Hello everyone,
I have played diablo since the first installment was released. It is one of my favorite game series and I have put countless hours into Diablo, Diablo 2, Diablo 2 Resurrected. I have played my fair share of Diablo 3 as well. I’ll get right to the point here. The Diablo series has become utter $|-|!T. It is so glaringly obvious that I feel ashamed that I fell for it again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
I will first point out flaws within diablo 3 so that I can then reference the similarities to those flaws that exist within diablo 4.
Let me explain what I mean:
- The gameplay of Diablo 4 is basically the same as Diablo 3.
- Diablo 3 was the worst, most boring Diablo game except Immortal.
- Diablo 3’s gameplay was so poorly designed that every single class boiled down to the same thing every single season.
- Level Up (easy), get greens (easy), get non green slot legendaries (easy), cube stuff (actually a somewhat interesting mechanic), pick up junk to scrap (tedious), rinse and repeat for ancestral versions of the same gear (easy).
- Set gear gave such ridiculous bonuses (to single/select skills) that there were literally no other alternatives, except like one other niche build that was for the most part, sub-par to greens yet comparable.
- The fact that such ultra specific, outrageously large bonuses were required in order to advance through the torments to the top tier shows just how flawed the game design was from a development standpoint.
- Blizzard Literally had to make your build work. No gear consideration or skill consideration was necessary on the players part. This essentially took CHARACTER BUILDING away from the player. You either used whatever the set buffed or you sucked. (potency wise not skill wise)
- Endgame boiled down to literally nothing as there was no trading system to create a reason to farm. Item drop rates and the ridiculous endgame combat dichotomy made maxing a character extremely easy.
- The value of a trade system is that it introduces the concept of “wealth building,” which gives players a reason to continue to play. This only works however if Items are actually difficult to find, otherwise they will be valueless and the economy will stagnate easily. The reason this is an important concept is that wealth building has no ceiling, you can literally continue grinding (even on a maxed out character) and still feel as though they are playing the game with purpose.
- Paragon levels are essentially worthless, a cheap distraction to keep you playing to chase minor upgrades that very soon become rather pointless as well.
- The above concerns are secondary (though serious) to THE BIGGEST FLAW of Diablo 3 was it’s oversimplified, underwhelming and extremely limiting skill system. Which stunted its potential “Fun Factor.”
- SKILL SYSTEM FLAW #1: You can only use 6 skills via hotbar/hotkeys. This effectively neutered the concept of “skilled/adaptive play” as there are specific types of skills available to each class that anyone would be a fool to go without, such as defensive skills, movement skills, etc. This essentially meant players weren’t even able to make use of all of the abilities available to them. They learned all the abilities, got all the runes but only had access to 6 at a time…and good luck changing them out and selecting runes in combat!
- Skill System Flaw #2: The Gainer/Spender system. This system seems not so bad at first glance but upon greater scrutiny it becomes apparent that this system is a major contributing factor to the flawed itemization system. “Gainers” are weaker attacks with mostly unspectacular effects while gainers are powerful with mostly spectacular effects.
- The reasons this matters are simple: when you are out of resource you are incredibly vulnerable and likely cannot kill the mobs fast enough since in the highest tiers the game more or less breaks down to “I stomp everything or I get one shot/shot-gunned.” This being the case (due to poor game balancing) the general go to strategy for surviving while still being able to clear at a reasonable speed is “move and attack at the same time.” Not all classes excel at this however, without this tactic you are nearly inescapably going to take many hits which can easily one shot or shotgun you to death. Alternatively you could split your resource recovery time between moving and attacking with your “gainer” however it is slow and you will likely end up having to use defensive/movement cooldowns to stay alive, which in turn will leave those cooldowns unavailable during your “spender” uptime. THEREIN LIES THE PROBLEM, the sets provide such bonuses as 10000% increased damage to a predetermined skill (usually a “spender”), applying all applicable runes to that skill, granting resource when that skill hits, granting defensive bonuses when that skill is cast/channeled, etc. Usually the result is this basically eliminates the need for the “gainer” ability and further simplifies the combat. (As if that were necessary…)
- So by creating a game balance that escalates to a point where there is no real struggle but rather only overwhelming victory or instant death, they created a need for a mechanic that essentially overwrites their own “gainer/spender” system in addition to increasing the players TTK against enemies drastically. ENTER the sets…LOOK AT THESE BONUSES!! Nevermind that we just railroaded you into playing the game you bought however we decide. Nevermind that even though builds could be far more diverse, interesting and FUN…just be glad we even gave you 6 skills…coulda been 4…or 2.
MEANWHILE IN DIABLO 4:
- Still only 6 skills usable at a time via notkey/hotbar…huh, foreboding…
- Still “Gainer/Spender” resource system…the foreboding grows…
- Still Not Trading thus no worthwhile reason to play after hitting the progression/itemization ceiling.
- Still RIDICULOUSLY easy item find. Not that it matters to the non existing trade economy but itemization is going to be boring, followed by a near instantly fleeting contentment and finally the feeling of a hollow victory.
- The “Stomp or Die” endgame has begun, and will likely worsen as seasons/patches/expansions are released…The Forboding is REAL…
- Are those sets I see on the horizon??
- The Mount is nice…but not as nice as BEING ABLE TO USE ALL THE SPELLS I KNOW WHENEVER I WANT!!! (When off CD and with appropriate resource of course.)
- Aspects are nice…honestly a very interesting and fun mechanic.
- Paragon Levels are better than they were, Gotta give them that one.
- The graphics quality is Very Nice however the Character Esthetics leave much to be desired. just to give a few example most of the armor is Ugly, looks impractical (like a big hole in the front right over the characters heart) and is misrepresentative (i.e. Sorcerer “heavy Plate” is literally just a big necklace with a shawl on your back…the rest just bare skin.)
- The oh so familiar flaws of D3 are woven into D4 and if they are not fixed the game is HIGHLY likely to end up playing just like the oh so boring, oversimplified, uninspired, imbalanced, railroaded, heavy handed, uninteresting Diablo 3. Which was a gold plated turd…nah more like a turd covered in glass dust…you know so it twinkles like diamond dust…or well maybe that’s too obvious it’s a turd…OH got it! Diablo 3 was a Pyrite covered turd…you know so you would think it was gold but then realized it really a turd…but then you would think hey at least it was a little bit gold…and then you got it appraised and found out it was pyrite instead…and then you had to pay the appraiser…and then you realize you also wasted your time…OUCH that’s a savage combo…
- Overall, it comes down to a few simple and fundamental game development principals. #1. Fun Factor #2. Player (NOT Character) Reward System and #3. Engaging Gameplay. Diablo 3 failed in all three of these…sure it was fun for a while but had no staying power due to poor design. I hope the same won’t be true of D4.
Now all that said I sure hope it gets better/changes/doesn’t end up like D3. Looking at the similarities though…it seems like it might. It honestly already feels so similar to D3 that I was so frustrated about it that I had to write this post…$100 just to buy a D3 clone…If it doesn’t change, If Blizzard ruins this installment of the Diablo series like they failed on the D3 and Immortal, I will just be done buying blizzard products, they won’t see another penny from me. Yeah, Yeah, I know it is no big deal to them but what else can I do? They are gonna make the games they make the way they wanna make them…So I will spend my money with a company that actually cares about making quality products.
OK, LET THE FANBOY HATE BEGIN!!!
