Diablo III is for real

[the Langolier]

I think the gameplay of Diablo III looks like it will be a blast. I'm guessing that there will be more of a focus on providing everyone with effective AoE skills than there was in Diablo II. Things like leap attack and charge were designed with AoE effects in mind rather than just single target effects, as in D2. In addition, at the start of the trailer the Barbarian seemed to be using an attack that was hitting multiple monsters in an arc in front of him. That sort of addition to the arsenal will certainly promise a fast-paced action game that looked like a blast to play.

Mobs, mobs, mobs, what is this obsession over mobs?! zomg, your character can't take on a mob, it's teh suxx0r!!!!1 Instead of forcing players to learn sound strategy like, you know, retreating, they simply give them skills that will attack every enemy of the mob at once. Oh yeah, did we mention how you sap life back from everyone of them too? Epic fail. You mean to tell me a barbarian is going to hit 10 things at once with a one-handed axe, give me a break.

This is exactly what distinguished Diablo 2 from the original and yet what makes Diablo 1 the superior game. There are two important differences in how these games deal with mobs and multiple target skills. I'd like to focus on melee and ranged physical damage since, admittedly, there is little difference in spell casting. For one, Diablo 1 is limited to 'normal attack' for all melee/arrows whereas Diablo 2 has AoE spells and multi-target attacks for every class in the game. Secondly, Diablo 1 relies on dungeon layout and terrain to control mobs, whereas Diablo 2 relies more on a couple skills (not many useful ones native to melee characters, and rarely relied upon anyways). In Diablo 1 characters would retreat behind walls, around corners, hide behind skewered bodies in order to funnel enemies, thin out mobs, and avoid ranged attacks. There is rarely anything in the terrain in Diablo 2 to use to your advantage, escaping a mob usually means running really far away until they forget about you - of course it is still grouped up waiting for you to come back. You may argue that doorways are useful, but in my experience they tend to work more against players than anything, leaving some stuck behind unable to attack anything, and some up front being swarmed by everything. Despite what crowd control tactics and skills may be available and how useful they may be, however, experience shows they are usually not that critical to gameplay for standard characters. These two things yield completely different results in the flow of each of these games.

Diablo 2 is basically about stealing life at a greater rate than you are losing it (again, focusing on melee/physical ranged). Characters are always taking damage from everything on screen practically. This is why absorbs, DR% and magic damage reduction items are so useful. Defense rating, blocking - these really aren't tactically advantageous to combat so much as they are about taking less damage over time. With such big groups of enemies it's even difficult to tell when you block and which enemies are even missing you. Then of course you have mutli-target skills like zeal, whirlwind, multi-shot, strafe, fury, etc which let you hit large portions of big mobs very quickly. These characters simply do not work without life and mana steal. The idea is to run into a crowd and hit hard and fast enough to steal life faster than you are losing it. About the most strategy you will need to employ is that it is OK to run into a group of all those grotesque worms, but not into that group of frenzytaurs. Of course once you get the best of gear there's really nothing you just can't charge into head first until you are surveying the loot. For those REAL tough enemies like in uber tristram you may even need to break out those lifetap proc gloves *gasps*.

Diablo 1 is much different, it's more about avoiding damage entirely, not only from melee, but also ranged and magical attacks. For one, life and mana steal or more of a novelty than anything albiet useful in some situations. Simply put, if you run into a group of monsters and get surrounded, especially by a mix of attack types, no amount of life steal will spare you from death. The combined effect of blocking and AC is very important to combat as it keeps you on the offense instead of getting stunned, swarmed, or even stun locked. Just as important is how you use the dungeon layout to control how many you face simultaneously. Retreating just a few steps at a time will thin out melee groups and let you face only a couple at a time, allowing you to kill an enemy just as one takes it's place. You can stand along a wall, corner or other obstacle to limit the number that can reach you at once. For example, if a warrior is battling two enemies in melee, he can usually be attacking one enough to keep it stunned w/o attacking until it dies. Say while standing his ground, three more enemies are approaching. That's too many enemies to just sit there and tank, so the player can either decide that he can kill the two enemies he is facing just in time for the remaining three to arrive, or he must retreat a few steps to avoid getting swarmed. His AC and blocking allow him to be relatively safe from an enemy or two, allowing him to be completely offensive on a third enemy he is keeping in stun lock. If he is forced to block, he may not be able to attack fast enough in time to avoid needed to block again, or even getting hit and stunned. With more enemies a characters ability to retreat, attack, block, or cast spells without interruption is just overwhelmed.

With ranged attackers resistances are helpful, but really in Diablo 1 survival is about avoiding getting hit by them altogether. Dodging is obviously effective, but it can be difficult when melee enemies are around that will either force you to stand your ground or hit and stun you, making you an easy target. Defense from ranged involves using the dungeon terrain heavily to block incoming fire. You can retreat around a corner just to sneak up and ambush the ranged attackers as they try to follow. You can hide behind spikes and bodies and obstacles that will block their shots. You can sit near a corner that will block their shots, keeping them occupied, as you face melee attacks. Of course you may need to retreat from the melee enemies to prevent them from swarming you but that means giving up your strategic position. Do you take the chance you can tank an extra enemy, or do you make a run for it and expose yourself to fire? You constantly have to be paying attention to how the enemies are moving and where you can move, how best to retreat, and just how many enemies you are willing to chance facing at once. Then of course you have to factor in the spells at your disposal. Do you have just enough time to retreat a couple steps and cast heal before that incoming blood star takes away the last of your health? Will you finish the spell casting animation in time before those blood knights advance on you and interrupt it? Do you have enough time to kill that ranged attacker if you teleport next to it before those lava maws pin you down in melee attacks? The depth of strategy in using your spells at the correct times, managing monster types and mobs, and using dungeon layouts to your advantage is enough to keep you involved and interested. It can make from some tense moments and harrowing near deaths as well.

It is worth noting that the original Diablo's dungeons were grid style, making it easy to judge monster dimensions. There was really no question as to where a monster was able to move or not or if it was withing melee range. With D2 and D3 it is hard to judge just how many enemies of what size will be able to get within striking distance of your character.

I was getting excited as the general tone of this thread has been that the gameplay looks promising - and then I saw the barbarian swarmed by thirty something enemies right from the get go:( A little arc-slash to the left, hit that half. A little arc-slash to the right, hit that half. Oh look another mob coming from that bridge, let me jump right into the middle of them all. Rinse and repeat. There is no choke point. No where to thin the group out. If they were ranged, no corners to duck behind, they'd simply have shot over the void. He really has nothing to do, in fact, then just mindlessly spam his AoE skills until they are dead. The rest was more of the same. At one point the narrator explained the barb was going to have to kill a high priority target that was behind the front lines. All the barb really had to do though was run up through all the enemies and kill them. In Diablo 1 when faced with a mix of melee and ranged attackers, you would often want to kill the ranged first otherwise they would kill you while you were pinned down tackling the melee enemies. First you had to retreat and find good position to be able to keep the melee group from pinning you down and drawing the ranged a bit closer into explored territory. This would make sure that when you got up in the ranged attackers' faces you didn't activate even more enemies deeper in unexplored territory, getting yourself in a mess. Then you could forget about running past the melee to get to the ranged - they would tear you up, stun you, and otherwise prevent your advance. You could teleport over to the ranged and work on them, but in the meantime the melee crowd would close in on your new position and you may have to break off the attack, retreat, and get a new angle until all the ranged attackers were dead. Once they were taken care of, you could finish off the melee attackers as your character could handle. "Retreating" didn't mean running halfway across the level from where you came, either. A few steps at a time was all it took, oftentimes between 2 or 3 strategic points on the same screen, and rarely more than 2 screens. I say that because if you have never played, it isn't as if you were completely disengaging combat, but rather just moving well and getting good positioning in order to keep from having to face more than 3 or so enemies at once (depending on gear give or take an enemy). One on one versus any foe was pretty easy even for characters with sub par gear, but surrounded by 8 enemies is a dangerous situation for even characters with the best of gear. It didn't take 8 different skills, it just took some sound strategy and quick decision making. If you played poorly and woke up half the room going after the ranged attackers, you died. If you tried to just tank while getting barraged with ranged attacks, you died. It wasn't just OK because even though every enemy on the screen was hitting you, you were doing enough damage and stealing enough life to keep up.

I'm sure Diablo 3 will be interesting, but I don't think anyone can expect the gameplay to be anything similiar to Diablo 1.

As far as the environments, it does look very pastel. The first screenshot Foxbat linked to looked half like a painting, honestly. For me, Diablo got it's tense atmosphere more from the close-quarters perspective on the character than from the graphics.