"An ancient evil stirs in the ruins of Old Tristram, and a mysterious portal has appeared that leads to the halls of an all-too familiar cathedral. Deep beneath the catacombs, the Dark Lord awaits any intrepid adventurer who dares to challenge him.
For the month of January, experience an homage to the original events of Diablo, brought to you in glorious RetroVision™ and filled to the brim with nostalgia-inducing features. An evocative audiovisual extravaganza awaits you, as everything from familiar enemies to iconic items have been brought to life in the Diablo III engine. Transmogrification rewards, achievements, and a handful of extra surprises lurk in the depths of this perilous, pixelated dungeon."
The Darkening of Tristram event has been available for testing on the public test realms since Blizzcon but is finally coming to Diablo III in an upcoming patch for the entire month of January. It looks like a fun way to experience the original Diablo if you are a game veteran or new player. That's not the only thing coming in the latest Diablo III update but it's the most iconic and something I am interested in trying.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20407579
For the month of January, experience an homage to the original events of Diablo, brought to you in glorious RetroVision™ and filled to the brim with nostalgia-inducing features. An evocative audiovisual extravaganza awaits you, as everything from familiar enemies to iconic items have been brought to life in the Diablo III engine. Transmogrification rewards, achievements, and a handful of extra surprises lurk in the depths of this perilous, pixelated dungeon."
The Darkening of Tristram event has been available for testing on the public test realms since Blizzcon but is finally coming to Diablo III in an upcoming patch for the entire month of January. It looks like a fun way to experience the original Diablo if you are a game veteran or new player. That's not the only thing coming in the latest Diablo III update but it's the most iconic and something I am interested in trying.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20407579
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I'm looking forward to it! I tried to figure out when this patch would be available and from what I read, it seems like it will be out, well technically today since it's already the 4th over here on the East Coast. If not "today" then it should be here this week! I'm not sure when the Necromancer is coming, but I think they said "some time in January." I also saw a video that stated that it's going to be a part of a paid DLC. If that's true, I'll buy it. I also saw that Blizzard recommends taking a new character through the new retro Diablo area. That means I have to decide on a gender, class, and name, too many choices!
So, I finished this about 24 hours ago. It took a few hours to complete, longer than I anticipated, which was good. It's basically a dungeon with 16 (I think?) levels. It looks different, but doesn't feel too different (I think that was the point). I started a new character as Blizzard suggested in something I read. I created a new Barbarian and almost made it to level 40. I modified the difficulty a few times. By the end, nothing was really hurting me on Hard, Expert, or Master, I can't recall what I finally stayed with. It did seem more difficult than the base D3 game. The problem though is if you leave the game to increase the difficulty, you have to make your way again to Old Tristram via the Old Tristram Road to the north west of Tristram to find the portal near the cathedral and start the dungeon again on the first level. It was hard at first, especially for a new character, but it eventually got easier with better gear and higher character levels. I definitely do recommend Diablo fans to check this out. I haven't spent any time with the first two Diablo games, but I do still enjoy D3. I believe this event is for a limited time only in January and from what I read it seems it may also be an annual event, which is cool. There are some cool things you get when you kill Diablo and something special you see, but I won't spoil that.
About how long did it take to beat all told?
A few hours, maybe around 4, with a new character.
Cool. Sounds like something to do in a evening then.
Just so that people don't go in with the wrong expectations, as it seems many are:
This is essentially a greater rift. It has some things from the old games:
* D3 models redesigned to look more like old enemy models
* music and some sounds
* some bosses repurposed as mini-bosses
* you can only move in 8 directions
* there's a dark, pixelated haze to make it seem like an older game
* the skill bar changes to appear more like the classic ones
Other than that, it's just a greater rift. The levels are all straight out of Diablo 3, and it feels like Diablo 3 with some nostalgic nods to the classics.
It seems many people thought this was a re-creation of part of the original game, but it is not. So please don't get your hopes up for that. This isn't me complaining about the event, I just want to clear up a very common misconception about it.
More to the point of the event itself-- This is a fun greater rift. The limited enemy pool gives it a more consistent difficulty curve. It's still harder than the base game like all greater rifts are. The nostalgia is just icing on the cake.
Thanks for that, Travis. I pretty much knew all of that. Since I've never played the first Diablo game, I wasn't disappointed at all. I thought it was great! The only thing is that it makes me think that the first game is just a dungeon of the same size. I don't know whether or not this is true, of course, but I'll probably get to playing the first game, eventually.
The first and second games are as long and varied as Diablo 3. Well, maybe not AS varied. But it's definitely not just a long dungeon.
And based on your comments above I didn't think you had those misconceptions but it's amazing how many people I've seen complaining about this. After I went through I thought I'd go check for things that I might have missed and there are so many posts lamenting the fact that this isn't a remake.
Early press didn't help. It seems plenty of people (myself included) thought that's what we were getting early on and I guess people didn't see the actual announcements.
At first I thought it was a remake inside D3, but I think that misconception faded quickly and easily. I might recall that realization being a minor disappointment that didn't last very long. When I found out it was only 16 levels, I thought it would be much smaller than it actually is. Not every level has the same look, although it mostly looks the same. Most of the dungeon is pretty much the cathedral of D3. However, the last few levels are like the jail cells and torture chambers you see elsewhere in D3. There also seems to be places where new areas can show up randomly. Just as D3 does, where at one play through you'll see a place you can access, but another time around you won't see it. It did seem more difficult than D3 and that's why I often changed the difficulty. Pretty much, I increased the difficulty when I wasn't taking any damage at all. So, I ended up on Torment I or II just to get to the portal. But, by the time I got inside, I had to lower the difficulty to Hard, Expert, or Master. Thinking more on it now, I should probably go through it again with every other class, so that I end up with at least one reward for each.