I’m not here to moan about beta specific issues, error codes or queue’s etc. That was all expected and all happened, it should be better but hey. Also not interested in people who are here to just defend any criticism at all. This game isn’t perfect, it needs plenty of work still, and I’m sure it will get it. I bought the deluxe edition, and looking forward to full release. I’m enjoying my experience, that’s what matters.
Well, the game definitely has the feel I was wanting, dark and gritty. You’ve been working on that clearly and it shows, it’s fantastic. The world feels great to be in and the story and quests are fun, even if the endgame is what ultimately matters for many in Diablo. There’s a fair few positives so far, gameplay is decent, the talent tree is promising and well just in general for a beta I’m feeling positive.
My main issue so far is that there’s an arcade feeling that I just cant shake, even with the great world and design choices you’ve chosen elsewhere in the game. It’s got that Diablo Immortal feeling about it somewhat. It’s hard to pinpoint it exactly but I’m pretty sure it’s UI based. The MMO feel is upon us. This is a clear design choice and it’s not going anywhere, I’m not expecting it to and I accept it but can we maybe make it a little less intrusive? You’ve built this dark gritty world but then plastered an MMO ui over it that frankly, takes from it.
- UI size options: The UI is simply way too big for my 1440p screen (I can’t speak for 1080 monitors). All the icons etc. should be way smaller. It would be nice to give players this option, if they were smaller it would make it feel less arcadey.
- Screen Zoom: I feel like I’m way too close to my character at times, in general. I’m not expecting you to let us zoom out super far but, FOV options and maybe a slight zoom out for bigger monitors would be nice, and also help us get immersed a little more.
Map: I get it, it’s an MMO style, you press the map and BAM, everything is there, social, clan, quests etc. But maybe it would be nice to have two versions? shift tab, for the current style, tab for the old style just the map only (with icons etc) set to 40/50% opactity (let us decide) in the middle, as it used to be in D2 and D3. I’ve actually found I’m not even looking at the new minimap top right really, it’s far too zoomed in, I’d be surprised if most players aren’t just pressing tab as they run, especially diablo players.
Loading Screens: What is the deal with all the loading screens? every portal, every dungeon entrance, even the minor ones. I didn’t even realise at first but when you do, wow it feels bad. Is this something that will persist into the final version of the game or just a beta thing? surely we can make these more fluid?
Offline Mode: It doesn’t seem like it’s what you want, I’m not expecting change here but wow is it immersion-breaking when you’re running alone through this dark world, feeling isolated, in danger, doing quests and see 2/3 other Nephalem just diving around with their cool mmo name and health bars causing havoc. I have nothing against grouping, if people want to group, but give us a way of playing the game solo if we want to. The amount of network lag and world stutter that is simply down to us being forced to be ‘online’. Towns aren’t smooth at all. This needs work if you want to continue this path.
Overall an enjoyable experience, lots of positives for sure, I’m looking forward to the full release and will still play more of the beta this weekend but yeah, I feel like a big part of my initial worry with the game can be solved with realistic, fair UI tweaks for the most part.
