infornography42 :
Probably going to be good, but not amazing. The level design looked kind of labyrinthine. reminded me too much of the jungle areas in 2. I hope it is either easier to navigate or more linear
I'm sure it'll be fine. The beginning looked way linear, to be honest. With the minimap displaying the "walls" for a zone you're exploring, it'll be easy to navigate through the open world areas as well, I'm sure. Plus, wasn't that part of the fun, at least playing through the first time? Going with a group of people to fight, and finding your way to the next staircase, or in original Diablo looking for the Butcher. Finding several "dead end" rooms, anticipating the "AHHHH, FRESH MEAT!"
I don't think there's anything anyone can say about this game that will make me any less excited about it. The gameplay video looked exactly how I'd want Diablo 3 to look. They've kept the original overhead view and click-to-move while improving features that needed improvement, like the skill/hotkey bar, graphics, etc. The Barbarian looks cool as ever, and all of his skills look amazing. The physics and interactive environments look cool as hell too. And scripted events actually sound pretty cool considering I'm sure they're still going to go with "randomly generated" levels, and perhaps some games you might get a certain scripted event, while others you might not, similar to the quests in the original Diablo (where you might get the lost sign, king leoric, etc. quest, and others you might not).
They realize the loot is important too, and even that basic gear looked cool as hell on the Barbarian. I'd wager uniques will have a "custom" look that will give chars an even more, well, unique look than they did in Diablo II. Diablo II is just an amazing game that's in need of the graphical, user interface, and skill overhaul that it looks like they're giving it, with a brand new story. This is how Bethesda should have approached Fallout 3, and after the disappointment that's becoming, I'm thrilled that Blizzard realizes that the gameplay aspect of Diablo II was the most important, and they've managed to respect and maintain what a lot of people love about the game while making necessary and cool-as-hell improvements. Don't tell me it's going to be "good, but not amazing" with all the garbage games that get released.
And for the record with all the piracy discussions we've had where I've said I pirate first/buy later, I'm going to be buying 4 copies of this on release date: one for me, one for my mom (who actually beat original Diablo with a Rogue before I did a long ass time ago), and 2 for my cousins. This is a game well worth it's money, I can assure you of that, and even as an occasional pirate I know a damn good game when I see one. If every company did this, I'd be broke and the industry would be happy and rich