Personal Diablo 3 review from an avid Diablo 2 player

Discussion in 'Gamer's Heartbeat' started by Jitros067, May 18, 2012.

  1. This is my review which I posted on the D3 forums.

    Let me first start off by saying that this review will not factor in the constant connection issues, nor will I factor in the need for constant internet connection. Now the question arises, was the decade long wait (for most of us) worth it? Well, kind of.

    The formula behind the Diablo series is still intact, the core gameplay elements are definitely redefined for the better, and man is the physics a welcoming addition. That being said, Diablo 3 does not have a whole lot going for itself when compared to Diablo 2. For those who have played Diablo 2 extensively, like my self, you'll immediately notice the definite restrictions and limitations Diablo 3 unfortunately possess. The biggest issue personally is the complete wipe out of the attribute system, and with that goes away our limited options of customization. What made Diablo 2 so well liked and famous was due to it's simplicity and straight forwardness. Along with it's simplicity came an in depth attribute and spell customization system, which quickly turned into a science of its own with different attributes and spells completely revamping a class. A Paladin joining a party with another Paladin will rarely possess the same skill set and attributes, each class was a class of its own.

    So does Diablo 3 continue it's rich tradition of self customization? With all classes sharing similar attributes to each other, making each class completely identical with itself (excluding item content) completely wipes out any form of player customization. It's clear that the intent here was to simplify the game further more, perhaps to appeal to a larger audience, but for those who were expecting a similar mechanic to Diablo 2 will surely be upset, well I was at least. With the wipe of self attribute customization, this leaves player customization solely dependent on the skill tree (once again, excluding item content). The addition of the hot bar gives us the ability to cast multiple spells instead of constantly shifting into different hot keys like in Diablo 2. Along with the new hot bar comes a new addition of Runes, where instead of equipping it to items, it more or less changes the way a spell plays out from it's default setting. Unfortunately, there is no option for players to hot key certain spells enabling quicker changes between large mob confrontations to single mob focus. There also appears to be less amount of abilities compared to Diablo 2, with no option to constantly improve one sole spell. Although there is a range of spells and abilities for players to equip, it isn't enough to define a character as unique compared to another. This leaves player customization completely dependent on gear, which gives the real money auction house an incentive to spend real money on acquiring better loot.

    No customization options in the attributes, limited ability for customization in spells and skills, so what's left for our character to define itself from everyone else? Well for Blizzard, the answer is banners. Yes, that's right, we get to customize banners and further unlock different patterns and sigils from gaining achievements. It's all well and done when you lay it out, but upon actually playing the game, the banners only purpose is to simply teleport yourself onto the other players location. No additional stats are gained from further unlocking different options for your banner, so what's the actual point? Getting rid of the town portals and simply adding a banner system works, but why are we limited to customize our character in a banner which no one absolutely cares about? Nor can anyone identify certain achievements by looking at a player banner. This also makes the achievement system a complete useless tool, as the only thing to unlock are different banner options.

    Gems also appear to have an increased drop rate starting from Nightmare mode. Right from the bat you'll find numerous droppings of Perfect to Radiant gems in the first act of Nightmare. If I'm not mistaken, isn't the highest rating of gems Radiant? If so, why are we able to acquire it in large amounts starting from only the second difficulty setting? Gems no longer give a wide range of attribute/damage changes depending on where you slot it. Instead, Gems are divided by only 3 different items slots, with the third simply being "other."

    More usage of corridors and limited spacing give way to linear gameplay. This isn't a big concern, as the Diablo series has always been linear in terms of questing. However, it seems as though the open areas in Diablo 3 are a lot smaller, and you are unable to gain access to later stages as they are blocked by obstacles which magically disappear or get destroyed upon completion.

    World PvP has been wiped out, with the only addition of PvP being arena based. Compared to the addition of Arena in WoW, which completely destroyed the incentive of world PvP, the arena system is a nice addition to be looking forward too. However, there is no PvP ladder that will be implemented anytime soon, if at all. The only method in gaining recognition for your destruction and carnage amongst other players is banner customization, which frankly, no one really cares about. No one is going to stare at another players banner and immediately think, "WoW! I guess he's/she's a really good PvP player because his/her banner looks all torn up and such and such." Perhaps the addition of titles or memorabilia can compensate for the lack of achievement recognition.

    There has been a significant change to the NPC dialogues in Diablo 3 compared to Diablo 2. Diablo 2 possessed a rather ominous and dark aura surrounding each NPC. You can almost feel the torment and evil clinching amongst their throat as they stuttered out their words, barely comprehending the inevitable doom that would surely embrace them. The dialogues fit the dark setting that is the backbone of the Diablo series. It reminded you of the constant struggle and the darkness surrounding every corner of every brick wall, of every lush forest, of every ruined and crumbling buildings to the fiery pits of hell itself, you knew what you were getting yourself into. The rusty voice of Deckard Cain alone set the mood for the entire game. Diablo 3's dialogue on the other hand is rather simplistic and dumbed down. Even Deckard Cain fails to restore that burning desire to get rid of all that is evil just for the sake of saving the kingdom of Khanduras. Instead, you'll want to end the dialogue as fast as you can and continue on destroying all that stands in your path. "Our people may have no homeland, but I will survive. As long as you buy something." This is the perfect example of how poor the dialogue is in Diablo 3. It completely goes against the foundation of the game itself. Your people have no homeland yet you're content as long as I buy something? With hell itself knocking against the castle wall, this npc is simply content as long as I buy something. How nice.

    Although Diablo 3 does implement several new mechanics, such as the crafting system and the establishment of a global auction house, there are more things that have been wiped out compared to things that have been either improved or implemented in. Why are we not able to create our own servers or search for specific servers? It disables the ability to play a game with just your friend, as there is no way to determine server sizes nor disable your game from going public to close off further player drop ins. From a general perspective, Diablo 3 is surely a further simplistic version of number 2. The majority of players who are familiar with Diablo 2 will surely be upset, with the major issue focusing on the very limited player customization.

    On pen and paper, the drastic changes from Diablo 2 to Diablo 3 may seem appropriate and beneficial to the players, but upon playing the final copy, this is not the case. The difficulty level between Diablo 2 to Diablo 3 has been drastically reduced. This is evident in the almost non existent player punishment upon death, with the only penalty being a 10 percent reduction in durability, which you can easily acquire due to the easiness of acquiring a staggering amount of gold. Diablo 3 fails to continue it's rich tradition from previous Diablo games, thus resulting in a game made for simply satisfying the majority of people who have never indulged themselves deeply into a game.

    Final rating: 6/10

    tl;dr: Game does not implement and improve past gameplay mechanics, instead it removes the most important elements of player customization, the true essence in creating a truly unique Diablo character. A dumbed down, simplistic copy of a classic game in order to appease the more "casual" customers. Anyone else notice a similar trend in other franchises? Going from complexity and uniqueness to overly simplistic gameplay.
     
  2. #2 DrazyHaze, May 18, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: May 18, 2012
    Im going to have to disagree with you on about every point you made.

    While that was well written, it's very opinionated. I played Diablo 2 for years, and all I can remember is grinding to 99 then magic farming.

    Chaos rus, meph runs, Baal runs, and Diablo runs.

    The gameplay was neat, but as far as customization I believe you're way off. In D2 customization was ... A hammerdin, and a zealadin.. The stats werent all that customizable. Your stats would buff a pally whether it was a hammerdin or a zealadin.

    Same with sorcs and so on. The talent trees in D3 provide much customization. Runeing your talents can provide two different effects out of the same class.

    For example, one Monk can use the mantra to increase damage to enemies, runes it to increase the damage, and the other monk can use the mantra of healing with spirit regen runed..

    While one monk could be using cyclone strike, mystic ally and way of a hundred fists while the other monk could be doing something complety different.

    All classes have this capability of diversity. Blizzard said they don't want people boss farming, and dungeon farming. Jewel Crafting is based off of your money and pages. You get better gems as it levels. Although I'm not aware of the highest gem.

    Gear has resistance on it just like it did it D2 and contains sockets.

    I keep failing to see your point being made? Many people mistake their experience for a Diablo 2 experience, but let's not forget this game is called Diablo 3. Some people would say they miss D2, but when I'm playing D3 I have many moments of "Wow, this game still feels like D2."

    The game is extremely challenging. Act 3 of nightmare really starts to test your ability to hang in the Diablo world. From there it's only harder.

    Essentially you seem to think D2 was a far superior game, and it did have a sense of hardcoreness to it, Blizzard HAS to appeal to a larger player base.

    Also, there is still an extremely detailed stat sheet.

    So summed up,

    You seem like you want to play Diablo 2...and not Diablo 3.
     
  3. #3 kliff2004, May 18, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: May 18, 2012
    ^^^^^^^^^I pretty much agree with everything he said.

    I actually like the dialogue in diablo 3.

    I feel D3 and D2 are equally customizable, but they do it in different ways.

    As far as I rememmber, and I played a shit load of D2.

    Barb - Whirlwind or fury.
    sorc - frozen orb, ice storm, or lightening shit.


    And the laughable Amazong - bow multishot or lightening javalin, whatever its called.

    Each class had about 2 true main specs to be played as. Don't see why you feel the need to hype up two builds so much. Its not that much customization.

    Maybe I'm over simplfying but you seem to ignore the fact that the D2 you're comparing D3 too, took YEARS OF TWEEKING TO CREATE.

    Its funny that your not comparing D3 to D2 the way it was on laucjh day before the expansion packs, and before the huge overhal of the talent system.

    Remember what the talent tree looked like on day 1? I sure do. You seem to not care about that though, and hold it against D3. Why not compare how the D3 talent tree is on day 1 to the D2 talent tree on day 2? Might have a different perspective.

    Thats why a review of a game you've been playing for 3 days has zero value to anyone, and is horrendously incomplete.
     
  4. I agree with D2 being kinda lame before the expansion pack. Hopefully they do something similar with D3 before I get around to buying a new computer. I haven't heard the best things about this game, althought it doesn't sound like a flop, either.

    Hey guys, at least he has a well written, well thought out review. I mean, you may not agree with everything he's saying, but it's his own opinion about the game. All I can say is, "At least we can read and clearly understand what he's saying." Lol.
     
  5. I was met with much hate on the D3 forums with a handful of people agreeing whilst the rest disagreed (5 pages of hate to be exact).

    Let me just say that I am enjoying the game, currently level 52 on Hell and loving every second of it, it IS a fun game, no doubt about that. However, my point was that yes D2 was flawed in the respect that classes HAD to follow certain builds in order to be viable, but this is a balance issue don't forget. The fact is, options WERE there for the player to choose whatever he/she wanted, despite the imbalance.

    This is my point; in diablo 2 skills were permenant in the respect that each tree was divided and you were forced to follow a certain path, this seperates you from any other class which is why it made Diablo 2 unique. D3 on the other hand gives everyone the option to pick any spell, so on pen and paper, every barbarian is technically the same (albeit the gear) containing the same skill set with the exact same attribute stats.

    Now this may be due to my ignorance of only emphasizing the flaws, but I do want to say that despite the simplistic and automatism system, I'm not saying that it IS a bad thing, I do and truly believe that Diablo 3 will shine in the coming future and it'll progress for the better, that is for sure.

    For those who say my review isn't legit, yes you're COMPLETELY right. This review is simply my opinion on 2 days of playing, I do hope no one takes this review under consideration on deciding whether or not to try the game out, you should definately give Diablo 3 a shot. My issue is this, perhaps I didn't state it clearly enough; going from Diablo to Diablo 2, they implemented the exact same game mechanics and improved them, with addition of hosting numerous amounts of features. They carried on the same tradition from Diablo, and the core mechanics are still intact with previous features being improved on. Going from Diablo 2 to Diablo 3 is not the case, with most of the hardcore RPG elements being simplified and or completely removed. I'm not saying I want Diablo 3 to be like Diablo 2, this is not at all what I'm trying to say.
     
  6. I read this on the Diablo forums! I really love this game, but have no past diablo experience. However, I did play Warcraft 2&3 and Starcraft 1&2. I'm a pretty big bliz fan, but I think the online only is fuckin stupid
     
  7. The only online system may come across as "stupid" but it's mainly to fight piracy and implement the real money auction house, it's all for the better. I think...
     
  8. simplistic game?

    please

    it will take till mid august for anyone to come close to beating Inferno mode.

    you get blue drops only from bosses in nightmare mode. blizzard made it clear they want you clearing entire maps in order to find decent items, no more easy mode simple boss runs

    nightmare will take 4 people roughly 10 hours to complete, thats gameplay.

    you have to change your skills to accommodate the boss fights. it took me and 3 friends (49/50/50/51) a little over an hour to beat diablo on nightmare.

    please just stop.

    d2 was so simple

    get ran through all levels
    do boss runs for phat lewt
    rinse repeat 10000000000000000 times.


    you cant do boss runs for loot anymore.
     
  9. I'm fine with simplification so long as Blizzard doesn't remove the depth and quality of their games.
     

  10. It took 4 of you to beat diablo on nightmare and it took over an hour? Are you absolutely 120% kidding me? I BREEZED through nightmare and Hell is not even close to being a challenge. You obviously are a really bad player no offense if it took 4 of you over an hour to down diablo.
     

  11. i didn't even bother to read your thread cuz it was only out for a week nd you can't possibly attain enough information to give a proper full review.... THEREFORE /THREAD. you fail do not pass go do not collect 200 monopoly dollars. you have no credibility
     

  12. It scales with more people, 4 making it the hardest possible. The reason 4 will be better in inferno is because of coordination. If you can combine all your classes really well than inferno won't be AS impossible.

    The game is beatable solo as they have already stated but your not fighting the strongest version.



    But what do I know I only have a level 28 Wizard who fucks shit up, game is pretty damn fun though and I loved PKing in Diablo 2 with all the characters my brother would build.

    I do agree the pvp system needs to be well done because that was what Diablo 2 was about, MFing and trading to create the most powerful builds/characters. So I am glad they postponed the PvP so they can better refine it. ;)
     
  13. You know what's fucking awesome about d2? People still play it after a decade. Also even d3 is out I know some people who still play d2.
     
  14. I can't believe you didn't even mention the visuals. D3 has some of the best art design I've ever seen in a game.
     

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