Category: gaming

The friends-and-family component of the Diablo 3 beta test is now underway, and, in the absence of an NDA, there’s plenty of information swirling around. Of particular interest are the YouTube videos showing actual gameplay footage. They only show the very first areas of the game (the entire beta only encompasses the first third of Act 1), but, from what I’ve seen so far, it looks awesome.  The atmosphere is very dark and brooding, with nary a unicorn or rainbow in sight. The graphics aren’t exactly cutting-edge, but they’re still a treat to see. I’m really glad that Blizzard abandoned the pure randomness of the first two games in favor of hand-designed layouts. It makes for a much more realistic world.

The designers also appear to have done a nice job of scattering lore throughout the game. In the first two Diablos, most of the lore came from your conversations with townsfolk, but in D3 it looks like you find material while adventuring. For example, in one video, the player was treated to a neat little voiceover from Deckard Cain explaining the lore behind the ‘Wretched Mother’ monster. In another video, the player discovered a scrap of a journal that provided a new perspective on Diablo 1’s backstory. This too was relayed as a voiceover, so it didn’t take you out of the action.

The only slightly disappointing aspect of the game so far is the music. The initial theme when you enter the game is quite nice and very reminiscent of the original Tristram theme, but once you start adventuring into the wilderness, the music becomes what might be called “dark ambient.” It’s all very low-key, and it stands in marked contrast with Matt Uelmen’s score for Diablo 2. Uelmen’s work on D2 and D2X is some of the finest music I’ve ever heard in a video game, and I’ve included a number of his songs in my writing music playlists. That being said, I’m not really in a position to pass final judgment on D3’s music since I’ve only heard a handful of songs in isolation. Perhaps they’re much more effective when heard within the game itself.

Last week, Blizzard held a press event with the owners of several Diablo fansites in order to unveil the final (?) bits information before the beta begins. Now that the Non-Disclosure Agreement has expired, the blogosphere has been abuzz with new tidbits about Diablo 3.

For me, the most interesting announcement was that D3 will do away with skill points entirely. In D2, you received a skill point with each level up and you could use it to either augment existing skills or unlock new ones. Now, skills will automatically become available when you reach the necessary character level and, once you activate a skill, it will automatically scale as you level up (or, in some cases, it will scale based on your weapon’s damage). Also, the maximum number of active skills that you can have at any one time has been reduced from seven to six (apparently, you start with two active skills at the beginning of the game, and the number gradually increases as you level up until you reach the six-skill cap).

At first, I thought this change was a bit dodgy. Now that both stat points and skill points are gone, it seemed like it would be impossible to customize your character to any meaningful degree. But after reading interviews with the D3 team, I think the six-skill limit and the runestones will provide enough variety to keep things interesting. I think this new setup will also make the game a lot more enjoyable since it encourages experimentation in a way that Diablo 2 didn’t. When you only get one skill point per level, you can’t afford to take many risks. And since each D2 character only had a few skills that were viable in the long-run, you ended up putting most of your eggs into a very small number of baskets. So even though there will be a six-skill limit, I think D3 will encourage players to develop a broader skill base instead of just spamming one or two high-level abilities.

Blizzard also revealed three quest items that you’ll end up keeping throughout the entire game: the Cauldron of Jordan, the Nephalem Cube, and the Stone of Recall. The Cauldron allows you to sell stuff without returning to town, the Cube allows you salvage goods for their raw materials, and the Stone will allow you to portal back to town. The last item was a bit of a surprise since Blizzard had previously said that they wanted to remove town portals in order to make combat more challenging. No word yet on whether or not there will be any limitations on the Stone’s use, or if it will be just as easy to use as the old Scrolls of Town Portal.

The thing that seems to have generated the most chatter among gamers is the new Auction House feature. Now, it will be possible for you to take your loot and sell it for either in-game gold or real-world money (of course if you’re selling it for real money, Blizzard will take a cut of the profits). This is nothing new, of course. There were a number of third-party sites that allowed you to sell D2 loot. But now Blizzard is making these sales official, and a lot of people aren’t happy. They’re afraid that people with money to burn will end up dominating the game since they’ll be able to fork over cold hard cash in order to buy the best stuff, or that they’ll have to spend money to get the coolest stuff.

Personally, I don’t give a flying Fudrucker about the Auction House. I don’t care about finding the very best equipment; I’m happy to limit myself to the stuff I find naturally in the course of a game. I also don’t play with strangers on Battlenet, so I don’t really care what other people have. Chances are, the only people I’ll play with are The Physicist and perhaps The Elder Mr. Loch, and I can’t see either of them swanning off to the Auction House in search of Phat L00t.

What does annoy me though is the revelation that D3 will require you to be online to play, even in single-player mode. I had assumed that it would be like StarCraft II where they strongly encourage you to be online, but you can ultimately play offline if you wish. But no, Blizzard has decided that all characters will be stored on their servers, so you must be connected to the Internet in order to play any part of the game. This could be tricky for me since I have a temperamental Internet connection that misbehaves from time to time. It has been known to break down for an entire weekend, and it would be very annoying if I couldn’t play D3 at all during that time. It will also be much harder to play D3 when I’m traveling, since free high-speed Internet access isn’t exactly universal. I kinda wish Blizzard would let me play the game how I want and stop forcing Battlenet on me.

If you’re hungry for more info, here’s a report from one of the sites that attended the press event.