Diablo 3 Official Discussion Thread

[Xathan]

With the recent announcement that Diablo 3 is likely going into beta soon and Blizzard is aiming for a Q4 2011 release date, I figured I'd start an official discussion thread on it. From what I've seen, I'm really excited about pretty much everything about it - just curious what everyone else thinks.

[Ninja D!]

Want. WANT BAD. It sounds like it will be on consoles this time, too. I hope it will still have the same multiplayer functionality. Being able to log into Battle.net from my 360 would be great.

[Elemental_Elf]

I never played any of the Diablo games, I've heard they're good.

[Steerpike]

It certainly looks pretty.  My biggest complaint with D2 was that while certainly improved gameplay-wise over D1, it lost much of the intensely oppressive atmosphere of the first game.  In D1 you had a feeling of a slow descent into madness and horror, and I remember genuinely being hesitant to open certain doors, like the door to the Butcher's abattoir (I was pretty young at the time, but still).  There was a kind of pitch black purity to D1, an unrelenting quality which D2, with its colourful vistas, open wilderness spaces, and bustling cities, distinctly lacked.  Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed D2, but it didn't give me the dark frisson D1 occasionally managed.  Hopefully D3 will pull this off better.

[Ninja D!]

What I have seen of D3 looks almost, though not quite, as dark as the first.

[Ninja D!]

What I have seen of D3 looks almost, though not quite, as dark as the first.

[Ninja D!]

So, who is playing now?

[Superfluous Crow]

I tried it out for an hour at a friend's place, but I have neither the hardware nor the time to run it at the moment unfortunately. I played as the Demon Hunter. Aside from firing arrows and throwing knives at everything at an improbably pace he had a tendency to spew really cheesy oneliners. It was fun though. I love how you are really excited about finding a pair of "inferior gloves" in the first levels, haha.

[Llum]

I've been playing. Gone through the story several times. The story is mediocre (some fairly big plot holes that aren't addressed or something is just barely thrown up to barely cover it) but still way better than Starcraft 2 (dismal story and horrendous dialogue). Art wise the game looks amazing IMO. All the art related things are very very well done.

Game design wise, there are things that are missing, but Blizzard seems to be slowly fixing things. It honestly seems like the game was unfinished when it was released. Gameplay wise Act 1 has a LOT more polish than the rest of the game.

Overall it isn't terrible and I'm having fun but there are lots of issues. It should get better as time goes on however

[Humabout]

Story?  Diablo has that?  I was the guy who use to do 50-60 meph runs an hour and supply my friends with gear.  "Story" is an excuse to kill things in my book, so I don't care about the story.  I could rant about a lot of little things in the game, but the only two things that bug me is that there aren't any mf runs, like Meph or Baal and that farming a boss doesn't get you good enough gear to face the next section.  That aside, I totally am enjoying the endless grind.  A couple of gripes here, but overall having fun.

[Pymtein Magnushake]

I'm supposed to get my new computer tomorrow, and have already bought the digital copy of D3. Can't wait to try it first hand.

[Phoenix]

Finally broke down and ordered this. I loved D2, so I have high hopes. Not sure I like what I've read of the new skill system, though.

[Steerpike]

I held out for quite awhile but eventually succumbed.  I really like the gameplay so far (have played through Normal with a Barbarian and in Act 2 of Normal with a Witch Doctor), though I hear the balance gets strange at higher difficulties.  The art is beautiful, if not as dark as I'd like, but I adored the Halls of Agony and Arreat Crater, which had a sort of grotesque Clive Barkerish feel.  I did feel that the Acts feel a little recycled from D2 - Gothic countryside, scalding desert, frozen tundra, mad mage's demiplane (I did like the look of Heaven, though). They could have done plenty of different environments.  Why not feature Inarius' mirrored prison, the Asiatic island of Xiansai or the (presumably Grecian-feeling) islands of the Amazons, or the gloomy swamplands of the far east (including the underground city of the necromancers)?  Or why not break new ground and introduce ideas about Limbo or other whacky realms?  Instead it feels they took no risks at all and just rehashed everything.  It looks pretty, but it feels like playing a souped up version of D2.

I thought the story was totally awful:

Adria's plot and the Black Soulstone make all of Diablo 2 virtually meaningless and seemed extremely clumsy to me.  I think they should have gone with some plot to resurrect/recreate Diablo, perhaps by spreading terror or something, instead of ruling that he'd never really been destroyed, just secretly trapped in the Black Soulstone, which makes no sense - that's not how soulstones have been shown to work at all, and Diablo 2 clearly showed that Diablo/Mephisto's souls getting trapped in their soulstones, not swept away to the Black Soulstone).  Lots of other things don't add up: Leah suddenly running off to check on Cain and arriving back in Tristram faster than you can despite traveling by boat while you go by waypoint, Tyrael's fall awakening the dead (why?), Diablo having planned this all along (seriously?), Belial and Azmodan acting like complete idiots, etc.

[Phoenix]

Starting playing yesterday. Aspects of it feel like improvements, but the classes and the skill progression feel like a step back. I guess I miss the since of customization at level up. Now, your hero is fluid and your choices don't really matter since you can change anything. Doesn't seem like much reason to replay the same class after you finish with it.

[Llum]

There are two reasons, one added today. First, you're going to have a favorite class that you like to play (Monk and Wizard for me)

Secondly, Paragon levels. Let's you gain Paragon levels from xp once you hit 60 for bonus Magic Find, Gold Find and stats.