Re: Diablo 3
So my friend bought D3 and gave me a guest pass, which allows you to try out the game for free.
Unfortunately, you can only play with other guest pass people, not people who actually bought the game, so we were unable to play together. Lame much? Maybe, just maybe, I would have been more inspired to buy the game had I been able to play with my friend? I mean, why else would your friend give you a guest pass?? Doesn't make a lot of sense.
The "starter edition", which is what you get with the guest pass, allows you to play up to level 13, or up to the skeleton king in Act 1. You also can't access the AH.
So with all of that in mind, here is what I think of D3 so far after playing for about two hours.
It's really boring.
.......................
First Impressions:
.......................
Cinematics: When you first start the game, it goes into the cinematic that was released awhile back, and nothing more. I was hoping it might expand on it a bit, but no such luck. Then the game starts.
Character Creation: Looks a little bit like WoW was my first thought. Absolutely no customization of any kind at all. You get to pick your name, your banner and your class. That's it. Why not more? No reason. None at all. They've been developing Diablo 3 for a decade and you can't even make your character your own.... Neat.
Gameplay: The first thing I tried doing was changing my viewing angle. Nope, As far as I could figure out, that's not an option.
It then guides you through the very self explanatory process of controls, which takes all of maybe 5 second. The controls are extremely simple and obvious, more so than any other game I've ever played, except Trackmania, where the only controls are the arrow keys.
Then I went off to explore the map and thus encountered my first monster. Bam, pow, boom. Monster dead, along with his friends. Okay, that was easy. Maybe it'll get a bit harder. ...Nope. Not once in the two hours that I played this game was it ever even remotely difficult. I never dropped down below half health. I rarely even got to the half health point. Very unlike Diablo (I remember almost dying quite a lot) and just kind of boring. Where's the fun if it's not challenging? It's just so mindless and unengaging.
After traveling a short distance, you encounter a camp with whatever survivors are left. You meet the captain who gives you a little quest. "Go here and talk to this person." So I did as much. And did as much again from that person. ...And again. It's basically just giving you the underlying "what's going on" story. It's mostly (as in entirely) uninteresting, though. It's just that nothing that anyone says is actually interesting. It's all very shallow and "of course. I didn't see that coming a mile away.... not." It's the same (and basic) mathematical formula that every game in existence uses.
Eventually, you'll end up on an actual quest where you need to go somewhere and do something that's actually worth doing. Except that it's not. It's just your typical, "Go here and kill [whatever], then come back and claim your reward". In fact... that's the entire game. There's no real exploration, it's extremely linear. You have one direction to go and you go there. You kill stuff along the way, collect stuff to sell or to wear or to use, and you kill some more stuff. As you kill new things, Mr Cain will pop up and give you a little info on them. Slightly interesting, but pretty shallow none-the-less. Just a quick little bit of info is all it is. Not once did I go, "Woah. That's pretty crazy/interesting/cool/etc." which frankly, I would have liked to. Creature and monster lore in a completely imaginary world can and should be very interesting.
After kicking and punching your way through a bunch of enemies that a child could beat up, you'll then meet a boss. Punch, kick, punch, punch, kick. Dead. Wait, was that really a boss? Even as a mini-boss.... that was super easy. I didn't even drop to half health. And he had friends surrounding him too! Again, boring.
And.... that's pretty much the entire game so far right there. There really isn't much else aside from that.
Skills: You get two main skills at any one time, where as you level, you can pick between a few options. One skill kills monsters this way, another skill kills monsters that way. You also get 4 more other skills, which are programmed to 1 - 4 on your keyboard. Basically the same thing. The difference any of them make and your decisions to use them... are non-existent. I never felt, "Hmm, that's nice, but I should really take this instead as it would be more beneficial to me." What you pick, ultimately, doesn't really matter. And as far as a skill tree goes, where you need to decide what you spec into... Yep. Doesn't exist. You unlock new skills as you level and then you decide if you want to use it or not. Again... boring.
Sounds/Music: It feels a bit like Diablo, but at the same time, it doesn't? I'm not really sure what it is. But it doesn't have that Diablo feeling. Maybe that's just me. But playing Torchlight, I had that feeling right away. It's all kind of unfortunate, because what you hear is just as important as what you see. They must have had a budget of a teenagers weekly allowance set aside for this category. It's all quite unimpressive and I didn't even notice the lack of engaging sounds until someone mentioned it to me.
Graphics: They are neither good nor bad. What else can I say? They don't impress, but they also don't let you down either. They're on the upper-end of mediocre I guess.
Character Cinematics: Largely uninteresting and unimpressive. I can't even remember what my characters cinematic was about.... That's how much of an impression it left on me.
Conclusion: It's just a total let down for me. It's very much like Diablo 2 in many ways, except that it's nowhere near as fun or as good. In fact, I would say that this game is not fun. I can't think of anything about it that I actually and legitimately enjoyed. It's just very boring. It feels a bit like Diablo, but it also doesn't feel like Diablo. Diablo 2 feels like Diablo even to this very day. And it had more and better cut scenes too!
All of this... after a decade in development...
Rating: 4/10
Reply With Quote
) She feels neglected. Poor thing, she will have worse times after the release 
