![]() It has nothing to do with the plot or the action on screen. There are a few non-player characters, and you are forced to listen to the same repetitive dialogue from them over and over again. a suit of armor? What?! Seriously, I'm supposed to believe that this swarm of flies was carrying a suit of armor? What the heck were flies doing with armor? And 80 gold coins? Where did they keep them? I suppose flies in Diablo III have pockets. Some of these flies are so scary your character will run away from them, even though they look like all the other flies, and you wouldn't know they strike such fear in the hearts of men unless you read the description, which says simply "nightmarish." Okay, fine, your character kills these nightmarish flies and is rewarded with. So, you just click your mouse on it, and your character starts shooting at flies with a crossbow. That swarm acts like one single enemy, but looks like a swarm. In the game, you might have to kill a swarm of bugs. While competitors are creating deep virtual worlds and immersive environments, Blizzard has taken the laziest route possible with Diablo III. Some of these are endemic to the hack-and-slash dungeon crawler genre, but the genre, and gaming in general, has grown up significantly in the 11 years since Diablo II was released. So, Diablo III has some very fundamental flaws, but it is the little things that bother me even more. So, no matter how cool it looks, you are essentially just clicking on a massive pile of bad guys, and repeating this simple act until they all stop moving. The special effects look cool, but the action on screen can be jumbled and confusing at times. I get new powers that add or augment my existing abilities, but these are often less interesting, or less powerful, than the powers I already had. Blizzard has strewn its virtual world with tons of virtual garbage.Ĭharacters gain new abilities as they gain experience, but often these seem like a step backwards. These items do not add to the gameplay at all, and you can't sell them. Any item that is not 'magical,' which is to say the overwhelming bulk of the items you find, is completely worthless to the player. This pushes down the value of almost all other items in the game. Items are now worth money, which means that Blizzard needs to create an entire level of items that is at once nearly-unobtainable and also very valuable. However, look where this has left the game experience. Blizzard takes a huge cut, of course, but you're still making money from playing the game.īlizzard has strewn its virtual world with tons of virtual garbage Users can now buy and sell items in the game with real money. But Blizzard has made serious mistakes in the game design and, at the risk of sounding cynical, it seems that much of the problem comes from the new auction house. You play more and you gain more awesome toys and cool abilities. It used to be that Diablo was about collecting cool weapons and leveling-up your character. Almost nothing you do in the game feels like it is contributing to the storyline. There is a plot, but it is almost entirely revealed in high-quality cut scene movies between the action. There are no puzzles to solve, no riddles, no mysteries. There is very little skill, or even thought involved in playing the game. The entire game boils down to: look at that monster, I'm going to click on it until it's dead. It is mouse clicking with a few keyboard shortcuts thrown in. Losing has to be almost as enjoyable as winning.ĭiablo is simply no fun. Even the most difficult feat in gaming will often be repeated. I have a maxim of gaming that you should never expect to complete a gaming task once. ![]() In fact, the gameplay has to be just as fun when you lose as when you win. There are very few games that I replay continually just to see the ending. Video games run with the idea that "half the fun is getting there." In the best games, that's almost all of the fun. Most of all, though, the best games are simply fun to play. Some games offer challenging puzzles, with multiple ways to solve them, so you can constantly replay to try each permutation. Some games are interspersed with amazing set pieces so massive in scale that you cannot wait to reach them. ![]() You can make different choices each time, and affect the outcome, subtly or drastically. What's the point? So, I started to think about my favorite games. Why am I still playing? It's a tough question to wrestle with, since this is the same question that could ruin all video games for you. There is a moment playing Diablo games when it hits you.
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