Thanks for your feedback. I hear you that destroying multiple enemies (exponentially more as you advance and become more powerful) is fun. I guess my point is more that this shouldn’t be too gratuitous. You shouldn’t be able to use too many powers too often such that the game is just a constant blurry whirl-wind or destructive skills / magic damage. High impact damage should be hard to use, so you’re forced to reserve it for when shit hits the fan and you really need it.
Before I get into my tentative excitement after watching the Diablo 4 gameplay trailer, I’ll pose a question:
What words and phrases define the essence of Diablo for you? Here are some I’d use:
Dark
Gritty
Baroque
Despair
Gothic
Hopelessness
Earthy tones
Non-gratuitous use of magic
ACTUAL USE OF WEAPON YOU’RE CARRYING (helloooo??!!!!)
I’ll confess up front that to me, these features are so intrinsically tied to the Diablo experience that I almost instantly gave up on Diablo 3.
Diablo 3 has always been an over-the-top explosion of cartoony colour. Others have made apt descriptions of battle scenes being akin to care bears having an orgy in a field of rainbows.
This aspect was never fixed in Diablo 3; and by itself was reason enough that I never ended up enjoying the game, even after its purported ‘fixes’ that led to it becoming a success.
Now, after all these years, I’ve seen the gameplay trailer for Diablo 4; and I must say... I was pleasantly surprised. There’s promise here.
The art direction immediately struck me as darker, grittier; and with more earthy tones. There’s that key sense of despair that drew me to Diablo 1 all those many years ago.
In terms of fight mechanics, it looks like the characters’ weapons are MORE THAN JUST A PROP AND ACTUALLY GET USED?! Huge win.
Of course, I wasn’t going to get it all... the fight mechanics still seem a bit over-the-top and gratuitous. I don’t want to destroy all enemies in my vicinity in a blurry whirl-wind of super-heroism. I want to feel like the character has to work a bit to make a kill; like the odds are stacked against him. I want to see his sword cutting into the foe’s flesh; and for magic to have to be used sparingly.
I sincerely hope Blizzard works on this; but if all we end up getting is the grittier, more gothic art direction, that’ll probably be enough to get me back into Diablo.
I’ll leave it there for now. What are your thoughts? Can you relate?
2
Thanks for your feedback. I hear you that destroying multiple enemies (exponentially more as you advance and become more powerful) is fun. I guess my point is more that this shouldn’t be too gratuitous. You shouldn’t be able to use too many powers too often such that the game is just a constant blurry whirl-wind or destructive skills / magic damage. High impact damage should be hard to use, so you’re forced to reserve it for when shit hits the fan and you really need it.
0
Before I get into my tentative excitement after watching the Diablo 4 gameplay trailer, I’ll pose a question:
What words and phrases define the essence of Diablo for you? Here are some I’d use:
Dark
Gritty
Baroque
Despair
Gothic
Hopelessness
Earthy tones
Non-gratuitous use of magic
ACTUAL USE OF WEAPON YOU’RE CARRYING (helloooo??!!!!)
I’ll confess up front that to me, these features are so intrinsically tied to the Diablo experience that I almost instantly gave up on Diablo 3.
Diablo 3 has always been an over-the-top explosion of cartoony colour. Others have made apt descriptions of battle scenes being akin to care bears having an orgy in a field of rainbows.
This aspect was never fixed in Diablo 3; and by itself was reason enough that I never ended up enjoying the game, even after its purported ‘fixes’ that led to it becoming a success.
Now, after all these years, I’ve seen the gameplay trailer for Diablo 4; and I must say... I was pleasantly surprised. There’s promise here.
The art direction immediately struck me as darker, grittier; and with more earthy tones. There’s that key sense of despair that drew me to Diablo 1 all those many years ago.
In terms of fight mechanics, it looks like the characters’ weapons are MORE THAN JUST A PROP AND ACTUALLY GET USED?! Huge win.
Of course, I wasn’t going to get it all... the fight mechanics still seem a bit over-the-top and gratuitous. I don’t want to destroy all enemies in my vicinity in a blurry whirl-wind of super-heroism. I want to feel like the character has to work a bit to make a kill; like the odds are stacked against him. I want to see his sword cutting into the foe’s flesh; and for magic to have to be used sparingly.
I sincerely hope Blizzard works on this; but if all we end up getting is the grittier, more gothic art direction, that’ll probably be enough to get me back into Diablo.
I’ll leave it there for now. What are your thoughts? Can you relate?