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I wonder if D3 will be bigger than D2. Is beta a half of Act 1. How many bosses per act do you think we can we expect?
For me it looks like beta is at least a half of Act 1 as you do quite a lot of different quests in it. What do you think?

I believe i read somewhere that Blizzard stated that D3 would be approximately the same length as D2.
I might be remembering wrongly but seems like a good lenght.

Without having played the beta, i would think that the beta covers a little over half of act 1.

If it was up to me I would make D3 at least as long as D2 + LoD expansion or it will feel shorter than D2 altogether which would be a shame.

Yeah D3's beta is definitely less than half the act...Blizz said it's about 1/3 of Act 1. And the game as a whole is more or less the same length as D2.

Also remember you can't really judge the game based on the beta (for obvious reasons) but what some people don't know is that Normal Difficulty is an introduction to the game and Act 1 is again an introduction to Normal. Blizz said that the beginning (or the whole Act 1, can't remember) is very simply laid out. Meaning everything is straight forward. You'll encounter more random events and stuff after Act 1.

Quote from Rs10

A bit bigger than D2 I think

+1

I can't see it being too much larger than D2, I mean the base for D's longevity is gameplay, fun, balance and atmosphere. However another whole 'ACT' longer would be a very nice sweetener for the wait we have had to endure.

Thinking about it now. D2 is 4 disks (incl LOD) if i remember? Imagine the content they could fit into say 4 DVD's! That is also not to mention DLC!

Wowawiwa.

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Quote from rozmata

I wonder if D3 will be bigger than D2. Is beta a half of Act 1. How many bosses per act do you think we can we expect?
For me it looks like beta is at least a half of Act 1 as you do quite a lot of different quests in it. What do you think?

Last time I heard, Diablo 3 was aiming to be about the same length as Diablo 2, but ended up a little bit longer.

I heard that too, I think Bashiok has said that. Though I would like some 3rd party opinion more.

Area-wise, probably near the same as D2. But content-wise (quests, items, monsters, Inferno), I'd guess 50-100% more than D2.

Well we know that it will be at least as long as D2. But I think with the random events and such, that it will be a bit longer if your doing full clears and really exploring and finding everything there is.

Quote from Damerflinn

Well we know that it will be at least as long as D2. But I think with the random events and such, that it will be a bit longer if your doing full clears and really exploring and finding everything there is.

What he said. From what I've seen, because we're not limited to six quests every act for 5 acts, it feels like Diablo 3 has a lot more content than Diablo 2. The additional random mini-dungeons, sprawling randomized dungeons, and Inferno Mode will make Diablo 3 feel like it's a lot bigger than DIablo 2. Which, content- and story-wise, it most certainly is.

I'm predicting that, while it might not be longer in terms of map sizes and act numbers, Diablo 3 will feel 4-6 times as large as Diablo 2.

Well if it's the first 1/3 of act one (out of 4) then is should be over 10 times longer (for each difficulty). Though I think the first full play through will take much longer because of all the unknown places to explore. Inferno mode will add a good amount play time just due to the difficulty alone. Overall I think it will be much longer than D2, at least on the first play through.

Anybody have any idea about how easy/hard it will be to rush characters? I haven't played the beta yet so I don't know how they wp's or quests are set up. Also, since we don't need to make multiple characters of the same type, will anybody want to rush?

The beta is just a nibble of the whole pizza. The length of the story is probably about the same as D2 but the time invested will probably be much longer. I know that I never fully got into D2 but I plan on getting in D3. And being the lore nerd that I am, I will probably spend hours trying to collect all the lore that there is.

It took me about two hours to play through the beta (checking every nook, picking up every item mind you) and that's the first third of the first act of four difficulties. I can tell d3 will be more difficult than D2 already. You randomly encounter fights comparable to blood raven multiple times playing through it. You'll spend at least as much time in town with the blacksmith and more talkative npcs, etc.

I'm gonna take a stab and say d3 will be roughly 2-3 times as big as d2 not including the fourth difficulty, then again I only ever powerleveled after my first few characters so I forget how long it originally took. Act 3 was always such a monstrous act to play through with all the various paths etc.

I think what we play in the beta is only about a third of Act 1 at most. If it is any more than that I would be pretty concerned about the game's length, story wise.

We have hopefully only seen a tiny bit of what Diablo 3 has to offer!
Considering how long they've been working on D3, i really hope we will be seeing a lot of content!

I have been watching the development of the beta since it was first released. blizzard keeps saying it is just a fraction of what will be in the full game. I would safely assume that there will be at least 60 hours of play until true end game content or the story is mostly resolved. When you factor in the patches and updates and added content, I'm sure it will be much longer than that. What do you guys think?

I agree to peat85's post. I think it will be 40-60 hours of play. It depends on how long you allow yourself to be immersed in the story and the rate of progression you need to finish each boss. Even though I know Starcraft 2 is different from Diablo 3, the massive amount of content they put into the campaign was more than I expected from the original starcraft. If Diablo 3 at least doubles the expectation of that then we are all in for a treat.

It's been said many times that the beta content is 1/3 of act 1.

Hard to guestimate the total length of the game.... need to know if each act is same length roughly... and how many acts etc.
Plus factor in the difficulty scaling up dramatically through NM and Hell into Inferno.

I took around one hour to kill leoric (exploring almost all areas).
I take around 20 minutes to kill blood raven ...

As someone said, it might be the same size in area terms but it's alot longer in content. In D2 you had huge maps without anything but monsters and it was extremely boring to explore everything. In D3 theres allways a random event in each corner, a passage that leads to a crazy little dungeon, etc... Exploring 100% of the tarrian is really fun. This is why i think the avarage time invested to finish normal will be much more then D2:LoD. I think 50% more.

Quote from falcompsx

I think its a pretty well accepted fact that the beta is between 1/4 and 1/3 of act 1. Definately less than half of it. Content wise its similar to killing blood raven in D2, which is well before what i would consider the half way point of act 1.

I always considered saving Cain was the halfway mark of Act 1. I haven't played the beta for Diablo 3 but from what i gather its probably less than half of the first Act... probably not even a third of act 1 but i guess we'll wait and see?