Imagine me, a bright eyed, bushy-tailed Pharmacist Intern working at a Walmart on a hot summer day. Working for peanuts as most students do, I saved my money to buy a Day One copy of Diablo III with my employee discount. I peaced-out of work early and rushed home as fast as I could, knocking over any street thugs, gangbangers, or old ladies who got in my way. Pop in the CD, let it install, press play…May 15, 2012: the start of my 3 year nightmare. I still toss and turn at night sometimes; unable to sleep, wishing that this was just some sort of sick joke. Now I’m not talking about the infamous launch day woes, I’m a patient man, I can live with that. Patches come out that fix problems, so I don’t sweat the small stuff. Not even the condescending smirk of Jay Wilson was going to detract from my enjoyment of the game. Unfortunately, out of the hundreds of hours I spent in the game, I think I enjoyed only about 3. I trusted Blizzard and maxed every character in each gender, hoping that would make it more enjoyable. I scratched every corner of the game just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. The main things that still gnaw at the back of my mind to this day lie solely in game itself and are still present in Reaper of Souls. I’ll stick to five because we could be here a while if I don’t.
1 – Lack of PvP
Arguably the most anticipated feature of Diablo III that would set it apart from other isometric RPGs was the organized and matchmade PVP arenas. You can argue both for or against whether Blizzard technically lied about their product, but at the end of the day the simple fact remains: We don’t have a proper PvP arena, nor is it ever coming (brawling doesn’t count). What stings even more is that other isometric RPGs are tackling organised PvP arenas (exampleSmileGate’s “Lost Ark”). Battle arenas can be done in this genre of game and it’s just up to Blizzard to try. Giving up wasn’t the answer and, honestly, if you can make a game like World of Warcraft have arenas, why can’t Diablo III accomplish this?
2 – The Boss Fights
Other than the epic fight with Belial, the boss fights in Diablo III are underwhelming and uninspired. You don’t feel like you’re particularity in danger during the fights and any “dangerous” situations are just annoying, breaking the combat flow. An example is the Azmodan fight where he lays giant damaging magic pools and the strategy is to wait until they disappear. Creating large areas where you can not stay in combat otherwise you die is not a fun mechanic. Other annoying boss mechanics included disappearing or becoming immune to damage for periods of time. It also doesn’t help that elite packs are harder than the boss fights. Bosses should be feared and put you on edge when you attempt to fight them. Minions being stronger than bosses just doesn’t make sense.
3 – Resource Systems
I’ve played hundreds of hours and, other than the demon hunter, all the resources of the characters feel essentially the same. You are always in combat and the slight differences in generation aren’t noticeable. I questioned, why get rid of mana? If you want to use other resources, make them secondary resources. It honestly feels like the characters were given separate resources just to push the idea of multiple item sets for gear with the same stats, just now they are class specific. Quantity is not a replacement for quality.
4 – Main Stat
In Diablo III, all you care about is the primary stat which basically controls both your defence and offence. The Barbarian uses strength as his main stat, the Demon Hunter uses dexterity, etc. There is really no other reason to consider any other stat; you could have a 10000 dexterity weapon and a weapon with 2 strength, and you would pick the 2 strength weapon every time (exaggeration). This really hurt the diversity in gameplay choice and removed the fun of figuring out and balancing builds, which is a staple in these types of games. I’ve affectionately call this the “set it and forget it” system, which removes any thoughts of changing your gear for different situations once you’ve equipped the better main stat item.
5 – Elemental Damage/Resistance
Look at my sweet ice wizard build, isn’t it awesome? But wait! Aren’t you afraid of elemental immune or resistant enemies? The what?!? In Diablo III, you do not need to worry about diversifying the elements of your weapons or skills, because it doesn’t matter. Your foes will take the same amount of damage as there are no elemental resistant or immune enemies. Blizzard could have called the elements “rainbow kittens” and it would not change combat. On top of that, “elemental damage” seems to be code for “the colour of my weapon when it hits someone” as there isn’t any noticeable or impactful secondary effect associated with them. Granted, when Diablo II started to get above 2 immunities on enemies, things became a lot tougher, but it also gave me a reason to party with other people or diversify my build. Overall, this just made the game less and less complex (see a trend here yet?).
Now don’t get the impression that I think the game is bad. With all the negativity there are bright spots which I’m glad were implemented in Diablo III. I liked that attack rating was removed, a stat that forced melee characters to have dexterity. Health globes were a welcome addition, encouraging you to stay in the fight instead of retreating. I loved the action oriented combat, desocketing items, shared inventory spaces amongst characters, and teammate resurrection. However, for every step forward Diablo III took, it took several steps back. I can’t say whether or not I’ll return to a Diablo game, all I know is if I do come back to future iterations, it’s not going to be until after three of my friends review it first. Guinea Pig out!