I figure this isn't necessarily a new discussion, but I was wondering how people felt now that the game has been out for a few months and we can look back on the experience a bit more objectively.
First I will frame my opinions around the idea that I was a very passionate Diablo fan. Not from a standpoint of min/maxing or being into the ladder race or even HC. I was a very casual from that standpoint. It just didn't interest me. I was always into the atmosphere, gameplay, loot and very much into the lore of these games (read all the books and manuals kinda guy). I was also a major apologist for Blizzard coming into the release of this game. Trying to assure myself that they would do things right or even better.
There are just some things, that I am sure have irked others, that seem so poorly conceived and executed. Not from a gameplay standpoint or balance and progression. Just storytelling and immersion seem so flat. And it kinda leaves a knot in my stomach because it's sort of depressing to think that a decade of planning and tweaking lead them to the game we got.
1) The story itself seemed very ham-fisted. They had Knaak pen 3 novels to help establish the pre-history and they barely ever touch upon it. They refer to us as nephalem and there are creatures called morlu. Yet we get very little of what happened before. Most of it feels like fan service whenever they did bring something back. We are spoon fed plot twist every single time before they happen. I honestly have not seen such banal story delivery in a game from Blizzard. I'm not saying everything else they do is 100% spot on, but never before had I felt so disconnected from their attempts to pull us in. And sadly it was from my absolute favorite game world.
2) They had a good idea about keeping combat going while hearing lore, except the problem is that you end up back at the same point compared to if they just had us standing there taking it in. Half the time I would play a lore book or hear info on a monster, some other dialogue would trigger if I kept on moving forward playing and fighting, thus interrupting the original audio I was trying to hear. This basically forces us to stand still, listen to it and move on. Or head into town later and go through all the files if we wish. It just ends up being the same thing except makes you feel rushed or fragmented. Having to find those rare lore books sounds fun, but when there is some nice nuanced story point it tends to get lost in the shuffle.
3) Caldeum... I was so excited for that area. A massive city. A nod to Lut'Gholein which I loved. Yet we show up, and the bazaar is this tiny section of gamespace. Of course we have the issue of time/money and what has to be included or excluded for the sake of development. But why bother creating the idea of a massive trade hub when everything we experience is relegated to a few sparse areas? They did a nice job of vistas for sure in that city. But it's just sad (sad sad, not pathetic sad) that we couldn't see more.
4) Audio. To me the game lacked a lot of ambience. The environments don't sound alive as they did in Diablo 2. I remember when they revealed Diablo 3 and the first webpage design for it had the character screen. It had some really nice ambient sounds to go with it. Crickets, sounds of night and some call from a creature off in the distance. We lost all that in the final game. In my opinion.
5) Being told what we actually felt. Everything during the build up to the game I would hear them say things about how our memories weren't in line with how things actually were. Until the game was out I sided with that stance because I assumed they were going to take a balance approach, not the 180 that seemed to happen. For instance, the dark/colorful debate. Yes of course Diablo 1 and 2 had some bright vibrant areas. But it also had pitch black, moody sections as well. With Diablo 3 we never get near that type of dank, dark atmoshpere. I just don't get why we couldn't have seen both. The art style was different but had they embraced shadows and juxtaposition rather than everything feeling like it was grayed out or washed in dusty atmosphere it could have been brilliant.
TL;DR?
As a long time fan of the story I am finding myself very jaded. To me they manhandled so many aspects of a game despite it not being that hard to define the key elements that worked from the previous games. It leaves me confused.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
First I will frame my opinions around the idea that I was a very passionate Diablo fan. Not from a standpoint of min/maxing or being into the ladder race or even HC. I was a very casual from that standpoint. It just didn't interest me. I was always into the atmosphere, gameplay, loot and very much into the lore of these games (read all the books and manuals kinda guy). I was also a major apologist for Blizzard coming into the release of this game. Trying to assure myself that they would do things right or even better.
There are just some things, that I am sure have irked others, that seem so poorly conceived and executed. Not from a gameplay standpoint or balance and progression. Just storytelling and immersion seem so flat. And it kinda leaves a knot in my stomach because it's sort of depressing to think that a decade of planning and tweaking lead them to the game we got.
1) The story itself seemed very ham-fisted. They had Knaak pen 3 novels to help establish the pre-history and they barely ever touch upon it. They refer to us as nephalem and there are creatures called morlu. Yet we get very little of what happened before. Most of it feels like fan service whenever they did bring something back. We are spoon fed plot twist every single time before they happen. I honestly have not seen such banal story delivery in a game from Blizzard. I'm not saying everything else they do is 100% spot on, but never before had I felt so disconnected from their attempts to pull us in. And sadly it was from my absolute favorite game world.
2) They had a good idea about keeping combat going while hearing lore, except the problem is that you end up back at the same point compared to if they just had us standing there taking it in. Half the time I would play a lore book or hear info on a monster, some other dialogue would trigger if I kept on moving forward playing and fighting, thus interrupting the original audio I was trying to hear. This basically forces us to stand still, listen to it and move on. Or head into town later and go through all the files if we wish. It just ends up being the same thing except makes you feel rushed or fragmented. Having to find those rare lore books sounds fun, but when there is some nice nuanced story point it tends to get lost in the shuffle.
3) Caldeum... I was so excited for that area. A massive city. A nod to Lut'Gholein which I loved. Yet we show up, and the bazaar is this tiny section of gamespace. Of course we have the issue of time/money and what has to be included or excluded for the sake of development. But why bother creating the idea of a massive trade hub when everything we experience is relegated to a few sparse areas? They did a nice job of vistas for sure in that city. But it's just sad (sad sad, not pathetic sad) that we couldn't see more.
4) Audio. To me the game lacked a lot of ambience. The environments don't sound alive as they did in Diablo 2. I remember when they revealed Diablo 3 and the first webpage design for it had the character screen. It had some really nice ambient sounds to go with it. Crickets, sounds of night and some call from a creature off in the distance. We lost all that in the final game. In my opinion.
5) Being told what we actually felt. Everything during the build up to the game I would hear them say things about how our memories weren't in line with how things actually were. Until the game was out I sided with that stance because I assumed they were going to take a balance approach, not the 180 that seemed to happen. For instance, the dark/colorful debate. Yes of course Diablo 1 and 2 had some bright vibrant areas. But it also had pitch black, moody sections as well. With Diablo 3 we never get near that type of dank, dark atmoshpere. I just don't get why we couldn't have seen both. The art style was different but had they embraced shadows and juxtaposition rather than everything feeling like it was grayed out or washed in dusty atmosphere it could have been brilliant.
TL;DR?
As a long time fan of the story I am finding myself very jaded. To me they manhandled so many aspects of a game despite it not being that hard to define the key elements that worked from the previous games. It leaves me confused.