Official Blizzard Quote:
Diablo: Bubbling tar effect in early implementation state. Watch where you step.
Thus far, we've been shown deserts ( The Borderlands), dreary forests and hills ( New Tristram), an urban type area ( Caldeum), and various dungeons ( Tristram Cathedral). All of which have had a significant amount of concept art tied with them, along with screenshots for a select few.
But unless the streets of Caldeum are without any type of waste-management, where do tar pits fit into the mix?
The first environment that jumps to mind is of course, Hell. Now, we've mainly gotten bubbling lava for the other versions of it in both Diablo I & II, but I can easily imagine a tar pit, complete with unfortunate human souls trapped forever within its grasp, making a cameo in the Diablo III version of Hell.
Next up, is the Borderlands. This environment screams desolation through a megaphone. No doubt a pit of tar would go well with the tone set by the endless deserts, ruins, and dying vegetation. Also to take into consideration, is how these two elements have gone together in previous Blizzard games. Take Starcraft: Brood War, for example. The levels that took place on Korhal had their water replaced with tar, as well as the grass replaced with sand, ruins, and dying vegetation. It's a bit of a stretch, but connections can be made between the two.
Of course, there are many other possibilities aside from the two mentioned, but I'll leave the rest of the speculation up to you.
But who says it must have something to do with the environment. Maybe there's a new 'tar' monster who when the moment u step in the tar, jumps out, splashes u with tar to blind u and dirty ur armor and smacks u the face with a club made of dried tar:P
Did I mention tar monsters could be anywhere...
FUCK, I should have talked about other possible environments in that post...
Oh well, next time...
Anywho, anyone else feeling a swamp?
Could be the return of those barely-remembered giant-mosquitoes.
A WD skill would be tight as well, no doubt. xD
This is why I say Tar Baby instead of just Toss Tar Puddle. It's got a kind of voodoo mix in it, animating an idol. Imagine the WD tossing a little tar golem on the ground at which time it charges, rams, and explodes upon a group of baddies, smoldering the whole way. Now they're covered in burning tar and slowed down at the same time. Sounds pretty b'dass to me! Much more so than tossing some tar on the ground.
The only problem with this whole thing is the quote says "Watch your step," meaning that the player is guaranteed to be avoiding tar that's on the ground. I got carried away earlier and didn't read the whole quote. Oop.
I'm wondering if this game is even going to take us back into hell. I personally felt like act IV in D2 was a little goofy (though still creepy). I think in this game, I'd find it much scarier if diablo were stalking the earth.
In order to add a horror / suspense aspect to the game, as well as to give the players more of a feeling of diablo's presence and a sense of impending evil, Diablo could appear in the storyline at certain points to kill some people or destroy something or acquire some mystical item he needs to destroy the world or something scary. I'm sort of thinking of Nemesis from Resident Evil 3, if you've seen that one.
In the interest of making Diablo more frightening, maybe the tar effect is actually a spell used by diablo?
The Acts are not strictly categorized by a single terrain/setting. You will encounter multiple terrains/settings in each Act.
With swamp gas that burst in to flames, with quick sand, and tar pits...
Personally I think that aesthetically it would fit nicely in the desert setting.
Dinosaur Age jungles / lush green areas.
Primordial craters (Un'Goro Craterish idea)
Deserts (already done, so either they are talking more about act 2, or hinting about act 3)