Simple, Pure, and really, really cute - Lively Innocence: Thoughts on diablo 3.

I saw the Diablo 3 Teaser Site a few days back. although some of the storyline stuff were good and all, and I must admit, nearly everything is brilliant. The new classes are quite alright, the monsters are as scary as hell(although I still had to wait for a few more months before I can get more teasers regarding the game and stuff), the gameplay seems true to the original.

However, one thing that I can consider as a flop is the graphics, most notably, the environment effects. As in, seeing this petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/d3art/petition.html) as well as the teasers blizzard is giving out made me somewhat realize that diablo 3 isnt as dark as it used to be. In fact, quoting from the petition itself, diablo 3 has a "Cartoon'ish art direction, obviously influenced by the Warcraft universe".

Come on, Diablo != Warcraft. Diablo 3 has a darker, satanic and unholy feel when compared to other similar games like God of War, Assassin's Creed or even better those mmorpgs that came out during this decade, as well as World of Warcrap of course. As in the way Blizzard is making Diablo 3 now... It looks as if Diablo 3 is now a light hearted mmorpg designed for kids. what the fuck.

Reading on with the petition, as well as comparing the photoshopped images with those released by Blizzard, Blizzard seems to have failed in a lot of aspects in terms of the graphics design. The environments, the characters, they all look like they were taken from Warcraft of something. Come on. Like I said before, Diablo != Warcraft. What's worse is that the Light radius from diablo 2 (you know, that huge circle of light that surrounds the player and follows him wherever he goes) is now gone. Seems that it is now dependent on the environment. Which somewhat sucks by the way.

Also, the dungeons no longer have that cryptic and gothic feel. It's as if we're entering some sort of magical castle invaded my mysterious objects. If thats the case then I'd say Blizzard is no different from those faggots from Gaia Online. Not that I have a grudge on either anyway.

TL;DR, Blizzard can do better than that. The Warcraft/Cartoonish style of the current product has enraged a lot of diablo fans everywhere. Hell, almost everybody will agree that they would prefer playing the older Diablo versions rather than play the new one because of the damned graphics that somewhat ruined the mood of the gameplay. The game is still in development. Blizzard still has a lot of time. If they can, they should rehire the people from the Old Blizzard North and let them make sure that Diablo 3 should really reflect what the old game is about: a dark and gloomy world in the verge of destruction.

And.. To those who keep on saying: "Fuck graphics! As long as I can hack and slash monsters it's fine!" Imagine playing a very intense hack and slash game, but with the graphics and environment as shit as hell. How would you feel?

and to those who say, Diablo 3 is fine as is. Keep it that way. All I can say is this. Have you REALLY played diablo? Have you experienced what it's like to expect the unexpected, to enter dark and normally frightening dungeons, to fight countless hordes of daemons and undead while going through the gothic and dark hallways of dungeons? say yes to all these questions and read the petition again. You'll find out that right now, Diablo 3 does not have the capability to relive those intense moments.

Friday, August 08, 2008

Thoughts on diablo 3.