo universe) added nothing to the story for me.

Cain should have died a heroic death either destroying the soul stone or saving Leah's soul from damnation, not to some forgettable middle-management minion.

[Veyne]

The story in Diablo 1 and 2 might not have been spectacular, but nobody made the comparison to a kids cartoon villain like they do with the Diablo 3 dialogues.

Because nobody honestly gave a fuck. They just played the game. Nowadays, everyone expects complete and utter perfection from a game, and when it doesn't meet their expectations, they try to tear apart every tiny aspect of the game.

[Underverse]

I don't mind Cain dying, I mind that his death was lame after being such a central character for 2 installments.

And Tyrael - no clue what was going on with him. They should have at least kept the old voice style. It was basically a whole new character.

Leah's story was kind of interesting.

All of the boss evils in the game were lame villains. I understand it's a game, but c'mon, sometimes I don't want the goals just given to me on a silver platter. And I definitely shouldn't be guided to success by the evils themselves.

[Poodles]

Nope, not unless they retcon or completely ignore D3 as a game in the timeline. Honestly, not sure how you'd have an expansion with anything meaningful as Diablo is dead. The story was pretty much wrapped up with a nice bow on it. I also hate how they ignore any chance of saving Leah and there wasn't any hesitation or anything in wanting to destroy Diablo. I dunno, kinda just reminds me of the movie Serenity and major people dying left and right for no apparent reason.

Honestly, I always thought the Diablo storyline was great, this one wasn't as good though. Not to mention it felt...rushed the way you run through the game and defeat the other Evils. The first one was slow and dark, the second one kicked ass with all the traveling to hunt the Evils down and always feeling like you're just 2 steps behind the wanderer.

There's still a lot of unsolved questions and like I said earlier, it feels very rushed (as can also be seen by many of the missing features that were present in early footage of the game).

The elephant in the room is that it's kinda obvious why this happened as it's not the same people that made the first 2 games...

[announced]

the diablo 2 story made a lot more sense... it was quite exceptional for a video game, even where storytelling isnt that.. well doesnt really need to make much sense, the d2 plot was very enjoyable.
the d3 story is so lacking.. if they ever fix the story they should throw in a few different plot twists... maybe tyrael becomes a dark angel or becomes posessed/charmed by Adria..we end up having to fight him or he becomes the next bad guy..(highly unlikely but who knows) maybe Adria knew heros could defeat diablo and she summoned a weakened version of him for us to fight, maybe shes secretly making a pact with another demon to justify her own hidden agenda.. who knows. what about imperius? what happens to him? he could become an ally after being injured...

its hard to rectify how boring the story for diablo 3 is. but maybe their expansion can do better. azmodan was the worst, such a /facepalm. and especially with maghara taunting us from act1.... like really, azmodan pulls the exact same shit and so does diablo in act 4.. gee.. is this all they thought about when they spent over 10 years making diablo 3?

i agree about cain.. he was old and he rambled on a lot. but a part of me will always miss him.. plus his death didnt mean shit. he dies like a helpless weak old man.

[florestan]

I don't think the D3 story is all that bad.

Granted, the highlight reel characters like Azmodan or Diablo are pretty shallow but some of the side characters actually go through a lot of development (Templar) or make you reflect about your own actions (Kulle). Or Shen - every time you think you have a handle on his personality he slips away... until you aren't sure if he is even human.

And then there is an amazing amount of storytelling going on in the lore books - which is sadly often overlooked as there is little incentive to listen to them in context once you have collected all books of one character/story. For example, the conclusion to Lachdanan's scrolls left me quite impressed, the first note of Urik the Seer always makes me laugh (because I know what the second one will be), the letters in the Keep in Act III give all the NPCs that are getting slaughtered around you some personality, ...

[Deleted]

I didn't like the story much at all myself. It was just far too intrusive and cheesey for my liking. I think they made a big mistake having the story and quests lead you completely through every zone. Whereas in Diablo 2 there was an overall story but you were much more left on your own and so exploring it for the first time was way more fun.

Diablo 2's story just felt way more epic to me and having much less involvement with the main villains helped I think. They were mysterious and I couldn't wait to come across each of them. I just couldn't wait to see Diablo for the first time, having chased him all the game but never quite catching up. In Diablo 3 you constantly talk to lots of the bosses and see visions of them. In Diablo 2 there was none of this, you just saw the consequences of them until you finally fought them.

The atmosphere of Diablo 3 also just felt much less dark as well, which I don't think helps the story.