Diablo 3 - Review Roundup

Much much better than previous Diablos. Each area has a vaguely coherent rationale and the backstory is explained at each stage. The quality of the story isn't anything special - OK, it's pretty bad actually - but there is at least lore for most things if you seek out the journals. Or you can just ignore them and bash through - the choice is yours.

The lore books are ok. I've read most of them and they're ok. But the main plotline is just absurd. And imo it is inferior to Diablo 2's plotline, as light as that was. Chris Metzen is getting to be really bad at writing their storyline. He did the same thing with the Starcraft 2 story. He botched it up. And Starcraft 1 had a very good story imo.
 
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And what did you think about the plot? How would you rate that?

I agree that the mechanics and gameplay are great. I regularly find myself clearing maps/dungeons of monsters without even knowing what the hell I started questing for in the first place. In that sense it's very nicely done. But I would have loved for them to put at least 1/10 of the effort they put into everything else, into the storyline and plot. At least for it to be half as decent as it was in Diablo 2.

I thought it was very appropriate and engaging, but I couldn't care less about the story except as an initial goal to aim for. This game is a social experience for me - and the whole trading/cooperation/competition aspect is what keeps the game meaningful in terms of time spent. Even if I tend to play the game mostly solo - I have plenty of friends playing it - and there are millions of other players. So it's sort of a little separate world akin to an MMO. But unlike an MMO, you don't have to commit your life if you want to compete at the top. Aside from that, there's the whole RMAH angle, which I think most people have underestimated in terms of long-term impact. I know people keep telling me it'll never make anyone much money, but I'm far from convinced that has to be the case.

As a singleplayer game, though, I'd be hard pressed to find a more pointless experience - and I probably wouldn't even bother going through Normal - except perhaps once for the cinematics.

People who want to play it as as singleplayer game simply don't "get" what the whole design is about. It's not that it can't be played that way - but it's less than 1% of the potential and intended experience.
 
I thought it was very appropriate and engaging, but I couldn't care less about the story except as an initial goal to aim for. This game is a social experience for me - and the whole trading/cooperation/competition aspect is what keeps the game meaningful in terms of time spent. Even if I tend to play the game mostly solo - I have plenty of friends playing it - and there are millions of other players. So it's sort of a little separate world akin to an MMO. But unlike an MMO, you don't have to commit your life if you want to compete at the top. Aside from that, there's the whole RMAH angle, which I think most people have underestimated in terms of long-term impact. I know people keep telling me it'll never make anyone much money, but I'm far from convinced that has to be the case.

As a singleplayer game, though, I'd be hard pressed to find a more pointless experience - and I probably wouldn't even bother going through Normal - except perhaps once for the cinematics.

People who want to play it as as singleplayer game simply don't "get" what the whole design is about. It's not that it can't be played that way - but it's less than 1% of the potential and intended experience.

I was just talking about the storyline, and I personally can't see it as acceptable. It pretty much throws everything that happened in D1 and 2 to the garbage bin.

Aside from the story aspect, I know what you're talking about. It is a very well done game. It's addicting as hell. Even as mad as I was/am about the story after finishing the game on normal yesterday, today I found myself strangely craving to clear some more dungeons.
 
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People who want to play it as as singleplayer game simply don't "get" what the whole design is about. It's not that it can't be played that way - but it's less than 1% of the potential and intended experience.

I play d3, and every other arpg, single player. I "get" it just fine, thank you. And I used to play d1 online only. But the cheating and vast number of juvenile fucktards had me switching to sp only. I havent played anything mp since.

And I agree the story blows, but to be fair, very few, if any play Diablo and clones for the story.
 
Have you tried getting any of your friends to join you? Also, you don't actually have to play cooperative with anyone to enjoy some of the MP aspects, like the AH system.

For me, it's enough to know that there are people playing the same game in the same world - and that you can interact with them to gain advantages and share experiences. Even the most isolated hermit in the real world is probably going to prefer that other people exist somewhere.
 
...I've played this 60 hours almost non-stop since I got it, and that means it triggered something that only happens to me every 5 years or so.

Good for you (I'm not being sarcastic).

Personally I'll skip it, at least for the time being. I've tried D1 and D2 repeatedly, but not more than 2 or 3 levels. I never got into them. Not saying they were bad games, but they weren't my type of games.

Says pibbur who admits he played and enjoyed Oblivion to the end without mods.
 
Just finished on normal difficulty. Overall, I agree with Tom chick. I enjoyed the leveling up / gameplay more than D2, quite a bit more.

The story is both better and worse. Worse, because the tone is wrong (high fantasy instead of dark and gothic), the writing is not nearly as good as D2 and the plot is a bit silly, contrived and obvious.

The ending was the worst offender.

Diablo games should never have a happy ending. In a dark gothic tale, the hero should only ever temporarily push back evil, and at great cost. You should always get the sense that it is, in the end, a losing battle, that all that sacrifice may still be in vane. See the endings of D1, D2 and LoD.

But better because there is more of an actual plot during the gameplay. You engage with the story more, there are more actual plot points and the characters are more fleshed out. D2's cutscenes were exceptional, but the story was mostly contained in those cutscenes.
 
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Just finished on normal difficulty. Overall, I agree with Tom chick. I enjoyed the leveling up / gameplay more than D2, quite a bit more.

My experience too. The gameplay has me hooked in ways D2's never could. I'm only about a third of the way through, but I can definitely see myself finishing and restarting with another character (possibly a witch doctor). I greatly enjoyed D1, mildly enjoyed D2, and greatly enjoy D3; however, as others have said, playing the game in co-op really makes all the difference. Using team-up tactics on mobs, like one person playing crowd control while the other goes full-on DPS, makes for some pretty entertaining encounters at times.

And with the constant stream of achievements (which, btw, are fully visible to your co-op friends), along with the auction house, it seems Blizzard has more-or-less thrown their hat into the multiplayer fray full-on this time. Can it be played in single-player and enjoyed? Yes. Is it more fun in multiplayer? Hell yes!
 
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People who want to play it as as singleplayer game simply don't "get" what the whole design is about. It's not that it can't be played that way - but it's less than 1% of the potential and intended experience.

THANK YOU. So I'm not crazy thinking this is what Diablo is supposed to be.
 
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I think the skills are handled well.

See, I've always had a problem with being "locked-in" for 60 hours on a build that I start getting bored as fuck with about 3/4 thru the game. Unfortunately, I have weeks of play behind me, so there's no way I'm going to restart. Also, i've had the first skills on the tree be the ones I actually liked and wanted to play, but they become outmoded/weak/irrelevant and I'm forced into using later skills that I dont like instead.

For these reasons, I feel the "spec as you will" approach, getting it all and just simply using the things you want to use, keeping all skillls relevant and modifiable is the way to go. Choose what you'se want to yoose.

I dont see how this is a bad thing


And I'm sorry, complaining about the story in an action-rpg is like complaining about the story in Backdoor Bimbos #27. Just sayin'
 
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Currently the EU servers are down (already a couple of hours). Going to play Path of Exile instead...
 
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To be honest, how a game that is not working for a large amount of people who bought, or simple not working at all a some times can get any rating above 4/10 is beyond me. I mean, yes, the game itself is quite decent (which should give it an 8, it's nothing amazing or revolutionary, just a solid arpg) but it has so many DRM problems it is practically unplayable for many people. Well, sites like IGN will never admit that a big publisher can do something wrong.
 
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I'm SO tired of hearing the 'all reviewers are bought off' tripe…

All reviewers? No. But it does happen. I worked in the games industry for a while, and actually witnessed it.

I can't understand how reviews can praise it's level of polish, when it's clear that they've had some serious issues with a lack of polish…

Daniel.
 
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I'm SO tired of hearing the 'all reviewers are bought off' tripe…

I am sorry. I should have written "...will hardly ever admit that a big publisher can do anything wrong, even if they sometimes do criticize their less important titles". Is that better?
 
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Given how many people on these boards alone clearly love the game, it amazes me that people assume that for a reviewer to give the game a high score, then they must have been bought off. There are clearly lots of people who have not been bribed who would give it similarly high scores.

As for DRM issues, it's important to note that not everyone has had the same experiences. I had issues on the first day, but it was pretty smooth sailing after that. Does an online game deserve a permanent review score reduction for initial launch problems?
 
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Much much better than previous Diablos. Each area has a vaguely coherent rationale and the backstory is explained at each stage. The quality of the story isn't anything special - OK, it's pretty bad actually - but there is at least lore for most things if you seek out the journals. Or you can just ignore them and bash through - the choice is yours.

Diablo II had what would be considered a damn good storyline, by today's standards. I can still remember it clearly and I haven't played the game in probably a decade. I suspect most people here can remember it too, am I right? And yet I can't even vaguely recall the plotline of Morrowind which I played in the same timeframe. Hell, I can barely remember the storyline of Mass Effect or Dragon Age and that was just a couple years back. So if D3 has a better storyline than D2 did that's really saying something in 2012, isn't it? And yet, you go on to say the story is actually "pretty bad"? What's up with that?
 
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Diablo II had what would be considered a damn good storyline, by today's standards. I can still remember it clearly and I haven't played the game in probably a decade. I suspect most people here can remember it too, am I right? And yet I can't even vaguely recall the plotline of Morrowind which I played in the same timeframe. Hell, I can barely remember the storyline of Mass Effect or Dragon Age and that was just a couple years back. So if D3 has a better storyline than D2 did that's really saying something in 2012, isn't it? And yet, you go on to say the story is actually "pretty bad"? What's up with that?

I'd say you're a fan who particularly likes the way Blizzard narrates their games. Nothing wrong with that, as stories are completely subjective. I just don't know how many people would agree that Diablo II was more memorable than Morrowind or Dragon Age. I know I wouldn't.

To be fair, I must admit I never played D2 to the end. I didn't find the game compelling enough to finish.
 
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To be fair, I must admit I never played D2 to the end. I didn't find the game compelling enough to finish.

With all due respect, you're hardly the one to be calling me biased if you didn't even like what is universally accepted to be the best action RPG to date well enough to finish it once :)

For the record at the time D2 was released it was my last choice after I eventually got tired of Fallout 1 & 2, Torment, M&M 6 and Jagged Alliance. Oh, and I was spending a lot of time in Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot back then, too. Hell, I wouldn't even call myself a fan of ARPGs at all. In fact I'm pretty sure I've argued with you about Deus Ex some time back. Anyway, I bet if people were honest (a lot to ask, I know) most here would admit they can still remember the storyline of D2, and probably even quote some of the lines from it. I stand by my assertion that by today's standards Diablo II had an outstanding storyline. What it didn't have was a lot of "blah blah blah" multiple-choice-but-not-really plot devices to advance to the next stage, which to some people I suppose means it had no story. Those people are wrong. It also didn't have a bunch of usable props with loads of completely useless and irrelevant information, which to other people means it had no story. Those people are wrong, too. If Diablo II had no story 90% of the people here wouldn't be able to offer us a synopsis of it, ten years later.
 
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Wow seriously, that not what I've heard from those having server disconnects! :S

Has Blizzard been splashing the cash? :(

Daniel.

If I wrote a review - not having had one single disconnect - would you accuse me of taking bribes? I'm not marking a game down for something I didn't personally experience.

The lore books are ok. I've read most of them and they're ok. But the main plotline is just absurd. And imo it is inferior to Diablo 2's plotline, as light as that was. Chris Metzen is getting to be really bad at writing their storyline. He did the same thing with the Starcraft 2 story. He botched it up. And Starcraft 1 had a very good story imo.

The atmosphere and use of lore in D3 are so far ahead of D2 they aren't even playing the same sport. I don't understand how you could get hung up on the plot in an ARPG when D3's moment-to-moment use of lore is so much better.

People who want to play it as as singleplayer game simply don't "get" what the whole design is about. It's not that it can't be played that way - but it's less than 1% of the potential and intended experience.

Someone else who wants to tell me how I feel. I get it just fine, thanks. I don't like MP, so I'm happy to "miss out". Is that OK with you?

I suspect most people here can remember it too, am I right? And yet I can't even vaguely recall the plotline of Morrowind which I played in the same timeframe.

Nope, sorry. D2 had a plot? Maybe the plot - taken as a bullet-point outline- was better (?), but the in-game delivery was so poor as to render it meaningless for me.
 
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