Diablo III Previews and Editorials

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Written by BuckGB on August 1st, 2011

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Spectral blades, a short-range slashing spell, was given a rune so that it healed the caster when damaging enemies. Diamond skin, a defensive spell that protects the caster from harm, was customized to also reflect damage back at attackers. Arcane orb, a powerful projectile spell, was altered so that the projectile orbited the caster and would explode when an enemy got too close.

But skills are just half of your character's equation in Diablo III. The items you have equipped are just as important. Of course, you're going to need room in your sack to lug all those extra swords and staves around. Thankfully, Blizzard is going to make that task a little easier for you. The Cauldron of Jordan lets you sell items no matter where you are for the same price you would get in town. And if gold isn't an issue, the Nephaleim Cube lets you convert any item into crafting materials from any location as well. "Filling up your bag didn't feel like a very cool reason to go back to town," Wilson said.

Is Blizzard expecting the Auction House to serve as the primary source of revenue for Diablo III? "We're still sticking to our box model for Diablo," says Pardo. "When you look at the Auction House, it's a really big unknown. I think it has potential. I think it's really conducive to the design of Diablo." In case you're not aware, enemies in Diablo III drop random items. Unlike something like World of Warcraft where loot tables for bosses are well known, nothing in the world of Diablo will spill out items with any sort of reliability, and very few items you acquire in Diablo will be soulbound (permanently tied to your in-game character).

"If you look in the Western world," said Pardo, "box sales work perfectly fine and make a lot of sense. If you look more at the Eastern side, especially mainland Asia, they already have a different business model. We can't really sell boxes there. We already feel awkward because we're trying to force something over there. [The Auction House] could be the primary way of generating the right revenue for the Diablo franchise. Maybe in the future we go full free-to-play like League of Legends. All that's really unknown. But it's all possible."

These are the levels where I get "Wave of Force" and "Spectral Blade." The latter isn't much to look at, but the former is unquestionably the Wizard's bread and butter move. It's got a fairly lengthy cooldown, but one click sends a shockwave that stuns foes while dealing massive damage. Now that's what I call crowd control.

Meanwhile, the undead infestation of Tristram continues apace (can't this place catch a break?). I meet up with Eamon -- a blacksmith who sounds suspiciously like a World of Warcraft'‹ dwarf -- and try to save his wife. No luck: she transforms before we can do anything.

At this point, I should point out that the opening areas of Diablo III have been quite straightforward. I'm told that it opens up quite a bit later, but thus far I've been mostly running from waypoint to waypoint while engaging the occasional monster horde. Dare I say that it feels a bit like World of WarCraft?

Ryan Scott: How does the leveling system work? Is it fast and easy?

Eric Neigher: It's fundamentally similar to every other role-playing game ever -- you get experience (shared among party members equally), and eventually level up. The thing is, you don't actually choose anything when you level -- no skill points, no attribute points, nothing. You only choose from among the powers you get at every level (and you get a new ability every time), which occupies one of your limited action slots. You can swap powers around in these slots (tied to number keys and/or mouse buttons) at will, but it's an intentionally cumbersome process that you won't be able to deal with in the heat of combat. In general, it makes Diablo III's RPG system more like World of Warcraft's, and I'm not sure everyone's gonna love that. It's worth mentioning that, if you're playing solo, you can also choose from one of three followers, which are essentially non-player party members that have their own personalities and ways of fighting. We saw the Templar in action, and he served as a kind of tank to help out by handling crowd control and freeing his Demon Hunter partner to fire arrows from relative safety. The followers won't change the story, but they each have their own customizable character progression tree, allowing you to nudge them into one of two roles that their character is designed to fill, depending on your play style.

So what is going to make WoW players give the Diablo III beta a go? Well, for starters, the mythos of Sanctuary is just as encompassing as that of Azeroth. There are quests and evils to defeat, hard choices to be made and a choice of roles to play which, for Diablo III, means a choice of Wizards, Monks, Demons Hunters, Barbarians and Witch Doctors, most of which also include a choice of genders. Each has their own collection of spells or skills unique to that class. Seeing any similarities yet?

By making the game familiar, by including spells - like Blizzard - and classes that WoW players are going to recognise, they are instantly making the game interesting and familiar to folks who've stuck to one of their other franchises. Jay Wilson, Diablo III's Lead Designer, told me so himself back in 2008 hours after the game's official announcement.

Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, [gameplay] click, click, click, click, [Witch Doctors use pets!] click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, [no more skill trees!] click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, [more gameplay] click, click, click, click, click, click! Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, [abilities mapped to number keys] click, click, click,1!2!@ !@! click, shif-click! 12@, click, click, [nice!] click!

Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, [loot] click, click, click, click, click, click, [more loot] click, click, [shared stash between characters], click, click, click, click, click, click, click, [stash space not a problem] click, click, click, click, click, click, click! Click, click, click, click, click, click, [remember mules?] click, click, click, click, click, click, click, [remove donkey punch joke] click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, [Waypoint found] click, click, click, click!

I think Blizzard is roughly in the position where MySpace was at its height. They have several hugely successful franchises, but they seem to have acquired more of a broadcast mentality in recent years and are behaving as a company that believes its players will never leave.

That's a dangerous assumption, however, because there is always a competitor waiting to offer a more tolerable product. Given sufficient choice, players will eventually take that choice, and they will always prefer the choice that involves the least friction. Indeed, many would-be Diablo players on Twitter are today declaring that they have had enough of Blizzard and are looking to the Torchlight franchise (which is broadly the same kind of game as Diablo) instead.

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