Diablo III

I've played all three games, including expansions and a lot of mods.

Well, I've played them all except for the unofficial expansion pack for Diablo 1 and I think the difference in tone between 1 and 3 is pretty obvious.

And in detail?

There's a few ways in which the tone of the game are distinct from one another.

Isolation - In Diablo, you're alone for most of the adventure. The townfolk will help you when you're in Tristram, but once you go down those steps to the Cathedral you're on your own. Compare this with Diablo 3 where you've always got at least one NPC following you, (unless you send them home) and often Leah or Tyrael is along for the ride as well. You don't feel like a lone warrior facing the hordes of Hell on your own, you feel like a part of a large war effort with an entourage of powerful allies. In Act 3, you've even got an entire army on your side. In dialogue, the protagonist often brags about how certain of victory he/she is. The protagonist and their companion are constantly chatting and joking like fighting the forces of Hell is no big deal. The Templar brags about losing count of how many you've killed. The scoundrel cracks bad jokes.

Aside from Tristram, all of Diablo is set indoors, with limited visibility. Often you'll catch a glimpse of some monster skulking in the darkness. Most of Diablo 3 is set outdoors. Even the dungeons are well-lit.

Villains - in Diablo, you never speak to the villains directly. You hear rumours and stories from the townsfolk about the horrible depravities they've commited, and it builds up a sense of dread until you finally confront them. In Diablo 3, the villains are all monologuing moustache-twirling cliches, cackling about how you can "never hope to defeat me, muahahaha!" They're not scary, they're just laughable.

As an example, compare how the Butcher is introduced in both of these games. In Diablo, you meet a mortally wounded man at the steps of the Cathedral who tells the story of how Archbishop Lazarus led a group of townsfolk into the Cathedral, only to abandon them to the monsters below. He describes how the butcher slaughtered the others, and implores the player to get revenge before he expires.

In Diablo 3, the Butcher is introduced by name by Magdha immediately prior to fighting him. He marches in, strikes a pose and repeats his line from the first game like it's his catch phrase.

The Music - The music are a big contributor to Diablo's creepy atmosphere. Just listen to this track from the Catacombs;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v829LHb4ys&feature=relmfu

I've played through Diablo 3 all the way up to Inferno and I can't recall a single memorable tune. It's all very unobtrusive ambient music that just blurs into the background without ever leaving an impression.

There's more, but it's getting late and I don't have time to turn this into an essay.

I agree that Diablo III is Lighter and Softer...but not to the point of sunshine and rainbows, as the Whimseyshire secret level eloquently demonstrated!

Besides, Tropes Are Tools. At least Blizzard had the guts to make sure the three Diablo games were not derivatives of each other!

I would say that Diablo III is more optimistic, in that this is the game where you finally win the long-term battle against the Burning Hells.

Those are good points, and I agree with some of them. Loneliness does nothing for me to make it Darker and Edgier. Limited visibility and cramped spaces mainly means there are more jump scares, and the Butcher of D1 is essentially just that.

As far as music goes, I remember less and less of new games, all categories. Other than the Tristram music, I'm not sure I can recall any Diablo music. I can recognise most tunes when I hear them, but if I don't hear them (and especially if I'm listening to something else), I'm going to have a problem.

Overall, I feel it's less Lighter and Softer, and more mainstreamlined. Bosses are distinct events, rather than enemies you encounter at the end of a dungeon, and there's more of a follow-the-dotted-line plot (emphasis on more plot). But most importantly, the gameplay has improved every sequel.

edited 7th Oct '12 10:31:31 AM by AnotherDuck

Anyone here playing on the PTR? Because I'd like to ask about how much Monster Power modifies both HP and Damage for monsters. Now, I actually play on Act 3, and the iLvl of the foes there are already 63, but some of my friends still insist on staying in Act 1 Inferno (since they've hit the resistance requirement wall), so will setting it to Monster Power 3 make it a living hell for them?

edited 7th Oct '12 6:16:38 PM by MyssaRei

Diablo II today is worlds apart from Diablo II when it first came out, and even further from Diablo I.

Back then the games were experiences of horror and thrill. Now they're just black, brown and red (and neon) versions of Minecraft where people compete to build the most efficient loot machines or PK superweapons.

Huh? What?

I can build a house in Diablo 3'? People didn't glitch and hack PK superweapons in Diablo?

Worst thing I can really about this game's design strategy is that Blizzard was absolutely aware and focusing on the gear treadmill, then failed to set it to the proper pace. Has the series 'ever had a focus on something beyond powerful shinies? At least this one added character and plot.

Diablo always had a plot, the first game just told it in a more minimalist fashion.

Relevant;

I think that video had an error. Most people didn't survive their first encounter with the Butcher. But anyway, the comparison is ridiculous. Of course an enemy that was in a previous game would be less mysterious in the later game. That's kind of self-evident, and pointing that out is just grabbing for cheap and false points.

And naturally, exaggerating is a good way of making me disbelieve the entire message of the video.

As a side note, the only time I've had a problem with the connection was when there was a scheduled stop.

edited 8th Oct '12 2:49:08 AM by AnotherDuck

He doesn't complain about the Butcher being less mysterious, though. He draws a comparison between how he is introduced in each game. I'd argue that the build up in Diablo is far more effective than his sudden introduction in Diablo 3, as I explained in my post above.

Re: the disconnects, I've rarely had problems as well, but apparently there were huge problems with server overloads in the first few weeks.

It was probably worse in the US than in Europe. Also, connections where I live are overall better.

Well, mysterious isn't the one and only word to use, but it was one I used to summarise what I thought would be a good representation. The point is that you can't build up something that's already built up the same way you can build up something unknown.

Personally I think it would be better with a quicker introduction as well, since it's usually cheesy to present something directly anyway. A Bait-and-Switch Boss would've been great, I think.

The Warden was much better introduced than the D3 Butcher, and much more comparable to the D1 Butcher. The main difference there is probably the game difficulty. Belial showing his true form was also well-done, and about as expected as meeting the Butcher in the small room full of corpses.

edited 8th Oct '12 4:34:11 AM by AnotherDuck

I only had that infamous connection problem happen to me once. But then, that was because I only got around to playing Diablo III months after the game was released. They say "Timing is everything". They are right.

I'd point out that the third game assumes that you've had the benefit of playing the first two games. The third game does make jokes about the Cow Level, for example.

I'd say that the Butcher's introduction in the third game wasn't supposed to be scary. It was meant to be a homage to the one in the very first game. I mean, they even reveal after you defeat that there is more than one Butcher out there, and each one is a boss! That doesn't scare you at all?

How about the demon Gharbad The Weak? I mean, the dude leads you to believe that there are some nice demons out there, only to subvert it by turning on you as soon as he made a weapon he thought would be strong enough to kill you. Like Adria The Witch said, "no mortal can fully comprehend the mind of a demon". Of course, the fact that she turns out to be in bed with Diablo in more ways than one would indicate that she should know. Then, in the third game, you meet Gharbad The Strong. Yep, it's same guy, come back after 20+ years! I dare you to guess what happens when you encounter him again!

That makes wonder...why did it take over 20 years for the bad guys to actually make a reappearance? Was it like with Tyrael, who took that long to literally pull himself together after being blown up by the Worldstone? Did they simply sit there in...wherever they went to when they died and waited for some exit to be opened at the time? Like I said, it just makes scratch my head!

Beep beebeebeep! News flash! The Diablo III Monster Power Patch 1.0.5 is available for download today!

What does it do? Well, the short story is that Defensive Skills are tweaked, the Infernal Machine will let you battle uber versions of bosses (if you reached Level 60), and Monster Power will allow you to set the difficulty of the monsters.

Setting the difficulty of the monsters might sound like cheating, but if you crank up the difficulty pretty high with Monster Power, you'll get more Experience, more gold, and more Magic items!

Woo hoo!

It's not exactly cheating if it makes them harder.

Those are some pretty cool changes. Unfortunately my level 60 (4) monk can barely survive Inferno Act II, so I'll probably die horribly at higher monster power.

Should be good for levelling other non-60 characters, though, since it can get a bit easy on the lower difficulties after slogging through Inferno.

I hope this means followers will never attack treasure goblins until I do. On Inferno, attacking a treasure goblin early = no treasure goblin kill.

edited 16th Oct '12 9:04:22 PM by Talby

I played diablo 2, four years ago and I can't remember a single music tune.

Anyway, I bought this thing a couple of weeks ago. I am still just starting nightmare but so far it has been fun. Always having to keep the internet on and the bnet issues are annoying, but I don't regret the 120 USD (I bought two copies so I could play with someone else). So unlike Starcraft 2, I really regret paying money for that one.

I actually like it better than d2, probably because as I mentioned, I was quite old when I started playing it, and thus I am not affected by nostalgia goggles. But I really like that I can change my chosen spells without having to redo the character. It allows me to try new stuff without the pain. It is also cool to pretend to be strategic by choosing your skills before each major fight. Hah!

Also, since the patch release I have been abusing monster power to no end. The game was feeling a bit easy even after reaching nightmare. It is quite nice to be able to set the bar higher if you want to.

The auction house seems broken though in that it makes many things much less expensive than they should (imho) be. For example, buying gems from the auction house is several magnitudes less expensive than crafting them yourself.

It does.

edited 20th Oct '12 6:32:20 PM by nairoxev

Flawless square gems and below are cheap because they drop from monsters, and you'll be swimming in flawless squares once you reach inferno. After that the price goes up, because it costs much more gold to craft them and they don't drop from monsters.

I would actually suggest avoiding the auction house entirely because IMO it kinda ruins the "finding loot" aspect. If you outfit yourself entirely with AH gear, looting will become boring because you'll never find any upgrades.

edited 20th Oct '12 10:31:23 PM by Talby

Even (or rather specially) Radiant stars are actually much cheaper than crafting them yourself.

It is not "low price" cheap. But it is "lower price than it should" cheap.

I am using AH primarily to sell the stuff I find. It is unbelievable how much people pay for amulets and rings that drop all the time only because they have a socket.

edited 21st Oct '12 5:23:25 AM by nairoxev

Has anyone discovered the significance of the Black Rock Ledger?

To those who don't know, it's like this: in Act II, as you travel around the desert, you should find a sailing ship sticking out of the sand. You'll find a guy there who'll meet an unfortunate end with kamikaze demons, and you'll get a page of the Black Rock Ledger. Apparently, if you search around other spots in the area, you might find a total of 6 different pages.

I heard that the six pages act as a reference to Lost. Some say that the pages and those black tornadoes that pop up may have a connection. I don't know myself, but I figure if some strange objects can lead to a Secret Level like Whimseyshire, why not the six pages of the Black Rock Ledger?

They unlock the secret cow level.

There is no Cow Level!

Still, I hope an Expansion Pack actually does something with those pages! I mean, six pages and a black tornado? That's either a Red Herring or something special!

Who knows, maybe the pages already do something. With so much code running exclusively in the servers, it might be a very well hidden thing yet to be discovered.