As first impressions go, Diablo 3 was comparable to a homeless guy that has no bathed in months with shirt and pants that has more holes then swiss cheese, attending an interview in a Corporate office.
Learning of Diablo 3's Open Beta weekend a few days back, I decided to give the game a chance and took the opportunity to enter Tristram once more as a budding Hero, only to know that it was not that easy to actually get an opportunity to face Diablo and his minions. Lets just say my speculations mostly came through and I present to a review of my experience with Diablo 3.
- After log in to B.net download page, I was presented with the general download page along with other Blizzard titles (WoW was conveniently on the top of the page) and I almost clicked on the top link thinking that I have was in the download page for Diablo 3 instead of a general download page.
- 2 hours later, the game download was 99%, when suddenly the downloader crashed with error compiler message.
- Before relaunching the launcher, I checked game folder and it was at 4.4GB (beta client was 4+ GB)
- Relaunched the launcher and it started to redownload the whole game again... there goes another 2 hours
- Launcher relaunched after download to setup the files and it got stuck at 70% (waited 30 minutes)
- Apparently a lot of people get this random error and it is due to temp files getting stuck so I had to locate and delete the temp bnet launcher files to get it redownloaded...
- Finally I could click the play button to launch the game and got to the ingame B.net log in screen
- Error 3003 kept popping up with no description. "error: 3003", WHO THE HELL KNOWS WHAT THAT MEANS!?!?!?
- After a quick google search, the error is due to region login and can be fixed by changing your region
- Changed to Asia and it still took me several tries before being able to log in.
- Made a Character & clicked on start game only to receive another error... more spamming of "Start Game" button before I got in the actual game (a good 5 hours gone before any gameplay...)
- Clicked on a spot to move and the game stuttered for a few seconds... huh?
- I though it was the graphics but the game is using a crappy old engine so I tried to use a skill and more stuttering...
- Went and lower the graphics to all low and used a skill again, stutter!
- Alt-tabbed, googled, and the issue is due to frame-rate stutter that random machines get... (a known issue and Blizzard has yet to fix after months of testing, sigh...)
- Anyway, after getting stutters every few minutes (less frequent as play continued) I finally got the feel of the game
(My PC is more then sufficient for optimum play, up to date on its drivers, running on Windows7 and SSD that was just formatted a few months back, loads of RAM)
After trying each character and slaying Leoric so many times Diablo wouldn't want to ressurect him anymore, I have summarized some of the main highlights of the game.
"Ugghgh Smash! Smash All Things! Uggh Like!"
Your purpose is to smash anything and everything in the name of loot. There was no sense of gameplay/storyline immersion. Maybe it is just beta and the game devs. don't want to reveal too much, I could forgive them for now, but presentation of the game was nothing fancy for a multi million dollar budget production.
Your destiny has been decided.
Diablo 1 & 2 allowed players the freedom of adding stats as they leveled but now, Blizzard has decided your on where to add your stats. No, you aren't playing WoW but they have adopted the same character stat growth model.
"Why would Blizzard do this, I though they always wanted players to be creative and allowed them to explore different play styles?"
I think you are referring to a company once known as Blizzard 10 years ago. The "new" Blizzard only wants you to play the game as they made it and not stray out of the box by a hair.
Controlled stats just means easier balancing as there are less variables (stats gain per level and from gear are all set with limits)
No, you can't have 200 Strength and 10 Intel, you nice big wall of Statistical information that would put Wall Street Analyst to shame.
Timberrrrr!!!
The Skill Tree has been chopped down indefinitely as Blizzard needs more lumber. You now get a linear, level based skill system. Simply put, skills are unlocked as you level up, there is no skill leveling up or skill point distribution.
Barbarian, Demon Hunter & Monk has a set of spammable skills which grants resource when used and the resource is in turn used to unleash devastating skills.
While Wizard & Witch Doctor has quick regenerating resources and a set of spammable skills that cost very low amount of resource and heavier hitting skills that cost more resource.
The game has evolved to a state of skill spamming limited by cooldowns and resource replenishment.
Tetris has been uninstalled.
Rings, potions, scrolls take 1 slot, boots, gloves, helm take 4 slots, chest armor takes 6 slot... oh wait, wrong game...
All items is now either 1 slot of 2 slots, its that simple. Blizzard fears that their players will get brain tumor trying to arrange their inventory.
No more inventory management cum Tetris mini game... sigh, the fun of ARPG keeps getting less thanks for Blizzy.
This is... TRISTRAM!!!!
There will be far less map randomness unlike its predecessors. Maps in the first few quest available to play are downright minimal.
Beta testers have pointed this out to Blizzy and their response is that Act 1 will be less random in order to tell the story of the game while maps of other Acts will be far more random.
After a few times down the Cathedral, I kept seeing the same stairwells, hallways and passages just pieced together in different directions.
I remain doubtful that there will be drastic map randomness as there are suppose to be scripted events/quests and preset boss chambers to make boss fights feel epic. (I would definitely get bored seeing the same boss chamber after the 3rd attempt)
Buy now and you get free Seizure!
There are so much particles, effects and lighting, you will start seeing green faeries and unicorns in your room (similar effects to drinking a few shots of absinth).
Fights are messy with things splattering and blowing up in every corner. For a moment, I though it was a Michael Bay production.
Seizure inducing splaster of effects bombared your screen as you plow thru the burning hells. (get 4 times the high with 4 players).
Move aside Pikachu, Diablo is here to hand out seizures.
Welcome to Newbie Camp SpamSkills2win.
If this game was any easier, unborn fetuses would be slaying Diablo in their mother's womb. There is no basic attack (well you only get to use it till level2) cause there isn't a need for one. Just SPAMMMMMM your skills and all Hell will bow before you in no time. Did I mention Health Globes?
My Crafter went to Royal Crafters Academy for his Ph.D
Asides from all the let down, crafting redeemed the game slightly and I mean very slightly. You have an option to break your trash gear (magic and above only) into random materials. The materials and gold are then used to craft gear with random property.
Materials are kept in your main inventory (not like you have any other). Haven't they heard of craft material inventory...To get more craftable items, you need to send your Crafter to college to level him up. Enjoy paying gold to level up the crafter.
Gambling (like in Diablo2) won't be happening cause it causes too much legal issues in some countries so instead, you get crafting that creates gear with random properties (sounds like gambling?)
It is a good way to get some in-between-level gear but it will never provide top tier gear compared to boss loot.
In the end, it is just another gold/item sink to burn players' gold cause like Diablo 1 & 2, gold is essentially useless. Creative games have reduced or totally removed the need for gold (eg. pathofexile) in ARPG type games.
"You are not allowed to Slay Diablo alone, get more Players!"
Like making internet connection compulsory, Blizzard should just make this game multiplayer only too. Players are forced to play in multiplayer cause unlike before, playing alone compared to having 2-4 players hugely affects the toughness (not difficult/challenging but just tougher) and the amount/grade of loot drops
"Slay Diablo without any weapon." Challenge Accepted!
Achievements have made its way into the realm of Diablo. Killing Diablo with your bare hands now grant your 3 million achievement points. WOW!!!There is a saying, 'Self praise is as good as no praise' and achievement is just another player ego stroking move by Blizzy to make their 'foverer-alone' players feel good.
UI / HUD
I though I was playing Modern Warfare 3 when my screen suddenly turned red with a loud bing. My health was low and the game prompts you that you are DYING!
It even prompts you when you have healed after that dying ordeal. Now I don't even have to look at my health globe to check if I am dying, I just wait for the blood red Bing!
(I have to highlight my mouse over interact-able objects.)
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Asides from all the above, there will surely be some interesting things to look forward to in the full release but I remain skeptical about any major breakthroughts.
Here are some videos show casing high level skills in action (some are already available Beta):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7TYJlnvJqA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=unaDuWVeH3M
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFSSG2tODto
Thanks to the distasteful Open Beta experience, I reinstalled Fallout2 and now scoure the wasteland in search of inspiring Mutants companions.
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