Playing Diablo III for the first time...

[Zor]

Having spent the last couple of weeks discovering how awesome the Diablo games are by playing through 1 & 2 for the very first time, with help from a number of very lovely Era members, I was kind of dreading firing up Diablo 3 at some point. Without having ever played these games before I was still aware through general videogame osmosis that there was some dissent among certain fans of the franchise, that they much preferred the tone of 1 and 2 (and in many cases the tone of 1, compared to 2) compared to 3, or that 3 had different design ambitions beyond just being a 3D new entry to what Blizzard had made before.

Throughout playing the first two games, I really loved the worldbuilding and lore. I sought out and read Demonsbane online (it was okay) as well as the comics, and I even bought three of the books. And yet I was still quite apprehensive to start Diablo 3.

Well, perhaps against my better judgement I've now played several hours of 3. I'm about to fight the Skeleton King, so I'm still in Act 1, and I have to say... it's really quite jarring going into this game after playing 1 & 2 and loving the tone and gameplay they were putting out. I should be clear, I played 1 & 2 on PC but when I first tried to play 3 on PC there was cutscene audio missing so I chose to play it on Switch instead. I think it controls and feels really good on the Pro controller (I haven't gone handheld yet) and in a way, I think this might be a better way for me to play to mitigate any frustrations I might have from the experience compared to its predecessors.

But... man... it really is a huge tonal shift. I'm skulking around Tristram, the Cathedral, and the labyrinthine crypt and it looks NOTHING like Diablo 1. It feels like a Tim Burton movie, or like Blizzard tried to make something that had the colour and character designs of something more like Warcraft. I know I'm very late to the party having this opinion, and it's already been discussed and debated to death, but it's taking a lot to get used to this.

I'm seeing old faces, hearing and learning about old names, revisited beloved locations, and none of it so far feels the same... I'm playing as a Crusader and I don't know if the game is just easy this early but I feel like I'm playing with God Mode on. Shit's blowing up and exploding like Michael Bay shot a rocket into a neon crayon factory and I've gone through SO(!) MUCH(!) LOOT(!) already, and levelled up to Level 12 already and... it's just a different tone, a different pace.

Bottom line: I'm enjoying what I've played. But reconciling that it's so far not what I wanted is hard. I'm sure I'll enjoy it largely on its own terms by the end but this is going to take some work...

 

[stn]

The game doesn't really start until you beat it, which won't take you long. Its great.

 

[Deleted member 203]

Diablo 3 is a different beast, it's all about the endgame gear progression. Leveling is honestly boring af to me in D3. But the upside is you can do in it 2-3 hours if you know what you're doing, and then it's lots of fun.

 

[super-famicom]

Diablo 3 is truly very different from the rest of the series. I played 50 hours at launch, completed the game, and hated Blizzard for a couple of years afterwards. Then I bought the Reaper of Souls expansion and ended up really enjoying the game for what it was- a super good feeling looter. But I miss the story of 1 and 2. The events that happen in 3, old the shit writing, will forever leave a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[ParanormalFupa]

The only thing memorable about that game was the auction house at launch. There was a story, characters, and world building?

 

[Dark_Castle]

D3's campaign mode really is trash. The decision to need to beat the snoozefest campaign at least once to unlock higher difficulties and adventure mode sucks. But if you stick to the game, you'll find that the game can be quite enjoyable as an arcade style looter once you got it all unlocked, even if there isn't as much depth as D2.

 

[Bend]

I don't know why but I can't ever stop myself from playing this game every time a new season is announced. Tonally it was a dramatic shift, like you talk about, but the gameplay is too addicting. It's amazing to zone out to after a long day at work

 

[Wamb0wneD]

If you're not liking the tone of III now, wait until you meet a certain butterfly lol.

If lore and stuff like that is the most important to you in these games, I'd even suggest to just stop playing this before its too late.

 

[super-famicom]

The only thing memorable about that game was the auction house at launch. There was a story, characters, and world building?

Click to shrink...

Oh God, don't remind me. AH and RMAH fucked up the itemization of the game so badly. You basically had to rely on it as the drops were fucking awful. I basically sound hours grinding chests in the game to get gold to buy shit that never dropped.

 

[Pilgrimzero]

It's made for modern gamers. Short attention span etc.

I prefer D1 btw. Give me somewhat of a challenge

 

[Zor]

The game doesn't really start until you beat it, which won't take you long. Its great.

Click to shrink...

Diablo 3 is a different beast, it's all about the endgame gear progression. Leveling is honestly boring af to me in D3. But the upside is you can do in it 2-3 hours if you know what you're doing, and then it's lots of fun.

Click to shrink...

Cool, good to know, thanks guys.

It's made for modern gamers. Short attention span etc.

I prefer D1 btw. Give me somewhat of a challenge

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I haven't died once. Matter of fact, I genuinely don't think my health has dropped an inch so far.

 

[Bend]

Yeah, I haven't died once. Matter of fact, I genuinely don't think my health has dropped an inch so far.

Click to shrink...

The difficulty settings aren't what they claim to be, you should bump it up more than you'd think to for a challenge. It's been a while but I think I normally start new characters at Expert

 

[TSM]

Diablo 3 is a really good game, but a complete disappointment for anyone expecting more Diablo and Diablo II. The story mode and grind from 1 to 70 are terrible. I'd withhold any judgements until you hit level 70 and play adventure mode. That's when the game comes into it's own.

 

[Chronos]

You basically zeroed in on all the major complaints with the game. Fortunately for you, you don't have to live through the hell that was the Real Money Auction House impacting the game design and awful loot system. The core gameplay is significantly improved now and I think many elements of it are arguably better than D2, but that can't overcome the WoWification of the art direction and sanitized themes and story.

also, prepare yourself for seriously bad story telling and delivery. Some truly awful story beats and what can at best be described as Saturday Morning Cartoon villains.

 

[Raide]

D3's combat pretty much makes all the previous games really boring. As much as I love D1 & 2, its hard to go back.

The story is there, its just a bit pointless. Finish the game and start running Adventure Mode instead to level new classes. A mix of Season stuff which mixes things up and rift runs. Once you get to the end of the story, rifting is what you do to fight crazy monsters, make the difficulty harder and play with new loot and builds.

 

[Syril]

After you finish the initial story you'd probably appreciate this video about the story/atmosphere side (it was made before the expansion existed).

Spoiler: watch after finishing act 4

 

[molnizzle]

Yeah, I haven't died once. Matter of fact, I genuinely don't think my health has dropped an inch so far.

Click to shrink...

It was much harder at PC launch. The game was essentially rebooted into what it currently is after the initial version was poorly received by fans.

While the previous Diablos became proto-GaaS titles organically, D3 was designed as one. The campaign is not the point. The "real game" doesn't start until adventure mode where it becomes all about the gear grind. This is what most people spent the most time doing in D1/D2 anyway, so Blizz just fast-tracked it with D3.

 

[elenarie]

Bottom line: I'm enjoying what I've played. But reconciling that it's so far not what I wanted is hard. I'm sure I'll enjoy it largely on its own terms by the end but this is going to take some work...

Click to shrink...

The difficulty of the game has changed drastically since release. On release everything was compressed in 4 difficulties. And you had to finish one to unlock the other. Progression was pushing with a character from difficulty to difficulty. Now there are about 20 difficulties, and each one brings more benefits if you can manage to stay alive and farm efficiently. The main story is now about the story itself. The progression of the game starts shining when you reach the end game. A very different approach. :)

The art style of Diablo 3 is much more varied that the bleak one of 1 and 2. The beginning of New Tristram is about the dead rising, then you get the skeleton-filled Cathedral. From then on you move into highlands-like mountains and places. After which you descent into the horribly-bloody dungeon of the Butcher. Sorry for the very small spoilers, but just wanted to present how much more varied the world is.

 

[What-ok]

End game running is where it's fun.

 

[Altazor]

At least it's better now than it was at launch, man. I can't wait to read the rest of your impressions... especially regarding the story.

 

[johancruijff]

there he is
see you on the otherside

 

[Moebius]

Diablo III was incredibly disappointing to me. It's a great game, just not a great Diablo game. The thing I liked about Diablo 1 and 2 was picking a class, slowly getting stronger and stronger, powering up skills, upgrading my character stats, finding weapons that fit my build, the music and the atmosphere.

Diablo III stripped all of that way. The rune system in D3 was so unsatisfying. I hated how you couldn't strengthen specific skills and that you could just switch any time you wanted. It was just so lazy of a system. D2 had character builds and it was satisfying to build them. In D3 you can just switch whenever you want. Nothing was earned.

The loot was unsatisfying as well. Damage was basically the only thing that mattered. I have 0 faith that Blizzard in its current state can make a good game now, let alone a good Diablo game. I just hope they don't ruin 1 and 2 like they did with Warcraft 3. If they don't have the passion anymore, just leave them alone. The music in Diablo 1 and 2 is legendary and some of the best video game music of all time. The music in D3 doesn't come close.

D3 also just feels less tactical. In D1 and D2 every enemy can kill you and if that happens you have to recover your body. There were stakes. It was tense. In D3 you just keep spamming attacks. If you die who cares. You just respawn. The intensity is gone. It's less fun. The balance feels off. It's so weird that they had to add like 10 more difficulty levels. I don't want to talk about it anymore because it saddens me.

 

[diablogg]

If you end up bailing on Diablo 3 give Torchlight a shot =)

 

[elenarie]

D3 also just feels less tactical. In D1 and D2 every enemy can kill you and if that happens you have to recover your body. There were stakes. It was tense. In D3 you just keep spamming attacks. If you die who cares. You just respawn. The intensity is gone. It's less fun. The balance feels off. It's so weird that they had to add like 10 more difficulty levels. I don't want to talk about it anymore because it saddens me.

Click to shrink...

They had that initially. The Inferno difficulty was very punishing.

But the community overall complained a lot about it, and eventually they decided to stretch out everything into more difficulties.

I still remember getting stomped hard by Elites on Inferno with the Vortex, Teleport and a couple of other affixes. If randomness turned against you, there were times when your best option was to cry in a corner.

 

[Deleted member 34714]

If anyone is giving this game a go for the first time nowadays, just know it's a completely different experience than what the game launched as back then. At launch, this game was hard and followed the D2 difficulty of going through campaign 3x to reach max lvl. It's a joke how they handled the game after removing the Auction House.

 

[QisTopTier]

I think one of the biggest issues I have with D3 is just how freaking ugly the models are versus the environment art. You have all these beautiful painted looking enviroments and then what looks like a bunch of n64 models running around on top of it. It's so visually jarring and ugly

Don't get me started on how the player models look like cheap free to play mmo models from the mid 2000's

 

[super-famicom]

The only thing I remember enjoying about Diablo 3 at launch was that crazy Wizard tank build that relied on Frost Armor/Unstable Anomaly and I forget what else. You needed to get Cooldown Reduction so low that you could proc all your skills practically every second. I remember putting my skills on the mouse wheel and just going nuts. This Wizard was the best tank in the game. I could tank the Vortex elites on Inferno but sadly could not defeat them because my DPS was too low because I had weak Legendaries.

 

[Raide]

Hitting 70 as fast as possible is your goal. Once that is done, you can start playing with the class sets etc. Some really cool stuff you can play with.

 

[Ravelle]

My tip is to put it on normal or easy, blast through the campaign in a day. When you finish the story the real game opens because Adventure Mode with its challenges and leagues with all the 16 torment levels is where its at.

 

[Moebius]

I think one of the biggest issues I have with D3 is just how freaking ugly the models are versus the environment art. You have all these beautiful painted looking enviroments and then what looks like a bunch of n64 models running around on top of it. It's so visually jarring and ugly

Don't get me started on how the player models look like cheap free to play mmo models from the mid 2000's

Click to shrink...

Don't forget the Bill & Ted voice acting. The male Wizard sounded ridiculous.

 

[robot]

I'm morbidly curious how you feel about the story OP. Once you let that get past you though I think you'll have fun with the game.

 

[Syril]

Tell us who your favorite villain is when you're through.

 

[ThreepQuest64]

The problem nowadays with D3 (or with Blizzard's approach also in WoW) that they want you to get to the endgame very fast. While WoW at least offers very good endgame content in terms of quality and quantity, D3 is nothing like that. The story is great, so is the lore and cutscenes, but as you already noticed, you slice through everything like a hot knife through butter. So you reach the endgame and the only thing you do is doing bounties/adventure mode and rifts. That's it. For what? To do another bounty and a higher Greater Rift. And Blizzard also removed the need to get through normal rifts fast in order to calculate the according Greater Rift, so you now simply choose the level you'd like to try. You just switch back and forth the difficulty (for bounty hunt/adventure mode) or Greater Rift according to you gear/skill/build. Torment X is too hard? You select IX. Greater Rift 20 too easy? You select Greater Rift 21. And the only thing you do as you become better is increase the difficulty step by step.

Instead of making the campaign – that one thing that has meaningful content like quests, characters (in need), the world being at stake, etc. – harder and more relevant, they kind of dumped it down and make it all around the endgame (see all the comments that the game starts AFTER you finish the campaign). Sure, the crafting mechanics are great and fun for a while – to tinker with your equipment, try to get the best out of it – until you realise that everything you do is just to achieve a higher number. You don't do this to see new content, new quests, new areas, etc. Greater Rift 80 isn't different from Greater Rift 30 except for the difficulty/damage numbers. You don't really see "more"; it's always the same.

 

[QisTopTier]

Tell us who your favorite villain is when you're through.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

The writers

 

[johancruijff]

Spoiler

The writers

Click to shrink...

 

[Bit_Reactor]

I think my biggest gripe was when I saw the Demon Hunter reveal originally. I saw a back flipping super over the top double crossbow wielding guy and was like "That doesn't feel like Diablo at all." And everything since confirmed that. Torchlight 2 is still my real Diablo 3 in terms of gameplay, but when I play Diablo 3 it's extremely hard to tear myself away from the existing lore and tone from 1 and 2 as well, OP.

D3 is by no means a "bad" game, but the story and writing is babytown and the fact that most of the comments I've seen are "the real game starts at endgame" reminds me of how Blizzard now just makes "service titles" that are meant to just...keep you playing perpetually not through actual inventive means but repetitively giving you bars to fill up.

My bias against SC2 and D3 is probably flavoring a lot of my text for that, but I just can't get over when I play D3 how I'm like "This is a really good game, but it's not Diablo" and every time they try to shoehorn in the WoW character insertions and stuff like "Look the Butcher is now important" I just see another piece of media trying to bank on nostalgia and member berries while also shoving new dumb stuff in your face.

The entire setting never made sense to me, but I didn't beat it yet on Switch. It was always silly to have Leah going "lol Grandpa you're crazy" and I'm like...did none of these people know about Tristram? Of everything else that happened in D1/2?

Whereas Diablo 1 and 2 were more like Berserk in the sense that they were settings that were normal midieval fantasy that had demons and magic inserted in a fantasy novel/Dragonlance way, D3 took the more cartoonish widely appealing approach in its art and characters and I think the game is worse for it.

That being said OP for solidarity Sake maybe I'll jump back into my file and try to beat it with you and see if we come out the other side with higher opinions.

 

[Arkeband]

If you loved Diablo 1 and 2 for their story, lore, and atmosphere, Diablo 3 takes a giant shit on all of that in favor of a Gauntlet-meets-Michael-Bay ARPG. People who say the "game" starts at endgame just mean that the big sparkling rainbow of loot begins dropping then, as the game hands you free sets that increase ability damage by like 100x their base values, allowing you to climb the difficulty modes and creating overpowered builds.

Path of Exile is currently the closest thing to D2 that exists.

 

[Deleted member 82]

As others have said, Diablo 3 is a great game in its own right - I have around 1,200 hours of playtime -, BUT:
- don't play it for the Campaign mode because the story and writing are trash; mayyyybe play through the campaign once, but then immediately switch to Adventure mode and never look back
- don't play it if your love of D1 and D2 mostly comes from their atmosphere; D3's art design, music and general ambiance are just way inferior
- don't play it for the initial leveling experience; it's all about the "endgame"... Which, at this point, is not really an endgame anymore to be honest. It's better to think of levels 1 through 70 as the tutorial. And it doesn't take that long to reach 70 at this point, especially if you play in public games.
- don't play it on Normal, or even Hard difficulty if you want some challenge. At first, you want to go Expert. Work your way up to Torment 1 if you get decent gear. When you're 70, you can then go into the upper Torment levels, all the way up to Torment 16. The real challenge comes from Greater Rifts.

On the other hand, keep playing if you're all about pushing your gear and your build ever further. Keep playing if you're all about the combat feel. For me, that's the main reason why I have had a hard time switching to games like Path of Exile even though there's more meat to chew on in PoE. Diablo 3's combat is just more fun. It's a satisfying gameplay loop. I have to give PoE another try though, it's been a while.

The main problem with D3's gameplay is that it gets boring after a while if you don't play seasons. You might be wondering why I'm saying that given how many hours of playtime I have. The answer is simple: I keep returning to the game every few months when a new interesting patch and/or season comes along, play a ton for a couple weeks, then stop. Rinse and repeat. It's fun playing around with new/reworked items and season bonuses, but the novelty and the power creep wear off after a while. You can tell the skeleton crew who maintains the game is trying to make the most out of the existing game and the amount of resources they have at their disposal right now - i.e. not much -, but the game won't evolve much at this point now that Diablo 4 is official. They'll keep the game on life support just enough to keep the core player base busy until D4, and that's about it. Don't expect any new DLCs or game-changing new mechanics or new campaign acts or anything.

That said, the game will definitely keep you entertained for a little while because it's still fresh for you. It's a great ride while it lasts. And the developers should be commended for that given the utterly rotten foundation of the game. You have no idea how shitty pre-expansion Diablo 3 was. The entire loot system was completely broken, and the problem was compounded by the existence of the Auction House. It was a complete clusterfuck. When compared to early Diablo 3, current-day Diablo 3 is an absolute masterpiece. I wish Josh Mosqueira was still on the team, but alas, he left some time ago.

 

[Quample]

Diablo 3 is a different beast, it's all about the endgame gear progression. Leveling is honestly boring af to me in D3. But the upside is you can do in it 2-3 hours if you know what you're doing, and then it's lots of fun.

Click to shrink...

I don't think Zor is interested in endgame grind/multiple playthroughs based on the parts of the Diablo 2 thread I followed. Which is missing a lot of what made even Diablo 2 fun, but I get just wanting to play through the games to see what it's all about. But with that playstyle, Zor, I can't say I think you'll like D3....at all.

 

[Starlatine]

It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Ohhhh you have no idea

 

[Zor]

Are you fucking kidding me? THAT's what you do with Deckard Cain after all this time? Fucking floating Rita Repulsa?

 

[III-V]

Just FF to level 70 and begin endgame. Then it gets really good.

 

[Deleted member 31817]

Are you fucking kidding me? THAT's what you do with Deckard Cain after all this time? Fucking floating Rita Repulsa?

Click to shrink...

Lmao

 

[Deleted member 31817]

Also the game has like 25 difficulties for a reason. I never run normal mode, it's way too easy even at level 1.

 

[SoundLad]

Endgame is where the fun is, see you on the Greater Rift leaderboards!

 

[Rytheran]

You can basically start a brand new character on Torment 1 difficulty and still have almost no problem, as far as difficulty goes.

 

[Nordicus]

Are you fucking kidding me? THAT's what you do with Deckard Cain after all this time? Fucking floating Rita Repulsa?

Click to shrink...

Welcome to the Pain Train, we've just left the station, the doors and windows are locked, and there are no brakes.

 

[xyla]

Are you fucking kidding me? THAT's what you do with Deckard Cain after all this time? Fucking floating Rita Repulsa?

Click to shrink...

I was sceptical but giving it the benefit of the doubt until that point. After that, all hope was lost.

It's D3 in name only. Everything else is different at best.

I'm interested what you'll think about the rest of the story though.

 

[Syril]

Are you fucking kidding me? THAT's what you do with Deckard Cain after all this time? Fucking floating Rita Repulsa?

Click to shrink...

No you don't understand. No one played Diablo for the story. You know the story never mattered because a bunch of people who had played through Diablo 2 a billion times already skip all the story, so fuck it.

BTW if you like butterfly lady's Saturday morning villain taunts are you in for a treat as the game goes on.

 

[Deleted member 17643]

There was a similar thread recently and in it I said that the campaign is probably less than 1% of my total Diablo 3 playtime. The other 99% has been spent in Adventure Mode, which is the "actual" game, for lack of better terminology.

I agree with you on the art style. It didn't look amazing at launch and looks especially dated and cartoony all these years later.