Diablo 3 confirmed

[BasiliskWrangler]

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/

Opinions?

[realmzmaster]

I liked the first Diablo. Diablo II did not grab me, but it looks like Diablo III may re-find the magic. You are only able to pick your gender and class. The 20 minute trailer shows the Witch Doctor and Barbarian classes. It looks very interesting. I will withhold judgement until I test drive the demo.

[Saxon1974]

Not that interested, but im not a fan of the hack and slash type of gameplay.

I watched the gameplay trailer and it was a guy wading through hundreds of enemies all by himself. No thanks.

If it gets great word of mouth I might give it a shot though.

I do think it's cool they stuck with isometric viewpoint though, so kudos to them for not turning it into another Oblivion clone game.

[realmzmaster]

I just got through the 20 minute live presentation. Diablo III looks like it will be everything an ACTION-rpg should be. Heavy on the action If you like Titan Quest. Diablo III will be right up your alley.

If you are looking for a game that is turn based with puzzles, strategy, allow you to use thieving skills, exploration, brew potions and inbue weapons you will probably have to look elsewhere (like Eschalon Book II).

Looks like Blizzard will do away with potions. Instead of potions there are red spheres you can pick up that regain your health. I do not know about mana because the presentation did not speak about it. I assume there are blue spheres for that. There is hot bar so you can access all your character's skills.

Diablo III will allow for cooperative play over battlenet if that is your cup of tea.

Your character will be able to use the environment. Too many enemies drop a wall on them or break a table and send flying shards at them. There are traps, but more on the order of open chest and get attacked. No real lock picking or trap disarming. Your character needs to open a door , bash it down and keep going because the enemies come in an endless stream.

There are quests and cinematics that present the beginning and ending of the quest.

You can pick up companions in single player mode. If a character you rescue has guards you can enlist them to aid you. I will reserve judgement on the game until I can play the demo. But this game looks like a click fest with style.

[joshuasmyth]

I'll probably pick it up.
I prefer old-school RPGs to action-rpgs, but Blizzard know how to polish a title. The artwork and the enviroments look pretty amazing, and online play sounds appealing.

I am more exicted about Starcraft II however

[Asgard The Elder]

My grandkids would love it .

Beautiful graphics and environment. I enjoyed the trailers. In my younger days wouldn't mind getting next to the Lady Barbarian..LOL

Not my type of game..I guess I am too old for the all action all the time shooters. I am more the turn based type. The Eschalon series gives this old timer just what he needs in a game. A bit of opperetunity to keep the little grey cells working without being overcome with non stop action. Don't get me wrong I don't mind a bit of a romp through monsters now and then but not constantly.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Yeah, my reaction to Diablo 3 changed quite a bit after seeing the videos. At first upon hearing the news I was quite excited about revisiting the series, but that gameplay footage was a let down for me.

I know that Diablo 1 & 2 pretty much defined what an "Action RPG" is all about, but with Blizzard's years of work with World of Warcraft I was hoping that the Diablo series would lean more into the RPG side of the Action RPG genre. Hmmm, it doesn't appear that way. In fact, Diablo 3 looks to set that "Action" aspect of the genre to a preposterous new level. Did anyone see anything that even resembled a "role-playing game" in that footage? I mean really- doing away with potions in favor of a "power pellet" drop? <groan>

Well, I'm sure it'll play well on a PS3.

[Saxon1974]

I agree Thomas. It's sad actually...I was never a big diablo guy because it was too heavily on the action side, but I can appreciate the atmosphere the artwork in the first one.

I had similar hopes as you, but it looks like from the videos that this has turned into a shoot em up arcade style.

If games are being catered to the no attention spans kiddos today and those videos are what they like, we are all in trouble

Im fine with those kinds of games being made, but don't call them RPG's!

[Saxon1974]

By the way, if your looking for an isometric action RPG similar to Diablo but with more RPG elements I would recommend Divine Divinity. I thought it was a better game than Diablo I or II.

[tiresius]

This has been debated on the nets for a long time. But there are different types of CRPGs. There are "action" at one spectrum, and there are "hardcore" story-driven ones at another.

Diablo 1 had horrible RPG elements in it, the quest system was pure silly. The back story and tone of the game were pretty good, though. Conversation trees weren't that great.

Diablo 2 had a better quest system, conversation trees were better, but the game was more actiony than before, and way too easy. Like most game developers, they were trying to pull in the masses so non-hardcore gamers would get into it.

Diablo 3 looks like the quest system will get even better with more scripted events. I don't know how the back story will be during the game, but I agree it looks even more actiony than Diablo 2.

And I believe there are still potions in Diablo 3, the red spheres will help heal the entire party. It is meant to prevent spamming of potions in item drops. A lot of additions will allow for more fair party play, which is how it is intended on battle net. I heard a rumor there will be individual item drops that only your character can see/grab. So no more hoarding the green/gold items.

I like hardcore CRPGs like Eschalon and most all the oldies (currently playing SNES version of M&M3 while exercising on a treadmill ). But Diablo3 still has a place in this world. The action-RPGs will never fill the need of the stat-driven hardcore gamers, but for people that like to play cooperatively in a fantasy setting, but not on MMORPGs, it's pretty much the only option.

[EDIT] When I say conversation trees, I meant going around and talking to NPCs that further the story. You didn't really have options for different responses in those games from what I remember.

[Jude]

I like that there will be a single-player game, too. Also, I like that all of the characters can be either female or male. I will probably have to figure out how to afford a new Mac to run it when it comes out, though...

I'm still addicted to Diablo II (and the LOD expansion) and have hundreds of characters (and creating new ones is a great part of the fun).

EDIT: Diablo I was one of my favorite games for years, too, and I remember being worried about some of the changes in Diablo II (like not being able to save and return to the same place, areas being refilled when starting a game again, less storyline...), but Diablo II was worth it. I am hoping Diablo III will be, too, although without many of the original designers and artists, I am worried that the wonderful attention to non-essential details that the earlier games had will be missing. I am also wondering if the 3D art will have the same charm as the 2d drawings.

Jude

[tdisen]

I can still recall downloading and obsessing over gameplay videos that came out prior to Diablo II, and I honestly felt that same feeling creeping back up with the D3 announcement. I'm fully aware of the general mindset of this particular community, but I have a soft spot in my heart for killing hoards and hoards of monsters in fantastically violent fashion.

Some of the featured environments in the D3 gameplay video are gorgeous, artistically. I'm already a fan.

[BasiliskWrangler]

I can still recall downloading and obsessing over gameplay videos that came out prior to Diablo II, and I honestly felt that same feeling creeping back up with the D3 announcement. I'm fully aware of the general mindset of this particular community, but I have a soft spot in my heart for killing hoards and hoards of monsters in fantastically violent fashion.

Some of the featured environments in the D3 gameplay video are gorgeous, artistically. I'm already a fan.

I think it looks fantastic as well. I also enjoy a dungeon romp/hack-n-slash game from time to time. I guess I shouldn't complain about the Diablo series not being something that it never was.

Well, here's hoping that the initial reviews are good. If it is a quality game, I can overlook its lack of RPG elements and just enjoy it as a modern-day Gauntlet.

[tdisen]

Right, exactly. And I really don't think they were even trying in Diablo II. The vast majority of the narrative and back-story about the world you only find in supplemental materials (manuals, silly novels, etc...). It's as though the quests were only there to give you somewhere to go while you're killing things. Diablo and its clones certainly have their place in the world, even if it shouldn't really be along side what we would all call "real" RPGs. Y'know, the kind that involve some semblance of roleplay.

[Jinx]

As with everything Blizzard does, it's impossible to speculate how fun their games will be, but their track record is flawless. Theory crafting is entertaining, but in the end, it will be obscenely fun and I'll be taking off 2 days of work when it is released