Diablo III

[Rocket Man]

I recently opened this for the PS4, and while the first Act was quite entertaining, I have become bored to tears with it mid Act II. The graphics are sweet, sound is great, and the story is solid enough, albeit no where near as dark as the original game.

 

I was really disappointed to see Blizzard behave so lazily with the engine, by not allowing rotation nor zooming in: which has been a normal feature for Hack n Slash games since the early '00s. The Skill Tree system has been revamped so that zero hard choices need be made, and the player can freely change skills, which is cool; but imo, it greatly cheapens the experience of building a character.

 

I waited so long to play this game and was hoping to not be disappointed... I have the latest iteration, the one that includes all 7 classes and a slew of extra options, which is great value, considering I picked up my copy for $20 sealed. Sigh - I am disappointed though, as overall: it feels kind of cheap and slimmed down from what it used to be, even though it looks much flashier than Diablo, with its 3d engine, and flashy graphics. I'm also playing it on Normal, which I think was a mistake, because I am so overpowered that I haven't even died a single time... hell, I don't think I've hit half health more than a handful of times, as well as only needing a few potions.

 

I wonder if StarCraft II is equally as disappointing for some. I'm still waiting for Blizzard to loosen the online requirement for Single Player, as I've been too lazy to look up a mod/hack to play it offline - I suppose there won't be a Console port of that one anytime soon.

 

 

What are y'alls thoughts on the matter?

[Iwantgames:)]

Diablo III was definitely my least favorite in the series. I is still my favorite really but II was really good too. III looked great but just didnt seem to do anything new and yea I finished it but doubt Ill ever play it again.

[Cobra Kai]

It's just a grinding game. Your supposed to play it over and over, level up again and again, and keep increasing the difficulty. It's actually really impressive once you get to into the Torment difficulties and you witness the sheer amount of stuff the game can throw at you on screen. The main addiction is the legendary items, as you increase the difficulty, the chance for legendary stuff increases. After you play through the main quest one time, it opens Adventure mode which is the meat of the game I think.

 

Here's the main problem, and this has been a problem for a couple of years now. You can't play it online without putting your account at serious risk of being ruined. Play online and there's a high chance some guy with a hacked character and 10,000+ paragon points will join you and ruin your game. How does it ruin YOUR game? Easy, your low level, he's high level, so the game curves everything to you and you will level hundreds of paragon points within minutes, completely taking all the grinding fun away from you. Some people actually like that but not me, I consider it actually stealing game time from people.

 

I think the game was really fun before the hacked weapons made their way into the fray and Blizzard did nothing to stop it, they even said they weren't going to police it at all. Before I quit playing I saw guys with 3 royal and/or legendary gems in each piece of gear (most gear slots allow 1 gem). I played legit and was able to get my Monk able to go Torment 9 by myself, but it takes along time. To me it was worth it to not cheat up to there, I had alot of fun. I was playing on Hardcore mode too. That really ups the risks and makes you play smarter.

[MrMaddog]

I play it off and on my Xbox for quick bouts of hack & slash but not as a serious commitment like Diablo II was meant to be like. I guess I was put off by the now removed Auction House on the PC version and actually prefer using a gamepad.

 

I was hoping to get D. III on the PC for the Diablo 1 remake but that was a one time thing only.

[privateers69]

Wait till Grim Dawn comes to Xbox1. It's more like the Diablo 2.

[Tanooki]

I actually enjoyed it, but it isn't like the other two as much as like one of those online co-op RPG type games. Lots of grinding involved with it, and much good to great gear to find out, but you do need to keep picking away at it. The older games you just ran through things A-B-C and so on but you didn't have the grinding aspect as the game itself was the grind unless you didn't try to inspect the map for the nice things spread around between dungeon spaces above or below ground.

 

Seems to me you do like to complain a lot about games others tend to feel fine with lately. I did finish it on Normal, it has a few moments, but it never was really nasty, but I also am a range type either with magic or assassination type stuff going on. Tanking just gets me mad being a mindless meat shield for damages.

[digdugnate]

i enjoyed it well enough to get 5 or 6 toons to lvl 70

 

I forget when I set it down for a bit what Torment level was playing at, but it was still immensely fun for me. I find stress relief in playing stuff like that over and over, killing stuff. The carrot of 'better gear' is pretty cool, too, but mostly I like killing things, hehe.

 

that being said, im interested in the idea of picking up a Switch then playing it on there- the idea of 'portable diablo' is a neat one to me.

[Bakasama]

Diablo III a bit lacking when compared to other hack and slash games and even Diablo II. One of things I don't like is bows can't be used by every class just Demon Hunters and Lindon. In Diablo II, you have a Necromancer that can use a bow or pretty much every class can use them. That's just part of the problem of the lack of customizing of classes when compared to Diablo II or something like Path of Exile.

 

For me, the only reason I still play this game is just get seasonal rewards for completing challenges. The rewards include an extra stash tab and portrait frame.

[Tanooki]

I'll admit that was one thing that ticked me off, the ranger aspect tied to the demon hunter only, but since I wanted to kind of run a ranger and an assassin anyway it was kind of convenient. Truth be told it's a known the makers of D2 quit after it came out at some rate, then they formed their own company and popped out both those Torchlight games on GoG/Steam. They feel more classic Diablo like and are exceptionally fun, don't cost a whole lot either and often get steep cuts with seasonal sales. It may be something to look into it you're fishing.

[Bakasama]

I already have both Torchlight I and II. There's a third Torchlight coming up called "Torchlight Frontiers" It's supposedly going most of the content if not all they planned to put in Diablo III.

 

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/torchlight-frontiers

 

It's a little odd since, Runic Games closed it's doors some years ago.

 

One of things that did bug me about the Demon Hunters is that they could use melee weapons but they don't have a great melee spells.

 

I've been meaning to try out Grim Dawn but since there's no demo I don't really see the big deal. I'm more of try and buy kind of guy.

[Tanooki]

Hmm yeah that is strange, but also looking at the host, worrisome. Arc Games are known for making these free to play games that really aren't. They are for quite a few hours, but once you get into the depths of the game a hard paywall arrives and it gets expensive you want to be able to push further into a title. They ruined Star Trek Online along with others doing it, so I hope this one isn't another F2P (but not) game and just a legit title to buy and enjoy.

[digdugnate]

it's straying from the path, somewhat, but I put a good number of hours in Path of Exile as well (both PC and to a lesser extent XBox). There's more 'meat' to it, but I was overwhelmed by all the choices you make for your character.

 

PoE is free and has a ton of content. I never felt that I had to pay-to-play.

[Bakasama]

I've played Path of Exile. The gameplay is best described as a mix of Diablo II look and feel, Final Fantasy VII materia, and Final Fantasy X sphere gird. The learning curve on this is a bit high and game seems to be targeted toward hardcore ARPG players.

 

Another thing I remember that bugs me about Diablo III is the later torrent lvls gameplay is heavy on using set items and uniques with great stats. Rares just become useless because the stats on rares were pretty crap when compared to set items and ancient/primal uniques. In Diablo II, rare items were a lot more important if they gave good life stats, sometimes rares would have better stats than many late game uniques.

 

Diablo III's story? I'll let this speak for itself:

[Rocket Man]

It's just a grinding game. Your supposed to play it over and over, level up again and again, and keep increasing the difficulty. It's actually really impressive once you get to into the Torment difficulties and you witness the sheer amount of stuff the game can throw at you on screen. The main addiction is the legendary items, as you increase the difficulty, the chance for legendary stuff increases. After you play through the main quest one time, it opens Adventure mode which is the meat of the game I think.

 

Here's the main problem, and this has been a problem for a couple of years now. You can't play it online without putting your account at serious risk of being ruined. Play online and there's a high chance some guy with a hacked character and 10,000+ paragon points will join you and ruin your game. How does it ruin YOUR game? Easy, your low level, he's high level, so the game curves everything to you and you will level hundreds of paragon points within minutes, completely taking all the grinding fun away from you. Some people actually like that but not me, I consider it actually stealing game time from people.

 

I think the game was really fun before the hacked weapons made their way into the fray and Blizzard did nothing to stop it, they even said they weren't going to police it at all. Before I quit playing I saw guys with 3 royal and/or legendary gems in each piece of gear (most gear slots allow 1 gem). I played legit and was able to get my Monk able to go Torment 9 by myself, but it takes along time. To me it was worth it to not cheat up to there, I had alot of fun. I was playing on Hardcore mode too. That really ups the risks and makes you play smarter.

 

I get it now. I just finished the game on Normal and started Adventure mode on Torment I... Christ, it's insanely difficult. The base monsters in Act I take forever to kill. I'm a level 60 Crusader with mostly yellow and Legendary gear, so I don't know why the difficulty would ramp up so high. I imagine the gear attained in Torment difficulty and above, is way more powerful than what I acquired in Normal mode...?

 

I almost beat Normal mode without dying a single time... Maltheal (however it's spelled) killed me once, and nothing else in the game even got me past half health.

 

Funny y'all mentioned Torchlight: that's one of my favorite Hack n Slash games of all time. I've had soooo many characters on max difficulty/hardcore mode, and lost a lot of characters that way. It's the ultimate! Path of Exile and another similar looking game, on the PS4, look interesting, I look forward to opening them in the future.

[Cobra Kai]

If it takes too long to kill enemies then you need to drop the difficulty level, sorry to say. Torment is where the good stuff starts to drop, BUT, you get experience points for kills, so if you can make more kills faster, then that's better in the near term, then say slugging it out in Torment where you don't get many kills, and in return not many drops either.

[Tanooki]

I want to play this again but I'm so on the fence about the laziness of ease using the PC, or the fact I really want to try that Switch release out and it has that 2nd add-on pack with the necromancer which I never got on PC too. Dark Souls also on Switch I think arrives today too.

[digdugnate]

If it takes too long to kill enemies then you need to drop the difficulty level, sorry to say. Torment is where the good stuff starts to drop, BUT, you get experience points for kills, so if you can make more kills faster, then that's better in the near term, then say slugging it out in Torment where you don't get many kills, and in return not many drops either.

^^ this is pretty sound. paragon points help quite a bit, as well as bumping up to the 'next' difficulty until you can just slam through the content.

 

i also recommend once you get the ability to do so, run rifts. it will help quite a bit to grind them out especially as you get up the difficulty stages.

[Hydro Thunder]

I already have both Torchlight I and II. There's a third Torchlight coming up called "Torchlight Frontiers" It's supposedly going most of the content if not all they planned to put in Diablo III.

 

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/torchlight-frontiers

 

It's a little odd since, Runic Games closed it's doors some years ago.

 

One of things that did bug me about the Demon Hunters is that they could use melee weapons but they don't have a great melee spells.

 

I've been meaning to try out Grim Dawn but since there's no demo I don't really see the big deal. I'm more of try and buy kind of guy.

 

I love Torchlight to pieces, played the crap out of this on XBLA. Was very sad that TLII was PC only (have the demo, but I'm just a console gamer at heart).

Good news is that Torchlight Frontiers (which appears to be the same team but under a new development name, since Runic is gone, they're now https://www.echtragames.com/

) is coming to the XbOne and PS4, too. Count me in

[Rocket Man]

 

I love Torchlight to pieces, played the crap out of this on XBLA. Was very sad that TLII was PC only (have the demo, but I'm just a console gamer at heart).

Good news is that Torchlight Frontiers (which appears to be the same team but under a new development name, since Runic is gone, they're now https://www.echtragames.com/

) is coming to the XbOne and PS4, too. Count me in

 

That sounds badass.

[Bakasama]

The upcoming Blizzcon is Diablo themed. So are they going to make some kind of announcement about Diablo?

[Tanooki]

I thought the day of the show was the day they would be releasing D3 Definitive Edition or whatever they'll call it on the Switch.

[digdugnate]

I thought the day of the show was the day they would be releasing D3 Definitive Edition or whatever they'll call it on the Switch.

lol- it's called the 'Eternal Collection'

[Bakasama]

I was thinking, Actiblizz might announce remastered versions of Diablo I and Diablo II.

[derFunkenstein]

I was thinking, Actiblizz might announce remastered versions of Diablo I and Diablo II.

 

I was really hoping for this, but instead they announced a mobile Diablo III prequel called Diablo Immortal. Not a fan of this idea. I'd much rather play a remastered Diablo 2.

[Bakasama]

Yeah, I knew that a remastered version of past Diablos was a bit of pipe dream. The announcement of the mobile game was a disappointment. From what I heard the audience reaction... wasn't too happy. The game seems apparently for Chinese players.

 

I do believe ActiBlizz is working on Diablo 4 but with the way they work, any news about isn't going to surface for some years. The Blizzard community manger for Diablo said they were multiple Diablo projects in the works.

 

At least, there's a WC 3 remaster to look forward to.