Diablo 3 - Blizzcon Previews @ GameSpot, GameSpy

Dhruin

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Two majors have hands-on impressions of Diablo III from Blizzcon. First, to GameSpot:
En route to the King's tomb, we had to do battle with countless skeletons and other enemies who, unlike their counterparts in previous games, attacked us using a variety of different tactics. The skeleton shieldbearers, for example, behaved almost like MMO players in a tanking role; stepping up to the front line and soaking up damage to protect other enemies with ranged attacks who were positioned behind them. Skeleton summoners also made for some memorable encounters. These puny enemies are extremely easy to kill, but you have to get to them first, and that's not always easy when there are a dozen or so skeletons doing their best to stand between you. You can kill the skeletons, of course, but the summoners can replace them almost as quickly as you can kill them, so you really have to find a way to either create a path through the skeletons or to lead them away from the summoners that they're protecting.
...and GameSpy:
Next we came upon a well, from which emanated the ghostly voice of a young girl, seemingly lost and searching for Miss Pretty. The voice work here was haunting, almost heartbreaking. Here we gained our first quest, added to our quest log automatically. Nearby we encountered the ghost of the young girl's mother, who, on the verge of tears, told us that her daughter was lost without her doll. We found Miss Pretty in a nearby chest, and returned to toss it down the well. How the little girl ended up in the well, left to die, we'd rather not dwell on. By returning the girl's doll to her spirit, she was able to find some peace, and rose up to hopefully join her family in the afterlife.
More information.
 
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This sounds like...well Diablo. I can't see why so many people go gaga over this - sure, if you've never played an action RPG then it would be intetesting, but it's all been done before post-Diablo (and much improved). Reading the interviews it seems like nothing much has changed over the original concept, and it brings little new that later games did not already add. Of course, I'm tired of monotonous kill-the-nth-wave of monsters type games, so it would take something different to pique my interest. Take away the updated graphics and what are you left with, really? Diablo was 'genre setting' (well, in being notriced by the gaming mainstream - others had been there before) - this is nothing like that. Hopefully Blizzard has something more interesting in the pipeline for the future - they have far more resources than most game dev studios.
 
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This sounds awesome.

There's something about refining a genre while everyone around you is trying to invent something new. It's been long enough since Diablo II.
 
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