Review of Diablo 3 by Blizzard Entertainment

Dausuul · May 28, 2012

BobTheNob said:
If anyone actually sais Diablo III is bad because the story is lacking, well, you only have yourself to blame for sourcing the wrong game. If you wanted a richer story, you came to the wrong place, who's fault is that?

If you buy a motorbike, then go back to the seller and complain because you expected air-conditioning, they would laugh themselves silly.

Caveat Emptor people.

Gee, that's right. Hmm. How can I find a game with good story, when I haven't played it yet? I know! I'll look for a game that had a story I liked, and then I'll buy another game from the same company. That ought to work, right?

Oh. Wait. That's what I already did.

Squire James · May 28, 2012

SSquirrel said:
You do realize that the original Diablo came out in 1996 and you can still play that game for free on Battle.net, 16 years later right? I don't see Blizzard shutting down servers anytime soon. Isn't it EA that has a tendency to kill off older versions of games that have an online component?

(removed lots of stuff that indicates enjoyment of the game but had nothing to do with the point I was making)

Well, your preferences obviously differ from mine. There's nothing wrong with that.

I just happen to think that changing to an online-only model is a bad idea from my perspective. They may have made a decision that improves the online experience, but such decisions have a cost. In this case, the cost is me and anyone who agrees with my essential point. Internet connections don't always work even if their servers ARE up!

Squire James · May 28, 2012

BobTheNob said:
Story? Seriously? Your worried that the story is lacking.

(...)

If anyone actually sais Diablo III is bad because the story is lacking, well, you only have yourself to blame for sourcing the wrong game. If you wanted a richer story, you came to the wrong place, who's fault is that?

True, playing Diablo III and complaining about the lack of story is like playing Xenosaga II or III and complaining about too many cut-scenes!

SSquirrel · May 28, 2012

Libramarian said:
My computer is too old and slow to play d3, but I saw a preview video that made me cringe at how bad the voiceacting was. I could definitely see right there how it would not have the same gothic, brooding feel of diablo 2.

Why must every new game have voice acting? It's so overrated.

You do realize that all the quest people in Diablo 2 were voice acted as well right? You can still skip your way thru the dialogue as fast as you want. Diablo has always had bad voice acting. It's sort of the hallmark of so many video games out there. It's still better than Dracula in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. "What is a man but a miserable pile of secrets?" *cringe* I love SotN, but it's in spite of, rather than because of, the voice acting.

That said, I'm with you as far as voice acting. One of the big things about Star Wars: The Old Republic was that everything was voice acted. At least they let you put up subtitles and skip thru things as quickly as you can.

Aberzanzorax · May 28, 2012

First of all, pretty spot on review.

I didn't have much to say, until I began playing with my son in a group. Then I realized that this quote missed something:

Dornam said:
For all characters there is a "best" way of speccing for Boss/Grind fights. Most of the skills never see they light of use because others are clearly leaps and bounds better in any and all situations.

So, 5 years of development and balancing and the result is ... this?!

I have the distinct feeling that the reason for not offering PvP Arenas right from the start has something to do with borked balance!

Other than that I must say I enjoy the game but not in the amount I enjoyed D II. All in all D III feels like a dumbed down version of D II so far but maybe this gets better in the higher tiers of play when the AI may make fights more interesting.

When I solo play, I use basically 2 different "specs" for solo quest grinding and for boss fights. Playing with my son (who is an alt addict) I found myself using many more different abilities, depending upon if we were fighting a boss or questing, but also depending upon what character he was using.

I can only imagine that pvp skills (especially if you can pvp in groups, I don't know the answer to that, or if you know ahead of time what class you'll be pvping against) would be different in those conditions, as well as being different choices from pve skill.

So, yes, the same situation calls for the same skills - and if you only ever solo play through the game, you'll be using one or two sets of skills as "best" for that style of gameplay...but that ignores the fact that there are dozens of varieties of gameplay. Sure, there are still some "duds", but that doesn't mean there's only a single way to play.

BobTheNob · May 28, 2012

Dausuul said:
Gee, that's right. Hmm. How can I find a game with good story, when I haven't played it yet? I know! I'll look for a game that had a story I liked, and then I'll buy another game from the same company. That ought to work, right?

Oh. Wait. That's what I already did.

Are you saying Blizzard had a story you liked?

Ok, umm, yea. I just dont have a response to that.

Whizbang Dustyboots · May 29, 2012

Libramarian said:
My computer is too old and slow to play d3, but I saw a preview video that made me cringe at how bad the voiceacting was. I could definitely see right there how it would not have the same gothic, brooding feel of diablo 2.

If it was any more brooding and gothic, they'd have to include a suicide hotline number in the package.

It's a very dark game. I don't know what preview video you saw, but the actual game is very bleak.

Destil · Jun 11, 2012

Dornam said:
For all characters there is a "best" way of speccing for Boss/Grind fights. Most of the skills never see they light of use because others are clearly leaps and bounds better in any and all situations.

A)Grinding bosses is not the optimal way to grind. They're a tiny part of the game, the best grind comes from champs/elites.

B) This also just isn't statistically true. The most popular level 6 runes at 60 right now are the really good defensive cooldowns like smoke screen due to people using them to cheese through inferno undergeared. There's pretty good diversity of active offensive skills.