First off, the Diablo game as a whole feels a lot like the Diablo 2 that I remember; loot is
plentiful, gold drops like candy, dungeons are random yet familiar in reruns,
and enemies explode in the beautiful explosions that upgraded graphics allow
for. If the production-build of Diablo 3 merely keeps these feelings of
nostalgia that the beta offers, Blizzard will have a smashing hit (though I’m
not saying that it won’t be anything but).
The 2 qualms I could find with the beta’s setup is that
during play, the “normal” difficulty – the only challenge level offered – was
by far too easy, and that the dialogue was shameful. Nearly every character class burned, beat,
and blasted through undead hoards like a hot knife and unholy butter. It was nice for getting through the entire
content of the beta on my first play-through, but it left me wanting more. The dialogue was not something a company like
Blizzard should be giving – cliché statements, bare-bones explanations, and the
most dry feeling behind the lines delivered gave the sense that this was a
student project that did all the voice acting with the programming team. A man needs to kill his wife because she’s
going to turn into an undead? I’ve heard
better emotion from someone killing an insect.
But how did the classes handle? I beat the beta with the witch doctor,
playing for about 3 hours to reach level 10.
After that, I played every other class for roughly a half-hour, each one
conveniently reaching level 6, and stopping before entering the crypt to find a
crown. With that in mind, my review:
Witch Doctor – My first pick was chosen because it could
summon. With spiders and demon hounds,
no-one could touch my character, since the mobs agro-ed the spawns. The downside is that the summons don’t do a lot
of damage, but they make that up in the number of creatures you can create,
along with the area denial effects the witch doctor brings to the game.
Barbarian – The only “hardcore” character I created (if I die,
I die permanently), this is definitely a damage class. Though the first few levels leave the
barbarian soft to blows, after getting some armor, the damage that the class
deals-out more than makes up that bad feeling.
However, there was an imbalance between the solo damage abilities and
the crowd control attacks; it just felt off.
Demon Hunter – The best thing I can say about the demon
hunter is that the range on this class is quite superb. This leads to superb crowd control, as the
traps and devices that go along with the special attacks really keep all mobs
under lock-and-key. The regular “click”
attacks are a bit mediocre, but I must mention that this is the only level 6
class that I wanted to continue on with to get more abilities.
Monk – Now let me introduce damage, I mean the monk. If you can’t guess, the monk is quick to hurt
others in a brutal fashion. I can’t tell
if the monk is susceptible to taking a lot of harm itself, but I was burning
through enemies so fast they couldn’t land a blow. Despite the lack of any sort of ranged attack
or ability, I did seem to destroy enemies faster than any other class.
Wizard – One thing I noticed about this class is the number
of critical hits delivered. That was
handy with all the ranged abilities, but the wizard is the only class I found
that had a semi-ranged attack: a lightning bolt that only reached a few yards. The attacks were very slow, and not that
powerful. Poor damage per second is not
a good compliment to a soft character; my least preferable class.
So, with the Diablo 3 beta
now closed to the public, and the game set for launch May 15th, I
can say that I had an enjoyable time.
The classes are varied and distinct, with all the great characteristics
that made D3’s predecessor one of the best games of all time. Given the good qualities of the beta, the
nagging let-downs of dialogue and lack of challenge in the design this late in production
is disappointing, especially with a title coming from a company like Blizzard. All-in-all, I had a good time with Diablo 3 and I look forward to the
launch mid-May.
Take care, and I’ll see you in Hell!
- + Distinct and varied classes.
- + Random dungeons.
- + Plenty of loot and mobs to drop it.
- - Poor writing of dialogue with sub-par delivery.
- A fix: Blizzard has the assets to invest more in script writers and voice actors.
- - Dumbed-down difficulty.
- A fix: Respect the skill of the player and give more imposing enemies; it’s Hell on Earth!
No comments:
Post a Comment