I just wanted to send a ray of hope to anyone really looking forward to this game, whom might be cautiously optimistic. I played it for the first time today (beta), and it's everything i've been looking forward to and then some. I played Diablo 2 for years and years, was a pretty hardcore player and while Diablo 3 has some things different about it from D2, the newest Diablo has definitely captured what i found fun about Diablo and expanded upon it.
I played the witchdoctor and barbarian to about level 10 each, and had tons of fun. The treasure goblins are always exciting (though it sux when you dont kill them in time before they escape) the random dungeon events are fun; Some games you'll find a "sub-area" then the next game it won't be there but something else will but it just expands upon the "randomness" that i found really satisfying in Diablo 1 and 2, which also is something that added and i think will definitely add to the longevity of Diablo 3.
The "randomness" element is everywhere too. Obviously the items are, and the levels, but i found some other things that people hadn't mentioned that i'd seen. For example, one time when i killed a treasure goblin he dropped several blues, a ton of gold, and a bunch of white items; then another time, he just dropped 1 blue, a few health orbs, but upon slaying him i got a buff cast on myself that gave me something like +20% to magic find for 5 minutes or something to that effect.
Also, when i had slain a treasure goblin another time, i got the "lore" popup that told me about the treasure goblins and how they escape from the realm of the lord of greed, and if you dont kill them you'll see them jump in a oddly colored town portal type thing and escape to this "greed realm" described in the lore. I just found it interesting cause it makes me wonder if in the full version or further down in the full version of the game game, if players will be maybe able to chase them into the "greed realm" and it's something like a treasure room. I thought that might be cool.
But yeah, the game feels really great; Also i didn't mention it looks absolutely fantastic! the environments and monsters are top notch in terms of coolness factor. Theres all kinds of interesting things to look at in the environment and things to explore and i'm sure you've all seen the characters and creatures. New Tristram from head to toe looks great and yeah, it's stylized IMO, but still Diablo. I'm going to be controversial here and say that i dont really think it looks WoWish, it's it's own thing, it's... Diablo.
Getting to my point though I can't express how much i've been looking forward to Diablo 3. I just wanted to stop in and say to everyone here who is amped to get and play it, i can say with quite a bit of confidence that i highly doubt you'll be disappointed and it's been worth the wait. Its extremely fun, it feels like Diablo, the skills are fun, the game looks great, and again, in my opinion it expands on the other two Diablo games in almost every way. It hasn't been bastardized despite what naysayers have said; It's Diablo and once the full version launches... Oh, it will be glorious. My one sentence review of the game based on my beta experience, playing all day today: Its everything i wanted it to be and more. This game is friggin awesome.
I agree overall, with slightly less enthusiasm than you, I think the game is pretty good. Not incredible, not mind buggling, but a good sequel to Diablo 2 that will bring along monster bashing fun. I won't bore this topic with my usual pessimism, but I'm having a hard time living with my boycotting ways after playing the beta. Its plenty of fun and makes me think D3 is totally worth buying, even if I personally think its inferior overall to D2. (but it does win on a lot of point just by being modern and more refined).
What impressed me is the combat, really. Feels absolutely great, every sound effect feels great (which I did not expect, you have to play it to feel it), everything and every death effect and animation looks great... If you know and love Diablo as that game you go in just to kill thousands of monsters, you won't get bored of it, I assure you.
Its addictive as hell.
Be that good or bad
Also, really loving how games are setup "quest" like so you join games randomly with people to complete X quest. And I hope it stays as it is in the beta: people killing everything (even if they're still rushing... damn them).
Remember these opinions here come from a guy that didn't just love D2 and grinded helplessly for years. I never cared for grindfests and never was that addicted. I think D3 could prove more addicting to people like me than D2.
Yeah, i can totally understand how some might miss aspects from Diablo 2 i guess it all depends on the person;
I consider myself a pretty hardcore D2 player and even more hardcore D1 (Diablo 1 probably one of my favorite games of all time); And i am more enthusiastic than most; I did all the grinding, all the meph runs, made all kinds of different magic find characters in D2 just for fun and challenge, and as you mentioned, i wont miss that either.
I like running through killing everything, i love the random events in d3, the sudden massive waves of monsters that occasionally ambush. The gameplay just feels fresh. I feel like i'm constantly encouraged to explore, where as in D2 i was encouraged to race to the boss. We'll see how it all shakes down but holy crap am i lovin D3 beta so far.
[edited multiple times in the following paragraph; added stuff, etc]
Another thing i'll add, just on the topic of appreciating the game, is the amount of homage it pays to Diablo 1. It seems like they were really inspired by Diablo 1 in characters and environments. Right off the bat it feels a lot darker and foreboding from an art standpoint as well as story, just in the first hour of play.
My biggest complaint in diablo 2 (which i also managed to get beta access to) was that it was too bright and cheery. Yeah Diablo 2 had it had it's "dark areas" like the lower levels of the cathedral, and the dungeons of kurast, but i feel like in Diablo 3 they went above Diablo 2 in terms of capturing that mood and also didn't do something lazy like desaturate the palettes, lower the circle of light around the character and vignette everything *cough* path of exile.
While there's bright environments in Diablo 3, it definitely feels predominantly darker, from an art standpoint than i expected. I remember them saying the brightness helps contrast the dark, and yeah the few bits of color and light, really help the darkness feel "darker".
After playing all 5 classes yesterday to lvl 10 each, running the skeleton king a few times to get some extra / better gear. Reminds me of the old days of always wanting that "better" item.
When I ran through the first time on my Barb and you had to kill Mira - the Blacksmiths wife. Her body did a complete somersault over my barbs head... lol
About the art, some areas are pretty dark, there are also a few new areas that I hadn't seen in any streams / YT videos.
Overall I think my fastest run through on a new char, killing everything I found and looting everything was about 1 hour 20 mins.
Of course you can do really fast speed runs for rares since they have a very very very low chance to drop after the first kill(blue post said we don't have enough MF on gear in the beta to get consistent rares to drop) *I don't have the link*
Gems, (more) Artisans, (more) Hirelings, and RUNESTONES aren't even in the beta and it's still a fun experience. The retail version of this game will last ages.
Gems, (more) Artisans, (more) Hirelings, and RUNESTONES aren't even in the beta and it's still a fun experience. The retail version of this game will last ages.
I definitely agree. I play every possible chance I get and I still don't get enough. And I don't have 1/100th of the entire game. This game will last for years and years to come.
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I played the witchdoctor and barbarian to about level 10 each, and had tons of fun. The treasure goblins are always exciting (though it sux when you dont kill them in time before they escape) the random dungeon events are fun; Some games you'll find a "sub-area" then the next game it won't be there but something else will but it just expands upon the "randomness" that i found really satisfying in Diablo 1 and 2, which also is something that added and i think will definitely add to the longevity of Diablo 3.
The "randomness" element is everywhere too. Obviously the items are, and the levels, but i found some other things that people hadn't mentioned that i'd seen. For example, one time when i killed a treasure goblin he dropped several blues, a ton of gold, and a bunch of white items; then another time, he just dropped 1 blue, a few health orbs, but upon slaying him i got a buff cast on myself that gave me something like +20% to magic find for 5 minutes or something to that effect.
Also, when i had slain a treasure goblin another time, i got the "lore" popup that told me about the treasure goblins and how they escape from the realm of the lord of greed, and if you dont kill them you'll see them jump in a oddly colored town portal type thing and escape to this "greed realm" described in the lore. I just found it interesting cause it makes me wonder if in the full version or further down in the full version of the game game, if players will be maybe able to chase them into the "greed realm" and it's something like a treasure room. I thought that might be cool.
But yeah, the game feels really great; Also i didn't mention it looks absolutely fantastic! the environments and monsters are top notch in terms of coolness factor. Theres all kinds of interesting things to look at in the environment and things to explore and i'm sure you've all seen the characters and creatures. New Tristram from head to toe looks great and yeah, it's stylized IMO, but still Diablo. I'm going to be controversial here and say that i dont really think it looks WoWish, it's it's own thing, it's... Diablo.
Getting to my point though I can't express how much i've been looking forward to Diablo 3. I just wanted to stop in and say to everyone here who is amped to get and play it, i can say with quite a bit of confidence that i highly doubt you'll be disappointed and it's been worth the wait. Its extremely fun, it feels like Diablo, the skills are fun, the game looks great, and again, in my opinion it expands on the other two Diablo games in almost every way. It hasn't been bastardized despite what naysayers have said; It's Diablo and once the full version launches... Oh, it will be glorious. My one sentence review of the game based on my beta experience, playing all day today: Its everything i wanted it to be and more. This game is friggin awesome.
Images (witchdoctor):
What impressed me is the combat, really. Feels absolutely great, every sound effect feels great (which I did not expect, you have to play it to feel it), everything and every death effect and animation looks great... If you know and love Diablo as that game you go in just to kill thousands of monsters, you won't get bored of it, I assure you.
Its addictive as hell.
Be that good or bad
Also, really loving how games are setup "quest" like so you join games randomly with people to complete X quest. And I hope it stays as it is in the beta: people killing everything (even if they're still rushing... damn them).
Remember these opinions here come from a guy that didn't just love D2 and grinded helplessly for years. I never cared for grindfests and never was that addicted. I think D3 could prove more addicting to people like me than D2.
www.nerdyblog.com - Great website and great Diablo III streams and Skype chat!
Yeah, i can totally understand how some might miss aspects from Diablo 2 i guess it all depends on the person;
I consider myself a pretty hardcore D2 player and even more hardcore D1 (Diablo 1 probably one of my favorite games of all time); And i am more enthusiastic than most; I did all the grinding, all the meph runs, made all kinds of different magic find characters in D2 just for fun and challenge, and as you mentioned, i wont miss that either.
I like running through killing everything, i love the random events in d3, the sudden massive waves of monsters that occasionally ambush. The gameplay just feels fresh. I feel like i'm constantly encouraged to explore, where as in D2 i was encouraged to race to the boss. We'll see how it all shakes down but holy crap am i lovin D3 beta so far.
[edited multiple times in the following paragraph; added stuff, etc]
Another thing i'll add, just on the topic of appreciating the game, is the amount of homage it pays to Diablo 1. It seems like they were really inspired by Diablo 1 in characters and environments. Right off the bat it feels a lot darker and foreboding from an art standpoint as well as story, just in the first hour of play.
My biggest complaint in diablo 2 (which i also managed to get beta access to) was that it was too bright and cheery. Yeah Diablo 2 had it had it's "dark areas" like the lower levels of the cathedral, and the dungeons of kurast, but i feel like in Diablo 3 they went above Diablo 2 in terms of capturing that mood and also didn't do something lazy like desaturate the palettes, lower the circle of light around the character and vignette everything *cough* path of exile.
While there's bright environments in Diablo 3, it definitely feels predominantly darker, from an art standpoint than i expected. I remember them saying the brightness helps contrast the dark, and yeah the few bits of color and light, really help the darkness feel "darker".
Be careful how you say that you 'played it at a friends house' (or don't say it at all for legal reasons lol).
D3 Channel: OnetwoD3
After playing all 5 classes yesterday to lvl 10 each, running the skeleton king a few times to get some extra / better gear. Reminds me of the old days of always wanting that "better" item.
When I ran through the first time on my Barb and you had to kill Mira - the Blacksmiths wife. Her body did a complete somersault over my barbs head... lol
About the art, some areas are pretty dark, there are also a few new areas that I hadn't seen in any streams / YT videos.
Overall I think my fastest run through on a new char, killing everything I found and looting everything was about 1 hour 20 mins.
Of course you can do really fast speed runs for rares since they have a very very very low chance to drop after the first kill(blue post said we don't have enough MF on gear in the beta to get consistent rares to drop) *I don't have the link*
Anyway I'm off to continue my demon slaying =)
.
My PvP build would be different from these 13.
Check out the leaked Demon Hunter skill list here from Blizzard China: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://tiny.cc/10p16
Diablo III is $50; MSI GT683DXR-423US Gaming Laptop is $1,599; Playing Diablo III w/ my wife & 2 brothers is PRICELESS
In all the beta vids I've watched, I've enjoyed hearing the sounds of monsters getting hit/killed..they sound so much like D1 it's exciting!