Hello all (and hopefully devs),
Managed to get into Closed and Open Beta and leveled to 20 on second tier difficulty.
I have been a big big fan of since Diablo I played on Playstation then feel in love with D2. Played for ages and got D2 resurrected. That game I feel was a masterpiece.
I also invested in both Collector’s Editions for D3.
I am trying to say I have been with the franchise as a fan and supporter for a long time. I was really excited to see the new release and to get into Beta. I invested in the 99$ preorder.
Here are my feelings, perceptions, pros, cons, observations, etc. I likely am repeating many things but here we go anyway.
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I was severly saddened to see the Collectors Box set DOES NOT include the game like it did with D3. I ended up going with that level to ensure maximum prerelease bonus, gifts, etc. Also wanted to get into the Beta early. I think the move to not include the game was a bad strategy as I didn’t value what was in it enough to order also. Sad.
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Early / Closed Beta timing and time frame seemed to restrictove, not clear, and confusing.
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I was very excited to spend time in it and loved downloading amd watxhing the trailer.
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Overall I felt it was D3 reskinned and dumbed down to a MMPORPG with too open of a world, too much reclearing of already slain monsters, and not enough storyline encounters.
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Next was my biggest issues and that was the sound design. The thing that was most captivating about D2 for me was the music sound track and the sfx and nuanced events sounds. All those things were so well developed as uniqie and identifiable just like Star Wars. This new version most soinds were jumbled, intermixed, and blurred together eventually fading into a dull baclground of forgettable sounds. Additionally there was not enough camp in the music sound track too much effort to be ultra high brow. But also it did nothing to denote areas, events, and other such things. Finally it was not always noticeable as important to the game at its default volume.
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Missions were oddly paced and too quicl to go find big bosses in the campaign stories as I was facing underground Pit Bosses at level 9 I think as I was chasing Lilith.
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An open world as is in the Beta makes knowing about current Acts amd the mission hard, confusing, and disorganized.
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I was a big fan of the darker tone of the visualls and atmosphere. The return to gritty horror is good, but I think they overshot it.
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I did like the soind of the lightning orb.
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The UI and all the mechanics of things left me overwhelmed, confused at times, and winging it.
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I like rhe sorcers skill trees. I think tjat was a success in abilities and choices.
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There was too much jilting jumping glitches as one tries to move around objects and through cities. Very buggy.
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Dungeons felt to long and contrived and cellars were oddly short.
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I felt like the random appearance of other players was dostractong amd annoying.
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Bosses and Elites were almost too OP without lots of spamming health. Too many times they did stuff that prevented me from moving and just getting ehackdd to death.
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I liked the jumping and climbing mechanics.
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I did not play enough to get all areas explored. But I felt like there was no point in playimg past level 20…
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Also not enough call back to other plots.
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I want Covetous Shen back!
Overall I think it was a good start. But there needs to be a lot of improvements made. I especially want to see more organization of the story and less focus on constant battles in the world and better sound design. I want the Necro to be awesome with better minions also.
Thanks!