After having played the demo at BlizzCon, a new article in the Chicago Tribune is describing Diablo 3 as being very much like Diablo 2 from the 90s in terms of style. Take a look at what writer Gus Mastrapa had to say about the aesthetics of the game as well as addressing the widely discussed controversy of Diablo 3's color palette:
"Let's just get this out of the way. The people worried about the look of "Diablo III" being too colorful are idiots. They're straight-up wrong. The last thing we need is Blizzard taking these people seriously. Because if there's a problem at all with "Diablo III" (and I'm not sure that there is), it's that the game isn't straying far enough from the grim geek aesthetics of the '90s.
At BlizzCon this year, I had the opportunity to hack-and-slash my way through buzzing Sand Wasps and maddened cultists. I painted the desert with their blood. And the frequent red flash of arterial spray was the brightest color to meet my squinting eyes.
We've seen the offending screenshots, depicting cavernous dungeons lit by the pale glow of ancient magicks and forests painted an autumnal ochre. Fans went crazy over those early images; infuriated, apparently, by Blizzard's use of the entire color palette -- especially the rainbow that shone in the misty reaches below a broken bridge. To most gamers, that arcing band of color was like Kryptonite. I found all those screenshots to be quite beautiful.
What we saw at BlizzCon wasn't quite so lovely. The Sundered Pass was a wind-blown path snaking between jutting black rock. Our party fought its way between the tilting stone spires, slashing bugs, cutting down Dune Threshers -- bigger, fiercer critters that crawl on their bellies. Rotting corpses of creatures alien and unknown curled in corners. Alcoves hid treasures and ambushes in nearly equal share. But always there was death -- delivered by the hands of Barbarian, Monk and Witch Doctor.
All of these moments are accentuated by the game's art style. One that isn't stylized or cartoony, as some critics would claim. True, "Diablo III" doesn't look like a game from the '90s anymore ---it looks like the box art of a game from the '90s. Recall the aesthetic: the future gore of "DOOM," the disarming orange and yellow of "Planescape: Torment" and the gothic lettering of :"Diablo." These were a culmination of male teen fantasy -- an amalgamation of the mature comic book, Nine Inch Nails angst and cyberpunk style, like the now-cliched leather trenchcoats donned by Neo in "The Matrix." And so, while you won't see the Monk wearing William Gibson-inspired mirrorshades, the aesthetic soul of the '90s is preserved in "Diablo III", for better or for worse. I'm going to say for better.
Play the levels we were exposed to at BlizzCon and you'll feel transported not only to the fantastic world of "Diablo III", but back to the '90s. Because despite the gorgeous visuals dancing across the monitor, images that feel torn straight from the cover of a "Dragonlance" novel, "Diablo III" is a total throwback. Blizzard's devotion to the past is understandable. Millions still play the games it created way back when. A hard left turn would be folly. "Diablo III," like "StarCraft II," stays the course. And the destination is the same as it's always been: 3 a.m., bleary and buzzed with a bag full of loot and an alarm clock looming.
Apart from the detailed visuals, "Diablo III" futzes very little with the formula. And that's a good thing. Players roam overworlds and dungeons, cutting through enemies and looting their still-warm corpses. "Diablo III" is a return to Sanctuary, some 20 years after the characters in "Diablo II" saved the world. But the veterans of the last war against Hell have gone mad from the horrors they've seen. And new blood is needed to pick up the fight. Familiar faces, like Deckard Cain, are set to return. And familiar places, like Tristram, will be revisited.
But more interesting, at least to me, are the moments of deja vu I felt during the demo. Played with friends, the same multiplayer moments arise. Groups split up, players nosing their way toward different corners of the map. One player finds himself outnumbered and the rest come running (sometimes failing) to save the day. Pockets fill to the brim with loot, forcing friends to stop momentarily and trade by chucking useful weapons and whatnot into the dirt.
I'm glad Blizzard didn't cook up new ways to handle these moments, because they're part of what made the original games fun to play with friends. And I'm looking forward to seeing how the new Battle.net accentuates rather than transforms these moments. Being able to hear your friend's voice while playing "Diablo III" certainly isn't something I remember from the '90s -- but it's a touch that I'll find useful. Because who wants to type when you could be clicking and killing?"
Yes, it's yet another voice amidst thousands of opinions... but I'm sure many avid players of the previous games find solace in hearing another fan claiming that the soul of the Diablo series has been well preserved in part 3 after testing it out.
I agree with him for the most part. I don't really see Diablo III a "callback to the '90s" though. I see it more as the future of the Diablo series. Granted it still plays similar to the original games, but it wouldn't be a true sequel if it didn't.
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"No one gets to heaven 'til they've lived awhile in hell and even then it's rare that you'll be going there."
And the destination is the same as it's always been: 3 a.m., bleary and buzzed with a bag full of loot and an alarm clock looming.
this part made me smile, mostly because I've been to that "destination" several times over and over again! all in all, i believe that this article does justice to the game, although i haven't played the demo yet, the way the writer describes the moments experienced in the demo brought back some good memories. personally, i never thought the game had any sort of "problems." in terms of colours, more or less i found the the so-called "brighter" colour-scheme looking great, i want to see all the colours of the otherwise dim lit sanctuary! blizzard is meeting all my expectations with this new diablo, my only gripe, as is most other players, is the lack of consistent updates about what's going down. oh, and of course the ever mysterious "1.13 patch," i believe you've all heard the legend of it's release? heh. :]
I enjoyed the article as well, although at first I wasnt sure if the author was throwing in some disappointment and/or negative thoughts (in a nice way however).
I found myself wanting the game even more after reading it tho, if thats even possible.
Interesting article and I am glad to hear most of what he had to say about the demo. Every time I read one of these articles, it just makes me sad that I probably wont be playing until *hopefully* 2011...
On a side note, the 3 am with bleary eyes comment hit home way too many times
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~ Some people are still alive only because it is illegal to kill them ~
Damn, there's nothing really special about the 90's other than the popularity of the goths. I think that is why this game is soo important, at that time everyone wants to do something, something weird and macabre. And that's it, the birth of the game, Diablo, praised by some fundamentalists as inspired by some satanists. What they don't know about is that, its purely dark fantasy and for entertainment purpose only. This game reflects the pressures of the 90s, the decline of the Christian culture in the west. But, I do really miss the 90's.
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Mathematics is a penumbra, those who hold such an affection to this noble field would find themselves into the realm of the Heirarchy of Abstracts and Paradoxes.
? I don't understand why you're basing yourself on a worthless piece of text to determined whether or not you should continue to read. Anyway you missed one of the most gargantually awesome piece of news D3 has ever seen ^_^!!!
I can not agree more with the passage. I've played D3 at Blizzcon and was amazed. There were times when i shuddered because there was too much blood exploding on the screen, and i was thinking "my god, that is a lot of gore!!!".
Then i continued playing because it was so fun ;). The art style is amazing and creates a beautiful detailed environment to play. Sadly those fanboys crying about the art style would know nothing of what i'm talking about and spend their time crying over a few early ss.
Here's another person who didn't really do his homework about the art controversy. The colors were not a big part of what most people didn't like. The only big offender in regards to color was the neon green dungeon which was seen less and less as more of the game was revealed.
The main complaint was the over all light hearted style the early reveals of the game had. There were cartoony spikes over everything, the witch doctor saying "oggey boogey," the gallons of anime blood coating everything, the huge shoulder pads, the disappearing bodies, the Barbarian using ranged spells more than melee attacks, the marshmallow demon, etc. There was a lot of stuff for people to complain about besides the color.
Was it premature for them to complain? Yeah, but they also had every right to make their voices heard. Blizzard even said they got too much negative feed back about disappearing bodies, so they changed it.
The newest reveals of the game look fantastic, of course, but now people are concerned over new things, such as reply value. I was one of the people who thought that I didn't like where Diablo 3 was going. Even though I've changed my opinion, what I didn't like had nothing to do with colors.
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D3 Pros: Outdoors environment, night time environment, female Barbarian, rune spell system, the Wizard class
D3 Cons: Fantasy architecture, fantasy armor, fanstasy weapons, no shaders.
Hmm, I never directed any comments at you Warden. I only replied to the original post. I agree with you, that people had their right to make their voices heard. Where I'm coming from is this is a build far from the original game. Blizzard even said so themselves after the first batches of SS, that people are complaining too soon and assume that the whole game would be rainbows and unicorns. (the petition did change stuff as i am aware as well, and thank god)
They stated that there are places in the game that gets progressively much darker that were not revealed yet. In this build, i feel that we are getting more of what the real game would actually be like. Both side have legit reasons, i agree with you and i hope you see where I'm coming from.
I have no prob with people voicing their opinions, and that always happen when the very first batch off SS comes out so it's no surprise b/c they legitimately care about the game/franchise. Not anyone of us have played the game enough to know about replay value, but I trust blizzard (as i do with all their franchise) that they will make this game an epic one.
PlugY for Diablo II allows you to reset skills and stats, transfer items between characters in singleplayer, obtain all ladder runewords and do all Uberquests while offline. It is the only way to do all of the above. Please use it.
Supporting big shoulderpads and flashy armor since 2004.
I have to say this is a good change from the typical quote-Bashiok tirades we all usually do. An actual paper with an article about Diablo... This thing is going to new heights
"Let's just get this out of the way. The people worried about the look of "Diablo III" being too colorful are idiots. They're straight-up wrong. The last thing we need is Blizzard taking these people seriously."
Warden covered this pretty well, however for allot of us, the color and removal of the light radius was a big issue. Most of us have moved on and accepted it.
This comment is well out of line and quite offensive. according to Gus, us "idiots" that have bought dozens of copys of the game over the last 9+ years, have been at the top of hc ladder, brainlesly mf run 100,000's of runs, tppk'd eachover over and over, know the map generation like the back of our hands and have kept this game alive long past its expirey date shouldnt have our voices heard by blizzard.Sorry Gus but your the one who's straight-up wrong, you are the idiot. Your new jack ass has contributed zilch to the diablo community and your opinion on our complaints is misinformed and holds no substance.
I hate you, you also resemble some sort of swamp oracle-garden gnome fusion
Maybe my head cold is making me slower than usual, but I'm confused. He begins by dismissing the people who wanted a darker style as idiots, but by the end he is giving the highest of high praise to the darker direction it has taken, as we desired. What?
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‘I'M NOT LEAVING UNTIL WE ALL HAVE AIDS!’—The importance of calling them ‘mercenaries.’
Yes, it's yet another voice amidst thousands of opinions... but I'm sure many avid players of the previous games find solace in hearing another fan claiming that the soul of the Diablo series has been well preserved in part 3 after testing it out.
this part made me smile, mostly because I've been to that "destination" several times over and over again! all in all, i believe that this article does justice to the game, although i haven't played the demo yet, the way the writer describes the moments experienced in the demo brought back some good memories. personally, i never thought the game had any sort of "problems." in terms of colours, more or less i found the the so-called "brighter" colour-scheme looking great, i want to see all the colours of the otherwise dim lit sanctuary! blizzard is meeting all my expectations with this new diablo, my only gripe, as is most other players, is the lack of consistent updates about what's going down. oh, and of course the ever mysterious "1.13 patch," i believe you've all heard the legend of it's release? heh. :]
I found myself wanting the game even more after reading it tho, if thats even possible.
On a side note, the 3 am with bleary eyes comment hit home way too many times
It's good to see Diablo III getting good reviews like this.
? I don't understand why you're basing yourself on a worthless piece of text to determined whether or not you should continue to read. Anyway you missed one of the most gargantually awesome piece of news D3 has ever seen ^_^!!!
Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals... except the weasel.
- Homer Simpson
Then i continued playing because it was so fun ;). The art style is amazing and creates a beautiful detailed environment to play. Sadly those fanboys crying about the art style would know nothing of what i'm talking about and spend their time crying over a few early ss.
The main complaint was the over all light hearted style the early reveals of the game had. There were cartoony spikes over everything, the witch doctor saying "oggey boogey," the gallons of anime blood coating everything, the huge shoulder pads, the disappearing bodies, the Barbarian using ranged spells more than melee attacks, the marshmallow demon, etc. There was a lot of stuff for people to complain about besides the color.
Was it premature for them to complain? Yeah, but they also had every right to make their voices heard. Blizzard even said they got too much negative feed back about disappearing bodies, so they changed it.
The newest reveals of the game look fantastic, of course, but now people are concerned over new things, such as reply value. I was one of the people who thought that I didn't like where Diablo 3 was going. Even though I've changed my opinion, what I didn't like had nothing to do with colors.
D3 Pros: Outdoors environment, night time environment, female Barbarian, rune spell system, the Wizard class
D3 Cons: Fantasy architecture, fantasy armor, fanstasy weapons, no shaders.
They stated that there are places in the game that gets progressively much darker that were not revealed yet. In this build, i feel that we are getting more of what the real game would actually be like. Both side have legit reasons, i agree with you and i hope you see where I'm coming from.
I have no prob with people voicing their opinions, and that always happen when the very first batch off SS comes out so it's no surprise b/c they legitimately care about the game/franchise. Not anyone of us have played the game enough to know about replay value, but I trust blizzard (as i do with all their franchise) that they will make this game an epic one.
Good find.
Warden covered this pretty well, however for allot of us, the color and removal of the light radius was a big issue. Most of us have moved on and accepted it.
This comment is well out of line and quite offensive. according to Gus, us "idiots" that have bought dozens of copys of the game over the last 9+ years, have been at the top of hc ladder, brainlesly mf run 100,000's of runs, tppk'd eachover over and over, know the map generation like the back of our hands and have kept this game alive long past its expirey date shouldnt have our voices heard by blizzard.Sorry Gus but your the one who's straight-up wrong, you are the idiot. Your new jack ass has contributed zilch to the diablo community and your opinion on our complaints is misinformed and holds no substance.
I hate you, you also resemble some sort of swamp oracle-garden gnome fusion
Apart from that I enjoyed the article
/end rant
‘I'M NOT LEAVING UNTIL WE ALL HAVE AIDS!’—The importance of calling them ‘mercenaries.’