02-04-2012, 06:38 AM
Hello, everyone,
I was going to stream and comment on my impressions, but as it turns out I just don't have the bandwidth to stream anything watchable (unless you actually want to watch it in 240p). But I still wanted to share my first impressions of D3.
Firstly let me say that I like the game. It's fun, it's very heavy on the action, and the loot drops are a blast as always. Also let me say that I have not completed a run through yet. But I'm already finding some things I have issues with.
The graphics are beautiful. The sounds and music are right on key. The controls are smooth and responsive. But there's something missing.
What? Randomness.
I've run through the first couple of quests with two different classes, the Demon Hunter and the Monk. And here's my first big gripe: the overland map is the same. Is randomness truly necessary? Not really, but it helps add replay value. If you don't know what direction you need to go, it makes exploring that much more interesting.
The only randomness I've found thus far is the mini-dungeons. And when I say mini, I mean micromachines mini, and can be completed in the time it took that super fast announcer to finish the commercial. Like, two rooms with MAYBE a rare monster (read: boss type). Decent loot drops come from these if there actually is a boss, but I didn't encounter many of them. Hopefully this will ramp up in the future, and also (hopefully) the random mini-dungeons won't be so miniaturized and there will be more of them.
Two: Skills. Granted, I haven't leveled up that much, but from what I'm seeing, the skill system automatically unlocks a predefined selection of skills. Equipping these skills causes them to go into a cooldown mode and they aren't available for use OR swapping out for about 20-30 seconds.
What's wrong with this? No skill points. In D1, the challenge was to find the spell books you wanted if you were a wizard, or the weapons/gear you wanted as a rogue or warrior. In D2, we got an awesome skill tree that, at times, demanded very careful consideration of where to put that immensely valuable skill point when you leveled up. But with D3, it appears on first inspection as if all skills will be unlocked and the challenge is more a question of what skills to equip and use, not which ones to improve.
This, in my opinion (and assuming my first impression is correct) will absolutely DESTROY the long-term replayability of D3. There won't be anyone walking about with Defiance equipped in the off-hand and a selection of skills hotkeyed to the primary hand (Vegeance, Sacrifice, etc.) to gain a massive defense boost and tackle hefty bosses with elemental immunity. There won't be any spellcasters specializing in a maxed-out lower-level spell (does anyone remember Sirian's Firebolt ONLY sorceress? Oh, wait, that's right, LoD and patch 1.07 made those characters unplayable with the addition of flat-out IMMUNE bosses. I'm still sore over this because my Level 55 Sorceress who was the first char I got to Hell difficulty was abruptly useless). There won't even be anything along the lines of my (scrapped) weaponless Assassin taking advantage of the charge up feature to power up finishers with a reduced attack speed and then cranking up a selection of finishers. There will just be a bunch of people running around using the same AoE or Multi-hit combo attacks to slaughter hordes of monsters in a difficulty-enhanced multiplayer game, essentially farming gear on boss runs.
In short, there will be no difference between your (insert character class here) and someone else's (insert identical character class here) save for what equipment you have and possibly what skills you currently like the best. And when you remove variety, you remove replayability.
I'm not saying that there shouldn't be scripted eventts, or even identical boss areas. Hell, some of these are fond memories for me. For example, I can still remember the thrill of finding Andariel's boss chamber. This chamber was identical every time I got to it, but the path there changed every time, as did some of the monsters.
But could we please have some randomness back? In My Humble Opinion (as a ROFL who played all the other Diablo games so much that he actually burned out a couple of DVD drives) making the game this static is only going to kill the replayability.
Now, what I've said probably sounds very negative, and it should. I'm NOT happy with the lack of randomness thus far. Perhaps (pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease) this is just because it's the beta and Blizz wanted to lock the code down as much as possible. I really, really hope this is the case. But if it's not the case and the map is going to be exactly the same every time I play the game...then the game is only going to be good for 5 playthroughs and a few runs to get the good loot drops. After that, it'll be shelved. And that's just the randomness factor. If the skills operate in the final version the way they are operating in the beta thus far, then I'm going to be even more disappointed.
However, I'm pleased to report that I cannot trigger a vibrator bug *snicker*.
That's my first impression folks. Bear in mind that I am 100% completionist player, I'm a Really Old Fart Lurker, and that I have not played the beta all the way through. Also bear in mind that (from what I cannot find) Blizzard is being closed-lipped on the topic of whether or not the game will be randomized or even if there will be skill points.
Overall, I still like the game. It's fun, it's satisfying, it's got tons of action and atmosphere. But without an absolutely ridiculous amount of content and/or a return to the randomness of the earlier games and/or the inclusion of a skill point system, I don't see this game being truly worth it's weight in money. Will I still shell out $60 + tax for it? You betcha (go away, Palin)! Will it be worth it? Only if it gets me at least 60 hours of total game play time.
That last bit is based on an analysis of cost/playtime ratios I did in my statistics class whilst getting my bachelor's. I determined that the average movie in my local economy yields a value of approximately $4.50 per hour of entertainment. Therefore, if I buy a video game for $45, it needs to provide me with at least 10 hours of entertainment to match the value of a movie.
Skyrim cost me $63. I've burned 121 hours playing it. That's about 50 cents an hour, and it's got a HELL of a lot more playtime left in it, I'm just burned out at present. Terraria cost me $2.50, and I've got about 80 hours logged on it. that's 3.125 CENTS per hour of entertainment, and renders it that current gold standard for value to entertainment ratio. I figure I burned around 500 hours on D2 and LoD, with a total cost of about $70, which is about 14 cents per hour of entertainment. All of these beat movies hands-down (mathematically). Diablo 3 is going to need a huge stack of stuff to do in order for it to equal the value of the least of these games. Since it's release price is probably going to be about $60, that means the game needs a total of 13.33 hours of entertainment to equal the value of a movie, or 2.66 hours of gametime per character class.
Now, I don't know about you, but if it only took me 2 hours and 40 minutes to beat D3, I'd be sorely disappointed. I would also be very surprised. I seriously doubt that Blizzard will have that little content in the game. I fully expect at least 10-20 hours per character class to complete the game, which would make the game well worth the $60 spent on it. Ergo, because I trust Blizzard on some level and because I'm a Diablo nut, I will buy the game and enjoy it to the fullest.
But I'll still be disappointed if the trends I'm noticing now stay in the final product.
YMMV
-Loki
I was going to stream and comment on my impressions, but as it turns out I just don't have the bandwidth to stream anything watchable (unless you actually want to watch it in 240p). But I still wanted to share my first impressions of D3.
Firstly let me say that I like the game. It's fun, it's very heavy on the action, and the loot drops are a blast as always. Also let me say that I have not completed a run through yet. But I'm already finding some things I have issues with.
The graphics are beautiful. The sounds and music are right on key. The controls are smooth and responsive. But there's something missing.
What? Randomness.
I've run through the first couple of quests with two different classes, the Demon Hunter and the Monk. And here's my first big gripe: the overland map is the same. Is randomness truly necessary? Not really, but it helps add replay value. If you don't know what direction you need to go, it makes exploring that much more interesting.
The only randomness I've found thus far is the mini-dungeons. And when I say mini, I mean micromachines mini, and can be completed in the time it took that super fast announcer to finish the commercial. Like, two rooms with MAYBE a rare monster (read: boss type). Decent loot drops come from these if there actually is a boss, but I didn't encounter many of them. Hopefully this will ramp up in the future, and also (hopefully) the random mini-dungeons won't be so miniaturized and there will be more of them.
Two: Skills. Granted, I haven't leveled up that much, but from what I'm seeing, the skill system automatically unlocks a predefined selection of skills. Equipping these skills causes them to go into a cooldown mode and they aren't available for use OR swapping out for about 20-30 seconds.
What's wrong with this? No skill points. In D1, the challenge was to find the spell books you wanted if you were a wizard, or the weapons/gear you wanted as a rogue or warrior. In D2, we got an awesome skill tree that, at times, demanded very careful consideration of where to put that immensely valuable skill point when you leveled up. But with D3, it appears on first inspection as if all skills will be unlocked and the challenge is more a question of what skills to equip and use, not which ones to improve.
This, in my opinion (and assuming my first impression is correct) will absolutely DESTROY the long-term replayability of D3. There won't be anyone walking about with Defiance equipped in the off-hand and a selection of skills hotkeyed to the primary hand (Vegeance, Sacrifice, etc.) to gain a massive defense boost and tackle hefty bosses with elemental immunity. There won't be any spellcasters specializing in a maxed-out lower-level spell (does anyone remember Sirian's Firebolt ONLY sorceress? Oh, wait, that's right, LoD and patch 1.07 made those characters unplayable with the addition of flat-out IMMUNE bosses. I'm still sore over this because my Level 55 Sorceress who was the first char I got to Hell difficulty was abruptly useless). There won't even be anything along the lines of my (scrapped) weaponless Assassin taking advantage of the charge up feature to power up finishers with a reduced attack speed and then cranking up a selection of finishers. There will just be a bunch of people running around using the same AoE or Multi-hit combo attacks to slaughter hordes of monsters in a difficulty-enhanced multiplayer game, essentially farming gear on boss runs.
In short, there will be no difference between your (insert character class here) and someone else's (insert identical character class here) save for what equipment you have and possibly what skills you currently like the best. And when you remove variety, you remove replayability.
I'm not saying that there shouldn't be scripted eventts, or even identical boss areas. Hell, some of these are fond memories for me. For example, I can still remember the thrill of finding Andariel's boss chamber. This chamber was identical every time I got to it, but the path there changed every time, as did some of the monsters.
But could we please have some randomness back? In My Humble Opinion (as a ROFL who played all the other Diablo games so much that he actually burned out a couple of DVD drives) making the game this static is only going to kill the replayability.
Now, what I've said probably sounds very negative, and it should. I'm NOT happy with the lack of randomness thus far. Perhaps (pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease) this is just because it's the beta and Blizz wanted to lock the code down as much as possible. I really, really hope this is the case. But if it's not the case and the map is going to be exactly the same every time I play the game...then the game is only going to be good for 5 playthroughs and a few runs to get the good loot drops. After that, it'll be shelved. And that's just the randomness factor. If the skills operate in the final version the way they are operating in the beta thus far, then I'm going to be even more disappointed.
However, I'm pleased to report that I cannot trigger a vibrator bug *snicker*.
That's my first impression folks. Bear in mind that I am 100% completionist player, I'm a Really Old Fart Lurker, and that I have not played the beta all the way through. Also bear in mind that (from what I cannot find) Blizzard is being closed-lipped on the topic of whether or not the game will be randomized or even if there will be skill points.
Overall, I still like the game. It's fun, it's satisfying, it's got tons of action and atmosphere. But without an absolutely ridiculous amount of content and/or a return to the randomness of the earlier games and/or the inclusion of a skill point system, I don't see this game being truly worth it's weight in money. Will I still shell out $60 + tax for it? You betcha (go away, Palin)! Will it be worth it? Only if it gets me at least 60 hours of total game play time.
That last bit is based on an analysis of cost/playtime ratios I did in my statistics class whilst getting my bachelor's. I determined that the average movie in my local economy yields a value of approximately $4.50 per hour of entertainment. Therefore, if I buy a video game for $45, it needs to provide me with at least 10 hours of entertainment to match the value of a movie.
Skyrim cost me $63. I've burned 121 hours playing it. That's about 50 cents an hour, and it's got a HELL of a lot more playtime left in it, I'm just burned out at present. Terraria cost me $2.50, and I've got about 80 hours logged on it. that's 3.125 CENTS per hour of entertainment, and renders it that current gold standard for value to entertainment ratio. I figure I burned around 500 hours on D2 and LoD, with a total cost of about $70, which is about 14 cents per hour of entertainment. All of these beat movies hands-down (mathematically). Diablo 3 is going to need a huge stack of stuff to do in order for it to equal the value of the least of these games. Since it's release price is probably going to be about $60, that means the game needs a total of 13.33 hours of entertainment to equal the value of a movie, or 2.66 hours of gametime per character class.
Now, I don't know about you, but if it only took me 2 hours and 40 minutes to beat D3, I'd be sorely disappointed. I would also be very surprised. I seriously doubt that Blizzard will have that little content in the game. I fully expect at least 10-20 hours per character class to complete the game, which would make the game well worth the $60 spent on it. Ergo, because I trust Blizzard on some level and because I'm a Diablo nut, I will buy the game and enjoy it to the fullest.
But I'll still be disappointed if the trends I'm noticing now stay in the final product.
YMMV
-Loki
"How heroic. How compassionate. How selfless. I think I'm going to be sick."
-Skeletorr, the new HE-MAN
-Skeletorr, the new HE-MAN