What can I say about Diablo 3 that hasn't been said already? Is it a fantastic game? Yep. Is it beautiful? Yep. Do I think they improved on the hack n slash game formula they already solidified in Diablo and Diablo 2? Yep. Is the story great? Its fine. Do you feel like a bad-ass in the game? Yep.
So that ends my formal review of the game. I guess it goes without saying that I don't like formal reviews of the game that go over how I rate certain aspects of the game. I think its more interesting for me to know what actual people think about a game and if this site is proof, people seem to really love Diablo 3.
That all said, there are a few things I haven't seen talked about too much online so ill bite. Someone has to do the good work of talking about every nuance of great games and I don't mind batting clean up.
People say that Diablo 3's online requirement is DRM. I becry foul. If it came with a monthly fee no one would claim it has DRM. Yes its annoying to have a server outage but its awesome to have a game as connected to your friends and the world as Diablo 3. One such feature I love is that my games travel with me. This weekend I went to Idaho to visit family and I took my Macbook. My Diablo 3 character travelled with me and I didn't miss a killing beat.
The auction house seems a little overpowered. For instance, a few days ago I purchased 4-5 perfect square gems for around 2k a piece. These gems are WAY outside my range to craft and I purchased them to increase my gear attributes. Seems a little out of balance to do be able to do that. Then again, I chose to purchase and socket my weapons. You could take a more pure path. All that said, I haven't purchased any gear at the auction house but I imagine its just as easy to get great gear too. I wonder how the real money auction house will change things after it drops?
My second play through is more interesting than I thought it would be. Finding myself taking even more time and spending it grinding or trying out new Witch Doctor builds. Currently I am way less pet focused and more spell focused. Its an interesting style that is doing pretty well. Seem to be levelling much faster in Nightmare too. Appreciating how much more challenging the game is and how much more gold drops. Blizzard did a good job with repeatability, I can see myself playing this game much more than the typical faire.
So that ends my formal review of the game. I guess it goes without saying that I don't like formal reviews of the game that go over how I rate certain aspects of the game. I think its more interesting for me to know what actual people think about a game and if this site is proof, people seem to really love Diablo 3.
That all said, there are a few things I haven't seen talked about too much online so ill bite. Someone has to do the good work of talking about every nuance of great games and I don't mind batting clean up.
People say that Diablo 3's online requirement is DRM. I becry foul. If it came with a monthly fee no one would claim it has DRM. Yes its annoying to have a server outage but its awesome to have a game as connected to your friends and the world as Diablo 3. One such feature I love is that my games travel with me. This weekend I went to Idaho to visit family and I took my Macbook. My Diablo 3 character travelled with me and I didn't miss a killing beat.
The auction house seems a little overpowered. For instance, a few days ago I purchased 4-5 perfect square gems for around 2k a piece. These gems are WAY outside my range to craft and I purchased them to increase my gear attributes. Seems a little out of balance to do be able to do that. Then again, I chose to purchase and socket my weapons. You could take a more pure path. All that said, I haven't purchased any gear at the auction house but I imagine its just as easy to get great gear too. I wonder how the real money auction house will change things after it drops?
My second play through is more interesting than I thought it would be. Finding myself taking even more time and spending it grinding or trying out new Witch Doctor builds. Currently I am way less pet focused and more spell focused. Its an interesting style that is doing pretty well. Seem to be levelling much faster in Nightmare too. Appreciating how much more challenging the game is and how much more gold drops. Blizzard did a good job with repeatability, I can see myself playing this game much more than the typical faire.
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I started Nightmare last night after a level 60 friend popped into my game and made the last mini-boss and Diablo a cakewalk (I think I might go back in and solo that last stretch in a few levels, but that last mini-boss was kicking my teeth in).
I haven't had any trouble at all in Nightmare so far. I have yet to face the Skeleton King, which is where I imagine the real challenge will show itself. But overall, I have learned so much about the monk class in Act 3 and 4 that I'm applying better strategy in Nightmare, and that's where most of my success is coming from. It was interesting to see some fairly low-risk enemies using freeze spells. I can tell even though you're doing the same thing over again, it's going to feel very different.
I have problems with the online-only aspect. I don't think it's *necessarily* DRM, but it certainly functions as such. They could have made it offline and still let you stay connected to your friends with no problem. I wonder if it's in part due to the Diablo 2 character sales on ebay. Overall, it bothers me, but I see why they did it and it certainly doesn't matter enough to change my opinion about the company or the game.
As for the auction house, I like it the way it is. Exactly the way it is. When the real money AH comes out, I worry that all the good gear will be put on the real money AH and/or with gold sales sanctioned and performed by Blizzard the price of items on the gold AH will skyrocket.
But yeah, I've been upgrading my monk's gear every 7-8 levels, never paying more than 5k for any one piece of gear, and getting way better stuff than you can find in the game. Since you generally find loot that's 5-10 levels below your level, I wonder if they planned it like that, so you almost have to go to the AH for the best gear. It does take away from the excitement of getting loot, but it's fine.
Cool, the Auction house is fun, its new to me though. I have mostly spent my "point and click" game time grinding for gear so it kind of blows me away there is a different mechanism to get good gear if you want.
Someone mentioned that when the real money auction house comes out it might siphon all the good gear from the regular auction house so the best way to get gear will be to pay? I guess you can elevate yourself to operate above all that but its interesting to see it all shake out.
I think its cool you can hop in a part of the game with a friend to clear it, I love the social aspect of D3. Or the DRM aspect of D3. I guess its all in how you look at it.
The AH has been a god send in hard core. There you can't mess around with crappy hear.
Speaking of which, I know everyone is scared of rolling a HC character, but try it, you might like it. I had one site on me the other day, and it was frustrating but at the same time it gave the game more meaning.
When the real money AH opens up, I think that will put prices where they should be I'm the gold house.
Site = die. Swype auto correct is killing me
I'll roll at Hardcore character at some point. I recently discovered a build for my WD that is very very good. I'll post on it soon.