24 replies to this topic

[SickBoy]

As some of you know, I just got into the Diablo 3 beta (as have a TON of other people.... they're doing a huuuuge stress test right now). Here are some of my thoughts so far (keeping in mind that I know it's a beta and these are simply that: BETA impressions).

DISCLAIMER
This is my bias: Diablo 2 is my all-time favorite game. I despise Blizzard for a lot of things they do (especially business-wise), but the Blizzard North people rocked and made an amazing game, and I'm willing to look past the company IF they make a fun game. I've been waiting for D3 ever since, as it was obvious they'd have a sequel. BUT.... everything I've seen, read, watched, etc. up until this point has made D3 a major disappointment.

Characters I've "finished" the beta with so far (and thus the only ones I have experience with yet):

• Witchdoctor
  
• Barbarian
  
• Wizard

Pros:

• The game is, admittedly, pretty fun as a standalone game
  
• Performance was great after some initial hiccups while trying to play last night
  
• The Barbarian is finally useful
  
• (sort of a pro) The skill system... there is a lot I hate about it (see below), but it DOES make it so there are a LOT of spells to choose from. Hell, everything is a new spell as there is no such thing as skill points or building up a particular ability. Again, both a pro and a con. The pro part is mostly that it fixes what D2 suffered from... in D2 there were only a few spells per character that were actually viable end game. D3 seems to have it where pretty much everything is useful at any time.. so instead you just pick what fits your play style
  
• The combat has been made to be even more actiony. Very fast mana recharge, total encouragement to attack using only your skills (you don't really ever do regular weapon-based attacks like in D2... you pretty much ONLY use your skills)
  
• Item drops are for you only! Very nice since no you don't have to click like a maniac to get loot in a MP game
  
• Group play is (for what it is) very fun and there are a lot of changes that make grouping easier (like being able to teleport directly to them, without having to ask for a TP, for instance)
  
• Some of the smaller features are VERY nice changes... like the gold pick up thing and the health orbs. Not having to click every goddamn gold pile makes my carpal tunnel very happy, and the health orbs keep battles very intense
  
• SOME of the dungeon/etc. chunks look amazing, but keep in mind that one of my cons is that *most* are boring and repeat too much.
  
• The crafting took a hint (perhaps not literally) from stuff like D2 Median Mod and uses random magic affixes. This means you will likely craft the same thing over and over, hoping for better 'rolls' on the stats and bonuses. It's very easy, not remotely time consuming (you don't need to train it to get more shit to make, you just pay to 'train' the blacksmith), and has the right amount of randomness to keep me happy

Cons:

• World graphics are terrible IMO. Didn't like them in the initial screenshots, REALLY don't like them in-game. Too "painted", not enough D2-style gore, and EVERYTHING has a weird fog on it (no crispness whatsoever). It lost the grittiness that was D2 in favor of giving their stupid WoW artists more work. Ew. Wouldn't be nearly as bad without the fucking fog effect (and I don't mean ACTUAL fog... I mean EVERYTHING has a haze on it). They claim they did this so that it's not just a giant mix of browns and reds, but fuck that man... Diablo's color came from the SPELLS (which they screwed up too, see below), not from the dungeons. The funny thing is that while they claim it's for color, it is still a sea of mud. They're just making excuses if they honestly think this way is more vibrant. Wouldn't be nearly as bad if they removed that effing haze, but yeah...
  
• Spell graphics and effects are fucking AWFUL! Watch some of the ability videos to see what I mean. Spells like blizzard, the bat spell (can't remember its name, but it sure as shit doesn't look like bats flying out), frost nova, etc. look just horrible. D2 had over the top effects that made it gorgeous, chaotic, and fun... D3 decided to make pretty much every effect SUPER simple, boring, and lackluster. I cannot express how much I HATE a lot of the spell effects (a few, like the various "beam" attacks look okay, but my god... so many are just laughable)
  
• The skill system (con portion this time) is so fucking dumbed down that any retard with the ability to click a mouse can have a perfect build (since EVERYTHING is a perfect build... obviously some things work better together, but there is no 'maxing' of any skills). You don't ever do any kind of skill or stat points and you don't pay for your spells in any way... instead they just get unlocked (yet they still make you select it as if you're making a choice... fyi: YOU AREN'T) at various levels. There is a cooldown when you switch, so you can't do it mid battle very well, and that means you'll only ever use a few skills at once, most being ones that you may trigger only every now and then.
  
• Only 4 player co-op. D2 had 8... to drop it down to 4 is just pathetic.
  
• Their whole "online-only" system is really stupid and completely fucks solo play, where you get lag and all that even when there is only you in a private game.
  
• The game joining system is bullshit... you just get shoved into a random one based on what particular quest you want to do and it puts you in a random game where they are on that quest. Meaning you can't browse games. Why Blizzard decided to make Battle.net even worse is beyond me, as this system is horrible unless you really don't give a shit who you group with. I don't even know if you can join your friends (although maybe there is a feature specifically for joining a friend's game), but either way it's still a bad decision for any D2 vet (I'm sure it's great for all the idiot consolers out there that are too fucking retarded to know what a server browser is)
  
• No necromancer (fuck the witchdoctor... such a lame substitute, and definitely NOT a minion master... D2 is still the ONLY game in the world to get the minionmancer-style gameplay right), which means they are either drastically changing the lore, or they don't give a fuck (probably the latter). Diablo is the ONLY universe that I read all the books/etc. for, and necromancers are key to it in EVERY FUCKING BOOK. They are absolutely required to keep the world in balance (to protect it from both demons and angels), but nope, they dropped them completely. In fact, I'm pretty pissed that the only character returning is the Barbarian. Pretty sure they'll release more later, but probably as paid expansions.
  
• Maybe it's the beta and maybe it's the fact that you're only in the very beginning of Act 1, but the random "chunks" for the dungeons really aren't that varied. You'll see the exact same setups over and over, even just in the beta! This isn't a problem for the generic "chunks", but they repeat ones they are VERY unique, so it's a constant state of deja vu. Pretty pathetic, actually, but it would be easy to add more "chunks" later to spice up the variety. Just depends on whether they do it or not. I also felt like a lot of the beta areas were static maps that were NOT random except for some of the monster spawns.
  
• Monster spawns are gimmicky and waaay overused.. in Act 1 at least they reuse the same gimmick over and over. You walk by a grove of trees, a coffin, or a fissure and 9/10 times guys will crawl out. This is fine, but it's what damned near every spawn does. I think this was done in part to stop maphacks from coming out that showed monsters (since maybe their spawning isn't even decided until you're right on them), but it gets old REALLY fast. Obviously there will be more variety later, but the beta area is very much the exact same experience every time you play it.
  
• Granted I'm on Normal Act 1, but the game feels incredibly easy even with 4 players, but especially solo. Haven't died a single time and I've been playing pretty risky. This isn't a problem for D2 as you can do the "/players 8" command so long as you aren't on Battle.net..... buuuut D3 doesn't have anything like that. So unless they add a feature to allow you to have the game act as if it's full in terms of difficulty, you'll be forced to play on /players 1.... which, for any Diablo veteran, is super annoying

Whew, that's a lot of typing. I'm sure there is plenty more I'm forgetting since I'm just writing this up off the top of my head, but those are my impressions so far. I know there seems to be a lot of cons, but I just wanted to be a bit more in depth with them. Sadly I've spent more time playing Saints Row The Third than the Diablo 3 beta, and if you know me, you realize how insane that is... it is rather telling in regards to how I feel about D3 thought.

Overall I'd say that I think the game will be fun (I already have it preordered and WILL be playing when it launches). It will just be a huge disappointment for anyone expecting a true Diablo 2 sequel. It's dumbed down, boring looking (by comparison), and just not at all what the Diablo franchise should be.

BUT, if you don't care if it's Diablo or not, you'll enjoy it. As a standalone game it IS quite fun, but I definitely don't see myself being as fanatical about it unless the other acts are just mind blowing.

[Nightbane]

I had to force myself to watch the Lore panel, and it seems they know what they're doing lore wise.

Gameplay wise, it seems they're trying to appeal to the people who want super fast easy action.

And that if you want classic D2 difficulty, you have to go to Inferno and get your ass kicked.

I have highly mixed feelings, mainly negative.

[SickBoy]

Inferno is fine... except that it's at the end of the game and will still probably be nowhere near as hard as Hell /p8 was. People that play D2 want it hard THE WHOLE TIME. Act 1 should still kick your ass if you're not careful. But D3 fails miserably in that respect, at least so far. Maybe Act 2 ramps up a ton or something.

[Nightbane]

I miss Blizz North =\. D2 went to shit IMO ever since they went out.

[Overlord Cuntasaurus Rex]

I can't say I wasn't prepared for this.

SickBoy, on 15 April 2012 - 12:18 AM, said:

Act 1 should still kick your ass if you're not careful. But D3 fails miserably in that respect, at least so far. Maybe Act 2 ramps up a ton or something.

Honestly said, I doubt it. They tried the same with WoW after all and it went to hell and they were forced to keep it with a casual standard.

If they make it such a huge difference between Act 1 and Act 2 people will just feel miserable because they weren't taught the difficulty from the start. Similar to how the WotLK to Cata era went, the difficulty improved by a ton, but since they got used to the easy feel of the game, they couldn't cope with the harder when it appeared.

So I'd say don't expect a huge difference in difficulty from Act 1 to Act 2 transition, maybe more towards the end as you progress and generally get stronger and used to the game, but I wouldn't expect it any sooner.

[SickBoy]

Agreed. I highly doubt the difficulty ramps up that much, that quickly. Knowing Blizzard it's a fucking joke the entire time.

An example is that regardless of the character I used, I never had any problems whatsoever in the various boss/mini-boss fights in the beta. To the point where all I did was stand still and hold left click.... that's IT. That was solo. It was slightly harder (I had to move twice on the skelly king fight) with 4 players, but still a friggin joke.

[Foereaper]

You shoulda tried it a couple months back whenever you had 999 latency constantly and kept warping back and forth when trying to do anything. Completely ruined the beta for me, and only played it once since then.

Also, the fact that single player is online is fucking stupid. I guess this is done to prevent piracy, but, give it a couple months and you'll have that cracked as well as always. Right now they just screw everyone but the pirates over with a really terrible game environment where you can't even play properly when the latency hits a couple hundreds. Warping back and forth, having to kill mobs 2-3 times before they actually die, if your character wants to attack at all that is.

When it comes to difficulty, this game is piss easy... You get a billion health pots during act 1; I didn't use a single potion ONCE. I didn't even die once, and I was never even close to dying.

Content-wise, this beta is terrible. Not only is it too short, but it's the same shit over and over again. If they gradually unlocked new content, I woulda kept playing the beta instead of stopping after the couple hours it took to finish the game the first and second time. I don't care to be playing the same stuff over and over just because of a couple spell changes etc. Not only that, but I feel the gear variety is just... complete shit... I guess its because its technically so early in the game, but come on... Everything is the same imo.

@SB; You can join friends directly without the matchmaking system FYI.

Edited by Foereaper, 15 April 2012 - 03:16 AM.

[SickBoy]

The beta is very weird in terms of how little content its has. I figured they'd do chunks of it, but from what I know it has always been the same, very small, area. Which of course means later game is going to be even more of a disaster. I know they have internal testers doing it, but clearly this beta was very much needed and I dread to think what the later game is like right now.

[AngelSandy]

I hate to be the one who says "What did I tell ya?" but in this case I am.
After I saw what plans Blizzard had for this game, I knew it was going to be a fucking disappointment, and whaddaya know, it's true.

Every con you listed SB, just makes me more and more sure, that not giving a shit about the new Diablo game was a good choice.
They are treating D3 like an MMORPG, just like WoW, which Diablo never was.

I am so much more convinced now, that focusing on Guild Wars 2, is the right thing to do ^^

Edited by AngelSandy, 15 April 2012 - 05:01 AM.

[Död]

[Nightbane]

I have to admit they kept the music in check.

http://www.youtube.c...Y&v=4QAuF2LCBWY

[GasTrox]

Open beta this weekend, I played it and loved it (except for fucking server issues, DRM is shit).

I never played Diablo 2 though (well, I did, when I was about 7 years old and didn't get shit, but I had lots of fun), so I can't really be disappointed by it. I'll probably start playing it after the stress test is over, so I could join you when you play on Hamachi.

[SickBoy]

Unfortunately it is people that don't play or care about Diablo that D3 was made for. They very obviously targeted their WoW crowd instead of their actual Diablo fans.

The annoying part is having people that had no expectations or Diablo experience respond to "wtf have you done to our game, Blizz?!" posts of D2 vets with their own opinions (usually that the game is OMGAMZING), clouding the issue big time and making it seem like it was fine. Had they just done a proper sequel the WoW players still would have thought it to be OMGAMZING, but so would the fans. They could have made everyone happy, but instead took a huge steaming shit on their diehard community.

[Rochet2]

SickBoy, on 21 April 2012 - 11:41 PM, said:

wtf have you done to our game, Blizz?!

Exactly the feeling when playing through the beta.
Its like ... not even diablo anymore D:

D2 had so many nice things in it, like belts increasing potion hotkey count..
I think I even missed the selling from D2 You know .. dragging and dropping stuff. mhm

[SickBoy]

Uninstalled my beta as it was just painful to continue screwing with, but will still be playing retail (at least for a bit) when it comes out since it's already preordered and can't be refunded... not that I'd really want one, I still want to give the overall game a chance.

Part of me is excited to get the rest of the game, but the rest of me is just steadying myself for further disappointment since it's mostly the core mechanics of D3 that are so shitty. NOT looking forward to lagging like a mother fucker all the time in singleplayer either. Blerg.

[Nightbane]

What do you mean "continue screwing with?"

The beta ended like two weeks ago didn't it?

[GasTrox]

That's the stress test, the real beta (with invites) ends tomorrow I think.

[Foereaper]

Ive had the beta for X amount of months now, and it's been shit all along... And WAY too little content to test.

[SickBoy]

Yeah, I was in the real beta, not the stress test. No idea when that ends, but I'd assume very very soon, if not already. I hadn't messed with it in over a week because of how short and crappy it was.

[GasTrox]

I actually just realized the skill system con you listed is wrong.

There is an option (I think it was called Elective Mode) that will allow you to put any spell into any of your available slots, so you can e.g. have three primary abilities, three secondaries, etc.