Diablo III.... Dare I say.. IT SUCKS.

[ibex333]

So anyway... The EPIC game we all been waiting for, for what seemed to be AGES.. (to me personally at least)

It was hyped so much. So much advertizement everywhere, so much talk, so much hope.. and off course TONS of excitement.

Finally it comes. It is here.. It's here after this horrible, excruciating wait. It was supposed to be the best game ever, the event of immense, gargantuan proportion. It was supposed to have super innovative things like no other game, offering a game-play experience that cannot be found anywhere else...

And....

Wait for it...



It's a fucking flop! (sorry for my language but a use of a strong word was necessary here.)

Let me be possibly the first to say Diablo III blows, and doesn't just suck. Blizzard, I want my money back god damn it.

I had a feeling, nagging me somewhere in the back of my mind, that this game would fail. There was just almost no way it would succeed. After all, Blizzard, hasn't been what it used to be for a very long time now. Every since they became a large over-bloated, money hungry company that put all it's attention into it's idiotic World of Warcraft MMO, which sadly I had the displeasure to play for a week, it hasn't been the same.

Let's get one thing straight here. Blizzard is no longer an innovator it used to be. ( I can just see a storm of flame coming my way now from the hoards of Blizzard fanboy drones)

This is no longer 1998. The internet is much more vast and powerful, information can flow freely, at least until RIAA and MPAA have their way. This means that there are much more good game programmers out there right now than what we had before. I, myself, and a lot of people I know were blind to this for a while, thinking that Blizzard is the single best game company out there. This is simply NOT true anymore, and anyone who doesn't see it is in denial.

Why did Diablo III fail, and why does it suck so damn much? I am not sure... But I do have a few thoughts on the matter.

1)It seems like this time around, Blizzard was thinking too much about MONEY and too little about people having fun. It seems like everything in the game is geared toward monetary profit.

They limited game rooms to only 4 people. FOUR, vs. the 6 or 8 we used to have... Part of what made Diablo II so good was the fact that you could play with so many people at once. It is just not as fun playing with less people.

One possible reason for this, is for added performance due to less people in rooms, but again that is linked to cutting server operating costs and making more profit.

2)Individualized drops... This one is so lame, I cannot even begin to describe why.
Ninjaing items was awesome. It added a whole metagame to the experience. Got your item snatched up by a tele sorc or a charge paly? TOO BAD. Go cry n00b.
I had my items "stolen" too, but it's all good. That was exciting. That was fun.
And shared magic find?! WTF? Since I cannot know how much magic find other people have in my room, I cannot make sure it's very high. This equals to me never really having a high ENOUGH chance to get a great item. Why in the hell should I depend on others to have fun? I am a lone wolf, and I feel good that way. I like to have a good solo experience when I can. That being said, off course I enjoy playing with other people too. But on my own terms!

3)Skills... Whats up with this silly system? It almost feels like the skill system was dumbed down beyond belief so 8 year old can play this damn game. I cannot really say what the hell is wrong with it exactly, but there is sure as hell plenty wrong with it.

4)Companions... Why cant I use companions when I play with other people? Companions added a whole new depth to the game before. They could benefit all people in party. Think... "Infinity runeword".. Now, it's no longer there.
I can now use my companion only when I play SOLO?! Wtf?

5)Too simple/too short campaign.

My friends beat normal and killed Diablo in only a course of around 8 hours. That was pretty damn hard if not impossible in D2.

6)Constant issues with server.

I know a lot of people will defend Blizzard, and say that it's not easy managing servers and there is a lot of people logging in and all that, but in this case, the epic fail that happened on the night of the release and subsequent days is inexcusable. Blizz had all the time in the world to adequately prepare for this, and they let us down. I paid $60 for this game and I feel like I was cheated.. let down...

Some people I know took days off from work to play this, and they couldn't.


Yes, Blizzard has innovated in some ways, but I don't see anything good or special about those.

Auction house. Cool, but it feels like it's more for Blizzard to make money on and less for us as players, especially with the fees they will charge for every paypal transaction.

Ability to put items into chat window to advertize them. -- very nice.. But it's not like it's something new.

Path of Exile has this ability.


With so many OTHER great, and sometimes better games out there, it's obvious Blizzard is no longer king of the game industry which so many people always touted it to be.



http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2187503&page=20

Anandtech Moderator
KeithTalent

 

[darkewaffle]

TOO BAD. Go cry n00b.

For the record, Diablo2 was already and always an easy, casual game. Thinking otherwise is little more than a case of rose colored glasses.

 

[Ns1]

Let's get one thing straight here. Blizzard is no longer an innovator it used to be. ( I can just see a storm of flame coming my way now from the hoards of Blizzard fanboy drones)

Yeah I'm pretty sure we knew this when all they released were warcraft/diablo/starcraft titles.

I am/was part of the "blizzard can do no wrong" camp but even I can admit they haven't innovated shit since...WoW.

 

[JumBie]

I gotta agree with some things here. The skills system is terrible beyond belief...i have absolutely no clue why they did this, but if this is the route new rpg games are going to be taking, I want no part of it. Also the game is short as hell....I beat it with pretty thorough exploration in about 12 hours. And that's like me almost exploring every cave and nook and cranny.

 

[Beev]

I can't speak for point 1, because I prefer playing by myself or with a single friend.

2... Just no. In D2 I found myself paying more attention to trying to snag items than trying to do well at the game. Giving me time to pick up my items later was a HUGE improvement.

3 I'm still indifferent on. I liked having the huge trees in D2, but at the same time I really only used like 5 skills anyway...

4 I can't see how this is a big deal. It's just a companion. Too many in D2 were either overpowered or useless. Now they seem balanced (which to me makes them almost useless )

5 They seem to be pushing people to the "end game" super fast. Like they want people to farm Inferno mode like people used to do in D2, but they want it to happen faster. That's my perception.

6 Really? You actually added this one as a point? I'm not going to defend anything, but bitching about ONE DAY is pretty ridiculous. In five years people will barely remember there were issues. Who still remembers how bad WoW was at launch? It was WAY worse. I was one of the people who took the day off. I got screwed out of about ten hours of playing. It's annoying, but it ultimately DOESN'T MATTER.

7 You aren't special. Post in the D3 thread stickied at the top.

 

[Phobic9]

I'm enjoying it and I didn't particularly like Diablo 1 or 2 all that much. *shrug*

 

[surfsatwerk]

Blizzard lied, men died!

 

[Riverhound777]

I personally had a great time playing for the couple hours I got in last night. Maybe you shouldn't get yourself all worked up and losing sleep waiting for a game to come out. Sounds like you would have been disappointed no matter what.

 

[Anubis]

1) nn issue
2) good change
3) good change as everyone played the cookie cutter specs anyway
4) there was only 1 good companion in D2 the Act 2 dude with the aura, all the others sucked, and the act 2 one was massivly OP with runword items. if they let you stack 4 of them it would just be stupid
5) you could beat D2 in about 10 hours if you just zerged through it. (not counting Baal) took some luck in act 3 but thats about it, id assume there is similar luck in finding the correct path/crypt in D3 nspeed runs
6) blizz sucks at launching games, this isnt news, also people that take off work to play games are stupid

 

[AMDZen]

Frankly, I agree with a few of the things you said.

Luckily I didn't buy it and someone here was kind enough to lend me a guest pass for me to try it out. I like the game OK but its not worth the money they want for it.

Chances are the price won't drop anytime soon either, and if thats the case I will never own it.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I agree with you on the leveling up and skill development. It makes no sense at all.

Otherwise, I am enjoying the game.

 

[Dominato3r]

I agree with the 4 player cap. It;s annoying

 

[VashHT]

Why don't you just go back and play diablo 2? It sounds like you would be pissed off unless diablo 3 was the exact same game.

The only thing from your list that I agree with is the 4 player cap, but I don't agree that it was due to money, it was probably more of a design decision.

 

[Gheris]

I personally had a great time playing for the couple hours I got in last night. Maybe you shouldn't get yourself all worked up and losing sleep waiting for a game to come out. Sounds like you would have been disappointed no matter what.

This. It's a good game and I played I and II plenty. The skill system is different and people have problems with change. Resulting in much snobbery like:

"Oh no I can't min/max.....Blizz has made the game too noob friendly! Now instead of spending countless hours on the internet devising the build to end all builds I might have to do other stuff like go outside and expose my skin to sunlight! AAAAGH!"

I like the new skill structure. If the skill tree was in then it would be a month or two before the "bestest" build for each class would be broadcasted to the internets. Resulting in everyone playing the same way. Then when online players join a game they woudl be asked "Are you running the super face punch build?" and if the answer was no player would be kicked.

So far I have enjoyed the game when I could play it, and I hope OP was being sarcastic with his post.

 

[flexy]

Blizzard has clearly shown it's real face - NOT only since the release of D III, puuuleaahhse.

WoW is still the same **** it was more than a year ago when Cata came out...and they did quite well with introducing their "buy for real money" mounts and pets. The game is FULL of morons who spent (and are likely still spending) MILLIONS each and any time blizzard comes up with another "sparkle mount" for people to buy for real money.

There are game companies who would be glad to make as much money as blizzard made just by making ONE of their "real money" mounts or pets.

This would all be great and dandy if blizzard, AT THE SAME TIME, would have improved the game (Still talking WoW, by the way).

I had a break for over a year and got bored the last week so i got a new time-card, just to look what has changed etc. AFTER A YEAR. Well nothing has changed in the slightest - beside transmog.

So..the most "interesting" aspect of WoW right now is i can give my toons different outfits.

As for D III, no question...that "always online" feature is nothing else than an elaborate measure to counter piracy..same with SC2 and other Blizzard games...not to mention RMAH and other stuff.

The money they are making is IN NO healthy balance to their development, there are far, far smaller companies with way smaller budgets making better and more innovative games.

 

[kami]

1)It seems like this time around, Blizzard was thinking too much about MONEY and too little about people having fun. It seems like everything in the game is geared toward monetary profit.

You realize that the RMAH is optional right? Maybe you should play on hardcore, where RMAH isn't even an option, since you are such an elite gamer.

2)Individualized drops... This one is so lame, I cannot even begin to describe why.
Ninjaing items was awesome. It added a whole metagame to the experience. Got your item snatched up by a tele sorc or a charge paly? TOO BAD. Go cry n00b.
I had my items "stolen" too, but it's all good. That was exciting. That was fun.
And shared magic find?! WTF? Since I cannot know how much magic find other people have in my room, I cannot make sure it's very high. This equals to me never really having a high ENOUGH chance to get a great item. Why in the hell should I depend on others to have fun? I am a lone wolf, and I feel good that way. I like to have a good solo experience when I can. That being said, off course I enjoy playing with other people too. But on my own terms!

I think you are mostly alone on this. Ninjaing is fun? Riiiiight.... if I was 12 I might agree with that. As an adult with limited play time, it's not fun in any way whatsoever.

As for magic find I think one benefit when playing with friends is it lets you do interesting stuff like have one guy stack tons of MF but play a support role while other people with less MF and better stats stay up front and take the brunt of the damage. MF guy benefits from their stats, and they benefit from the MF. Win win.

3)Skills... Whats up with this silly system? It almost feels like the skill system was dumbed down beyond belief so 8 year old can play this damn game. I cannot really say what the hell is wrong with it exactly, but there is sure as hell plenty wrong with it.

I love the skill system. Have you turned on elective mode in the options? It lets you use any combination of skills you want, i.e. not stuck with choosing just 1 primary...you could use all primaries if you wanted. If elective mode is off it limits you to 1 skill at a time from each of the 6 categories. Plus each skill has what like 6 variations with the runes... there's actually more skills than there was in D2 and you can change them on the fly. And please don't tell me it was better when a misclick in your talent tree required you to reroll your character, or hoard talent points and spend them all at one time so you limit your chance of making a mistake.

5)Too simple/too short campaign.

My friends beat normal and killed Diablo in only a course of around 8 hours. That was pretty damn hard if not impossible in D2.

Normal mode. You know there's Nightmare, then Hell, the Inferno right? Diablo has always been about replaying the same stuff over and over. Now there's 4 difficulties, plus hardcore mode.

6)Constant issues with server.

I know a lot of people will defend Blizzard, and say that it's not easy managing servers and there is a lot of people logging in and all that, but in this case, the epic fail that happened on the night of the release and subsequent days is inexcusable. Blizz had all the time in the world to adequately prepare for this, and they let us down. I paid $60 for this game and I feel like I was cheated.. let down...

Server problems suck but today things are already better than they were yesterday in terms of lag and whatnot. I think this stuff will resolve itself in a week or so.


Diablo 3 is exactly what I expected it to be. Hack and slash loot game. If you were expecting a life-changing experience you overhyped yourself.