(06-24-2012, 03:50 PM)Mavfin Wrote: The story's just a framework for the fighting, and that's all it has ever been. Just enough for the fighting and quests to flow, that's it. Still not sure what you were expecting, having played D1 and D2. There was *nothing* in either of those games that wasn't easy to figure out as far as story.
There's a difference between "simple" and "bad."
D1's story was simple. Laz is corrupted by Diablo. He in turn corrupts Leoric, and kidnaps Albrecht to incarnate Diablo. Your job is to grind your way down and clean out the lot of them. When it's done, well, you didn't really expect a final victory against a lord of hell, did you?
Clean, easy. Not exactly James Joyce, but there's nothing nonsensical. You don't have to suspend your disbelief too much, once you've bought into the gothic setting. Everyone's actions are understandable, even the bit at the end - mortals to not win against Lovecraftian horrors.
D3's story is not simple, and worse, it's not self-contained. For act 1 to make any sense, you have to know and care who Deckard Cain is already. For the Tyrael reveal to have any impact at all, you have to know who he is too - one shiny cutscene does not make a character. Gabe and Tycho were right about Leah - her "skepticism" makes no sense in this world, at all.
Your journey makes no more sense than the characters. You are clearly *hunting* the prime evils, out of some weird sense of destiny. (Perhaps this is a bias from having played a wizard?) That makes the whole plot a gigantic MacGuffin - you do it because it is your "thing." Belial, as argued above, has no obvious motivation. I guess he just likes making mischief? Today Caldeum, tomorrow the world? Azmodan at least has a plan involving Arreat Summit, somehow? That was interesting only for the worldstone - a stale MacGuffin left over from LoD. (You never see, or in any way interact, with the worldstone in this game. So why Arreat? Other than "it was in the last game"?)
All of this is bad writing, in part because it isn't simple. There is no clear arc, no obvious quest to keep us invested in the twists and turns. The micro-writing is fine - characters sound right, they make sense in immediate context - but the big picture isn't very strong.
-Jester