Is Diablo 3 a bad game? No not at all, but in my honest opinion it isn’t what we the fans of the former 2 installments waited so long to experience. Timing is everything in game releases these days with the market being heavily saturated and award winning titles being produced literally one month after the next. So to say that gamer patience is practically non-existent, is a huge understatement, you snooze and you lose. Luckily for Diablo 3 one of the most beloved game companies was behind it… so gamers waited patiently for it’s masterpiece.
Diablo 3 launched to server errors galore, capacity limits booting people from the game and hackers having a field day with people’s accounts. One of our own 3GK partners logged in to find his high level Demon Hunter hacked, stark naked, and void of all his hard-earned gold. To say this was frustrating is a huge understatement; it’s a kick in the balls with a steel-toed boot.
We expect nonsense like this from online multi-player games due to the mysterious connections we risk when playing publicly but even if you go it alone in Diablo you have to be online anyway. This alone has been a massive gripe from the player-base to Blizzard. I found that even when playing my game solo (which I did all through the Normal Mode) I experienced lag-spikes, a bit of rubber-banding and my favorite thing in the world… ERROR 37, the bitch of a message you get when trying to log in to play. Just yesterday I go this message every time I tried and it really made me hate the fact that I bought the game so quickly.
The following video explains the feeling a lot better than I can:
… ya, the always online requirement is for lack of a better word the worst fucking idea ever made. But I digress because after beating Normal and moving unto Nightmare and even Hell mode, you truly do not want to continue playing solo or you will get your ass kicked royally.
The Good Stuff (for those who care)
Damn this game is beautiful, I mean you want to shed a tear when you see Leah’s sweat-filled brow pan down past her ultra-realistic eyes to her supple mouth then hands. The CGI interludes and intro are top-notch but Blizzard has more than proven that they can do this so no surprise there.
The game itself is well developed, all the online net bull crap aside, the graphics are the best I’ve seen in a bird’s eye hack-n-slash, and when you have it all decked out graphically, with anti-aliasing turned on (very important feature folks) it looks like you’re looking down on an actual world gone to hell.
Diablo 3’s lore sucks you in as you feel the plight of the human race being stuck between the war waging between angels and demons. The voice acting is extremely well done and adds an element that was missing from the former games which didn’t give you much of it. Voice acting is huge for gaming, being that The Old Republic did it with 100% of the NPC’s, it is that next level of RPG gaming that Diablo takes full advantage of.
It’s pretty damn cool, the tomes found are read back to you! Your NPC allies have full stories on their own unlocked via talking with them. The demons curse you out, seduce you and threaten to eat you. The sound is so delightfully hellish that it makes you want to turn up the speakers and get immersed. Then there’s the artwork which is all that…
See as a game Diablo delivers (albeit a short delivery if you are the anti-social, non-challenge type), but if you want longevity D3 will have you grinding out hell runs till your fingers are numb… all in the quest for gear to make you more powerful and more able to survive the onslaught.
Lots of New Features
Gone are the days of people playing vendor via a mule toon, because Blizzard has added an Auction House that allows players to buy items for ingame gold or real money. Yup you can make a small fortune selling your beastly rares to people who find them valuable enough to pay cold hard cash. Well you still have to pay Blizzard a chunk of it, but still – this is an unprecedented move to curb the dollars away from gold farmers and back into the hands of players (and Blizzard). But if you think about it, the farmers will win the day on this too… so don’t expect me to swipe my card to buy my sorceress a bad-ass wand anytime soon.
Gold is still relevant an asset and it’s been a couple weeks into the game; hopefully it will stay this way as to avoid the duping Stone of Jordan rings to procure the sickest gear (a little Diablo 2 reference there for the old heads in the crowd). Skill trees do not force you to make multiple Witch Doctors, or multiple Monks for the sake of variety because now you can swap out skills on the fly.
Speaking of skills D3 allows you to keybind 4 active skills with an additional 2 bound to your mouse buttons and 3 passive buff slots and 1 for a potion. That makes 10 active things for us to manage to make our ultimate build. So don’t feel comfortable if you have an epic Barbarian kicking ass. It is now easier than ever for unoriginal people to borrow flavor of the month builds.
Sorry folks but I don’t think there are any cow runs or map hacks in Diablo 3… as of yet! One of the cooler things now is that loot drops are exclusive to each player. So no ninja looting, popping, or grab-assery that made many of us rage-quit during the many hours of Diablo 2.
One of the better changes is that the different alts you roll all share the same storage chest, blacksmith (you can level this guys up), Jeweler, gold, and banner (one of my favorite features). So you can use your main to stock up goodies for your alt, level up the blacksmith to forge rares, and design your own banner using the unlocked patterns and symbols that you collect as you play.
I know this isn’t Guild Wars but Blizzard please GIVE US CAPES!!!! It would be so badass to have us be able to wear our banner on our individual toons… maybe a feature for later.
Let’s wrap it up!
Diablo 3 will suck your life away just like its predecessors, and whether you play solo or in public groups it is so much fun that you will wonder where the time goes. The only problem however is getting in, there are just way too many issues and Error 37 is something that Blizzard will not live down anytime soon. This is an amazing game with much potential in terms of expansion for both characters and the world. I would wait until the issues are 100% resolved before purchasing it, but you should keep it on your list of must-tries going forward as it is a lot of fun, and a whole lot of ass kicking in a lightweight package.
GOD KING GRADE: (B) ★★★★★
