I don't think it was ever possible for D2, nor for D3, to capture D1 completely. D1 was a fairly singular game in that you felt like you were irrevocably tied to this lone, cursed and lost town. There was no outside beyond the small town's confines, and nothing else really mattered. It gave it this almost dreamlike quality, stuck in something you knew would become a nightmare. Your only path was down. Down, deeper into a tomb and then even deeper underneath it to find new horrors. It was your inexorable fate to go deeper into the darkness until you died or discovered what lay at the bottom--if there even was a bottom. The whole game just oozed inescapable dread.
D2's atmosphere --
In my opinion, it's impossible for D2 to have replicated this, because conceptually, D1 was a wholly contained experience. Either D2 would have to clone the setting outright, and suffer greatly as a salable product for doing so, or answer the question of "what might happen next?" which, sadly, immediately demands the curtains be drawn back from our singular town and show us what's outside.
I think Blizzard North still knew what they were doing, because the cinematics with Marius keep true to D1's essence: trapped in a nightmare, being drawn inexorably on, knowing it can't possibly end well. However, the player is cast into an entirely new role--you're chasing down evil, always two steps behind, in a race against global disaster. An excellent approach in its own right! Blizzard, being good game designers, needed to take us into new areas with their own atmosphere. If they had kept a majority of color palette brown, grey and black, I would have been sorely disappointed that they hired Quake's art director. and it really wouldn't have worked for the adventure D2 took us on. The game kept pockets of D1 in it-- delving into ruined temples, tombs, cathedrals, etc. and it worked fairly well.
D3's potential --
Similarly, D3 can deliver those concentrated pockets of D1. There are screenshots that lead me to hope (no proof) there's an entire Act in D3 that captures D1's trapped in a focused, inescapable nightmare feel. (But, it still won't be as impactful as D1 since you will have come from somewhere else, and know you have somewhere further beyond to go.)
Share your thoughts/hopes for D3's setting and atmopshere! Or something like that.
Note: I'm not one who thinks D3 needs a all the color sucked out of it. I'm very, very excited about the rich, oil-painting-like feel D3's settings have. I think this approach goes a long way to giving the whole game a unique and gothic feel without making everything black & brown. That being said, I can respect people's preferences, I would just really prefer the art the way it is, and add a de-saturation slider or something for those who don't like it.
First of all, very good post. Good read and I pretty much agree with everything. I just don't think its possible to recreate the diablo 1 feel today without making it look outdated and bland. Saying that I think diablo 3 will have its moments where your hairs stick up. Can't wait!! Omg.
I think they could recreate that very dark, devoid of color look and make it look amazing... But at the same time I believe that to do that, they'd have to build the type of game that requires a lot more graphics power for minimum specs than they are looking for.
In addition, if you keep that very "everything has to be dark, everything has to be filled with blood/death/guts, there can be no color" type attitude... Then it makes it extremely difficult to make dungeons and areas that feel different. Nows a days if they made a game with just one dungeon, people would have a fit because games have evolved so far beyond that.
I will still never believe that the Diablo Universe has to be just black and white. I think that so long as the violence and graphic nature of the game is retained that they can really put it in any setting. (Within reason of course)
Yes I think u are spot on with the feel of the diablos however imo I think people are greatly confusing diablo 2's horrible graphics with that of a dark/gothic look now I am not denying that diablo 1 and 2 had that gothic and dark look, I remember being in dungeons and yelling out "I can't f**in see." With diablo 3 I think fans have to understand and appreciate the power of todays graphic engines and just enjoy diablo for what it is killing monsters and getting loot
I'm hoping that some areas of D3 will capture that magnificent vibe from D1; the hopelessness, claustrophobic feel where everything wants to kill you, where even the town is a creepy place. If they can give each act a real different atmosphere then I'll be a happy camper. I just hope it's easy to lose yourself in Sanctuary and experience some nostalgic creepy parts reminiscent of D1.
I think you nicely captured the feel of D1. That for me is what D1 was all about. Closed in the singular world of Tristram and the danger underneath; nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, just this one gloomy town and one hero trying to fight the horror. Also important I think was the darkness. In D2 a lot of fights take place on the outside and therefore provide proper vision. In D1 one was almost afraid to make a wrong step because you just couldn't really see what was lurking in the shadows ahead. Some creatures also blended into the background making it difficult to see everything even when it was visible. Finally, D1's walking system meant that you cannot just run away and kite enemies and stuff. You had your pace and the enemies had mostly the same which just locked you in a desperate combat for position and that vital first hit that made the difference between life and death. To me that was the essence of D1...closed in desperation, nowhere to run, just you and the evil ahead... And many non-atmospheric aspects of the game supported that feeling.
D2 naturally could not use the same feeling though oftentimes on higher difficulties I felt the same, looking into the shadows in fear of what comes next, where the final blow will come from. I liked how the music created very different feel to the game than it did to D1. It felt more open and more free, though in the end at every turn there was evil and death. Even the harem with it's colours and oriental music was in the end a deathtrap with massacred guards and harem girls lying in pools of blood. I think D2 in itself proved that everything doesn't have to be black, grey or brown to be Diablo since there were very colourful areas (like the majority of act 2, river of flame, parts of the barbarian homeland and stuff). The feeling was freer than in D1 but it created it's own distinct atmosphere and just pure love of the gameplay made me love the new atmosphere and the beautiful music as well.
For D3, the atmosphere is really hard to predict because we haven't heard a lot of music, seen only a select couple of areas and have no idea about the feel of the start of the game. For me the beginning of the game sets the tone for the rest of the game or at least a majority. I however don't get all the whining about the game feeling cartoony or too colourful. Colour means they can give the areas more character. Back then everything was into the bleaker shades of green, gray and brown because there wasn't the technology we have today. Now we can have things more colourful and then just add misty haze and vapours and stuff to 'gray' things out. Also I really like the 'handpainted' feel of some of the areas and background and stuff because it also adds more character to the game. Just to compare: I have played Titan Quest and I really like the game but one think I dislike is the fact that it looks so real. It lacks the artistic feel that Diablo games have, everything is like taken from age of empires - I have no better way to describe it. A kind of sterile style where everything is as if there was a real person standing there in a real world full of real creatures and animals; there was little to no character to the environment and stuff. D3 appears to be taking the environmental feel to a whole another level from the stage set by D1 and D2 and I love it. The only thing I am worried about is the music since so far we haven't heard much and what we have heard isn't as musical as the 'ambient' themes in D2 were. I mean when one listens to the spider caves or Act 1 caves theme...it is at times just noises but there is music in there too. So far D3 themes have been more on the ambient side of things.
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A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head!
Can't be done, D1 had that atmosphere/claustrophobic vibe mostly because there was no ''run'' button, so, literally, there was no safe escape route. Alas, D3 is a whole different game and being developed by a whole different team.
Get real, folks, the diablo you all knew is dead, a few years ago i said right here in this forum that D3 had a pretty good chance of being blizzard first bust (i was flamed to death ofc), and what you know, its not even beta and its already looking that way.
shackyAak,
I think you're spot on here. D3 definitely has potential to have that dreamlike quality you talk about. Obviously since D3 is going to be much different than D1 or D2, it's definitely going to have to create that quality in it's own special way. I hope the art team and everyone else involved can bring a lot of that back.
There are some scenes in the barb/wd gameplay trailer, which makes me absolutely trust in blizzard to catch this feeling of walking deeper and deeper into a nightmare.
For example at 9:11, where you can see the silhouette of siegebreaker walking in the background or at 9:56 where he breaks through the wall and kills one of the archer.
Even though the boss himself is several playtime minutes away, you are awaiting his appearance every second you play. Then you get out of the dungeon and forget about him while slaying some smaller monsters outside. Just as you want to join the next dungeon he suddenly appears.
I mean - wow! Imagine yourself playing that part the first time, not knowing what awaits you. That´s really shocking compared to diablo 2 where even a act boss just stays in his chamber awaiting you. (Ok diablo himself was an exception)
that was awesome what they did showing the boss active and roaming about causing havoc
this really has a nice effect on a boss as big and formidable looking as the siege breaker
almost every other boss in Diablo history you hunted them down and they kinda just waited for you to come in and kill them
so you hunt down the leaders of an army of hell and they'll send big bad demons to hunt you down right back in D3.. i like it
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I don't think it was ever possible for D2, nor for D3, to capture D1 completely. D1 was a fairly singular game in that you felt like you were irrevocably tied to this lone, cursed and lost town. There was no outside beyond the small town's confines, and nothing else really mattered. It gave it this almost dreamlike quality, stuck in something you knew would become a nightmare. Your only path was down. Down, deeper into a tomb and then even deeper underneath it to find new horrors. It was your inexorable fate to go deeper into the darkness until you died or discovered what lay at the bottom--if there even was a bottom. The whole game just oozed inescapable dread.
D2's atmosphere --
In my opinion, it's impossible for D2 to have replicated this, because conceptually, D1 was a wholly contained experience. Either D2 would have to clone the setting outright, and suffer greatly as a salable product for doing so, or answer the question of "what might happen next?" which, sadly, immediately demands the curtains be drawn back from our singular town and show us what's outside.
I think Blizzard North still knew what they were doing, because the cinematics with Marius keep true to D1's essence: trapped in a nightmare, being drawn inexorably on, knowing it can't possibly end well. However, the player is cast into an entirely new role--you're chasing down evil, always two steps behind, in a race against global disaster. An excellent approach in its own right! Blizzard, being good game designers, needed to take us into new areas with their own atmosphere. If they had kept a majority of color palette brown, grey and black, I would have been sorely disappointed
that they hired Quake's art director.and it really wouldn't have worked for the adventure D2 took us on. The game kept pockets of D1 in it-- delving into ruined temples, tombs, cathedrals, etc. and it worked fairly well.D3's potential --
Similarly, D3 can deliver those concentrated pockets of D1. There are screenshots that lead me to hope (no proof) there's an entire Act in D3 that captures D1's trapped in a focused, inescapable nightmare feel. (But, it still won't be as impactful as D1 since you will have come from somewhere else, and know you have somewhere further beyond to go.)
D1-vibe screenshots:
http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/_images/screenshots/ss86-hires.jpg -- http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/_images/screenshots/ss63-hires.jpg
http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/_images/screenshots/ss57-hires.jpg -- http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/_images/screenshots/ss53-hires.jpg
Share your thoughts/hopes for D3's setting and atmopshere! Or something like that.
Note: I'm not one who thinks D3 needs a all the color sucked out of it. I'm very, very excited about the rich, oil-painting-like feel D3's settings have. I think this approach goes a long way to giving the whole game a unique and gothic feel without making everything black & brown. That being said, I can respect people's preferences, I would just really prefer the art the way it is, and add a de-saturation slider or something for those who don't like it.
In addition, if you keep that very "everything has to be dark, everything has to be filled with blood/death/guts, there can be no color" type attitude... Then it makes it extremely difficult to make dungeons and areas that feel different. Nows a days if they made a game with just one dungeon, people would have a fit because games have evolved so far beyond that.
I will still never believe that the Diablo Universe has to be just black and white. I think that so long as the violence and graphic nature of the game is retained that they can really put it in any setting. (Within reason of course)
I love how Diablo 3 looks, personally.
D2 naturally could not use the same feeling though oftentimes on higher difficulties I felt the same, looking into the shadows in fear of what comes next, where the final blow will come from. I liked how the music created very different feel to the game than it did to D1. It felt more open and more free, though in the end at every turn there was evil and death. Even the harem with it's colours and oriental music was in the end a deathtrap with massacred guards and harem girls lying in pools of blood. I think D2 in itself proved that everything doesn't have to be black, grey or brown to be Diablo since there were very colourful areas (like the majority of act 2, river of flame, parts of the barbarian homeland and stuff). The feeling was freer than in D1 but it created it's own distinct atmosphere and just pure love of the gameplay made me love the new atmosphere and the beautiful music as well.
For D3, the atmosphere is really hard to predict because we haven't heard a lot of music, seen only a select couple of areas and have no idea about the feel of the start of the game. For me the beginning of the game sets the tone for the rest of the game or at least a majority. I however don't get all the whining about the game feeling cartoony or too colourful. Colour means they can give the areas more character. Back then everything was into the bleaker shades of green, gray and brown because there wasn't the technology we have today. Now we can have things more colourful and then just add misty haze and vapours and stuff to 'gray' things out. Also I really like the 'handpainted' feel of some of the areas and background and stuff because it also adds more character to the game. Just to compare: I have played Titan Quest and I really like the game but one think I dislike is the fact that it looks so real. It lacks the artistic feel that Diablo games have, everything is like taken from age of empires - I have no better way to describe it. A kind of sterile style where everything is as if there was a real person standing there in a real world full of real creatures and animals; there was little to no character to the environment and stuff. D3 appears to be taking the environmental feel to a whole another level from the stage set by D1 and D2 and I love it. The only thing I am worried about is the music since so far we haven't heard much and what we have heard isn't as musical as the 'ambient' themes in D2 were. I mean when one listens to the spider caves or Act 1 caves theme...it is at times just noises but there is music in there too. So far D3 themes have been more on the ambient side of things.
I think you're spot on here. D3 definitely has potential to have that dreamlike quality you talk about. Obviously since D3 is going to be much different than D1 or D2, it's definitely going to have to create that quality in it's own special way. I hope the art team and everyone else involved can bring a lot of that back.
Music was still added during the Starcraft 2 beta. It's not necessarily a bad thing; helps keep the beta fresh.
-Kardax
that was awesome what they did showing the boss active and roaming about causing havoc
this really has a nice effect on a boss as big and formidable looking as the siege breaker
almost every other boss in Diablo history you hunted them down and they kinda just waited for you to come in and kill them
so you hunt down the leaders of an army of hell and they'll send big bad demons to hunt you down right back in D3.. i like it