Another Round of Diablo 3 Reviews. Part 2. Not all good this time.
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Bored?
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Matt Peckham @ techland.time
I’ve been worried about this for 20 levels now. I’ve also been a little bored. I think I get what Blizzard’s up to — the long, slow hack-and-slash “normal” mode glide to the higher level real game, ala World of Warcraft — but the filler’s awfully dull. Blizzard crafts some of the slickest cutscenes on the planet…and that about sums up the company’s storytelling abilities.
Now I realize, from reading what other players are saying about the game, that it’s supposed to get better. These first 20 levels are like the cover charge to get into the club, they say, and hey, World of Warcraft works the same way. In fact the latter’s hand is all over this game: The toolbar’s just a WoW-interface shrink, with its mutable skill slots and option buttons and latency meter. The message window on the left looks like it was snatched from WoW and just plunked in. Equipment comes in colors that correspond to rarity — as in WoW, all of that can be bought or sold on Diablo III‘s auction house. And let’s not forget the connection requirement, which — just like WoW — means you have to be online at all times to play the game. Full here
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Another video review thanks to gamesradar.
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On the bright-side…
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Jesse Singal @ thedailybeast
The game is so addictive because it is designed to never end. There are plenty of great games—BioShock comes to mind—that bring some level of satisfaction when you complete them. Diablo 3 is not one of those games. It is designed to sate only partially, to forever hold out the tantalizing prospect of becoming ever more formidable. Yes, you get a brief surge of dopamine when you kill a big boss or complete a tough mission, but it’s never, ever enough. There’s always a reason to play for just a few more minutes.
When it comes down to it, Diablo 3’s appeal relies on a very simple, ancient sort of addiction. Shouldn’t that affect how we view it? In short, is “addictive” the same thing as good? Full here
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Simon Lucas @ guardian.co
These (not significant) shortcomings are all the more galling in light of the fact that Diablo III is an endlessly playable, occasionally madly thrilling role-playing actioner of the kind that can keep you up all night. It harks back to the arcade dungeon-crawlers of the last century even as it points the way towards a future of customisable online multiplayer communities.
The look, the sound, the ease of use and, above all, the endless variation make Diablo III a longlasting pleasure. The broad strokes (hone your character’s skills, collect items, get involved in frequent combat) are simple; the complexity is all in the details. A beginning-to-end jaunt ought to last maybe 20 hours (longer as you increase difficulty, when tactical acumen becomes as critical as brute force). It’s rewarding enough to make the initial shambles forgivable. Full here
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Ryan Fleming @ digitaltrends
The quests add to the story, and the acts are broken up by impressive cinematics, but the story really is secondary to the gameplay. It will appeal to longtime fans who will appreciate the established mythology. Uncovering the story, however, will account for a very small amount of the time spent in the game.
Each of the characters fills a familiar role, and they all progress as you would expect. Melee characters are a bit easier to use than magic classes at first, but that is expected. An argument could be made that the melee characters are actually weaker than their magical counterparts by the later levels, but it really is as much about the skills and equipment.
There is enough hype behind the game, and expectations have been so high that Diablo 3 is almost in the unenviable position of being either fantastic or a failure in the minds of many with very little gray area. That isn’t fair though. Diablo 3 is a great game. It probably isn’t going to rise to the legendary levels that its predecessor did, but only time will tell. Full here
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