Diablo 3 vs ToR

[Arkathos]

Clear winner...ToR lol. I was really stoked for this game but as I play the closed BETA I find myself thoroughly underwhelmed. The characters stylized Realism is an odd change from the semi-real appearances of arms and armor and monsters in D2. Add to that it feels like Im playing a darker version of an Age of Mythology / Age of Empires 3 rpg based on the graphics. Nothing has jumped out at me yet screaming "This is awesome!" in fact quite the opposite.

Quests: There is one quest at a time. It is so linear it hurts. After playing ToR and seeing the huge range of quests, exploration, and interaction with npc quest givers - this is just painful. They at least tried to make it better by giving your character a voice now in dialogue, but you don't actually get to pick what to say.

Scenery,Gear and Graphics: The graphics on the arms and armor are alright, but they start of as the stereotypical rags and cloth, unlike in ToR where from the get go you feel pretty BA even in padawan attire. The scenery is dark, repetitive, and fairly bland - lacking a lot of encouragement to explore. I've gone through a couple of places now (New and Old Tristram, the Cathedral, and the Dungeons) and it's been pretty dull.

Combat: Have you ever seen two kids fighting one another with a bra in each hand? If so, it will have been more exciting than this. It's your typical click click click fighting with no sleek moves or awesome effects that ToR and even Skyrim provide. I've been running around just pew pewing with my Demon hunter, and the skills are pretty underwhelming.

Merchants: Items are well priced, but it is odd to see that each merchant has 4 items, each merchant differing in the quality/type. They will have 4 merchants in a town, all selling 4 items (pants, gloves, boots/shield, weapon). At least ToR had varying types of armor, and vendors with more items than you can count on one hand.

Quests: Like the other Diablo series, and as I said above - linear guided follow the path and come back quests with no ability to pick and chose what to do or where to go. Sorely missing ToR where they tell you who's grandmother you're force choking and why you want to do it and how it will save the galaxy.

Skills: There is no levelling up of skills, buying them, or setting attribute points like in the first game. In D3 you have 8 slots, which you drag your skills to as you get them, and your stats go up with your level - and no, items don't provide stat bonuses like in ToR or WoW or other games. Skill animations were pretty bland too.

Community: To put it simply... When I logged onto ToR the first thing I saw from people was "THIS IS AMAZING CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?!?" ... when I logged into Diablo 3 the first thing I saw was "WTF YOU C*NT!?" followed by a "F*CK YOU THIS GAME SUCKS A**". Upon the Beta ending everyone was in chat saying "May the Force be with you all" and "Can't believe it's ending...see you all in a month!". In D3 when people log off it's "Cya B*tches". Now I know, one is a mmorpg and the other not as much, but either way there you have it lol.

All in all I'd give D3 as it stands now a 4/10, and I know that unless it changes drastically, I will not be spending a penny to pick this up - which was shocking since I couldn't wait to try it out. Anyways I guess I'll go play a more enjoyable game now, mining square pixelated blocks of wood from floating mountains in the pixelated sky. Hurry your ass up ToR.

Guest Post Rules are In Effect for this Post

[Atrayu Yung]

That's kind of disappointing, I was looking forward to playing this one, although it's kind of what I expected and it's not really fair to compare the two games. One is a simple hack and slash and the other is a massive MMO. I never expected the quests or combat even to come close to TOR. I was really just hoping for something fun to do during downtime with TOR. And the community is no surprise at all. Blizzard's battle.net community is pretty horrid. I'll still probably give in and pick this one up though.

[Baktusit]

Thank you for the revue,
this is so depressing, I was so waiting for D3
Not so sure I will try it now...

Bak.

[Arkathos]

That's kind of disappointing, I was looking forward to playing this one, although it's kind of what I expected and it's not really fair to compare the two games. One is a simple hack and slash and the other is a massive MMO. I never expected the quests or combat even to come close to TOR. I was really just hoping for something fun to do during downtime with TOR. And the community is no surprise at all. Blizzard's battle.net community is pretty horrid. I'll still probably give in and pick this one up though.

True, but after playing that which is amazing (tor) I have trouble not comparing any other game to it. :P As a fair note: It is still in BETA, less advanced BETA than ToR, so maybe things will pick up.

Guest Post Rules are In Effect for this Post

[Gryffon Etheras]

I sorta think that most of DII's awesomeoness came from there not being much in the way of MMO's at the time. Now that we've got real, interactive social gaming, why go back to a top-down-click-to-whack?

[PlusMinus<]

Path of Exile might be a close substitute for Diablo 3. Nothing will beat out ToR though

[Arkos Ladar]

I'm actually glad to see a negative review. Now I won't feel as bad about using 100% of my gaming time on ToR for the next 3 years (although I will of course need to run through ME3 once).

[Lord Marvel]

Diablo 2 was fun, cause even though you knew that you have to build your character in certain way, you always could have say
"To hell with it, my sorceress will be strong like bull and she will break skulls of her enemies with great axe!!"

From what Gai say there is no freedom in this topic in Diablo 3...

Just another game that was dumbed down for wider audience...

*scratches Diablo III out from "to buy" list*

[Wolfwood Barbarossa]

Oh no!!! I have been a Diablo Fanboy for quite some time!

I really think Activision is playing a part in dumbing down games. The more I see coming from Blizzard and Activision, the less and less I want to work there!

[Arkathos]

So, just finished the Beta - very underwhelming lmao. Killed guess who...Leoric the Skeleton King! Again...did that in #1 too didn't we lmao? Anyways, loot was pretty nice, deckard cains voice makes me wanna kill babies though. I also got some crafting in - it's eh, it's alright. Nothing compared to ToR's system though. And you get companions too! Well..no - you get a scroll that summons a companion who picks up gold on the ground as you run around for a minute or two.

Anywho, I am done the Beta, and will not pick it up lol. ToR is my focus - glad I got this off my list lol.

Guest Post Rules are In Effect for this Post

[Namluck]

I have been waiting for Diablo III even before I knew about TOR, but now I have no interest in playing it because I will have my hands full with TOR. Blizzard should have put more focus into completing games instead of Re-doing WoW 1 million times.

[Valtrics]

eh i only really played blizzard games for their stories. I never play multiplayer in d2, sc, or war3. Just beat the campaign because they do get their stories right. Nothing can compare to the epicness of them.

Even WoW, I just played to get the story but its hard to tell stories in an mmo, (except TOR with a fully voiced character system) so of course, WoW is dumb to me.

I'll probably pick up d3, beat single player, then back to TOR lol.

[Tobinius]

I've watched some Youtube vids of people playing D3, and as others have noted, it would better be called D2.2, but not 3. At this stage, unless there are significant changes to the game, I don't see buying this until maybe it ends up in a sales bin - maybe.

Thanks for the overview Gaiutus.

Cheers

[Adroc]

Items don't provide stat bonuses? That's pretty stupid of Blizz not to have something like that...though they also went and added real world trade to the auction which will be something I want nothing of. I may end up playing just to play with friends but besides that...the Diablo series is dead to me.

[mrmarko]

I think the main problem is the genre has moved on.

Games are either going for the Epic story, moral choices, freedom of skyrim, mass effect or the MMO vastness of TOR (in the RPG genre).

From what I've seen/read Diablo 3 lacks the depth of a good single player game & brings nothing new to the party.

Which is a shame, as I used to play the first two games loads :/