Most of what was reviewed probably comes as no new shock to most, since this is basically what we all saw from the BlizzCon, but Jordan Fehr at TheVideoGameBlog.com had a bit to say on the feeling of battle gameplay:
Quote fromThe first thing to notice as different is that the pace of the fighting is a bit slower than that of its predecessor. However, Diablo III responds in kind because everything has an extra weighty badass-ness to it. What I mean by that is that when you pull of a large skill, the ground or the screen might shake, and the audio gives you very satisfying feedback to go along with it. The result is that you really feel like you are fighting these deadly things off as they try to surround you.
He goes on to discuss two important things that were new or revisited in the Diablo franchise, checkpoints and reviving fallen comrades, two things which were mentioned passingly at the BlizzCon:
Quote fromTwo things that are very different that I noticed in the small demo were checkpoints, and reviving teamates. When I died in the demo, the game waited to see if a teammate was ready to revive me with a skill or potion and when no one did, I was resurrected at the last checkpoint which was close by.
This is obviously different from Diablo II, where, if a player died, he or she could not be revived on the spot by any skill or item (whether of him/herself or another player) and when defeated, would instantly return to the town of the act after pressing the ESC button, as opposed to the new system where after death, if you are not revived, you return, instead, to the last checkpoint passed in whatever area you are in.
He went on to mention some marked gameplay changes of this new system:
Quote fromI had all my equipment and did not need to worry about whether I dropped a portal or had to walk to my body from town, I just got right back into the action.
And since that is a primary attribute of the Diablo franchise, instant-immersion and fast-paced gameplay, I would say that this change makes sense, rather than the needless and most often not fun process of running naked (or poorly geared) back to your dead body. It also increases cooperation among team mates when in a party. Whether or not any of you think this is a good or a bad change- well, that's what discussion is for!
Over at TopTenReviews.com, Dan Hope had this much to say in response to his personal game play experience with the Diablo III demo at PAX 2009:
Quote fromFans will be delighted to know that the game looks and plays much like the first, obviously with better graphics, new foes and new classes. But the heart of the first Diablo games is still there and it all feels very familiar.
Further reassurance of what we heard from demo players at the BlizzCon aside in regards to its feeling similarity to its predecessors, he ended with a slight insight to the success of the previous games that we have not, as of yet, heard much of:
Quote fromOverall, the game looks fun and the mechanics have had a nice update and polish. But that won't be enough to make it a great game. The story is going to be the big selling point. If Blizzard can create an epic story and some compelling quests (and let's face it, we know they can), then Diablo III will be a supremely entertaining and memorable game.
Although I would never say that any of the storylines of the preceding games were in any way revolutionary or stunning, they were entertaining and interesting, and this is, at least, what I am hoping of in Diablo III. It might be, however, for the best if they leave as much of the storyline as possible (or, maybe even better yet, all of it) for until we actually play the game, ourselves, so that we all have the fun of experiencing each plot twist as the story unfolds.
Here is a gameplay video exclusive to the event, pretty much the same from the BlizzCon:
Maybe not the most thrilling coverage, since not much of anything new was shown at the PAX 2009, hopefully it will re-whet your appetite for Diablo III news as it unfolds.
And, to whomever may be celebrating it, a good Labor Day and Holiday to every one of our members
Fans will be delighted to know that the game looks and plays much like the first, obviously with better graphics, new foes and new classes. But the heart of the first Diablo games is still there and it all feels very familiar.
that's the best thing i've read so far...
i want to kill people d1 style with kickass graphics and d2 moves. or better.
I'm surprised the gameplay is slower-paced since Blizzard always said that they were trying to create a faster paced game than Diablo 2. I hope that when Fehr said that booms and crashes would only appear with big skills, he meant it. I admit to having a nagging fear that most skills (lesser and big) will have an element of spectacle to them. I hope this won't be the case.
Being able to revive teammates is a welcome addition and will save lots of time compared to how Diablo 2 went about the whole death thing. Then again, I'll probably be playing harcore so this won't really matter to me anyway.
I wonder how much Blizzard's ramped up the storyline. Personally, I can't imagine it being that captivating. To me the Diablo games' strength was not the actual story, but how they told it. Maybe things will be different this time around.
And don't worry about the news being a little late, this is a holiday weekend for many people. Hope you're all having a nice Labor Day / holiday weekend!
Um, is it just me, or did Diablo I have scrolls of resurrection?
I don't think there were any... Unless it was in the Hellfire expansion.
Ok, I found a link to it... see Resurrect spell here:
http://extreme-gamerz.org/diablo/viewdiablo/d1spells
I'm pretty sure I've seen them drop in multiplayer games of the original Diablo, it wasn't Hellfire as I never bought that. There were no books for it and the scrolls never dropped in the single player version of the game.
Ummm in Diablo1 multiplayer there is a thing called scroll of ressurect. Vary useful.
Actually, it wasn't only implying skills, but potions. So most likely the Revive skill will be available to a single character (Monk) or few, (magic Users) and the rest of the crew will have to do with potions.
I'm wondering if Seth was sober when writing this post...^_^
Are we talking about the same Diablo 1 ..? The diablo who had both Resurrect Scrolls and a Resurrect Spell?
We will let that one slip by, Seth You know, pretend it never happened
However D2 did have a lack of such a mechanism, that is true. So what they are doing in D3 essentially is bringing back the old Revive system from D1, which was great, and giving it a spin as where if you can't rez someone, he just pops up at the last waypoint. It adds that much more to multiplayer strategy and teamwork.
I'm just not sure that removing all penalty from death a good idea. But I guess that discussion was already done elsewhere....
Actually, I never said anything about it being a skill or a potion, although I did say in an article during the BlizzCon that there were revive potions planned. I only quoted what he said.
And I don't drink, so, yeah...
I'll go fix that, I had forgotten. I haven't played it in years.
No, not waypoint, checkpoint. A waypoint functions like those in Diablo II. Checkpoints function as revival points at a predetermined point in each area.
The death mechanic in Diablo II was stupid, irritating, and never made the game any more fun or engaging for me, besides being afraid to die, but that's just because I didn't like the mechanic. All it did was further soil the ever-cited gameplay theme of Diablo, which developers constantly state as "fast-paced". There should be no reason something that slows down your experience as much as Diablo II's death mechanic should be in the game in any form. But that's just my opinion.
@ Ferret: The storylines have been predictable for me. The only thing that made them plausible was their heavy event and milieu-based plot points. The character development has been non-existent, which is a crucial part of any storyline. They didn't introduce anything revolutionary to gaming storylines. They used story mechanics and archetypes (character and otherwise) that have been in them for a long time, some of them better than others, but nothing new was introduced. In my book, the stories have been crap compared to real books in most cases and mediocre as far as games go. I never, at any point, felt any personal connection with any character. The only thing that mildly entertained me was seeing the various places they introduced, but most of those were just rehashes of typical DnD-style areas. The most interesting part was probably just seeing the powerful demons and angels visually in cinematics and NPC's.
(Speaking of the games.)
Fair enough. I don't agree, but I don't feel like arguing about it.