Then what is your point since you're balking about people complaining when it relates to the review or items mentioned in the review?
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Has nobody even bothered the read the official 1.0.3 patch preview?
The item finding problem will be sorted for endgame along with plenty other changes. What's the point in complaining about it when blizzard have already said they are going to change it?
The game easily deserves this score, especially once that patch lands. Many people, like myself, have put over 200 hours into the game and arn't even a little bit bored with it. I'd go 9.0 if there was some kind of randomized free roam maps added to the endgame... hopefully in the future.
So it's ok that the dynamic of finding loot is completely pointless for the rest of the game? Lets face it, there is a direct conflict between the players' desire to have finding loot being a meaningful exercise and Blizzard's desire for people to use the AH and unless Blizzard is going to offer offline play with altered loot drop table those conflicting desires are opposed and will be resolved in Blizzard's favor.
My thought on the game, it does not stack up to Diablo II. The loot system is the main problem IMO. I like to play the game with what I find. Never bought from the auction house, not that I could afford to anyways, but I find that other players are critical of my characters strengths as I almost always have inferior equipment. The great thing about Diablo II, you there was elite equipment and items sets for every level. The only place you find them in Diablo III is late hell or inferno.
Played with a wizard the other day in nightmare he was basically soloing while 3 others of us were in the game. After inspecting him I noticed his damage was twice what mine was and I have 8 characters at nightmare level and never found anything close to what he had. Take a wizard for example, he does not benefit from equiping wizard items like a wand, he just has to equip the highest dps item he can equip.
All in all, I give the game a 6 at best and I do not in any way think it has the long term viability that Diablo II had.
That really makes me start to wonder if Blizzard isn't actually posting gear on the RMAH themselves now. I thought that was a bit paranoid when I first heard the comment surface, but now, hearing about how abysmal the itemization and loot drops are, it really makes me wonder if they've gone a step further in funneling people to the RMAH by actually stocking it themselves in some cases. It sounds like you need to be very lucky to find the gear you need to unlock later difficulty levels. If the drops are really as rare is it sounds, how can supply meet the overwhelming demand without a little "help" from Blizzard.
D1 and D2 were addictive as hell because it was a giant goodie-hunt. But with those games, you could play for a few hours and actually be rewarded. If in D3, you are playing for weeks without getting that 'kid on Christmas morning feeling', Blizzard either dropped the ball big time, or they are screwing their players over.
Not surprised really since I expected the RMAH to lead to something like this from the start. I'm gratified to see how many fanbois there are out there who have convinced themselves that it was such a great idea. Hey, if you have anymore of that peyote, do share. It's strong as a muthaf*cker and we can all lose touch with reality together.
Has nobody even bothered the read the official 1.0.3 patch preview?
The item finding problem will be sorted for endgame along with plenty other changes. What's the point in complaining about it when blizzard have already said they are going to change it?
The game easily deserves this score, especially once that patch lands. Many people, like myself, have put over 200 hours into the game and arn't even a little bit bored with it. I'd go 9.0 if there was some kind of randomized free roam maps added to the endgame... hopefully in the future.
Yeah, so more crappy loot will drop, so what? The issue is the loot table/system is fubar regardless of quantity.
When you have Wizards running around with battle axes because DPS is all that matters, that's a problem. Dropping more garbage doesn't increase replay value, it increases the size of garbage piles.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
Then what is your point since you're balking about people complaining when it relates to the review or items mentioned in the review?
My point is that Blizzard have already listened, it's getting changed. They might mess it up even more though, who knows. What do people hope to accomplish beyond that at this point?
I've no problem with people disagreeing with the 8.5 but I think the game deserves it personally. I've got a lot of fun out of it. Rating this game on level 1-30 is a bit wierd though, I agree with that.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
The game is broken. It had people that I feel didn't understand balance when they say they could not add effects to types of damage because that is what people went for then. The story is a one shot for me. They say they want it storydriven and might put in an auto-skip feature in future.
I hope the game gets better as time and expansion pack(s) go but at the moment it is more about just farming. I am staying away from the AH and seem to not really care about moving fast. I hate going through Act 1. Enjoy Act 2. Act 3 is interesting. Act 4 is blah. Just be glad to see things change though not sure if their goals with 1.03 is going to be worth it. Seems like a carebear game overall.
Not saying a bad game but having to deal with the story so much for a game that requires so much farming of gear and that was their plan makes it a blah game to me. I don't understand their goals and if I had played the game before release then would not have bought it.
Pretty fair review. An 8.5 is NOT a very good score for a game of Diablo III's calibur, so I feel like the score reflects the disappointment many of us had with the game.
The only things I disagree with are the longevity (9/10) and value (10/10) scores.
Longevity wise, I think I played D3 for like 2-3 weeks and then I was done. I really have no desire to do Hell or Inferno because I understand that it's all about grinding cash until you can get good enough gear to win, or cheesing your way through. This really isn't appealing to me. Contrast this to the months that I played D1 and D2 for...
Value wise...you have to consider that this game has a very premium price ($60). Compare this with Torchlight that was like $20. I really feel like I got a lot more value out of Torchlight than I got out of D3. I played the game longer (maybe 3-4 weeks), and I fiddled around with mods for like 2-3 weeks alone. And this is from a game that is a third of the price.
So I mean, I don't see how you can justify D3's $60 price tag WITH the RMAH to be a 10/10 value when you have games like Torchlight ($20) and PoE (FTP) out there. D3 has a good value sure, but it's only like 8/10 at best.
The only things I disagree with are the longevity (9/10) and value (10/10) scores.
Those two portions are so over inflated it is almost comical.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
diablo 2 was great. but diablo 3 is no contender in my book. i would have got it except that i was told single player is olso online. i remember playing wow and how many times the servers went down for maintenance. so when they do go gone, people dont complain.
To the person who doubted the best selling computer game ever thing....find me any other computer game that sold 3.5 million in the first 24 hours and 6.3 million in the first week. It took The Sims 5 years and 7 expansion packs to reach 16 million units SHIPPED (not sold).
How you can give D3 such high scores for social, value and longevity is beyond me since those are areas where the game clearly lacks alot imo. Battlenet 2.0 is a step backwards compared to the original Battlenet in terms of social features, the chat system is lackluster and you can't create and name your own games.
As for longevity I'd say they sacrificed alot of longevity in favour of accessibility for new players and money grabbing, with many design decisions. Skill runes instead of skill tree aswell as free respecc are two obvious examples where longevity was sacrificed. RMAH ruins longevity for alot of people. What's the point in spending all that time searching for awesome gear when the guy next to you just swipes his credit card and gets it instantly and there's no way to tell you had to spend hundreds of hours to acquire your gear?
Taking into account you have to be online to play single player and how much downtime and lag there's been so far I don't see how you can give it 8.5, I'm disappointed but not surprised since I saw a big D3 ad around here.
I wouldn't have expected a review that high, but I didn't play the game. What I'm still in the dark about is why a co op action RPG is getting a review on an MMORPG site at all. I guess popularity rules.
When will people learn that this is a person reviewing what they think of a game. Whether you agree or disagree, it isn't wrong or right, it's an opinion.
I'm finding a lot of gamers that are very vocal and dislike this game usually are the ones that played the originals. I can respect that they don't like the new direction of the game, but as a person that never has played the originals and who found TL1 while entertaining but clunky I really enjoy D3 far more. It's bringing in players that never played these types of games, myself included. The streamlined direction of the game flows well and is action packed and doesn't slow you down with far too much numbercrunching.
I'm finding a lot of gamers that are very vocal and dislike this game usually are the ones that played the originals. I can respect that they don't like the new direction of the game, but as a person that never has played the originals and who found TL1 while entertaining but clunky I really enjoy D3 far more. It's bringing in players that never played these types of games, myself included. The streamlined direction of the game flows well and is action packed and doesn't slow you down with far too much numbercrunching.
Your words depress me.
Perhaps the future of gaming really is a watered-down and incomplete version of the past.
Long live the glory days of gaming. Never forget.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
Aesthetics: Beautifuly polished game....and was quite the contrast after playing a bit of Diablo 2 leading up to the D3 launch. As the OP stated, the game is missing lots of effects & whatnot that many new games are capable of....but that hasn't ever really been Blizzard's style. There are some very practicle reasons for keeping it simple stupid.
Gameplay: D3 missed an opportunity to take these click-fest hack n' slash crawlers to a new level. For example, NCSoft is rebooting the Lineage series in an isometric "Diablo / Torch Light" like format, called Lineage Eternal. There are some videos out that show how they implemented "Mouse Gestures" in their gameplay.
Want a wall of fire? Use the skill and drag a line on the screen where you want the fire wall to appear. Want to perform a whirlwind attack? Use the skill and drag a line in a circle around your character to AOE everything around you. You can get pretty creative with allowing the gamer more control over the direction & amplitude of the skill....including varying amounts of mana usage, and selective targeting.
With that said, I'm very appreciative of having more of my skills available to me at the touch of a key or mouse button with the new UI.
Innovation: This dove tails with the previous message around gameplay. Gameplay innovation is limited (easier to access UI & destructable environment) Everything else is the same as D2.
Out of game innovation has, however, broken some ground for future games like these. The ease of grouping is seamless (and almost too easy to the point it can be annoying if you don't turn off the autogroup setting). They leveraged some great things from WOW (Chatting, Auction House, Item Linking, Party Options, cross game communications)
Polish: what can I say...its a Blizzard game thats been under the knife for years on end. To my experience, it's been bug free, graphics & animations are tops, features have been well fleshed out.
Longevity: here is where I differ most from the OP. I've actually found Nightmare a fair bit more challenging than Normal Mode. I was forced to auction my gear for the first time about half way through ACT II Nightmare because the crap gear I've been getting hasn't been up to snuff. Regular monsters are still a pushover....but elite / magical group monsters tear me up...mostly due to limitations of my class with that particualr monster.
I really like the game, but it just doesn't have it's hooks into me like D2 did (maybe im just getting old). Having to AH my gear to progress, coupled with getting absolutely crap gear, has killed the whole gear chase aspect for me. I found the initial game experience (especially the Diablo encounter & death) to be kinda...meh. And now i have to do it all over again and I'm getting my butt kicked due to a gear check.
I'm trying to stay motivated to play....but I'm finding less and less to get excited about as the novelty wears off a bit.
Social: Tops for this genere of gaming. Chatting is obviously a boon for the series. Grouping is almost too easy, and of course....it's part of the Blizzard eco-system so being able to chat with folks in WOW or SC2, while in Diablo is pretty dang cool.
Value: If you're going to play it all the way through the difficulty modes, $60 bucks is a good buy. If you're not particularly interested in going past Normal or Nightmare, $60 is a little expensive. You can beat Normal mode in less than a week if you're running through the game.
Conclusion: It's about what you expected......just that it's what I would have expected several years ago. The game is great for what it is, and trys to be.....but given the time between D2 & D3....and the time spend on development, I would have expected something a little different. I thought Blizzard would have been the one to introduce mouse gesture based skills, more immersive game play.....or just something else, outside typical Diablo fare.
Still a great game, and a good buy for anyone that plans on reaching level cap & playing the varying difficulty modes.
The longevity question is going to vary from person to person. Personally I'm already finding the novelty starting to wear off - somewhere about half-way through nightmare, the fun started to wane as I hit my own personal wall where my less-than-perfect reflexes couldn't reliably keep up or my build choices were too weak. It will probably be one of those games I'll pull up from time to time when I'm bored, but it doesn't seem to maintain an MMOish hold on my life.
I find it funny that he listed under cons "Too easy except for Hell/Inferno."
He probably beat Normal and maybe went a couple quests deep into nightmare - if that - since he was only like level 31 when he stopped to write the review.
The review hit some nails on the head, but you can't really know the full game to even give it a full, fair review without getting one character to Inferno and level 60.
But I do find it funny that even just with Normal beaten, it got an 8.5. As for the hacking of your friend, it's "Authenticator or gtfo" for the most part. Blizzard doesn't care much about the security of your account without an authenticator. Passwords aren't case sensitive, and I believe you can try the password an unlimited amount of time without having to wait to try again, or anything.
It just adds to the feeling that they half-assed the majority of the game.
My friends found it fun to play but we all got bored with the grind and repetitive content. Some made it to inferno, some just to nightmare or hell but we are all bored now and have moved on.
I'd give longevity a 3/10.
I'd say our biggest complaints are the loot system favours using the AH way too much and there isn't enough randomisation in the content to make you want to go back and grind it out on other classes.
Most of us expected more from D3 and it failed to live up to expectations even thou its been a fun game to play.
My friends found it fun to play but we all got bored with the grind and repetitive content. Some made it to inferno, some just to nightmare or hell but we are all bored now and have moved on.
I'd give longevity a 3/10.
I'd say our biggest complaints are the loot system favours using the AH way too much and there isn't enough randomisation in the content to make you want to go back and grind it out on other classes.
Most of us expected more from D3 and it failed to live up to expectations even thou its been a fun game to play.
Yeah same here. I gave it a shot, but over several hundred hours played, multiple classes at varying levels including 60s in Inferno.... im bored as hell. Havent touched the game since i think tuesday, maybe monday.. I actually grew tired of the game probably a week before that but kept at it for awhile hoping i would change my mind and find something more fun about it. Finally gave up though. I kept finding myself constantly alt-tabbing out looking for other stuff to do, anything but playing.
I Played D2 for a solid 2-3 years straight after launch, then on and off since then until D3 came out. I wanted to like D3, i loved D2. It just didnt cut it though, not even close About 2 weeks of enjoyment (if you can call it that) from D3 vs years of enjoyment from D2.... what a disaster. I actually logged into D2 during maintenances, started new toons, and was having more fun there than in this turd.
Over an 8 is really pushing it. The game has mediocre graphics, a mediocre story, mediocre dialogue, severe issues at its highest difficulty, lots of balance issues, a big itemization problem, and the list goes on and on.
Comments
Then what is your point since you're balking about people complaining when it relates to the review or items mentioned in the review?
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
So it's ok that the dynamic of finding loot is completely pointless for the rest of the game? Lets face it, there is a direct conflict between the players' desire to have finding loot being a meaningful exercise and Blizzard's desire for people to use the AH and unless Blizzard is going to offer offline play with altered loot drop table those conflicting desires are opposed and will be resolved in Blizzard's favor.
That really makes me start to wonder if Blizzard isn't actually posting gear on the RMAH themselves now. I thought that was a bit paranoid when I first heard the comment surface, but now, hearing about how abysmal the itemization and loot drops are, it really makes me wonder if they've gone a step further in funneling people to the RMAH by actually stocking it themselves in some cases. It sounds like you need to be very lucky to find the gear you need to unlock later difficulty levels. If the drops are really as rare is it sounds, how can supply meet the overwhelming demand without a little "help" from Blizzard.
D1 and D2 were addictive as hell because it was a giant goodie-hunt. But with those games, you could play for a few hours and actually be rewarded. If in D3, you are playing for weeks without getting that 'kid on Christmas morning feeling', Blizzard either dropped the ball big time, or they are screwing their players over.
Not surprised really since I expected the RMAH to lead to something like this from the start. I'm gratified to see how many fanbois there are out there who have convinced themselves that it was such a great idea. Hey, if you have anymore of that peyote, do share. It's strong as a muthaf*cker and we can all lose touch with reality together.
Yeah, so more crappy loot will drop, so what? The issue is the loot table/system is fubar regardless of quantity.
When you have Wizards running around with battle axes because DPS is all that matters, that's a problem. Dropping more garbage doesn't increase replay value, it increases the size of garbage piles.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
My point is that Blizzard have already listened, it's getting changed. They might mess it up even more though, who knows. What do people hope to accomplish beyond that at this point?
I've no problem with people disagreeing with the 8.5 but I think the game deserves it personally. I've got a lot of fun out of it. Rating this game on level 1-30 is a bit wierd though, I agree with that.
The game is broken. It had people that I feel didn't understand balance when they say they could not add effects to types of damage because that is what people went for then. The story is a one shot for me. They say they want it storydriven and might put in an auto-skip feature in future.
I hope the game gets better as time and expansion pack(s) go but at the moment it is more about just farming. I am staying away from the AH and seem to not really care about moving fast. I hate going through Act 1. Enjoy Act 2. Act 3 is interesting. Act 4 is blah. Just be glad to see things change though not sure if their goals with 1.03 is going to be worth it. Seems like a carebear game overall.
Not saying a bad game but having to deal with the story so much for a game that requires so much farming of gear and that was their plan makes it a blah game to me. I don't understand their goals and if I had played the game before release then would not have bought it.
Pretty fair review. An 8.5 is NOT a very good score for a game of Diablo III's calibur, so I feel like the score reflects the disappointment many of us had with the game.
The only things I disagree with are the longevity (9/10) and value (10/10) scores.
Longevity wise, I think I played D3 for like 2-3 weeks and then I was done. I really have no desire to do Hell or Inferno because I understand that it's all about grinding cash until you can get good enough gear to win, or cheesing your way through. This really isn't appealing to me. Contrast this to the months that I played D1 and D2 for...
Value wise...you have to consider that this game has a very premium price ($60). Compare this with Torchlight that was like $20. I really feel like I got a lot more value out of Torchlight than I got out of D3. I played the game longer (maybe 3-4 weeks), and I fiddled around with mods for like 2-3 weeks alone. And this is from a game that is a third of the price.
So I mean, I don't see how you can justify D3's $60 price tag WITH the RMAH to be a 10/10 value when you have games like Torchlight ($20) and PoE (FTP) out there. D3 has a good value sure, but it's only like 8/10 at best.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
Those two portions are so over inflated it is almost comical.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
diablo 2 was great. but diablo 3 is no contender in my book. i would have got it except that i was told single player is olso online. i remember playing wow and how many times the servers went down for maintenance. so when they do go gone, people dont complain.
i will not give blizzard even a penny.
To the person who doubted the best selling computer game ever thing....find me any other computer game that sold 3.5 million in the first 24 hours and 6.3 million in the first week. It took The Sims 5 years and 7 expansion packs to reach 16 million units SHIPPED (not sold).
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
How you can give D3 such high scores for social, value and longevity is beyond me since those are areas where the game clearly lacks alot imo. Battlenet 2.0 is a step backwards compared to the original Battlenet in terms of social features, the chat system is lackluster and you can't create and name your own games.
As for longevity I'd say they sacrificed alot of longevity in favour of accessibility for new players and money grabbing, with many design decisions. Skill runes instead of skill tree aswell as free respecc are two obvious examples where longevity was sacrificed. RMAH ruins longevity for alot of people. What's the point in spending all that time searching for awesome gear when the guy next to you just swipes his credit card and gets it instantly and there's no way to tell you had to spend hundreds of hours to acquire your gear?
Taking into account you have to be online to play single player and how much downtime and lag there's been so far I don't see how you can give it 8.5, I'm disappointed but not surprised since I saw a big D3 ad around here.
I wouldn't have expected a review that high, but I didn't play the game. What I'm still in the dark about is why a co op action RPG is getting a review on an MMORPG site at all. I guess popularity rules.
Innovation: 7 of 10?
All the other scores seems fine but come on, what does a game have to do to get a 1 in your book?
3 of 10 would be more fair. If you want a innovative game this might not be the game you are looking fo, and it never was the point either.
A 10/10 on value implies that nothing else comparable is a better value for money spent.
Torchlight 2 is $20, $15 if you split a 4 pack.
Does not compute.
When will people learn that this is a person reviewing what they think of a game. Whether you agree or disagree, it isn't wrong or right, it's an opinion.
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
Couldn't agree more with this, especially the difficulty bit.
Although I really think bliz hit the jackpot with the RMAH idea as it will keep the game going for YEARS to come.
Great review!
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAmbryZealot/
I'm finding a lot of gamers that are very vocal and dislike this game usually are the ones that played the originals. I can respect that they don't like the new direction of the game, but as a person that never has played the originals and who found TL1 while entertaining but clunky I really enjoy D3 far more. It's bringing in players that never played these types of games, myself included. The streamlined direction of the game flows well and is action packed and doesn't slow you down with far too much numbercrunching.
Your words depress me.
Perhaps the future of gaming really is a watered-down and incomplete version of the past.
Long live the glory days of gaming. Never forget.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
Fair review...but I differed on a few things...
Aesthetics: Beautifuly polished game....and was quite the contrast after playing a bit of Diablo 2 leading up to the D3 launch. As the OP stated, the game is missing lots of effects & whatnot that many new games are capable of....but that hasn't ever really been Blizzard's style. There are some very practicle reasons for keeping it simple stupid.
Gameplay: D3 missed an opportunity to take these click-fest hack n' slash crawlers to a new level. For example, NCSoft is rebooting the Lineage series in an isometric "Diablo / Torch Light" like format, called Lineage Eternal. There are some videos out that show how they implemented "Mouse Gestures" in their gameplay.
Want a wall of fire? Use the skill and drag a line on the screen where you want the fire wall to appear. Want to perform a whirlwind attack? Use the skill and drag a line in a circle around your character to AOE everything around you. You can get pretty creative with allowing the gamer more control over the direction & amplitude of the skill....including varying amounts of mana usage, and selective targeting.
With that said, I'm very appreciative of having more of my skills available to me at the touch of a key or mouse button with the new UI.
Innovation: This dove tails with the previous message around gameplay. Gameplay innovation is limited (easier to access UI & destructable environment) Everything else is the same as D2.
Out of game innovation has, however, broken some ground for future games like these. The ease of grouping is seamless (and almost too easy to the point it can be annoying if you don't turn off the autogroup setting). They leveraged some great things from WOW (Chatting, Auction House, Item Linking, Party Options, cross game communications)
Polish: what can I say...its a Blizzard game thats been under the knife for years on end. To my experience, it's been bug free, graphics & animations are tops, features have been well fleshed out.
Longevity: here is where I differ most from the OP. I've actually found Nightmare a fair bit more challenging than Normal Mode. I was forced to auction my gear for the first time about half way through ACT II Nightmare because the crap gear I've been getting hasn't been up to snuff. Regular monsters are still a pushover....but elite / magical group monsters tear me up...mostly due to limitations of my class with that particualr monster.
I really like the game, but it just doesn't have it's hooks into me like D2 did (maybe im just getting old). Having to AH my gear to progress, coupled with getting absolutely crap gear, has killed the whole gear chase aspect for me. I found the initial game experience (especially the Diablo encounter & death) to be kinda...meh. And now i have to do it all over again and I'm getting my butt kicked due to a gear check.
I'm trying to stay motivated to play....but I'm finding less and less to get excited about as the novelty wears off a bit.
Social: Tops for this genere of gaming. Chatting is obviously a boon for the series. Grouping is almost too easy, and of course....it's part of the Blizzard eco-system so being able to chat with folks in WOW or SC2, while in Diablo is pretty dang cool.
Value: If you're going to play it all the way through the difficulty modes, $60 bucks is a good buy. If you're not particularly interested in going past Normal or Nightmare, $60 is a little expensive. You can beat Normal mode in less than a week if you're running through the game.
Conclusion: It's about what you expected......just that it's what I would have expected several years ago. The game is great for what it is, and trys to be.....but given the time between D2 & D3....and the time spend on development, I would have expected something a little different. I thought Blizzard would have been the one to introduce mouse gesture based skills, more immersive game play.....or just something else, outside typical Diablo fare.
Still a great game, and a good buy for anyone that plans on reaching level cap & playing the varying difficulty modes.
The longevity question is going to vary from person to person. Personally I'm already finding the novelty starting to wear off - somewhere about half-way through nightmare, the fun started to wane as I hit my own personal wall where my less-than-perfect reflexes couldn't reliably keep up or my build choices were too weak. It will probably be one of those games I'll pull up from time to time when I'm bored, but it doesn't seem to maintain an MMOish hold on my life.
I find it funny that he listed under cons "Too easy except for Hell/Inferno."
He probably beat Normal and maybe went a couple quests deep into nightmare - if that - since he was only like level 31 when he stopped to write the review.
The review hit some nails on the head, but you can't really know the full game to even give it a full, fair review without getting one character to Inferno and level 60.
But I do find it funny that even just with Normal beaten, it got an 8.5. As for the hacking of your friend, it's "Authenticator or gtfo" for the most part. Blizzard doesn't care much about the security of your account without an authenticator. Passwords aren't case sensitive, and I believe you can try the password an unlimited amount of time without having to wait to try again, or anything.
It just adds to the feeling that they half-assed the majority of the game.
My friends found it fun to play but we all got bored with the grind and repetitive content. Some made it to inferno, some just to nightmare or hell but we are all bored now and have moved on.
I'd give longevity a 3/10.
I'd say our biggest complaints are the loot system favours using the AH way too much and there isn't enough randomisation in the content to make you want to go back and grind it out on other classes.
Most of us expected more from D3 and it failed to live up to expectations even thou its been a fun game to play.
Yeah same here. I gave it a shot, but over several hundred hours played, multiple classes at varying levels including 60s in Inferno.... im bored as hell. Havent touched the game since i think tuesday, maybe monday.. I actually grew tired of the game probably a week before that but kept at it for awhile hoping i would change my mind and find something more fun about it. Finally gave up though. I kept finding myself constantly alt-tabbing out looking for other stuff to do, anything but playing.
I Played D2 for a solid 2-3 years straight after launch, then on and off since then until D3 came out. I wanted to like D3, i loved D2. It just didnt cut it though, not even close About 2 weeks of enjoyment (if you can call it that) from D3 vs years of enjoyment from D2.... what a disaster. I actually logged into D2 during maintenances, started new toons, and was having more fun there than in this turd.
I have wasted 60 dollars because of this crap.
Over an 8 is really pushing it. The game has mediocre graphics, a mediocre story, mediocre dialogue, severe issues at its highest difficulty, lots of balance issues, a big itemization problem, and the list goes on and on.