Diablo III
Hell’s bells
Review Back in 1997, I worked in a youth centre and some fool gave me the keys to the place. So I would sneak in every night to continue a degrading tryst with Diablo I, cutting down waves of monsters in anticipation of a loot splurge. It was a while before I worked out the portal system – I used to moan about the amount of walking – until someone pointed out I was a noob. Luckily, in Diablo III, the portal is shown as a small blue vagina on the user interface, so there's no risking sore feet now.
A good omen? Diablo III
Moving on, about a year ago Steelseries very kindly sent me out a Diablo III mouse and headset and I began thinking, if peripherals are getting sent out, the game must be imminent. So I waited and waited. I was happy to wait because Blizzard is well known for keeping us on tenterhooks until a game is finished. I have been waiting about 10 years now for the bloody Mists of Pandaria
Blizzard's tardy timing is for a reason though; so it can produce games with awesome lore and thrilling cinematics that end up as benchmarks for the industry. Yet when I heard rumours that Diablo III was being released without PVP, I was concerned this new version of Diablo – now being created by a different set of people – wouldn’t live up to my expectations. Really, I shouldn’t have worried, Diablo III is a splendid example of Blizzard's prowess at hack and slash.
Fire fighting
From the beginning Diablo III draws me in with full voice acting from returning characters and some impressive new folk. This characterisation if a little hammy and hilarious at times is not only immersive but adds to the game's lore and backstory.
Starting twenty years after the end of Diablo II, Diablo III takes place in the world of Sanctuary and sees the Archangel Tyrael returned to help me explore what might have become of the lesser evils and their minions from the burning hells... time to save the world with some keyboard bashing.
Looking for a spell to lift the curse of Error 37
So Tuesday night I sat up waiting with 'Error 37' glaring at me. Why, oh why Blizzard, when I just want to play a single player game? This is a real problem at peak times and it feels like Blizzard has flogged too many tickets to a sold out show, but truly what a fine show it is.
Next page: Some kind of voodoo
COMMENTS
Interesting your review starts with a nostalgic look back at the original. Given the always-on-internet-required DRMy goodness of D3 even for the single player mode just how do you think it's gonna pan out if you decide in 2025 you want to relive some of those D3 memories? Still, if people want to pay £50 to rent a game for as many years as Blizzard will deign to keep their servers alive, that's their choice...
Re: Only 85%
I'd say that 85% for a game he was unable to play some of the time is insanely generous. No matter how good it was while I could play it, it would not get more than 50% from me. But since I am boycotting it and all other Activision/Blizzard games (the lack of an offline mode in Diablo 3 is just the latest reason) I'll never know how good it is on the occasions you can play it.
Yes, Diablo 2 has problems that spoiled the game for some people. They didn't affect me because I mostly played offline and only played online with RL friends. That doesn't those problems less real though. I Blizzard is trying to fix that issue in the wrong way, though.
While I can understand Blizzard hosting the online game to reduce these issues, it will never eliminate them. The lack of a true offline mode makes me believe this is more about promoting their item marketplace than preventing duping and scamming. That is just a happy side effect.
Nice game, but...
... but I like to play Diablo 2 offline in coop mode with some friends, on a LAN with no internet connection (at a cottage with flaky cellular connection and no phone and dsl line). This "online only" mode, that is not actually required (except for DRM purposes) when playing solo or in a LAN environment will spoil our Diablo nights at the cottage.
So I', not buying it, at least not until we find a way to play offline in our LAN, which may be possible by cracking the DRM, or may not be possible at all, if the game can only talk to its servers to setup a multiplayer coop game, instead of talking to the other local installations.
"You have to move forward - the extra features of online play out-weigh the disadvantages - I prefer electric lighting to candles as well - but there could be a mains failure."
But there the change is an advantage, here there change is a disadvantage. It is not sufficient to simply point at the fact that both are change and say they are therefore the same. If you want to see DRM done right look at something like the Zune music pass or movie downloads from e.g. BlinkBox. I have my music on multiple devices for as long as I want, I'm not bugged by sign-in issues when I play anything I've downloaded (if I want to play streaming, obviously I need to connect to the servers because my phone IS NOT MAGIC, but I can download locally any of the music I want to). But with Diablo III, it appears that you are constantly dependent on their servers and it's in your face.
If DRM is invisible, people will live with that, particularly if they know it's a requirement for the seller to feel comfortable selling online in the first place. But if it gets in their way... they get upset. It has to work well.
