General Rating [This is a comparison (Out of 10) between Diablo 3 and all other games in general]
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Diablo 3, when compared to other games, is a rather fun game and it's worth the 60 dollars to pick up and play for a few weeks, however, it gets rather boring after you've invested too much time into it. I am sure this will change when they implement PvP though.
Diablo Rating [This is a comparison (Out of 10) between Diablo 3 and Diablo 2]
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Diablo 3, when compared to Diablo 2, is really a huge disappointment. If it weren't for some new key features that I liked, I would have rated this a 0... but I like the auction house, I like the "personal loot", I like the DPS system, and I like the shared stash.
What I don't like is the obvious Warcraft-like atmosphere and environment.
Critique Ratings
Mechanics Rating
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The mechanics really are good. I like the new skill system to be quite honest and I believe once Blizzard works out the kinks in game balance, it will be even better.
I like the "Hit Q" potion hotkey, the "Run over gold to pick up", and as stated already, I like the auction house, the "personal loot", the DPS system, and I like the shared stash
However, there are three game mechanics that ruin what could have been a mechanically perfect game.
#1: No attribute allocation... all stats are applied in a predetermined manner. It's not even random in any way.
#2: The way shield blocking works
#3: Health Globes
Balance Rating
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Just terrible.
#1: The classes aren't balanced at all... Barbarians struggle in Inferno while Demon Hunters can sweep through it with sub par gear. Barbarians and Monks are at a huge disadvantage when PvP comes out also, as their energy resource [Equivalent to mana in D1*D2] relies entirely on them landing a hit, meaning that Wizards and Demon Hunters will run circles around them and the barb/monk will never get enough hits in to really make use of their powerful skills... while other classes regenerate it quickly and automatically.
#2: The balance between players using the RMAH and the players who strictly play with IGG is terrible. The players who spend real money pretty much dominate. The only players who can compete with them are the no-life players who spend 5+ hours doing non-stop gold farming. I don't know about you, but I get bored playing a game that is either "Pay money" or "Have no life" to be successful. I'd like to say I'm pretty damn successful on D2 and I've spent less than 200 dollars on all my characters total. [That's over 8 accts that include xpac and classic chars].
Plots & Story Rating
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The story isn't that bad at all... it's the dialogue that is terrible. I mean, it's abysmally pitiful. The dialogue is full of cheesy and cliche one liners, and I don't mean "a little" either... I mean it's more like "I'll get you".. "No you wont!"... "I'll kill you for this!"... "You'll pay for that". Remember in Diablo 2 where the dialogue had poetic flare to it? For instance, when you completed the Viper Amulet quest, a barb would say "It's good to see that the sun shines once more"... unlike D3 which would go "I made the sun shine again!". What truly kills it though, what really made me rate this 1 instead of maybe 3... was Diablos dialogue. They made the worst dialogue for the absolute most important character in the game... you would just have to play and listen to it yourself, I don't even want to describe how bad it is. It doesn't reflect Diablos nature or character at all. Diablo isn't supposed to have a fully outspoken personality and even if he should, it shouldn't be so passive aggressive as he's throwing corny one liners at your hero. Diablo is supposed to instill fear into you... but him nagging your ear off every minute doesn't, it just makes you say "Really?, you talk too much, stfu and fight me".
Visual Theme Rating
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I hate it with a passion. I knew it was coming since the day they put up the D3 website that it would happen though. It's Warcraft themed, no doubt about it. The characters look WoWish, the gear looks more WoWesque the higher tier they are, and the hotkey setup is very similar to WoW. The environment itself is strongly reminiscent of Warcraft 3... as well as the sounds made in battle. I'm not saying that World of Warcraft or Warcraft 3 are bad at all... I'm saying that this is Diablo, not Warcraft... get that overly epic colorful bulls*** out of a game that should be dark, morbid, and make you want to piss your pants!
Graphics Rating
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The graphics are good, but not quite top-tier quality as other games being put out. The thing that really makes D3 shine in this respect is the utter chaos that can happen when you fight a mob of monsters. You'll have spells, skills, auras everywhere, the environment often gets involved, and there are also events that happen while you're just running along. For instance, when you're out in the battlefields outside Bastions Keep, you might walk by a corner of the fortress and a huge chunk of it gets annihilated by an incoming flaming ball launched by the enemy catapults... it's really terrific, and it's one of the things that really impressed me the most when I first started playing.
Overall
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Sorry Blizzard and Jay Wilson... but you dropped the ball. I am a true blue fan of Diablo II. I've played D2 online for over 9 years now and I intend to keep playing it until the day I either die or you finally pull the servers down. As for Diablo 3, it's just not quite the same, it doesn't even compare when put beside D2. I will play it occasionally, but I think over time [Could be 6 months, could be 2 years] I am going to lose interest in it and stop playing D3 altogether. It's too WoWeque, it's badly balanced, RMAH players & no-life gold farmers dominate, and your character dialogues are worse than a low budget sci-fi movie.
This post was edited by Blockinlick on Jun 18 2012 10:09am