Ferisam
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- 21 September 2001
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Hi all, this is my first and probably only feedback in this forum until the release of the game and my first play-through until the end of hell.
If you find it difficult to read through the whole post or hard to understand, but still feel to spam, flame or troll, ... DON'T. I'll try to keep is as structured as possible, if you want to answer, please consider using the number system to relate to the specific points. THX.
Foreword (should be read or I will be misunderstood)
Criticism (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly)
Commentary (Explanation of the criticism, suggestions)
Rating/Evaluation
Foreword
First I was very exited once I heard about the development of Diablo 3 and how early Blizzard Ent. allowed us insight into the process. But once I got to know more about the game and its mechanics, the more I was disappointed by what had been done to the franchise. I have written many articles on various forums and taken part in many discussions in the first quarter of the 'open' development process, but gave up due to lack of response and productive participation of fellow forum users. I also realized, that it was way to early to worry too much, since tons of content would probably be revised and not appear in the final release, so I checked in just once in a while until recently, when I noticed, that I got a Beta invite the previous month and missed it °°. - So I am back now, to draw from past disappointments and compare them to what actually made it into the game.
There are some things you should know about me, I am into fantasy and other branches of the genre for more then 30 years and am a game designer, artist and artisan for over 20 years now, I pre-ordered Diablo 1 and played it from the first day it was available and have not stopped (including Diablo 2 and D3 beta) yet. I can say wholeheartedly, that I know what I am talking about while reviewing and criticizing this game, something that I can sadly not say from about 95% of the posters in this or other related forums (other websites), which consist mostly of people who like to hear themselves talk. 80% of replies to any subject was “give me beta key” for a while and still people tend to respond to in which way a question or opinion was given, rather then to what was actually said or asked, trolling, spamming and insulting, while any serious discussion sinks into the swamp of accusation of being an antisocial blizzard hater. I am amazed every time how uncritical, moronic and simple-minded the game community seems to be, judging by what can be read here and there, and that the industry seems to listen and comply by creating games that seem to be made for the fast-food console gamer generation. I have given this much thought, over more then a year, and I am very fond of the Diablo franchise, which is why I encountered the Beta with as much neutrality as I could muster - Here is what I noticed.
Criticism
I will keep it as short as possible and deliver a detailed explanation, probably with suggestions for improvement and a personal opinion in the commentary.
The Good (Praise) - No Numbers are needed here...
I love the extra features that give bonus experience like micro achievements, mini quests and especially the lore items when you pick them up the first time.
I am very satisfied with the background look of the game. And this is one thing that bothered me enormously a year ago, deeming it too colorful, “cartoonish”, not fitting the style etc., but now, even though it still has a certain style, that, while looking straight at it, doesn't bother me that much anymore. To the contrary, while running around and “being” in the world, I must admit, it works just fine and sometimes even makes me feel in a positive way like I am running around in a matte painting.
The (gold) auction house works fine for me; as an auction house should.
The Barbarian feels like a Barbarian should, my compliments. The Wizard is almost equally good. The Witch Doctor lagging close behind. And I mean this in all aspects, from the handling, to the skill variety to the appearance (not the item tiers, more to those later).
In-game party connect. Easy and fast, nothing more to say.
The story. From what I have seen, heard and read, I can anticipate grandeur, and from the way it is presented in the first third of the first act i expect a fantastic experience.
The Atmosphere is marvelous, the places are bewitching, it is a pleasure to walk through sanctuary, hell and the high heavens (ups!). - There are some hickups that disturb this, but they are not part of the actual environment or atmosphere effects and mentioned later.
The various resource systems, nicely done.
Auto-Gold-Pickup, a big big plus.
Nice mercenary responses and character emotions/voices/gestures.
The Bad (moderately negative critique)
1 The followers are disappointing.
2 Multiple display annoyances clutter the screen and destroy the atmosphere.
3 The matchmaking system is way too unbalanced and uninformative.
4 The boss-event counter is bad and disturbs the game.
5 The Monk is a bit disappointing from the skills and the display of those. Since this is the Beta, a full review has to be postponed.
6 The privacy of character information.
7 The character statistic display/depiction is way too jumbled. Get rid of DPS, a big fail as the only damage display.
8 The Demon Hunter, which was my favorite after announcement is now my least favorite.
9 There are too few visual and game options, and I don't mean to turn on, I mean to turn things off.
10 Where is the 'W' weapon switch?
11 The multiplayer game mechanics are not satisfying.
12 Character individualization wanted.
13 Where is the normal attack (I know where it is, I mean, what use is it!)
14 The Red Out needs to be removed for HC!
The Ugly (Serious Flaws and Epic Fail)
I Optically the worst fail for me and totally unacceptable are the health orbs.
II The worst visual design failure are the tiers 5-16.
III Private Loot.
IV The Skill/Stat System. Ah ups, what system?
V Where is the F-Key Swap/Toggle?
VI Weapon carried - Weapon used - Skill relation
VII A Warning for the higher difficulties
Commentary
1 - The followers are disappointing, the skills feel weak, the damage is laughable and that already in single player, not to mention that they disappear in multiplayer. There are better ways to handle and balance our beloved mercenaries, e.g. boss monsters do extra damage versus mercenaries to take them out of the battle early on, they can't pass certain barriers, include commands etc...
2 - Multiple display annoyances like the un-close-able chat/massage board, the minimap, that is not so mini, the ridiculous skillbar - “Are you kidding me, displaying a mouse and coloring one button so one can understand what it means !!! Extra recharge counters, etc..
I would like options to disable a lot of those distracting gimmicks, the only thing one actually needs is the Life bulb, if the resource runs out, you will hear it soon enough from you char complaining about it. Ok, maybe not that drastic, but close. I would also like to reorder the allies icons and have them smaller and on the top.
3 - I realize its just the Beta, but I don't understand how I can end up with 3 level 12-13 partners while starting a game with level one, especially when I click on the option level 1-6. Picking a game out of a list, where you can actually see the players and their level, is much better. I can also avoid games with players I dislike, look for people I recognize or choose a char fitting to an existing group. This way I could also distinguish (or inform others), if this is just another boring quest/boss run or a nice slow paced walk/play through the game. - Very important to me!
4 - The boss-event counter is as silly, as the block one receives, if one clicks “no” and wants to run in afterward, cause one is still occupied for 1-2 minutes doing something else and doesn't want to hold up the party. Waiting 60 seconds in a fast paced hack and slash game is equally upsetting when an afk player does not respond.
This can be easily improved, reduce the counter to 12-15 seconds and allow entering when run to the door, teleport to the party should still be forbidden though.
5 - Not much to say here yet.
6 - Yes, what privacy, my point exactly. If somebody wants to know, which pants I wear, he can ask me, and even then it's probably none of his business and I will tell him so. I had enough of the map-hack users who are constantly babbling about how bad my equipment is or being harassed by people how want to trade my stuff. “your bow is lol” “What rune for your boots” “give me your sword” “your ring is to good you dupe-ass” - any more comments?
EDIT: Just read about the open forum profiles. BIG F'N LOL. There is a huge debate about privacy in the European forums going on about this, not one even mentioned any concerns in the US forums... shows pretty well, how privacy and true liberty is handled in the new world and how used people are there to pull their pants down and give up their civil rights and freedoms for the illusion of safety and self display. Disappointing. Make disable function available or a visible for friends only feature.
Not to mention how it will ruin pvp efforts, if everything is glassy.
7 - How good is the information if it does not really relate to anything? Whats the use of dps besides showing off by throwing numbers at one another. There is too little real information on the main page and too much in the detailed list, that really makes my eyes hurt every time I have too look for something. Look at D2 or any other game in the last 15 years and you will see immediately whats really necessary. And DPS again, wtf, it says nothing and jumbles more things up then solves, just sounds cool for some, but who cares about those. I need to know real damage, because most of the skills I need damage in formation for have a cooldown and DPS does not play any role in those.
8 - Optically the male appearance disturbs me a lot, since he has the posture of a moronic halfwit athlete with a gun-slinging gang-bang attitude in an emo look; - people I see in real life and despise - why would I want to play one like that.
The female in high heels... Do I have to say more ..., if there was just an explanation, ah, I didn't know, they are magical, OK, they are so powerful that they are like normal shoes, they just look idiotic... I understand??!
And all the projectile animations really hit the fan, they look ludicrous, arrowheads as big as my torso, colorful outlines that easily double this, arrows as thick as my arm, which compared to the in-game yard measurements is already 2.5 times as big as normal, not to mention all the other bright and flashy skill animations, that are completely beside what the characters embodies.
Btw. the shadow of vault is always female.... the male shadow has high heels too °°.
9 - Things to adjust/change: Saturation (down, down, down), graphic effects from skills, normal/small projectile animation, normal/faded skill animation, certain sound effects, etc..
Things to disable: Life Orbs, Message display, Minimap, Achievement Popups, Redout at low life, Allies, Taskbar, Skill timer, etc..
Filter for: damaged items, white items.
10 - Seriously, where is it? It is vital to be able to switch between weapons, not only for the offensive or defensive effect, but also for a quick change of mouse skills. This is what truly makes the game faster, characters more efficient and the RPG experience intenser.
Sneak with range, switch to combat, hit a few skills, get distance, use range, the big boomer for a special skill, then rush into melee! Now its just pale and boring. Must have, Really, No Excuse! - The ones given were so lame I was really disappointed with you Jay... it just said really loud: we forgot it, so we pretend its not effective or we just don't care.
11 - Multiplayer was quite disappointing, mostly not because of the gameplay itself, but because of the massive overdone visual effects and the matchmaking system. The effects are so dominant, that with a full party and a lot of monsters with special attributes the screen becomes a jumble of uncoordinated flashes and blurs. Just envision 20 Imps running around, 2 sorcs with beam spells wizzing about (which alone makes it hard to target, often I didn't know which was mine), then a Barb who knocks enemies around (whups your target is gone, which was my beam again?), a teleporting monk and nightmarish archers who make you run away.... and this chaos only in the first third of Act 1 normal... can't imagine how bad hell or inferno with multiple monster stats have to be.....
12 - Inadmissible, no different haircuts, skin tones, sizes, builds ? Whats up with that, tons of different items to color, but not a single hair can be bleached ?
13 - The normal attack does not seem to have any value in the game, I wish it did though, since it always gave me a feeling of realism in the world when I loose the taste for all the visual effects. I want to see my character swing a weapon, I wanna make enemies tremble, I want an individual built. I had hoped that there would be at least some skills, active or passive, that would support or call for the use of the normal attack. Please change that. Skills have special effects, why not have the normal attack deal fixed 200% weapon damage and add some weapon only (not skill or cast) speed boni only, think about it. Bring it back.
14 - The Red-Out is a nice shocker for SoftCore, but needs to be removed from HardCore. The shock alone of loosing sight for an instance combined with the sound effect might be enough to distract for a split second and become the true reason for an otherwise avoidable death. Not to mention, that sight is hindered until you get healed and if all healing options are on a timer you loose important sight and this is the worst spot to start with realism in the game, there are enough options screaming out to do just that. RED-OUT MUST BE ... OUT !
I - The Health Orbs. They belong to a game like “The Great Giana sisters”, “Super Mario Brothers” or some other game-pad game, but not a PC action RPG. Especially since there is not explanation for this ridiculous appearance on the battle field nor any need for them anyway, since it works without them. I d rather die then pick them up and hear this blump, blump, blump... I got annoyed after the first 3 minutes. I DO NOT WANT THEM, even if I don't get any other healing option instead, just shut them off.
The pro was, that one could time the pickup and use it as a tactical option, but with all the +yard pickup range, you pick up all the orbs in half the screen once you move one toe. - Useless once you get gear with more then 1 attribute.
It would be something different, if they would be explained and portrayed differently, just not in this cheap and crappy version without any sense.
For example: It could be explained, that demon blood has healing properties, demons will drop small blood drops (and I mean small), which sink into the ground (disappear) after 3 seconds. Ghosts will leave mist behind, that dissipates and heals a percentage of a resource if walked through, undead leave bone powder behind, that resets potion timers, if crushed. It fits the environment, circumstances, is explained, optically fitting and generates the wanted effect - This is how it is done. - Hovering Health orbs, No, No and No!
II - You are kidding right ! Fantasy means, there are certain aspects of a fictional reality, that are different from our reality which are portrayed in a, for the observer, fantastic way. This does not mean, that ridiculousness meets us around every corner and the fictional reality is illogical and inconsistent, disregarding its own laws of physics, reality or metaphysics. And neither logic, nor reality (the internal reality of the world of sanctuary in this case), nor simple taste seem to have been applied here. To be innovative and different doesn't mean one has to exaggerate everything others do and to top them. Look what happened to C&C 4 ??? There is C&C 4 ??? No - there really isn't! And I like C&C. Again, Diablo is not a funny overdrawn cartoon... you made it one. - For your sake, I hope in the final version every stash has a vanishing dye with an infinity counter.
III - I never liked the idea of private loot, and no, not because, I am a grabber, because I am a sharer and crafter and use items others wont pick up.
In theory and from past experiences people only pick up stuff they need, and since everybody has different needs this will vary a lot between players and with up to 8 players in a party this balances itself out so that most of the items get picked up and end up being used, crafted or sold. This is no longer possible, most of the loot will not find its way to the person it would naturally find its course to.
I for instance would pick up a lot of crafting utilities, socketables and gold which my ingame (and RL) friends would leave on the ground. None was bothered, and all drops were shared, as well as I crafted for me, but made gifts to everybody. In-game, everybody could see the loot or at least glimpse it and ask about it, the drop was shared, even with non-regular-friends, especially with beginners and in normal difficulty. In the end it is a cooperative game.
From my experience in the Beta I must say it is even worse, not one ever shared an item with anybody in my presence. No one even asks about it, because everybody knows, like one does oneself: all items go to the artisan or the auction house. There is no in-game sharing. Greed is the ultimate drive.
Gold takes it even further, the party spreads out, gold is everywhere, gold is needed and what happens? The ones needing all the gold they can get, pick it up, while better equipped chars might not bother and run on, which means one always lags behind, just picking up crumbs. This creates even loot- and gold-leechers. On the other hand I don't know how many times I wanted to run back to pick up gold, and then thought “oh, the barb is running over it, I don't have to”, only to realize, that it is private loot and I do have to run back. - Gold is on Auto-Pickup - WHY IS GOLD NOT SHARED ??? My opinion: Idiotic - Fail!
IV - Well, I am gonna say it as I see it, crucify my for that, but what has been done is so bad, I can hardly express it, and the reasons presented (or rather excuses given for loss of imagination and effort) are so elusive and pale ... shame on you.
Stats: The Stats are the number 1 characteristics in every RPG, be it pen&paper or computer game, they define who we are, they are our genetic code. D3 has only generic and ordinary clones, something I would have expected from an < 1990 game, and just because you failed to address the faulty system of D2 doesn't mean that it has to be taken out of the players hand. It just means you have to balance it right, give them meaning. This could have easily been done (as many mods already managed) by increasing their effect and make distribution a hard choice for the player.
And if you really did not want anybody to screw up their stats, base stats could increase, that every class is able without any further statting to carry the highest tier class items for their class, while leaving enough statt points for individualization.
And whats with the exponential increase (see VII) ???
Skills: Wow, here it hits the fan. First of all, a list of skills no matter how long, without development and always switchable DO NOT MAKE A SYSTEM. And a display that lets one place a skill on a mouse key DOES NOT MAKE A SKILL-CALCULATOR, that is A SKILL-DISPLAYER. So much for the illusion of a system. For no-one to realize this farce is astonishing, I wonder who would buy a calculator that only displays the values one typed in. Oh, did I say calculator, should have said number-displayer.
Don't get me wrong, some skills are great, other fantastic, its just the way they are handled that disappoints me intensely, I have reedited a lot of game systems and I see the same faults over and over again, just because some can't find the right way to balance something they drop it, cut it or mutilate it. You know, go ask for help then, I for example am just waiting for an opportunity like this.
For one thing the skills are to effect heavy and visually self-aggrandizing and do not support the character as they should. They should be a passive, a talent that supports the character in what he is, what he does, but here they are only used to optically define the character in the hopes of giving him the illusion of individuality. But this is lost through through constant switching capability, which makes the only point they had mute. And don't come with 'oh there are many different skills out there', really, look at all the primary attack skills, they are almost all the same in damage and effect (as well balanced as should be actually, plus there).
A Demon Hunter needs max 2 attack skills, 1 movement skill, which leaves 7 to 8 support skills and passives, most of which are either useless or generic and always the same to choose. Others, especially with the Witchdoctor demand a certain combination of skills and passives or one will sacrifice a lot of effectiveness, which is equally disappointing. Further more is the variety restricted for the HC mode, where a lot of skills just make no sense because they are too dangerous or simply idiotic (like after death effects).
I have spent many hours before the skill list and tried lots in the Beta, the results are always the same, so much for variety. And I am still of the opinion that 20.000.000.000 possible skill combinations still make only 1 built with this lack of a system.
The skill system was not broken, it was unbalanced. The fault did not lie in its existence it lay in the uselessness of some of the skill and the faulty balance of the rest. The same things that are happening here and now, but who cares, I don't have to think about what I do and make a new build, I just change them until I rock comfortable. - Not my style. I normally have a clear vision of who I want to be, of what I want to do and try to make it work, if it is difficult even more so. Now I don't even care - and that's not me. I want more. Where is the 'learning curve', there is just a 'get to know' line, no learn effect involved, needed or wanted - sad.
And items are found, a char is skilled and attributes are being distributed, now the character is defined only by the luck (item drops, craft luck) of the player, not by the thought he put into developing it with skill and stat points.
I can't even think anymore, I should just copy the many pages I have written about this here...
Some animations are fun to watch at for once, but who wants to throw the 100.000 cask of spiders in Inferno or see frogs leap slowly over a short distance, fire bombs and rockets are lost on me anyway, while a Barbarian smashes or a Demon Hunter destroys everything before they reach a target. I can't even figure the effective range and spread of Deadly Reach out.
To address every skill goes a bit to far here, but I will gladly put in the work and explain why some are useless, why some fail and others are to important and will always force themselves into every theory craft (builds aren't really possible, are they?). Just ask me... Blizzard employee only though, if you don't dislike me enough yet
.
A good player can play with almost any skilled and statt-ed char, and a perfect char will still fail in the hands of a moron, you seemingly have chosen whom to support, you haven't even given newbies a chance to learn to chew, you purée-ed everything already for mindless console zombies.
V - Eh, where is it? The one invention that made D2 superior to all other games regarding speed and accuracy. I miss it in every other action RPG where action keys are inaccurate due to the lag between right hand movement and left hand click when one 'flicks' the cursor to a location and activates with the other hand. The F key toggle made it possible for micro management where my fingers would fly over up to 12 keys to exchange with either mouse button, not to mention other keys for potions, tps and un-summon actions. - The left hand serves the right, it throws the ball and the right hand hits it with the club, one does not throw the ball with the left hand away and swings the club afterward. Show me any combat pilot that flies with right and shoots with left °°. Honestly, a must have for D3, not only because it is part of the legacy, not only because it is more efficient, but also because it makes it different from all the rest out there (and I mean this as positive as it gets).
VI - Oh yeah, I had an itch about this for a second and did not think about this for a while, since I related this phenomenon more to the skills then to the actual game play/ game world realization, but I had a friend over to play the Beta and for the first time any Diablo game and he noticed this after about 2 drops into the game. There is absolutely no relation for any character (except Barb and DH primary attack skills) between the weapon they carry and whatever they use to 'deal damage' and this strikes me as blatant unrealistic. This goes hand in hand with the missing 'normal attack' where one would actually use the weapon visibly that one carries in his hand. Why is this? And why is this neither addressed nor fixed? - I know it is easier to balance and is used to deliver the illusion that every class is treated equally, but come one, a bit more effort would have gone a long way here. This just screams 'we can't be bothered'; you are dealing with true fans here, we have broken all pre-sale records, a bit more respect please.
I know it is related to the change of the skills which are now calculated by weapon damage as a base for all damages, which in itself was a grave mistake (but which I won't mention separately) and could have been avoided and fixed equally: Weapon for combat chars get base damage but have to be found, skills for give % damage based on level. In response, Weapons for casters give % to damage, but have to be found, skills give base damage based on level. The rates of found item values and skill levels are so balanced, that no class is at an advantage/disadvantage, done. This is easily reached with low base damages and high % values, curves differ a bit, but you get the point.
The problem in D2 was, that Items had high damage % but as good as no damage % for casters and the + skill items, which made it very item dependent for the combat chars, because it depended mostly on 1 item and not an arrangement of 10 + charms as for casters, who had more possibilities.
VII - A Warning, Yes, and I am too late as I found out. I wanted to remind you, that a bad thing to do in a pc game (as well as other mediums) is to get tempted to use high values that are exponentially higher then the base character. This relates to basic stats as well as weapon damages, skill boni (again, the plural of bonus is boni; latin) resistances, armor stats and life. It seems not only unrealistic, that a Fighter is 2000 times stronger in level 60 then in level 1 (an athlete does not become 2000% times stronger or has 2000% more health, just because he becomes a Navy Seal), it makes balancing only that much harder. Any relations to reality are lost (even in the world of Sanctuary), the character is already a tough Barbarian to begin with or he would never have started that quest, he gets better, but not like this.
The worst thing to increase difficulty is also to increase the monster life and damage to levels that are beyond reasoning. This shows a lack of imagination and makes me feel hopeless and to not wanna play this game. Monsters should be cleverer, use player skills and tactics, come in groups that are difficult to beat like blocker, that protect a summoner and a healer, which again support a heavy hitter and heal and enchant the defenders, whom to take out first ?
To get 1-hit killed is more then frustrating or what is this monster with 170.000 damage for ? Never was so disappointed when I saw that.... And to hack for 10 minutes on a monster with 234.000.000 life is mind-numbingly boring as hell.
And who is happy about or crafts a weapon for 10-20 damage, if you can find or craft some with 600-800 damage just a bit further on. This makes it not only boring to try the crafts, but once the chars are level 60 95% of the crafts useless.
Here is one way it could have been done: (max damage for hits)
Normal
Weapon Damage: 1-2 (Act 1) to 10-12 (Act 4)
Skill bonus +0-50%
End-Boss Life: 1650
= 100 hits to kill the boss
Nightmare
Weapon Damage: 13-15 cleaving* (Act 1) to 20-24 cleaving* (Act 4) * deals normal damage to armored
Skill bonus +50-100%
End-Boss Life: 6600 armored, which means normal weapons deal only 10% damage
= 150 hits (cleaving), 3000 hits (normal)
Hell
Weapon Damage: 20-24 piercing** (Act 1) to 30-36 piercing** (Act 4) ** deals normal damage to armored and fortified
Skill bonus +100-150%
End-Boss Life: 16500 fortified, which means normal weapons deal only 10% damage and cleaving 20%
= 200 hits (piercing), 1000 hits (cleaving), 5500 hits (normal)
Inferno
Weapon Damage: 32-38 crushing*** (Act 1) to 40-48 crushing*** (Act 4) *** deals normal damage to fortified
Skill bonus +150-200%
End-Boss Life: 52800 shielded, which means normal weapons deal only 5% damage, cleaving 10% and piercing 20%
= 400 hits (crushing), 2666 hits (piercing), 8000 hits (cleaving), 32000 hits (normal)
to compare, even with a top inferno weapon it would still take 13 hits to kill the normal Boss.
This way, difficulty is not only maintained, but increases, all the while keeping values low and balancing easy. Monster life is still enhanced by more players, special attributes etc...
I rather have a nice, 48 damage 2-handed sword and 'rock', then deal 345.712 damage and have 269.563 life loosing all reference to the values themselves (starting with 1-2 damage and 100 life), my character, the world I visit and the realism itself.
Nuff said
Rating
Overall I expected this game to be at about 90-95% as a game in itself and about 80-85% regarding to its own legacy, since fan based expectations can never be met completely.
Sadly my assessments were way off. A recycled and exaggerated look, extended story and a legacy only make a mediocre game. What is missing is substance and one only gets this from the gameplay based on good game mechanics and those are missing here. The lack of character development via stats and skills drag this down even further, not to mention the multiplayer experience, that is just an experience and takes one quickly back to single player to enjoy what is left of the game. The game itself stands for greed and is even marketed this way by the makers, completely neglecting the fact that, even though greed always has been there, it was always only a side product of the addiction. The main attribute the game stood for was thrill, regarding Diablo 1, and creativity towards builds in Diablo 2. Both none existing in Diablo 3, the thrill to loose a char at the bottom of the stairs in hell, and dropping all equipment and not being able to retrieve a single piece, even luring friends into the same trap while asking for assistance cannot be compared to by anything that ever came later. Especially not since friendly fire was ever present in D1 and cooperative play was strained to the max. Just imagine friendly fire in D3, I wish for it, for some serious game sessions. And only a few games could top the creativity of builds in D2, which showed in all the mods that have been done, possibilities that have never been fully used by Blizzard, instead of fixing a mediocre skill and failed attribute system, which was easily to accomplished by most modders, they decided to take them out completely. - Leaving no character development behind. An action RPG, that has action, some role, but only little play and almost no game in it, is kind of thin and my rating at this point is 78% as a game and 58% considering its legacy.
I sincerely hope that somebody will take this to heart and do something about this game so we can enjoy it more then once.
Best to you all
Ferisam
If you find it difficult to read through the whole post or hard to understand, but still feel to spam, flame or troll, ... DON'T. I'll try to keep is as structured as possible, if you want to answer, please consider using the number system to relate to the specific points. THX.
Foreword (should be read or I will be misunderstood)
Criticism (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly)
Commentary (Explanation of the criticism, suggestions)
Rating/Evaluation
Foreword
First I was very exited once I heard about the development of Diablo 3 and how early Blizzard Ent. allowed us insight into the process. But once I got to know more about the game and its mechanics, the more I was disappointed by what had been done to the franchise. I have written many articles on various forums and taken part in many discussions in the first quarter of the 'open' development process, but gave up due to lack of response and productive participation of fellow forum users. I also realized, that it was way to early to worry too much, since tons of content would probably be revised and not appear in the final release, so I checked in just once in a while until recently, when I noticed, that I got a Beta invite the previous month and missed it °°. - So I am back now, to draw from past disappointments and compare them to what actually made it into the game.
There are some things you should know about me, I am into fantasy and other branches of the genre for more then 30 years and am a game designer, artist and artisan for over 20 years now, I pre-ordered Diablo 1 and played it from the first day it was available and have not stopped (including Diablo 2 and D3 beta) yet. I can say wholeheartedly, that I know what I am talking about while reviewing and criticizing this game, something that I can sadly not say from about 95% of the posters in this or other related forums (other websites), which consist mostly of people who like to hear themselves talk. 80% of replies to any subject was “give me beta key” for a while and still people tend to respond to in which way a question or opinion was given, rather then to what was actually said or asked, trolling, spamming and insulting, while any serious discussion sinks into the swamp of accusation of being an antisocial blizzard hater. I am amazed every time how uncritical, moronic and simple-minded the game community seems to be, judging by what can be read here and there, and that the industry seems to listen and comply by creating games that seem to be made for the fast-food console gamer generation. I have given this much thought, over more then a year, and I am very fond of the Diablo franchise, which is why I encountered the Beta with as much neutrality as I could muster - Here is what I noticed.
Criticism
I will keep it as short as possible and deliver a detailed explanation, probably with suggestions for improvement and a personal opinion in the commentary.
The Good (Praise) - No Numbers are needed here...
I love the extra features that give bonus experience like micro achievements, mini quests and especially the lore items when you pick them up the first time.
I am very satisfied with the background look of the game. And this is one thing that bothered me enormously a year ago, deeming it too colorful, “cartoonish”, not fitting the style etc., but now, even though it still has a certain style, that, while looking straight at it, doesn't bother me that much anymore. To the contrary, while running around and “being” in the world, I must admit, it works just fine and sometimes even makes me feel in a positive way like I am running around in a matte painting.
The (gold) auction house works fine for me; as an auction house should.
The Barbarian feels like a Barbarian should, my compliments. The Wizard is almost equally good. The Witch Doctor lagging close behind. And I mean this in all aspects, from the handling, to the skill variety to the appearance (not the item tiers, more to those later).
In-game party connect. Easy and fast, nothing more to say.
The story. From what I have seen, heard and read, I can anticipate grandeur, and from the way it is presented in the first third of the first act i expect a fantastic experience.
The Atmosphere is marvelous, the places are bewitching, it is a pleasure to walk through sanctuary, hell and the high heavens (ups!). - There are some hickups that disturb this, but they are not part of the actual environment or atmosphere effects and mentioned later.
The various resource systems, nicely done.
Auto-Gold-Pickup, a big big plus.
Nice mercenary responses and character emotions/voices/gestures.
The Bad (moderately negative critique)
1 The followers are disappointing.
2 Multiple display annoyances clutter the screen and destroy the atmosphere.
3 The matchmaking system is way too unbalanced and uninformative.
4 The boss-event counter is bad and disturbs the game.
5 The Monk is a bit disappointing from the skills and the display of those. Since this is the Beta, a full review has to be postponed.
6 The privacy of character information.
7 The character statistic display/depiction is way too jumbled. Get rid of DPS, a big fail as the only damage display.
8 The Demon Hunter, which was my favorite after announcement is now my least favorite.
9 There are too few visual and game options, and I don't mean to turn on, I mean to turn things off.
10 Where is the 'W' weapon switch?
11 The multiplayer game mechanics are not satisfying.
12 Character individualization wanted.
13 Where is the normal attack (I know where it is, I mean, what use is it!)
14 The Red Out needs to be removed for HC!
The Ugly (Serious Flaws and Epic Fail)
I Optically the worst fail for me and totally unacceptable are the health orbs.
II The worst visual design failure are the tiers 5-16.
III Private Loot.
IV The Skill/Stat System. Ah ups, what system?
V Where is the F-Key Swap/Toggle?
VI Weapon carried - Weapon used - Skill relation
VII A Warning for the higher difficulties
Commentary
1 - The followers are disappointing, the skills feel weak, the damage is laughable and that already in single player, not to mention that they disappear in multiplayer. There are better ways to handle and balance our beloved mercenaries, e.g. boss monsters do extra damage versus mercenaries to take them out of the battle early on, they can't pass certain barriers, include commands etc...
2 - Multiple display annoyances like the un-close-able chat/massage board, the minimap, that is not so mini, the ridiculous skillbar - “Are you kidding me, displaying a mouse and coloring one button so one can understand what it means !!! Extra recharge counters, etc..
I would like options to disable a lot of those distracting gimmicks, the only thing one actually needs is the Life bulb, if the resource runs out, you will hear it soon enough from you char complaining about it. Ok, maybe not that drastic, but close. I would also like to reorder the allies icons and have them smaller and on the top.
3 - I realize its just the Beta, but I don't understand how I can end up with 3 level 12-13 partners while starting a game with level one, especially when I click on the option level 1-6. Picking a game out of a list, where you can actually see the players and their level, is much better. I can also avoid games with players I dislike, look for people I recognize or choose a char fitting to an existing group. This way I could also distinguish (or inform others), if this is just another boring quest/boss run or a nice slow paced walk/play through the game. - Very important to me!
4 - The boss-event counter is as silly, as the block one receives, if one clicks “no” and wants to run in afterward, cause one is still occupied for 1-2 minutes doing something else and doesn't want to hold up the party. Waiting 60 seconds in a fast paced hack and slash game is equally upsetting when an afk player does not respond.
This can be easily improved, reduce the counter to 12-15 seconds and allow entering when run to the door, teleport to the party should still be forbidden though.
5 - Not much to say here yet.
6 - Yes, what privacy, my point exactly. If somebody wants to know, which pants I wear, he can ask me, and even then it's probably none of his business and I will tell him so. I had enough of the map-hack users who are constantly babbling about how bad my equipment is or being harassed by people how want to trade my stuff. “your bow is lol” “What rune for your boots” “give me your sword” “your ring is to good you dupe-ass” - any more comments?
EDIT: Just read about the open forum profiles. BIG F'N LOL. There is a huge debate about privacy in the European forums going on about this, not one even mentioned any concerns in the US forums... shows pretty well, how privacy and true liberty is handled in the new world and how used people are there to pull their pants down and give up their civil rights and freedoms for the illusion of safety and self display. Disappointing. Make disable function available or a visible for friends only feature.
Not to mention how it will ruin pvp efforts, if everything is glassy.
7 - How good is the information if it does not really relate to anything? Whats the use of dps besides showing off by throwing numbers at one another. There is too little real information on the main page and too much in the detailed list, that really makes my eyes hurt every time I have too look for something. Look at D2 or any other game in the last 15 years and you will see immediately whats really necessary. And DPS again, wtf, it says nothing and jumbles more things up then solves, just sounds cool for some, but who cares about those. I need to know real damage, because most of the skills I need damage in formation for have a cooldown and DPS does not play any role in those.
8 - Optically the male appearance disturbs me a lot, since he has the posture of a moronic halfwit athlete with a gun-slinging gang-bang attitude in an emo look; - people I see in real life and despise - why would I want to play one like that.
The female in high heels... Do I have to say more ..., if there was just an explanation, ah, I didn't know, they are magical, OK, they are so powerful that they are like normal shoes, they just look idiotic... I understand??!
And all the projectile animations really hit the fan, they look ludicrous, arrowheads as big as my torso, colorful outlines that easily double this, arrows as thick as my arm, which compared to the in-game yard measurements is already 2.5 times as big as normal, not to mention all the other bright and flashy skill animations, that are completely beside what the characters embodies.
Btw. the shadow of vault is always female.... the male shadow has high heels too °°.
9 - Things to adjust/change: Saturation (down, down, down), graphic effects from skills, normal/small projectile animation, normal/faded skill animation, certain sound effects, etc..
Things to disable: Life Orbs, Message display, Minimap, Achievement Popups, Redout at low life, Allies, Taskbar, Skill timer, etc..
Filter for: damaged items, white items.
10 - Seriously, where is it? It is vital to be able to switch between weapons, not only for the offensive or defensive effect, but also for a quick change of mouse skills. This is what truly makes the game faster, characters more efficient and the RPG experience intenser.
Sneak with range, switch to combat, hit a few skills, get distance, use range, the big boomer for a special skill, then rush into melee! Now its just pale and boring. Must have, Really, No Excuse! - The ones given were so lame I was really disappointed with you Jay... it just said really loud: we forgot it, so we pretend its not effective or we just don't care.
11 - Multiplayer was quite disappointing, mostly not because of the gameplay itself, but because of the massive overdone visual effects and the matchmaking system. The effects are so dominant, that with a full party and a lot of monsters with special attributes the screen becomes a jumble of uncoordinated flashes and blurs. Just envision 20 Imps running around, 2 sorcs with beam spells wizzing about (which alone makes it hard to target, often I didn't know which was mine), then a Barb who knocks enemies around (whups your target is gone, which was my beam again?), a teleporting monk and nightmarish archers who make you run away.... and this chaos only in the first third of Act 1 normal... can't imagine how bad hell or inferno with multiple monster stats have to be.....
12 - Inadmissible, no different haircuts, skin tones, sizes, builds ? Whats up with that, tons of different items to color, but not a single hair can be bleached ?
13 - The normal attack does not seem to have any value in the game, I wish it did though, since it always gave me a feeling of realism in the world when I loose the taste for all the visual effects. I want to see my character swing a weapon, I wanna make enemies tremble, I want an individual built. I had hoped that there would be at least some skills, active or passive, that would support or call for the use of the normal attack. Please change that. Skills have special effects, why not have the normal attack deal fixed 200% weapon damage and add some weapon only (not skill or cast) speed boni only, think about it. Bring it back.
14 - The Red-Out is a nice shocker for SoftCore, but needs to be removed from HardCore. The shock alone of loosing sight for an instance combined with the sound effect might be enough to distract for a split second and become the true reason for an otherwise avoidable death. Not to mention, that sight is hindered until you get healed and if all healing options are on a timer you loose important sight and this is the worst spot to start with realism in the game, there are enough options screaming out to do just that. RED-OUT MUST BE ... OUT !
I - The Health Orbs. They belong to a game like “The Great Giana sisters”, “Super Mario Brothers” or some other game-pad game, but not a PC action RPG. Especially since there is not explanation for this ridiculous appearance on the battle field nor any need for them anyway, since it works without them. I d rather die then pick them up and hear this blump, blump, blump... I got annoyed after the first 3 minutes. I DO NOT WANT THEM, even if I don't get any other healing option instead, just shut them off.
The pro was, that one could time the pickup and use it as a tactical option, but with all the +yard pickup range, you pick up all the orbs in half the screen once you move one toe. - Useless once you get gear with more then 1 attribute.
It would be something different, if they would be explained and portrayed differently, just not in this cheap and crappy version without any sense.
For example: It could be explained, that demon blood has healing properties, demons will drop small blood drops (and I mean small), which sink into the ground (disappear) after 3 seconds. Ghosts will leave mist behind, that dissipates and heals a percentage of a resource if walked through, undead leave bone powder behind, that resets potion timers, if crushed. It fits the environment, circumstances, is explained, optically fitting and generates the wanted effect - This is how it is done. - Hovering Health orbs, No, No and No!
II - You are kidding right ! Fantasy means, there are certain aspects of a fictional reality, that are different from our reality which are portrayed in a, for the observer, fantastic way. This does not mean, that ridiculousness meets us around every corner and the fictional reality is illogical and inconsistent, disregarding its own laws of physics, reality or metaphysics. And neither logic, nor reality (the internal reality of the world of sanctuary in this case), nor simple taste seem to have been applied here. To be innovative and different doesn't mean one has to exaggerate everything others do and to top them. Look what happened to C&C 4 ??? There is C&C 4 ??? No - there really isn't! And I like C&C. Again, Diablo is not a funny overdrawn cartoon... you made it one. - For your sake, I hope in the final version every stash has a vanishing dye with an infinity counter.
III - I never liked the idea of private loot, and no, not because, I am a grabber, because I am a sharer and crafter and use items others wont pick up.
In theory and from past experiences people only pick up stuff they need, and since everybody has different needs this will vary a lot between players and with up to 8 players in a party this balances itself out so that most of the items get picked up and end up being used, crafted or sold. This is no longer possible, most of the loot will not find its way to the person it would naturally find its course to.
I for instance would pick up a lot of crafting utilities, socketables and gold which my ingame (and RL) friends would leave on the ground. None was bothered, and all drops were shared, as well as I crafted for me, but made gifts to everybody. In-game, everybody could see the loot or at least glimpse it and ask about it, the drop was shared, even with non-regular-friends, especially with beginners and in normal difficulty. In the end it is a cooperative game.
From my experience in the Beta I must say it is even worse, not one ever shared an item with anybody in my presence. No one even asks about it, because everybody knows, like one does oneself: all items go to the artisan or the auction house. There is no in-game sharing. Greed is the ultimate drive.
Gold takes it even further, the party spreads out, gold is everywhere, gold is needed and what happens? The ones needing all the gold they can get, pick it up, while better equipped chars might not bother and run on, which means one always lags behind, just picking up crumbs. This creates even loot- and gold-leechers. On the other hand I don't know how many times I wanted to run back to pick up gold, and then thought “oh, the barb is running over it, I don't have to”, only to realize, that it is private loot and I do have to run back. - Gold is on Auto-Pickup - WHY IS GOLD NOT SHARED ??? My opinion: Idiotic - Fail!
IV - Well, I am gonna say it as I see it, crucify my for that, but what has been done is so bad, I can hardly express it, and the reasons presented (or rather excuses given for loss of imagination and effort) are so elusive and pale ... shame on you.
Stats: The Stats are the number 1 characteristics in every RPG, be it pen&paper or computer game, they define who we are, they are our genetic code. D3 has only generic and ordinary clones, something I would have expected from an < 1990 game, and just because you failed to address the faulty system of D2 doesn't mean that it has to be taken out of the players hand. It just means you have to balance it right, give them meaning. This could have easily been done (as many mods already managed) by increasing their effect and make distribution a hard choice for the player.
And if you really did not want anybody to screw up their stats, base stats could increase, that every class is able without any further statting to carry the highest tier class items for their class, while leaving enough statt points for individualization.
And whats with the exponential increase (see VII) ???
Skills: Wow, here it hits the fan. First of all, a list of skills no matter how long, without development and always switchable DO NOT MAKE A SYSTEM. And a display that lets one place a skill on a mouse key DOES NOT MAKE A SKILL-CALCULATOR, that is A SKILL-DISPLAYER. So much for the illusion of a system. For no-one to realize this farce is astonishing, I wonder who would buy a calculator that only displays the values one typed in. Oh, did I say calculator, should have said number-displayer.
Don't get me wrong, some skills are great, other fantastic, its just the way they are handled that disappoints me intensely, I have reedited a lot of game systems and I see the same faults over and over again, just because some can't find the right way to balance something they drop it, cut it or mutilate it. You know, go ask for help then, I for example am just waiting for an opportunity like this.
For one thing the skills are to effect heavy and visually self-aggrandizing and do not support the character as they should. They should be a passive, a talent that supports the character in what he is, what he does, but here they are only used to optically define the character in the hopes of giving him the illusion of individuality. But this is lost through through constant switching capability, which makes the only point they had mute. And don't come with 'oh there are many different skills out there', really, look at all the primary attack skills, they are almost all the same in damage and effect (as well balanced as should be actually, plus there).
A Demon Hunter needs max 2 attack skills, 1 movement skill, which leaves 7 to 8 support skills and passives, most of which are either useless or generic and always the same to choose. Others, especially with the Witchdoctor demand a certain combination of skills and passives or one will sacrifice a lot of effectiveness, which is equally disappointing. Further more is the variety restricted for the HC mode, where a lot of skills just make no sense because they are too dangerous or simply idiotic (like after death effects).
I have spent many hours before the skill list and tried lots in the Beta, the results are always the same, so much for variety. And I am still of the opinion that 20.000.000.000 possible skill combinations still make only 1 built with this lack of a system.
The skill system was not broken, it was unbalanced. The fault did not lie in its existence it lay in the uselessness of some of the skill and the faulty balance of the rest. The same things that are happening here and now, but who cares, I don't have to think about what I do and make a new build, I just change them until I rock comfortable. - Not my style. I normally have a clear vision of who I want to be, of what I want to do and try to make it work, if it is difficult even more so. Now I don't even care - and that's not me. I want more. Where is the 'learning curve', there is just a 'get to know' line, no learn effect involved, needed or wanted - sad.
And items are found, a char is skilled and attributes are being distributed, now the character is defined only by the luck (item drops, craft luck) of the player, not by the thought he put into developing it with skill and stat points.
I can't even think anymore, I should just copy the many pages I have written about this here...
Some animations are fun to watch at for once, but who wants to throw the 100.000 cask of spiders in Inferno or see frogs leap slowly over a short distance, fire bombs and rockets are lost on me anyway, while a Barbarian smashes or a Demon Hunter destroys everything before they reach a target. I can't even figure the effective range and spread of Deadly Reach out.
To address every skill goes a bit to far here, but I will gladly put in the work and explain why some are useless, why some fail and others are to important and will always force themselves into every theory craft (builds aren't really possible, are they?). Just ask me... Blizzard employee only though, if you don't dislike me enough yet
.A good player can play with almost any skilled and statt-ed char, and a perfect char will still fail in the hands of a moron, you seemingly have chosen whom to support, you haven't even given newbies a chance to learn to chew, you purée-ed everything already for mindless console zombies.
V - Eh, where is it? The one invention that made D2 superior to all other games regarding speed and accuracy. I miss it in every other action RPG where action keys are inaccurate due to the lag between right hand movement and left hand click when one 'flicks' the cursor to a location and activates with the other hand. The F key toggle made it possible for micro management where my fingers would fly over up to 12 keys to exchange with either mouse button, not to mention other keys for potions, tps and un-summon actions. - The left hand serves the right, it throws the ball and the right hand hits it with the club, one does not throw the ball with the left hand away and swings the club afterward. Show me any combat pilot that flies with right and shoots with left °°. Honestly, a must have for D3, not only because it is part of the legacy, not only because it is more efficient, but also because it makes it different from all the rest out there (and I mean this as positive as it gets).
VI - Oh yeah, I had an itch about this for a second and did not think about this for a while, since I related this phenomenon more to the skills then to the actual game play/ game world realization, but I had a friend over to play the Beta and for the first time any Diablo game and he noticed this after about 2 drops into the game. There is absolutely no relation for any character (except Barb and DH primary attack skills) between the weapon they carry and whatever they use to 'deal damage' and this strikes me as blatant unrealistic. This goes hand in hand with the missing 'normal attack' where one would actually use the weapon visibly that one carries in his hand. Why is this? And why is this neither addressed nor fixed? - I know it is easier to balance and is used to deliver the illusion that every class is treated equally, but come one, a bit more effort would have gone a long way here. This just screams 'we can't be bothered'; you are dealing with true fans here, we have broken all pre-sale records, a bit more respect please.
I know it is related to the change of the skills which are now calculated by weapon damage as a base for all damages, which in itself was a grave mistake (but which I won't mention separately) and could have been avoided and fixed equally: Weapon for combat chars get base damage but have to be found, skills for give % damage based on level. In response, Weapons for casters give % to damage, but have to be found, skills give base damage based on level. The rates of found item values and skill levels are so balanced, that no class is at an advantage/disadvantage, done. This is easily reached with low base damages and high % values, curves differ a bit, but you get the point.
The problem in D2 was, that Items had high damage % but as good as no damage % for casters and the + skill items, which made it very item dependent for the combat chars, because it depended mostly on 1 item and not an arrangement of 10 + charms as for casters, who had more possibilities.
VII - A Warning, Yes, and I am too late as I found out. I wanted to remind you, that a bad thing to do in a pc game (as well as other mediums) is to get tempted to use high values that are exponentially higher then the base character. This relates to basic stats as well as weapon damages, skill boni (again, the plural of bonus is boni; latin) resistances, armor stats and life. It seems not only unrealistic, that a Fighter is 2000 times stronger in level 60 then in level 1 (an athlete does not become 2000% times stronger or has 2000% more health, just because he becomes a Navy Seal), it makes balancing only that much harder. Any relations to reality are lost (even in the world of Sanctuary), the character is already a tough Barbarian to begin with or he would never have started that quest, he gets better, but not like this.
The worst thing to increase difficulty is also to increase the monster life and damage to levels that are beyond reasoning. This shows a lack of imagination and makes me feel hopeless and to not wanna play this game. Monsters should be cleverer, use player skills and tactics, come in groups that are difficult to beat like blocker, that protect a summoner and a healer, which again support a heavy hitter and heal and enchant the defenders, whom to take out first ?
To get 1-hit killed is more then frustrating or what is this monster with 170.000 damage for ? Never was so disappointed when I saw that.... And to hack for 10 minutes on a monster with 234.000.000 life is mind-numbingly boring as hell.
And who is happy about or crafts a weapon for 10-20 damage, if you can find or craft some with 600-800 damage just a bit further on. This makes it not only boring to try the crafts, but once the chars are level 60 95% of the crafts useless.
Here is one way it could have been done: (max damage for hits)
Normal
Weapon Damage: 1-2 (Act 1) to 10-12 (Act 4)
Skill bonus +0-50%
End-Boss Life: 1650
= 100 hits to kill the boss
Nightmare
Weapon Damage: 13-15 cleaving* (Act 1) to 20-24 cleaving* (Act 4) * deals normal damage to armored
Skill bonus +50-100%
End-Boss Life: 6600 armored, which means normal weapons deal only 10% damage
= 150 hits (cleaving), 3000 hits (normal)
Hell
Weapon Damage: 20-24 piercing** (Act 1) to 30-36 piercing** (Act 4) ** deals normal damage to armored and fortified
Skill bonus +100-150%
End-Boss Life: 16500 fortified, which means normal weapons deal only 10% damage and cleaving 20%
= 200 hits (piercing), 1000 hits (cleaving), 5500 hits (normal)
Inferno
Weapon Damage: 32-38 crushing*** (Act 1) to 40-48 crushing*** (Act 4) *** deals normal damage to fortified
Skill bonus +150-200%
End-Boss Life: 52800 shielded, which means normal weapons deal only 5% damage, cleaving 10% and piercing 20%
= 400 hits (crushing), 2666 hits (piercing), 8000 hits (cleaving), 32000 hits (normal)
to compare, even with a top inferno weapon it would still take 13 hits to kill the normal Boss.
This way, difficulty is not only maintained, but increases, all the while keeping values low and balancing easy. Monster life is still enhanced by more players, special attributes etc...
I rather have a nice, 48 damage 2-handed sword and 'rock', then deal 345.712 damage and have 269.563 life loosing all reference to the values themselves (starting with 1-2 damage and 100 life), my character, the world I visit and the realism itself.
Nuff said
Rating
Overall I expected this game to be at about 90-95% as a game in itself and about 80-85% regarding to its own legacy, since fan based expectations can never be met completely.
Sadly my assessments were way off. A recycled and exaggerated look, extended story and a legacy only make a mediocre game. What is missing is substance and one only gets this from the gameplay based on good game mechanics and those are missing here. The lack of character development via stats and skills drag this down even further, not to mention the multiplayer experience, that is just an experience and takes one quickly back to single player to enjoy what is left of the game. The game itself stands for greed and is even marketed this way by the makers, completely neglecting the fact that, even though greed always has been there, it was always only a side product of the addiction. The main attribute the game stood for was thrill, regarding Diablo 1, and creativity towards builds in Diablo 2. Both none existing in Diablo 3, the thrill to loose a char at the bottom of the stairs in hell, and dropping all equipment and not being able to retrieve a single piece, even luring friends into the same trap while asking for assistance cannot be compared to by anything that ever came later. Especially not since friendly fire was ever present in D1 and cooperative play was strained to the max. Just imagine friendly fire in D3, I wish for it, for some serious game sessions. And only a few games could top the creativity of builds in D2, which showed in all the mods that have been done, possibilities that have never been fully used by Blizzard, instead of fixing a mediocre skill and failed attribute system, which was easily to accomplished by most modders, they decided to take them out completely. - Leaving no character development behind. An action RPG, that has action, some role, but only little play and almost no game in it, is kind of thin and my rating at this point is 78% as a game and 58% considering its legacy.
I sincerely hope that somebody will take this to heart and do something about this game so we can enjoy it more then once.
Best to you all
Ferisam
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