There are, I’m sure people who have put in many more hours into Diablo 3 than I have. In fact, due to my complete lack of play since all of the hacks; I’m sure there are probably more people than ever, that have more time invested. But considering Diablo 3 is the first game that I have put in over 100 hours into I feel like I need to say a few things about it. Diablo 3 was my most anticipated game of 2012. And since the beta I was able to play, I was even more excited. I hadn’t played too much of the previous installments and was waiting for the third to get really engrossed. I was fine with the all ways on DRM, because as most people tend to gloss over Starcraft 2 has an all ways on DRM. So I was not really thrown off by Diablo 3 having it.
Things changed a little the day that Diablo 3 came out. I was out of work so I stayed up late and spent four hours trying to get connected and finally being able to play a little bit at 4 AM on launch day. Which was fine. I played for two hours and then went to bed. I was in love. There was nothing more interesting to me than just busting through the campaign the first time. But I didn’t know which character I wanted to play. So I started one campaign for each. Yes, I did what most people said what exactly not to do. Many of my game journalist friends in fact are now in Inferno with the character they created on day 1. And haven’t touched any of the other characters at all. I felt this was a big loss. Why not beat the game at least once with every character. I had no problem going through the story five times. No problem at all. I was able to share gear and gold throughout my account and made good use of rare drops and legendaries on my all of my characters. But this WAS in fact, the wrong decision.
By the time my favorite character, the Wizard got about half way through Nightmare. The Auction House was a mess. Anything worthwhile for her or any of my other characters cost around 100,000 gold. Where it used to only cost around 20-30,000. This was an insane price jump and one that didn’t jive with the rest the rate of gold my characters were earning. I’m certainly over-geared at this point. But I LIKE being over-geared. And I know that I will hit a hard stop around the end of Hell or so. Also, the real gold Auction House was useless to me s people were only buying Inferno level gear and nothing else. So, until the prices dropped I decided I would stop playing. Most of my characters were around level 35-39 so I figured I’d just come back for PVP. But this was not to be.
When the cheats, hacks, etc… Began being reported was near the tail end of my overall playtime. I had gotten a second job, so I didn’t have time to play anything except that which was for work. So Diablo 3 had taken a backseat. When I heard about the hacks, I knew that the auction house prices would be even more ridiculous and not to bother even logging in until all this was patched and straightened out. And for the most part Diablo 3 had completely gone out of my mind. This game that I really loved, was just a memory and even though I occasionally saw it on my desktop I didn’t have any desire to play it at all.
Recently, Patch 1.0.4 came out and there were lots of balance changes, new Paragon system, etc… All of this was just what I needed to log back into Diablo 3(besides another Battle.net hack that required me to change my password). I played for about 2 hours last night with my Wizard and was just about to snag another new level when I decided to stop and watch some Fringe on DVD instead. Yes, Diablo 3 has been relegated to a tier below old television. I’m afraid this means that I will probably never see Inferno difficulty and my copy of Darksiders 2 is still calling to me as I write this. My September will be a balancing act between Guild Wars 2 and Borderlands 2. Do I ACTUALLY think I’m going to have time to play Diablo 3? No… I won’t…
Blizzard had their shot. It came out 2 days after my Birthday when I was out of work and I played it for a solid month all most every single night for at least 5-7 hours. But that was it. Sorry guys… A linear story, a terribly balanced economy, and a difficulty system that should have been rebalanced the moment it was considered. But with all this I have to say that Diablo 3 is in my Top 10 games of the year for 2012 for sure. Why? Because with the exception of what I just mentioned it was a good enough game, with good enough systems for me to play longer than any other game I’ve ever played in life with the exception of World of Warcraft. Which doesn’t count. So if there was so much wrong with Diablo 3 why did I play for so long when other games of “supposed” superior quality have fallen by the wayside and even if I ever pick them up again I would never invest that kind of time in them; even if I could. I usually have a hard time beating games and I’ve beaten Diablo 3, SIX TIMES. Believe it or not, I put this to the incredible amount of polish that this game has. The character models, the environments, the leveling system, and the bosses. There is no where in Diablo 3 in the Normal or Nightmare difficulty where the player can get stuck. Yes, there was never a point where I didn’t know what to do or got worried about getting lost. These things seem like no big deal. But they ARE the reason this game does design better than anyone out there. Yes, the game is relatively simplistic. But the point is that it isn’t TOO SIMPLISTIC. It’s just simple enough to draw people in and keep them there. Other games all ways have SOMETHING wrong with them. Something that a person who isn’t “dedicated” to finishing the game will make them just drop the game and go do something else never to pick it up again.
Some of my favorite games of all time do this. Assassins Creed Franchise, Shadows of the Damned, Lollipop Chainsaw, Bayonetta, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Elder Scrolls Skyrim, etc… Except of course, for my favorite games of all time Journey and Bastion. They too know how design works. But they are both very short experiences compared to Diablo 3. I’m talking about two games that take less than 10 hours to beat and comparing them to a game that to finish completely would probably take over 200 hours. This is an accomplishment that I think has been made too little of; by the press, by the designers, and even by players. Everyone takes Diablo 2 as the comparison for Diablo 3. But that is not a fair comparison, it is wrapped up in nostalgia and a familiarity that requires Diablo 3 to be a REVOLUTION rather than an EVOLUTION. Games have changed SO MUCH in the past 10 years. Hell, games have changed a lot in the past 5 years. Diablo 3 is an incredible achievement. And while many people look at it as more of the same. I think most people who play Diablo 2 and then play Diablo 3 will find there is a significant difference between the two and in more than graphical quality. Also, Diablo 2 has had over 10 years to get patched and changed. I can only dream what Diablo 3 will look like in ten years. All I know is that it won’t look anything like it does now.
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