Diablo III Hands-On Impressions

[tmeacham]

Article by Travis Meacham.

At BlizzCon 2008 we had the opportunity to sit down with a build of Diablo III for some serious quality time. See how the Wizard class plays and what we think of the game at this early stage.

http://www.tomsgames.com/us/2008/10/15/diablo3_handson/

 

[jamesl]

sounds great,

I also don't like carrying 20 health potions in my belt and inventory and having them take up all that room
but I've got to think that having them in your belt and pressing 1, 2, 3, 4 to heal is much easier than running around in the middle of a heated fight and trying to get to the health orbs

I've also heard that they're getting rid of town portals because they don't want you warping out to safety and to heal in the middle of a battle
but to me, the whole point of town portals is to have a quick way to get back to a merchant and be able to sell all the items I've just picked up or to put them in my stash

so did you have town portals in the demo you played, and if not, how did it effect you? Wasn't it frustrating having all these good items drop but no way to get them back to town?

sounds awesome about the runes affecting spells and having different effects for different users

 

[jeverson]

This looks awesome. Unfortunately, Activision will probably follow suit and use SecurRom. EA... as expected. Ubisoft... what were you thinking? Activision... use this as an opportunity to show you are better.

 

[tmeacham]

so did you have town portals in the demo you played, and if not, how did it effect you? Wasn't it frustrating having all these good items drop but no way to get them back to town?

There were not town portals in the demo we played and I did fill up my bags quickly and leave a lot of loot on the ground. But I also wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the loot. I was mostly interested in seeing the game levels, monsters, spells and getting to the boss encounter with multiple classes. I hate leaving loot on the ground so that my be a problem area but since it's still early in the development nothing is absolutely locked out as of now.

 

[jamesl]

ok, cool

I know its still way early, but which class felt the most developed to you?
I mean out of the 3 classes, did any of them feel way over / under powered? lacking in skills? or progression possibilities?

For diablo 2, i like using a melee sorceress and using the enchant skill to give my melee weapons fire damage;

I prefer getting in there and melee fighting instead of standing back and casting spells; but I just don't feel that a melee sorc is really viable. So I would like to see the classes be more versatile.

I want a wizard that can melee, a barbarian that can summon, a witch doctor that can use crossbows and javelins.
Yeah, you can do that with D2, but you're really venturing out of the class's speciality when you do that.

So I would like to see classes that are more "open".

 

[robwright]

ok, cool

I know its still way early, but which class felt the most developed to you?
I mean out of the 3 classes, did any of them feel way over / under powered? lacking in skills? or progression possibilities?

For diablo 2, i like using a melee sorceress and using the enchant skill to give my melee weapons fire damage;

I prefer getting in there and melee fighting instead of standing back and casting spells; but I just don't feel that a melee sorc is really viable. So I would like to see the classes be more versatile.

I want a wizard that can melee, a barbarian that can summon, a witch doctor that can use crossbows and javelins.
Yeah, you can do that with D2, but you're really venturing out of the class's speciality when you do that.

So I would like to see classes that are more "open".

All three classes felt extremely polished and unique to me, though my favorite was the Witch Doctor. I also thought the classes were extremely balanced. As Travis stated in the article, the Wizard has some crazy powerful range weapons but can't take much damage. Similarly, the Barbarian can throw down in close quarters but is vulnerable to range attacks. But all the classes are versatile -- the Wizard has a solid melee attack, for example, so you don't have to use spells all the time.

BTW, co-op is awesome. Travis and I played it (he rolled with the Wizard, and I played the Witch Doctor), and it was more fun for me than playing alone, simply because you can kill more bad guys in even more ways.

 

[ducker19]

It does sound amazing. I really wish I could have had a go at it. I found this article that sums up everything that has been announced so far. I thought it was a really good article and has a lot of great info in it.

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1024&page=4

I think I'm going to be buying this the day it comes out.

 

[tmeacham]

My favorite class was the Witch Doctor as well. He just wrecks stuff. I was doing Plague of Toads to get some poison down on the floor, throw down the spider spell that drops a big vase full of spiders in the middle of the monsters, put up Wall of Zombies to thin the pack then finish off any stragglers with Skull of Flame. All the while my two zombie dog pets (which are also either on fire or full of poison) go to town on all enemies in the area.

 

[stemnin]

My favorite class was the Witch Doctor as well. He just wrecks stuff. I was doing Plague of Toads to get some poison down on the floor, throw down the spider spell that drops a big vase full of spiders in the middle of the monsters, put up Wall of Zombies to thin the pack then finish off any stragglers with Skull of Flame. All the while my two zombie dog pets (which are also either on fire or full of poison) go to town on all enemies in the area.

That just sounds crazy sick! Toads, spiders, zombie, zombie dogs! Crazy!

I can't believe it.. I think i'm more excited for D3 than I am SC2!

 

[robwright]

Yeah, the Plague of Toads was great. And it was more than just a flashy spell with splendid visuals. It comes in handy when you're facing enemies with shields that can deflect range attacks; you just unleash the toadies and they go hopping right underneath the shields and then SPLAT!!!! So sweet....

 

[bildo123]

Wow, reading this short bit gives me great hope (not that I didn't have any). It sounds like it's stepping up a notch by having that same hack n slash but now utilizing multiple skills(not doing the same 1-2 combo or even worse the same skill), switching to different tactics in different situations. No TP's...I like it. I think it will give that 'gotta make it through this' feeling. It'll give that sense of strandedness, adding to theme. Of course passing up loot is a downer but honestly, if it was similar to d2, 95% of the drops were useless as it was.

 

[jamesl]

ok, I'm clueless
what is this co-op stuff ?
is that just the same as what they have now is D2 with multi player and battle.net ?
how is it different?