10-25-2011, 06:50 PM
Did I mention in the second beta report that the beta is really, really short? If you're sitting there cursing me for getting into the beta while you don't have a spot, do note that you're really not missing much. Maybe the beta will be expanded as it goes along; maybe it won't. But right now, it's like getting to play World of Warcraft for five character classes up to level 7. It's really, really easy, there isn't much balance tuning, everything is heavily simplified, and there isn't much to do once you've tried every class out. I admit I haven't played the beta much. It's cool and fun for a few hours, but there just isn't much variety involved in it. It also doesn't help that I have no friends to play it with, and multiplayer is really the heart of Diablo games. Nobody playing the beta is going to have some huge "leg up" on non-beta players.
So, it's not like I have much to talk about here. I will bring up one thing I haven't mentioned yet - followers.
In the D3 beta, the only follower you can obtain is the Templar. You first meet him in the dungeons as some evil spellcasters are performing a ritual on him. Freeing him by killing these spellcasters, he joins up with you as you help him get his armor back. Getting his armor back isn't exactly an epic quest or anything; it involves going up a stairwell and fighting a few bad guys on the way to his chest.
You're forced to do all this, by the way, because you need your Templar to clear out a blockage in a passageway that lets you continue onward. This makes it so you can't skip him over, even though doing so accidentally is almost impossible due to the rails-guidance way you're pushed into the encounter to meet him.
The follower concept is more sophisticated than in Diablo II. Followers appear to be a solid addition to your character, even moreso than a WoW Hunter's pet, although you can't give him direct orders. I say this because your follower levels alongside you, grows more powerful, gets equipment, and develops skills. The Templar can be equipped with a weapon (Spear), rings, necklace, etc. Not a full gear set like yourself, but some gear items.
Along with gearing comes skill choices. Followers have tiers of skills, and with each tier comes a choice between two skills that impact how you want your follower to work with you. For example, the first tier of Templar skill choice has you pick between a heal spell or a taunt spell, the former able to be cast on either you or he, and the latter coming into play as a way for the Templar to pull mobs off you when you reach 75% health or less. You guess is as good as mine as to how useful that may be in later difficulties. If followers are as squishy as they were in Diablo II, I would imagine that a taunt skill would be the last thing you'd want your follower to pick up.
If you dismiss your follower, he'll be waiting in town to join you again. Does this mean that you'll be able to swap your followers around and treat them like your own dungeon party, able to select whichever follower is best suited for a tough boss fight? That would add a layer of strategy to the game.
Your follower and you have...chats...as you're dungeoning. Mini conversations, of sorts. Either because the follower is a Templar, or because so much of the Diablo universe revolves around Heaven/Hell concepts, most of the conversations revolve around faith. I could see that Blizzard is trying to develop these followers as actual characters, not just a static NPC mercenary ala Diablo II's followers that you couldn't care less about (well, except for the one named Jarulf - link provided for any Diablo universe newbies out there). These followers are people. They comment on quests and in-game events. They have backstories, they develop with you, you work together with them and develop them along a route that synergizes best with you. In theory, they're part of your "team"; it's really hard to draw full conclusions about the game when you're seeing so little of it, and as mentioned in my first report, I'm purposely trying to avoid hype and news regarding the game to remain objective.
World of Warcraft comparison? Diablo III is of course much faster-paced than WoW. You're slaughtering dozens of monsters at a time; loot falls fast and furious; the emphasis is on action action action. Adjusting back to the Diablo universe after so many years of WoW reminds me of when I first started playing WoW after so many years of Diablo. In WoW, I'd try to take on a bunch of mobs at once, get creamed, and wonder what I was doing wrong. It took me a few minutes of Diablo III playing time to stop being intimidated by packs of 10 monsters and just get in there. You can feel free to yell "I AM DEATH INCARNATE" and ruthlessly slaughter dozens of mobs in a swirling dance of destruction.
But as I play the beta and see that 99% of the beta playerbase is just running the last boss of the beta over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, I'm reminded of what the essence of Diablo is. Random loot generation. After years of WoW, I sort of expect an "end-game" activity of an RPG. In WoW, that's raiding. In Diablo III, it's...what? What will KEEP me playing this game? For many, it'll be the auction house and the desire to create that perfect character. For others, PvP with the new "Versus" mode (not available in beta) will keep them coming back.
I can't help but look at the World of Warcraft Annual pass promotion and notice two things:
1) Blizzard knows Diablo III will cannibalize their WoW subscriber base heavily when it is first released, and
2) Blizzard wants you signed up so perhaps...you have something to come back to when you've tired of Diablo III?
The first point is fact. The second is speculation. I just don't see Diablo III having a long-term hold on people the way WoW (and MMOs in general) do. You could definitely draw a similarity between end boss loot runs in Diablo III and raiding in World of Warcraft, but Diablo III isn't massively multiplayer. You can't have more than 4 players in a game, and there's no deep social interaction that you'd get with guilds and servers as you do in WoW. Diablo III seems like a 4-6 month diversion. And when those months are over, hey look - you still have that WoW subscription sitting around...
Will some of you please get in the beta so I have someone I know to play with?
So, it's not like I have much to talk about here. I will bring up one thing I haven't mentioned yet - followers.
In the D3 beta, the only follower you can obtain is the Templar. You first meet him in the dungeons as some evil spellcasters are performing a ritual on him. Freeing him by killing these spellcasters, he joins up with you as you help him get his armor back. Getting his armor back isn't exactly an epic quest or anything; it involves going up a stairwell and fighting a few bad guys on the way to his chest.
You're forced to do all this, by the way, because you need your Templar to clear out a blockage in a passageway that lets you continue onward. This makes it so you can't skip him over, even though doing so accidentally is almost impossible due to the rails-guidance way you're pushed into the encounter to meet him.
The follower concept is more sophisticated than in Diablo II. Followers appear to be a solid addition to your character, even moreso than a WoW Hunter's pet, although you can't give him direct orders. I say this because your follower levels alongside you, grows more powerful, gets equipment, and develops skills. The Templar can be equipped with a weapon (Spear), rings, necklace, etc. Not a full gear set like yourself, but some gear items.
Along with gearing comes skill choices. Followers have tiers of skills, and with each tier comes a choice between two skills that impact how you want your follower to work with you. For example, the first tier of Templar skill choice has you pick between a heal spell or a taunt spell, the former able to be cast on either you or he, and the latter coming into play as a way for the Templar to pull mobs off you when you reach 75% health or less. You guess is as good as mine as to how useful that may be in later difficulties. If followers are as squishy as they were in Diablo II, I would imagine that a taunt skill would be the last thing you'd want your follower to pick up.
If you dismiss your follower, he'll be waiting in town to join you again. Does this mean that you'll be able to swap your followers around and treat them like your own dungeon party, able to select whichever follower is best suited for a tough boss fight? That would add a layer of strategy to the game.
Your follower and you have...chats...as you're dungeoning. Mini conversations, of sorts. Either because the follower is a Templar, or because so much of the Diablo universe revolves around Heaven/Hell concepts, most of the conversations revolve around faith. I could see that Blizzard is trying to develop these followers as actual characters, not just a static NPC mercenary ala Diablo II's followers that you couldn't care less about (well, except for the one named Jarulf - link provided for any Diablo universe newbies out there). These followers are people. They comment on quests and in-game events. They have backstories, they develop with you, you work together with them and develop them along a route that synergizes best with you. In theory, they're part of your "team"; it's really hard to draw full conclusions about the game when you're seeing so little of it, and as mentioned in my first report, I'm purposely trying to avoid hype and news regarding the game to remain objective.
World of Warcraft comparison? Diablo III is of course much faster-paced than WoW. You're slaughtering dozens of monsters at a time; loot falls fast and furious; the emphasis is on action action action. Adjusting back to the Diablo universe after so many years of WoW reminds me of when I first started playing WoW after so many years of Diablo. In WoW, I'd try to take on a bunch of mobs at once, get creamed, and wonder what I was doing wrong. It took me a few minutes of Diablo III playing time to stop being intimidated by packs of 10 monsters and just get in there. You can feel free to yell "I AM DEATH INCARNATE" and ruthlessly slaughter dozens of mobs in a swirling dance of destruction.
But as I play the beta and see that 99% of the beta playerbase is just running the last boss of the beta over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, I'm reminded of what the essence of Diablo is. Random loot generation. After years of WoW, I sort of expect an "end-game" activity of an RPG. In WoW, that's raiding. In Diablo III, it's...what? What will KEEP me playing this game? For many, it'll be the auction house and the desire to create that perfect character. For others, PvP with the new "Versus" mode (not available in beta) will keep them coming back.
I can't help but look at the World of Warcraft Annual pass promotion and notice two things:
1) Blizzard knows Diablo III will cannibalize their WoW subscriber base heavily when it is first released, and
2) Blizzard wants you signed up so perhaps...you have something to come back to when you've tired of Diablo III?
The first point is fact. The second is speculation. I just don't see Diablo III having a long-term hold on people the way WoW (and MMOs in general) do. You could definitely draw a similarity between end boss loot runs in Diablo III and raiding in World of Warcraft, but Diablo III isn't massively multiplayer. You can't have more than 4 players in a game, and there's no deep social interaction that you'd get with guilds and servers as you do in WoW. Diablo III seems like a 4-6 month diversion. And when those months are over, hey look - you still have that WoW subscription sitting around...
Will some of you please get in the beta so I have someone I know to play with?
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.