So, I just finished the Diablo 3 beta, and well I have a couple things on my mind.

1. It’s easy, and I mean really freaking easy. At no time did I ever feel challenged for even a second. Correct me if am wrong I remember Diablo 2 on Normal being quite hard, and almost stressfully so at times. This just seems ridiculously easy; maybe this is the game to make very easy the new normal?

2. The world feels claustrophobic; I know D2 wasn't huge either. But it felt larger then this game and those were the days of 800x640.

3. Voice Acting: is great, from Npc's, quests, and I really enjoyed the Lore logs being read aloud while I play.

4. Gameplay: Its super simple, yes I know the Beta is fairly limited in skills. But in no point did I ever feel the need for strategy, or even have any method of implementing strategy. The environmental weapons can't really be called strategic either. Towards the last half of the beta, I found myself trying to chain kill streaks. It felt as if I was playing god of war or batman but in a Diablo perspective in tight narrow halls. Those are great games, but is that what you want out of a Diablo game?

5. Crafting: Well I only found blacksmithing in the beta, and boy was it lame. It’s super simple, and quite underwhelming. I personally don't like crafting in games, but I can't imagine this system satisfying any crafting aficionados.

6. No character customization, even to a small degree. Now I know Diablo never had such a thing, but its 2012 and we've come to expect at least some level of customization in our rpg's. ( Yes, yes, diablo is all about loot, loot is the customization blah blah...)

7. Visuals: Well it looks decent, but to be honest it’s nothing to talk about. It actually feels like a torchlight clone in a weird way rather than Diablo. There's plenty of blood, and the lighting tries to be dark at times, but it feels so cartoony, so torchlight. I remember my diablo being grim, dark; full of anguish, pain, and the art style reflected such things. This art style feels confused as if it can't decide whether it should be torchlight, or whether it should be diablo.

8. Loot feels mediocre, it’s the traditional game of looking like shit till you reach end game. Also as a monk I found myself carrying swords, for the best stats even though all my moves use fists. So incidentally I’d be punching everyone while holding swords, while still benefiting from the swords stats. Seems kind of like a half assed way to solve class loot issues in the loot pool.

In the end this feels like an uninspired take at a new Diablo game. It feels like they really haven't tried to change much, or rather tried to innovate I should say. What they have changed seems like odd choices for a fan of diablo, and more geared towards mass market appeal. In the end I guess what I'm really trying to ask is: Is there a place for Diablo 3 in 2012?

Edit: Maybe i should of rephrased the last question in the form of; Is there a place for Diablo 2 in 2012?

Although it will be interesting to see how the final game will turn out, the parts you talk about in the Beta seem underwhelming to me. Sounds like it will be a fine game that just doesn't do enough to Wow anyone or innovate in any way so much as just satiate the tastes of a good portion of die-hard fans just enough whilst making it accessible for the mainstream. I'm probably wrong with that description but time will tell when this game finally releases.

When I played I kind of missed town portals, mostly because I miss being able to instantly get out of danger. Now you have to use a hearth stone. I wish I had the option to buy a town portal at least. The beta was super easy though, but it is only normal mode, even on Diablo II you can solo normal mode with somewhat ease with players set to 8.

@Beaudacious:

1. No, the beginning of Diablo 2 was pretty darn easy too. I don't remember anything prior to maybe Blood Raven requiring any actual thought (unless you got an unfortunate rare spawn, which I've seen in D3 as well). They want the beginning of Normal to be introducing mechanics before they start having you worry about things like resource management, which is why you rarely seem to run out of your secondary resource in the beta. Since the D3 beta is only a short snippet of Act 1, it's hard to get a feel for how much this progresses They've addressed this issue a LOT, especially in how it relates to scaling between difficulties, and people who have had access to the more in-depth betas that tested these different levels have attested to the fact that the game gets really hard.

4. Not sure I follow what you mean. Diablo 2 wasn't really strategic either, you basically focused all your effort around one (or maybe two) skills and spammed them. D3 at least encourages a variety of skill loadouts since you don't have to spec in one skill to the exclusion of the other. It's not Starcraft though, it's a dungeon hack-and-slash, so maybe you're expecting something a bit different?

5. Crafting is, admittedly, a bad name for it. I like it, but it's not really what one would call crafting. I think the idea of having camp followers (that are static between all your characters) you can upgrade for benefits is pretty cool though.

6. Going back to 4, I think you're coming with the expectations of a slightly different genre. Not to repeat what you said already, but dungeon hack and slashers ARE all about the loot, the random drops, and always trying to find something better. Customization typically comes in the gear you equip, and the skill loadout you bring out. The same can be true of similar entries in the genre like Torchlight. Or if you want to pull it back a bit further, even other action RPGs aren't often that much more in depth. You seem to be expecting a WRPG style game, which isn't really the Diablo experience.

8. Well the loot IS pretty mediocre, we're looking at the first part of the first act of the first difficulty of the game. You're not really going to get any particularly awesome loot out of that. I'd be kinda disappointed if my character did look super awesome after just killing one boss, part of the appeal for diablo (to me) IS starting in rags and pulling yourself up to look like a knight that has become zeus's younger brother.

@WilltheMagicAsian: Town portals are in (though it's a casted spell rather than a scroll) replacing the Stone of Recall.

After reading the first post, I became very uneasy about the game - then after reading Addfwyn's, and I was told this isn't even the whole Act 1, I had to laugh. Who would form an impression off the beginning of a loot-driven game? I wonder what Blizzard can even learn from grinding players through such a small slice.

Who cares about Diablo anyway (yeah I know a lot of people still care...) I just want Borderlands 2. Borderlands is the new type of loot driven game that I want to see more of. The isometric click on stuff is so 1990's.

There's no way the current beta is going to be any indicator of the final game's overall difficulty. You're talking about what is essentially the tutorial for a game that is going to continue to get harder and harder and harder. Not to say that the game is going to end up super hard either, just saying we have nowhere near enough information to make anything approaching an educated guess.

The same goes for environments. Who knows what's going to be in store as the game progresses beyond the guided experience of the tutorial. Then again, Diablo II traded in a lot of narrow pathways and small environments all the way through to the end of the game so that could be making a return in Diablo III.

@Addfwyn said:

4. Not sure I follow what you mean. Diablo 2 wasn't really strategic either, you basically focused all your effort around one (or maybe two) skills and spammed them. D3 at least encourages a variety of skill loadouts since you don't have to spec in one skill to the exclusion of the other. It's not Starcraft though, it's a dungeon hack-and-slash, so maybe you're expecting something a bit different?

As far as skills go, it was pretty much this in D2. You spent your first 1.5 playthroughs on each character with a bunch of shitty worthless skills until you finally managed to get one or two of the 14 skills across all classes actually viable for the end-game. Then you just spammed those one or two skills all the way through level 99 and beyond. A casual glance at the skill calculator seems to indicate that EACH class in D3 is going to have more than 14 viable skills and the freedom granted by the current implementation of the skill system actually encourages players to mix it up and take unique loadouts and strategies into each encounter.

The crafting system is less crafting and more a focused form of item gambling. You take a lot of old junk you don't need and try to turn it into a piece of junk that you do need. The key difference is that through crafting, you will have significantly more control over the base quality of the item. Also there's the Jeweler but he's basically just the Horadric Cube.

In terms of visuals, well, that's just a matter of preference.

But I don't think you should let the way loot earned during the first 1/48th of the game color your expectations. If you look at the item designs in the D3 gameplay guide, you'll see that gear starts looking interesting fairly quickly. Also the fact that each piece of generic gear has a completely different look for each class ensures that there is always going to be a sense of style cohesion for your character.

So I guess what I'm saying is, don't just a Diablo by its cover. Also I hate you and I WANT THE BETA!

So what I'm seeing is they dumbed the game down and made it easy? -_- Is that the trend now a days? I'm not saying D2 was hard but it wasn't for me at least not until I was playing on anything but Normal. Even then it depending on what class and build I had. I suppose this goes with them supposedly wanting to release D3 on consoles?

Honestly, I don't care. The game hopefully can be "players 4" to up the difficulty like D2 if needed and if not, its D3 I'll take what I can get and love every minute of it.

@Addfwyn said:

@Beaudacious:

1. No, the beginning of Diablo 2 was pretty darn easy too. I don't remember anything prior to maybe Blood Raven requiring any actual thought (unless you got an unfortunate rare spawn, which I've seen in D3 as well). They want the beginning of Normal to be introducing mechanics before they start having you worry about things like resource management, which is why you rarely seem to run out of your secondary resource in the beta. Since the D3 beta is only a short snippet of Act 1, it's hard to get a feel for how much this progresses They've addressed this issue a LOT, especially in how it relates to scaling between difficulties, and people who have had access to the more in-depth betas that tested these different levels have attested to the fact that the game gets really hard.

4. Not sure I follow what you mean. Diablo 2 wasn't really strategic either, you basically focused all your effort around one (or maybe two) skills and spammed them. D3 at least encourages a variety of skill loadouts since you don't have to spec in one skill to the exclusion of the other. It's not Starcraft though, it's a dungeon hack-and-slash, so maybe you're expecting something a bit different?

5. Crafting is, admittedly, a bad name for it. I like it, but it's not really what one would call crafting. I think the idea of having camp followers (that are static between all your characters) you can upgrade for benefits is pretty cool though.

6. Going back to 4, I think you're coming with the expectations of a slightly different genre. Not to repeat what you said already, but dungeon hack and slashers ARE all about the loot, the random drops, and always trying to find something better. Customization typically comes in the gear you equip, and the skill loadout you bring out. The same can be true of similar entries in the genre like Torchlight. Or if you want to pull it back a bit further, even other action RPGs aren't often that much more in depth. You seem to be expecting a WRPG style game, which isn't really the Diablo experience.

8. Well the loot IS pretty mediocre, we're looking at the first part of the first act of the first difficulty of the game. You're not really going to get any particularly awesome loot out of that. I'd be kinda disappointed if my character did look super awesome after just killing one boss, part of the appeal for diablo (to me) IS starting in rags and pulling yourself up to look like a knight that has become zeus's younger brother.

@WilltheMagicAsian: Town portals are in (though it's a casted spell rather than a scroll) replacing the Stone of Recall.

Thank you for not being a misinformed idiot. Geez, op needs to do some research and go back to d2 before criticizing the beta -_-

Interesting to see that across all game forums there is unease on where the game is going. Will Blizzard lose sales to Borderlands 2, and what happens if some developers decide to creat a Diablo mod using the borderlands engine?

Ironically, this is slightly similar to what happened to Dune 2....which eveyone said was great, but could be even better if the game was set in a fantasy setting....the result, Blizzard brought the engine and created a Warcraft.

If Blizzard don't get their act together, they could possibly find their game beaten buy a 'mod shop' using someone elses engine in the same way WESTWOOD STUDIOS saw Dune 2 owned by Blizzards Warcraft interms of sales and future games. After all, in Borderlands you've already got the classes........change the skins, change the landscape, add a story and you have some competition....

History repeats?

@avidwriter: Nope, the only part that people have been played is essentially the tutorial or the first ~1/48th of the game. The only difference is that in D3 they actually give you abilities that are worthwhile at level 1 instead of forcing you to play a gimped character until halfway through Act 3.

@slackrabbit: A majority of the unease seems to be coming from people whose nostalgia tinted glasses have blinded them to what Diablo II was actually like, and those players love Diablo so much that they'll be buying D3 regardless. The game will be a huge success and critically revered, count on it.

@Addfwyn:

The beta is all that blizzard has provided so far, and in their view it’s supposed to be a large enough span to properly tune the entire game. With that thinking I’d say it’s fair to make an opinion, also I didn't state my views as fact. I just said these were things on my mind and how I felt.

Another thing perspective, Diablo 2 was a complicated game, and strategic for its time. Games have now evolved to encompass many more elements, so by these standards Diablo 2 was quite simple. Now you'd expect its successor to try and develop those basics into new more in-depth mechanics, instead it’s essentially D2.

In terms of customization because you guys say D2 didn't have it, and the "genre" didn't have it so D3 shouldn't? What bullshit logic is that? Sequels need to evolve and mature.

In terms of loot, I said it’s the standard blizzard trope of shit gear till end game. WHY? So many newer games are starting to understand Players don't want to loot like shit their first 100hours of play. So again take whatever blizzard shoves in our mouths and accept it as the norm?

@StarvingGamer: In terms of skills, just in the beta. There already would seem to be the notion of dropping earlier skills and never using them again, especially those that generate rage, spirit, hatred or what not. So that pool isn't as large as you might think, it seems blizzard has again fallen for the trope of junk skills.

@endless_void: Does your research include being in the beta? Playing the multiple classes, talking to others who’ve actually played the game? Even if so, all I hear from you is; “Zomg Diablo 3, must be the best gamez in the worlddz!!”.

@Beaudacious said:

Another thing perspective, Diablo 2 was a complicated game, and strategic for its time. Games have now evolved to encompass many more elements, so by these standards Diablo 2 was quite simple. Now you'd expect its successor to try and develop those basics into new more in-depth mechanics, instead it’s essentially D2.

In terms of customization because you guys say D2 didn't have it, and the "genre" didn't have it so D3 shouldn't? What bullshit logic is that? Sequels need to evolve and mature.

In terms of loot, I said it’s the standard blizzard trope of shit gear till end game. WHY? So many newer games are starting to understand Players don't want to loot like shit their first 100hours of play. So again take whatever blizzard shoves in our mouths and accept it as the norm?

What the fuck are you even talking about?

You're obviously overly aggressive while at the same time talking random nonsense about Diablo II. Just because you talk about in-depths mechanics and other random stuff doesn't mean what you say is a) true nor does make a lot sense.

Edit:

And the Beta is far away from everything we know about Diablo 3. There has been tons of interviews, Blizzcon Panels etc.

E.g. your difficulty complaint - have a look. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Zd7YD3uuM

@Beaudacious:

Thanks for the write-up. Sort of confirms my own impressions so far.

And people need to stop white-knighting everything that Blizzard does.

@Beaudacious said:

1. It’s easy, and I mean really freaking easy. At no time did I ever feel challenged for even a second. Correct me if am wrong I remember Diablo 2 on Normal being quite hard, and almost stressfully so at times. This just seems ridiculously easy; maybe this is the game to make very easy the new normal?

Yeah, it was pretty easy, but keep in mind this is the only the first part of the first act. We haven't even made it to the first act-end boss yet. There are also 4 difficulties to go through this time rather than 3.

2. The world feels claustrophobic; I know D2 wasn't huge either. But it felt larger then this game and those were the days of 800x640.

I didn't really feel this way. I guess the cathedral parts were pretty hallway-focused now that I think about it, but the outdoor sections were just as open as Diablo 2.

3. Voice Acting: is great, from Npc's, quests, and I really enjoyed the Lore logs being read aloud while I play.

I barely listened to it, I will actually take my time and delve into the world when I have the full game.

4. Gameplay: Its super simple, yes I know the Beta is fairly limited in skills. But in no point did I ever feel the need for strategy, or even have any method of implementing strategy. The environmental weapons can't really be called strategic either. Towards the last half of the beta, I found myself trying to chain kill streaks. It felt as if I was playing god of war or batman but in a Diablo perspective in tight narrow halls. Those are great games, but is that what you want out of a Diablo game?

The combo thing sounds pretty awesome to me. Also again keep in mind the difficulty level. If you played Diablo 2, you should know that the enemies are much slower and easier to manage at the beginning.

5. Crafting: Well I only found blacksmithing in the beta, and boy was it lame. It’s super simple, and quite underwhelming. I personally don't like crafting in games, but I can't imagine this system satisfying any crafting aficionados.

I don't like crafting in games either, but this is barely even crafting. You're not out there mining or collecting materials to use specifically for crafting. You're just breaking down the drops you don't need to make items that you do. In a loot driven game like this or Borderlands or something, that's an awesome concept and I think the blacksmith is great.

6. No character customization, even to a small degree. Now I know Diablo never had such a thing, but its 2012 and we've come to expect at least some level of customization in our rpg's. ( Yes, yes, diablo is all about loot, loot is the customization blah blah...)

I agree that character customization would be cool, but the camera is zoomed out so far that it would barely be noticeable.

7. Visuals: Well it looks decent, but to be honest it’s nothing to talk about. It actually feels like a torchlight clone in a weird way rather than Diablo. There's plenty of blood, and the lighting tries to be dark at times, but it feels so cartoony, so torchlight. I remember my diablo being grim, dark; full of anguish, pain, and the art style reflected such things. This art style feels confused as if it can't decide whether it should be torchlight, or whether it should be diablo.

I think this is a valid argument, but I never came to Diablo for the atmosphere. I love these games for the mechanics and the combat that makes you feel really powerful.

8. Loot feels mediocre, it’s the traditional game of looking like shit till you reach end game. Also as a monk I found myself carrying swords, for the best stats even though all my moves use fists. So incidentally I’d be punching everyone while holding swords, while still benefiting from the swords stats. Seems kind of like a half assed way to solve class loot issues in the loot pool.

What about the loot feels mediocre? It feels just like Diablo 2 to me. I was finding items with different elemental damages, life leech, boosted mana regeneration, etc. I also didn't think any of my characters looked like shit once I created a basic set of gear at the blacksmith at around level 7 or 8. Honestly, from what I've seen in some of the concept art, the end game gear looks a lot dumber and more ridiculous than my current gear does.

In the end this feels like an uninspired take at a new Diablo game. It feels like they really haven't tried to change much, or rather tried to innovate I should say. What they have changed seems like odd choices for a fan of diablo, and more geared towards mass market appeal. In the end I guess what I'm really trying to ask is: Is there a place for Diablo 3 in 2012?

I definitely disagree with your first statement. This feels more like Diablo than I thought it would before getting into the beta. I feel like some of the mechanical changes, like automatically distributing my stats, are super lame and I will miss being able to make an offbeat character type, but I dig the new skill system and think the combat feels great. Everyone in Diablo 2 stacked up on life leech and mana leech/insight merc to keep their health and mana up so that could keep fighting constantly and I feel like Blizzard has seen that that's what people find fun and they have built this game to support that right from the start with the health orbs and the super fast regenerating resources. Coming from someone who still has Diablo 2 installed and actually plays it from time to time, I think Diablo 3 absolutely has a place in 2012.

Is it spooky? The thing I didn't like about Diablo II was that it was a lot less scary than the first one. I'm worried about Diablo III because from what I've seen, it look like a kids' game compared to the original Diablo.

@chrissedoff: It's not really spooky or scary, no. You're too busy punching enemies in the face and blowing them across the room to be afraid of them. If you're looking for horror, you'll have to find something else.

Goddammit Blizzard, don't you know Torchlight already exists? I want Diablo to have dank catacombs, pentagrams and blood sacrifices, not look like a kids' haunted house!

@chrissedoff said:

Goddammit Blizzard, don't you know Torchlight already exists? I want Diablo to have dank catacombs, pentagrams and blood sacrifices, not look like a kids' haunted house!

It may not be dark or tense, but I don't think it's fair to say that it's a kids' haunted house either. There is definitely some stuff in the beta that you might enjoy, like the bulkier zombies that keep crawling towards you after you kill them with their guts dragging behind them, or the ones that puke on the ground to raise new zombies, or the big abomination guys that explode into a bunch of worms when they die. The typical stuff is there, it's just not very scary given the current difficulty level.

@Beaudacious said:

@StarvingGamer: In terms of skills, just in the beta. There already would seem to be the notion of dropping earlier skills and never using them again, especially those that generate rage, spirit, hatred or what not. So that pool isn't as large as you might think, it seems blizzard has again fallen for the trope of junk skills.

Only 3 of the classes even utilize generators in the traditional sense, Monks, Barbs and Demon Hunters. I think it's far too early for anyone to be saying anything about those skills being junk or obsolete, as auxiliary Fury / Hatred / Spirit generation does not appear in any significant capacity until the very highest of the high tier gear. They'll at least be useful during the first 3 difficulties which is significantly better than 95% of the skills available in Diablo II.

Also have you actually had a chance to look at the skill calculator and the way different runes interact with the various skills to keep them relevant? For instance, between runes and passives, I can easily see the potential for a viable Barbarian build that relies ENTIRELY on generators. Tank Monk builds may want to use their first generator because of the large buff to dodge it can offer, and it also happens to be the fastest Spirit generator that the Monk has which is a nice bonus. The Demon Hunter's first generator will be incredibly strong if prolonged kiting becomes a viable strategy, as it will allow the DH to function as a weaker Javazon in between Elemental Arrows.

And that's just the 20 total Generator skills between all three of those classes. There are still 93 more skills to be considered, most of which players have never gotten to use. If you add in runes, which no one has interacted with yet, and the way they will modify any skill in the game in one of five distinct ways it should become clear that any sort of judgment call on on the skill system at this point is incredibly premature.

I've been in the beta since they started it, and I feel like the OP needs to realize a few things before he starts spouting all this out.

First off, the beta only has the "Easy" difficulty available, and it's for the beginning of the game...which will admittedly be the easiest part because it needs to teach people what the components of the game are.

Second, you need to realize that a lot of the reason they are doing a beta is to ensure that characters are not overpowered, there are few bugs and glitches, and the general pacing of everything is set up well. So far, I feel like they are accomplishing those goals rather well. Every iteration of this game that I've now played since getting into the beta in Fall 2011 feels like a big step forward in creating a smoother gaming experience.

Third, the game is fucking gorgeous! The game definitely gets its eventual Mature rating, that's for sure.

I don't know. I've enjoyed the hell out of the beta so far and also understand a lot of the reasons that specific elements have been made the way they are for the beta. It's not the final game, and judging it like it should be by saying "oh, it was easy to go through" is just a bit petty for something that is being used to test things out and work on the game in a controlled environment more than satiating one's palette for simply playing Diablo III.

I don' really understand the whole Diablo is being "dumbed down", like hasn't been Diablo a dumb..ish kind of thing ever?

Don't get me wrong I love Diablo, click click click .. click.. OHH I'm going to press a 1 for the boss and click click click

It seems like a lot of people go into the beta or beta discussion threads with a set opinion that Diablo 3 will either be great and innovating or horrible and casual friendly. That Blizzard removed attribute points might be disappointing to most people but you have to consider that they're focusing more on using skills/runes to make custom builds. Like the OP, I didn't find a lot of the skills in the beta to be all that useful; I would unlock a new skill as I leveled up, use it a few times, then go back to what I had grown accustomed to by that point. But I could see myself revisiting those skills if I had runes that altered their effects or if I were in a situation that called for a different approach.

@avidwriter: Yeah, the difficulty increases as more players join your game.

@chrissedoff: D3 still has the dark fantasy elements (looting the bodies of dead villagers for gold and, like Zithe mentioned, a grotesque enemy design) that were in D2 but you won't feel as helpless as you did in D1. Not even D2 had that in the first act.

@WilltheMagicAsian Town Portals are back in but don't really support escaping like they did in D2. Its an unlimited use icon near your mana globe that takes about ten seconds to cast.

@CptBedlam said:

@Beaudacious:

Thanks for the write-up. Sort of confirms my own impressions so far.

And people need to stop white-knighting everything that Blizzard does.

I see more valid counter-points than nonsensical white knighting in this thread.

As for people saying it looks like Torchlight, I really don't see the similarities besides the bright (brighter than D2 at least) color palette. TL had a very stylised/cartoon-like look to the character design that isn't in D3. This is probably off topic but if you really don't like the bright colors or anything else you think is wrong with D3 for that matter, maybe you should check out Grim Dawn. Its from the people that made Titan Quest if you're familiar with that game. They're an indie developer now and if you liked Titan Quest or if you like the way this game looks you can prepurchase the game to support them.

Some pre-alpha gameplay footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqGP4LT_cYo

Here's their website: http://www.grimdawn.com

Ah, but can I click on hordes of enemies and make them die gruesome deaths while I pick up loot? Yes? Cool. Cool cool cool. That's all I wanted.

@Beaudacious: I got invited into both the Diablo 3 beta and the Path of Exile beta. I completely agree with all the points you've made. And I'd highly recommend you check out Path of Exile. A lot of beta players seem more content with this game as a 'true successor' to Diablo 2 than where Blizzard's taken the franchise. Personally, I'm enjoying Path of Exile more. It has depth. It's grim as hell. And boy does it nail the Diablo 2 feeling (even their website feels like a late-90s site). Beyond this, it does make a handful of meaningful additions that add layers to the core gameplay; for example: there is no proper currency, potions are a little more complex than consumable chugging bottles, and skills are gems that must fit into item sockets.

Hopefully I've just enlightened you on a little gem that deserves significantly more attention than it's receiving.

@project343: SKILL FORESTS!!!! I just got in PoE today after waiting foreverrrr (since Sept). Gotta say I'm REALLY enjoying PoE. This game definitely needs more attention.

@project343: It looks like what i'd want from a Diablo 3 successor, but i think my issue is i no longer want to play this type of game. I'll just wait for GW2 to satisfy any lingering Diablo feelings i have left. But i'll definetly give PoE a try if i get into the beta, or it gets a release.

Chech out Grim dawn or path of exile ... both are in beta

@Beaudacious said:

@Addfwyn:

The beta is all that blizzard has provided so far, and in their view it’s supposed to be a large enough span to properly tune the entire game. With that thinking I’d say it’s fair to make an opinion, also I didn't state my views as fact. I just said these were things on my mind and how I felt.

This is a common misconception I think, the widely available beta almost seems more to test infrastructure, servers, stress test, auction house, that kind of thing. They have been running smaller scale (inhouse and the like) betas with a lot more depth focused on other aspects of the gameplay. The generally open public beta can't really be used to tune the entire game when so many game mechanics, like runestones, aren't even implemented. So I don't feel that they are really saying that that tiny slice of the game is enough to balance/judge everything off of. Maybe it's their fault for running a beta at all, given this kind of misconception being very wide-spread, but I guess they do need to stress test things and the servers.

Getting Overachiever wasn't hard either, considering that you can essentially AFK your way through the last quest for 6250 free EXP.

@Aus_azn said:

Getting Overachiever wasn't hard either, considering that you can essentially AFK your way through the last quest for 6250 free EXP.

I think you mean Betamaxed, "Reach max beta level for every character". One or two of the beta achievements (mainly "resurrect every class") require a little more effort than I'm willing to put in. I'm not that big on collecting achievements and the banner rewards don't seem worth it.

People's over-valued opinions make my head hurt.

@Beaudacious Thanks for bringing up the colour palette thing, so that I can dismiss your opinion entirely.

EDIT: Spelling is hard...

@HomemadeZiggurat said:

@Aus_azn said:

Getting Overachiever wasn't hard either, considering that you can essentially AFK your way through the last quest for 6250 free EXP.

I think you mean Betamaxed, "Reach max beta level for every character". One or two of the beta achievements (mainly "resurrect every class") require a little more effort than I'm willing to put in. I'm not that big on collecting achievements and the banner rewards don't seem worth it.

Yeah. I'll agree with you, the only really challenging achievement was the revives one, which actually required cooperation.

@Beaudacious They addressed a lot of your issues at a blizzcon. There are 4 difficulties above normal. Also you're seeing a third of the first act which was made to be a tutorial in their eyes. They said the enemies in the first act are very simple on purpose. There are hardly any ranged enemies at all and a lot of them have a very limited move set to what is going to be in the higher difficulties. Also loot gets better the higher difficulties you play at and something crazy like 70% of the loot isn't even in the normal difficulty.

You should check out that blizzcon thing. I'm too lazy to link.

@Veektarius said:

After reading the first post, I became very uneasy about the game - then after reading Addfwyn's, and I was told this isn't even the whole Act 1, I had to laugh. Who would form an impression off the beginning of a loot-driven game? I wonder what Blizzard can even learn from grinding players through such a small slice.

Exactly what I thought.

I canceled my preorder after I finished the beta.

The game won't live up to my expectations of an awesome game with depth. (Like the previous ones had, depth that is)

It will only live up to the expectations of a shallow action game.

I liked the game as it was presented to me in beta. It was okay. Nothing really special or negative to say. Some dislike the graphics but I think the game looks good.

After watching diablo developers talk about the changes and justifying them (quite well imo) I am eagerly awaiting the full release. The beta was fun to play and it made a lot of those developers decisions clear and logical. Normal is DESIGNED to be easy, so the beta was the easiest part the reason was to appeal to even casual gamers to entice them into becoming more hardcore . d3 focuses on build customisation (at blizzcon they estimated over 2 trillion which are designed to be all viable as each other - rather than optimal builds seen in WoW). Character visual customisation isn't that great when you are covered in gear and playing from a top down perspective. 70% of the loot is after normal difficulty and they claim that we will get our "asses kicked" on higher difficulties.

Re-reading this thread reminds me that the Internet has made gamers feel like opinions are factual and should be taken as such. It has also killed the average ability to research as well. Everyone wants to be a critic, just without the actual work behind the scenes. I've played the beta now and think the game is fantastic. "white-knighting", while it sounds cool to do, is not what blizzard fans do. Blizzard has released top-notch material time and time again that allows a following hat trusts their judgement.

I cannot wait for the release of this game when I can finally sink my teeth into the full breadth of what it has to offer.

okay i diddent read anything that anyone wrote here i just read the title and wanted to pop in and wanted to say that diablo 3 is awsome even though i really wanted something more in the veins of diablo 2.

i dont like the skill tree in 3 since it does not really allow a custom characters.

but come on its a freaking diablo 3 game and it does not suck its still awsome. im a happy man and still cant wait for it to be the 15 of may

The skill system seems to very spoon feedy. Sure you get "something" every level but you can't really make a choice. I can't decide to pick up a wide array of new skills or make a skill I already have better, nope i just get served one new thing that i have to pick over an already existing skill or as a mutator for an already existing skill.

I dunno, I just don't feel in control of my character like I did in diablo2, I feel like i'm getting a character given to me instead of building my own.

@slackrabbit: I didnt know they had changed Borderlands release date from september to may.

Worst thing about the beta and probably with the full game is the character limit on the battletag thing. I am no longer ExtremePopcorn but Extremepops, a skateboarding grandpa who loves mountain dew.

I was fairly underwhelmed by the open beta.

@Extreme_Popcorn said:

Worst thing about the beta and probably with the full game is the character limit on the battletag thing. I am no longer ExtremePopcorn but Extremepops, a skateboarding grandpa who loves mountain dew.

I am now just Starving on b.net

I should probably eat something.

What are you on about? The Beta is fucking awesome.

I really like the beta. It sold me on the final game.

The one thing that I would agree with is the art style. It does look a little too much like Torchlight, or WoW with darker textures and lighting. I know this topic has been done to death, but seeing it in action kinda deflated me a bit. I was already missing the nitty gritty style of Diablo 1 and 2 the minute I booted it up.

It's not something I'd write the entire game off for; everything else about the game feels like a Diablo game. It's just an unfortunate part of it.