Thread: Diablo 3 Review

Diablo 3: In Review.

If anyone's taken a gander at the Blizzard forums lately they may have noticed the maelstrom of malevolence that is Diablo 3 general chat. It seems that Blizzard, in a fit of jealous rage, have sought to dethrone EA as masters of disappointment.

Through use of advanced science I and my research team have discovered that bitching and moaning accounts for 96.6% of all posts in the General Chat forum section; The remaining 3.4% being posts by moderators more oblivious than your local news team trying to act like everything is fine, and the occasional engrish post that might be more bitching except who the fuck knows.

So what's the scoop? Does Diablo 3 really suck that hard? Did all of Blizzard's fans have their "time of the month" simultaneously? Am I going to ask one more question so this paragraph flows properly? We'll find out that and pretty much nothing else in this resplendant Diablo 3 write-up review thing.


Overview.

So, full disclosure (no, not like that... I just mean I'm going to show you my dick.); I never played Diablo 2, or the original Diablo. Once you're all done mentally strangling me give me a chance to explain: I didn't feel like it.

Good, I'm glad we got that out of the way.

My point is, though, that I have no pony in this horse race. I just showed up to the track because I thought they'd have funnel cakes and noticed everyone was looking at something. I actually bought Diablo 3 a couple months late, I didn't play in the "beta" and I didn't really follow the game at all. It was a full on impulse buy, you know the one I'm talking about... the kind of guilt ridden manic decision making only possible while browsing the Steam store or driving back and forth on Colfax ave at two in the morning with a $20 in your back pocket.
So I had no pre-concieved idea of what Diablo 3 should have been in any way. I had no expectations to speak of, no hopes to crush like so many empty barrels.

But enough about me, let's talk about the game.

The basic gameplay in Diablo 3 revolves around the left mouse button. Using this single input you can break things, open doors, attack monsters, use a skill, move, talk to people, open shops, navigate menus, pickup items, and perform certain non-invasive dental procedures.

You start the game with a single ability and an "auto attack." Don't get too cozy with the auto attack though, because it's going to be gone almost immediately and you'll never use it again. Instead Diablo 3 opts for use of primary skills, which take the place of the traditional auto-attack. These are usually zero-cost skills which deal some percentage of your weapon damage and apply small effects.

Alongside this each character has defensive, offensive, specialized and passive abilities that are unlocked as you level up. To make things even more interesting each individual skill has a number of runes, which are basically modifiers that alter the skill in some way to increase it's performance in certain situations.

A big part of the fun of Diablo 3 is found in mixing and matching runes and skills to make deadly combinations.

When it comes to combat the game mostly focuses on AOE attacks and large mobs of enemies. It's very satisfying to wade into the middle of 30 imps and see numbers (and body parts) go flying. Occasionally you'll run across blue or gold "Elite" enemies, which have random affixes, are stronger, and have a better chance to drop good loot. The affixes are interesting, but can become VERY obnoxious at higher difficulty as some combinations are basically impossible to defeat.

What to expect from Diablo 3 gameplay? Lot's of running, lot's of killing and lot's of skipping the shitty story.

The game has five classes; Wizard, Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, Monk and Barbarian. They each fill a different niche role, the wizard for instance focuses on killing lots of enemies and dealing damage, while the monk is more geared toward damage dealing and the killing of lots of enemies.

While the gameplay isn't very tactically advanced or difficult, it's very enjoyable in an old-school kind of way. There's not a lot(Read:None) of thought involved in your typical engagement. It's pretty much point and click with the occasional need to pop a cooldown skill.

Despite this lack of depth, combat is very satisfying, due in large part to fantastic sound and visuals. Every attack lands with thunderous blasts, horrific crunching, razor sharp slicing and dicing. Powerful skills send monsters flying in all directions. Defeated monsters explode into blood and gore. The skills are different and interesting enough to hold your interest through hours... and trust me, if you want to experience your money's worth, you're going to be spending some hours on this.

And here's the part where I start to lose some interest. In order to attain maximum level in Diablo 3, you must complete the entire single player storyline at least 3 times over, ramping up in difficulty level each time. Now, apparently this is how Diablo 2 worked as well. I didn't play Diablo 2, though, and so this mechanic feels IMMENSELY lazy and cheap to me. I paid you for your game, now give me a full storyline that takes me from 1 to 60. Why would I let Diablo get away with this? Why does Blizzard get a special "Make 1/3 of a game" card?

Seriously no one is upset by this... I guess because Diablo 2 did it. But think about it for a second, would everyone be cool with this from any other game? What if halfway through Mass Effect you just started over and they dubbed new dialogue over everything (even that would be more difference than you get in Diablo 3). What if Valve broke Half Life 3 into three seperate parts and m... oh fuck it nevermind!

This is the part where I talk about the story.
It sucks.

Multiplayer.

Multiplayer is coop only at this point, but still fairly fun. In fact I'd say once you beat the campaign once, the second and third playthroughs are really only fun with a friend or two, or three, but not four so fuck off. The game increases monster strength with each friend who joins, so you can't faceroll too much with a four man team.
The only real issue with the multiplayer is that there's no real team dynamics at all. There's no "healer" there's no "tank," at least not in the way you would traditionally imagine. There's occasionally spots where a melee class will tank somewhat, but with no real "threat" system and such blurred lines between classes you'll find 99% of fights involves everyone spamming nukes and killing as much as possible as fast as possible.


The Loot.

Once you've reached endgame there's really no point to anything except to farm for more loot. So in the end loot is the "point" of Diablo 3. Unfortunately, this is another weak area. While Diablo 3 doesn't suffer from the modern trend towards worthless shitty loot like SWTOR and Dragon Age (ULTRA EPIC BATTLESWORD OF +0.03% Damage!!!), it's also not as addictively loot-tastic as say.. Borderlands. Borderlands is my idea of what a loot based game should be. I spent hours in Borderlands doing nothing but farming chests for loot. Every time I saw a sniper rifle appear with a rare color I felt the same surge of excitement. Loot in BL was truly epic, and when you found that one perfect drop it could last you for hours.

Now, like I said, Diablo 3 doesn't have worthless, disgusting, deplorable, despicable loot like Dragon Age. At the same time, it seems to lack a certain weight. Loot gives a very powerful numerical effect, but in terms of gameplay I feel like it would be nice to have more visceral representation. The elemental damage modifiers could definitely be spiced up. Again, Borderlands is a good example. Each elemental type in BL not only worked differently, but also had wicked cool death effects; Electric melted off skin and popped eyeballs out, acid dissolved bodies, explosive... exploded. It's good fun, and adds a little excitement to finding an epic weapon with your favorite elemental damage type.

But these are all nitpicks. In general Diablo 3's loot system is refreshing compared to recent RPG's which have shied farther and farther away from rewarding loot.

So to wrap things up. Do I like Diablo 3? Sure. Do I think it's worth the money? No, not really.
Diablo 3 is a solid and fun game, it's got addictive combat, good graphics, stellar sound design (music kind of sucks though), and fun multiplayer coop... but not $60 worth of it. If I pay $60 I expect an expansive experience. I DON'T expect to be given a third of a game and told to play it three times.
I recommend Diablo 3 to action RPG fans, but only after the price comes down.

Graphics= 9/10
Sound= 8/10
Gameplay= 7/10
Value= 4/10

Overall= 7/10

I agree for the most part.

For the value aspect, all of the diablo games have been built on replay value. This game definitely has that. Sometimes to such an extent in which I want to punch my monitor..

As a newcomer to the series you would probably expect a game in which you can play for 60 hours and then have the option to beat it again. As a long time diablo player I expected about 12-15 hours of gameplay and the rest would be replay. I was not disappointed in the gameplay at all.

I am however, disappointed with the approach they took too towards the items, AH, and the lack of ingenuity regarding gems. They really needed to have a much more diverse stat on them. The legendary items as it sits right now, are pretty much useless ( a few exceptions ). The AH prices are bloated beyond belief. The RMAH is a joke, and the AH sorting options suck.

I would probably rate the game a 7/10 as well.

I really appreciate your feedback War. It's weird, because the items in the game DO have a lot of umph to them. They have high stats and can make a big difference... yet somehow they lack a certain excitement. It's kind of hard to nail down what makes loot exciting. Borderlands really captured the loot excitement perfectly, Diablo not so much.

I agree... Story kind of sucks, replaying kind of sucks and feels odd (although that is what Diablo is I guess), and multiplayer needs to depend on teamwork, rather than gear and button mashing nukes. I still love this game though, I have been playing it every day since it came out and have been trying to farm my way to the end of the game (items, not gold). Something about it just keeps me coming back... I just enjoy the endless combat of the game. If the story was better, and I had more reason to play with friends rather than join seperate games to farm alone, then this game would be a 10/10 for me. Currently, with the drawbacks I mentioned, I believe it deserves 8/10 in my eyes since I have played it so much and keep coming back. Honestly though, I would say 6/10 if I didn't just like killing shit non-stop.

Barb is most useful by far... silly head. Stuns, slows, buffs, debuffs, taunts and either tons of damage or tons of tankage.