I am in agreement.
But instead of just rehashing this by saying the same shit over and over again, I'm actually going to make a point related to my impression of the game: this is far and away the most solo-friendly
Diablo of the 3 despite being the only one that forces you online. I have felt almost zero need to play with others. Not because that isn't fun, and I'll probably do a lot more of that when I've been through it once, but I almost feel like I'm missing out when playing with others because I don't get to use the followers.
Why? Because I like them! They're so much more than the followers in
D2 were. They talk to you, they talk to others who might be in your party, and new dialogue options open up for them as you play, revealing some of their personal history. I haven't really used the Scoundrel yet, but the Templar and Enchantress are both great. They level up, and I believe at 10, 15, and 20 you get to choose skills for them to use, then at 18 you open up a new equipment slot for a special item type only they can use. Otherwise, you can equip them with weapons, rings, and an amulet.
You only get one at a time, but the fact that you can tailor them to what your own character is doing is fun, and being able to upgrade them as you go makes them another piece of that loot-grabbing/leveling fun.
So yeah, the great irony of this whole situation is that I think
Diablo 3 is a great single-player game, far more so than the other two. Even if the story itself isn't so robust, some of the things that are in there have some depth to them, and the story
telling is wonderful. It's all about presentation.
So: I'm on Act 2 now, a short ways in, and the game is just phenomenal. I think I really wanted to hate this game because of all the aggravating bullshit it's saddled with, but I can't. I will never stop calling that bullshit what it is, but the game is too good for me to care. And that's saying a lot.
The art style works. I've mentioned this already, but it bears repeating because of how much I disliked what was shown prior to launch. There
are bits that look a little bit like
WoW-lite, but mostly it has a more painterly look to it, and the parts that seem a little too cartoony are usually offset by the obscene amount of violence.
No, seriously. This game is
violent and
gory. Not like
Diablo as a franchise has ever been known for being cheery and filled with fluffiness, but this takes it to a new level. The physics are a big part of that, so bodies fly around with suitable gusto, guys explode in bubbles of blood, and the occasional dismemberment and decapitation are just gleefully terrible. Also: baskets of severed heads you can punch clear across the screen. And it isn't just the outright active violence, it's the environments. There is an obscene amount of gore. I guess they figured that a cult hellbent on using people as fodder for new undead don't fuck around, so there is more than a little evidence of their gruesome doings.
I'm not quite sure what I expected, but this level of violence definitely wasn't it. And that's a good thing. The rainbow that got everyone all worked up is still there, and I have to admit it still seems sort of out of place, but that's not at all indicative of the game. There are some attractive environments, and so far it doesn't feel as dark as
D2 on the whole, but I think the tone is about right.
Act 2 has opened up "the east", so we're back to Lut Gholein except... not. And man is it cool. The town area has tons of personality, the sands are nice-looking, and some of the underground areas there are gorgeous and unique.
I'm enjoying the way character development works. It's a solid system that allows for a lot of playing around, but there's one issue.
So the way it works by default is you have categories. For my monk, these are: Primary, Techniques, Defensive, Focus, and Mantras. As you level up, you unlock new abilities in each category, and you get to pick one from each. However, if in the options menu you check a box at the end of a list that simply says "Elective Mode", you get to not only reorder things on the menu bar, you also get to choose as many skills as you want from each category. So you can have one primary, 3 techniques, and a mantra, foregoing two categories altogether.
The problem? Nobody tells you about it. I mean, this is
the way to play the game, but it's just a checkbox, and Blizzard doesn't tell you anything about it. Even the description just says "Enable full customization of skill selection and placement on the action bar," which really doesn't suggest how important it is to turn this bastard on. They've stated that they wanted the game to stay really accessible, and certainly simplify things to just picking one skill from each category does that (and you still get plenty of customization because of the rune system, which grants you a single bonus out of a number of bonuses that you unlock for each individual skill), but it's not even a fifteenth as powerful as the full customization allows. And I had to find out from GiantBomb's Quick Look, which I might not even have watched!
So now my monk does the following:
Spend spirit to dash into the fray, spend spirit to grab enemies within 24 yards to me in a circle, spend spirit to palm and bleed one of them, then attack until that enemy dies while still bleeding, which causes him to explode, damaging all other enemies in the area. And this wouldn't be possible without Elective Mode, as Exploding Palm and Dashing Strike are both in the Technique category. You could also have two primary attacks active if you wanted, which would give you some versatility. For the monk, those are attacks that build spirit, which you spend like mana and then regain again by using your primary "free" skills. But those skills do different things. One is long and with a certain rune spreads out wide, so you can hit tons of enemies at once. Another will slow and reduce the attack speed of enemies in a circle around you.
Anyway, so there's a crapload of info for anyone curious. I'm in love with the game.
Haha... and the funny thing? I started this post this morning, like... hours ago. I went to check something, ran through a couple of enemies really quick, and here it is after 1:00 PM. Oops.
*ahem*
EDIT - Typos.
EDIT x2 - Just a couple notes.
Firstly,
interesting article from Eurogamer about the things Battle.net isn't doing wrong with D3.
Also, I have not once looked at the in-game gold auction house. The cash AH isn't live yet and clearly there is no pressure to use it. I'm tempted to at least partly believe them when they said they just wanted to keep people from doing dangerous trades outside of their control. I'm sure they want the money too, obviously, but that may truly have been where the idea came from. It's there if you want it, but they don't put it in your face at all. It's no integrated into the main game at all, you get to it through a menu. There's not even an in-world thing to click on or anything So that's good.
Also, having to repeat progress after a disconnect... it's just how it works when you log, and it isn't a big deal. Checkpoints are frequent, and the game is built on repetition. Period, whenever you quit the game, even intentionally, everything resets. You'll be able to re-explore any areas previously completed. They'll automatically have been wiped, reset, and re-randomized. So if you quit before hitting a checkpoint, you'll have to redo some stuff. If you find a warp, you can use that from town to warp right back, but the area will still be reloaded. This isn't a problem. The game moves quickly and you'll never be like, "Oh noes, I have to awesomely kill more enemies and get more loot." I doubt this will ever be changed.
