: Thoughts on Diablo III pre-launch.

Needless to say, the release of Diablo III is one of the biggest events when it comes to gaming this year. It's been so long waiting for this, and I can't wait to have the game in my hands. Or at least to be able to install and play it, as I'll hopefully have the game in my hands a day or two earlier. But there are a few things that sort of bother me about what I know about the game.

Always on DRM

That is what the need for constant connection to Battle.net to even play in single player actually is, and anyone trying to say otherwise is... Naive, at best. I mean, yes, there is the thing about cross-game chat and all that stuff, but that should really be optional. Needing to go online to activate the game and register the CD-key and all that, that's fine. But after that, there's really no point in them requiring you to be online to play in single player. I don't know what other features than cross-game chat that comes with being connected to Battle.net in single player, but I'm sure I can do fine without them. I did in Diablo II, so why not now?

Part of me really hopes that on release, the servers will crash so hard that they're forced to revert this, and allow single player without connection to Battle.net. This is highly unlikely, though, considering their experience with World of Warcraft and Starcraft II, which has the same type of DRM, but I can dream, can't I?

The other part of me just really wants to play the game. =P

Too simplified character development?

There has been some rumors lately that Blizzard has purposely gone in and simplified the gameplay in Diablo III because they're preparing for a port to consoles. I don't know if this is true, but from what I've heard and read from people who've actually played the game in different states of development, the game has actually become quite a lot more simplified since it was was first announced, particularly when it comes to skill management. I really don't know if this is a good or a bad thing.

On the positive side, the way things work now, you can basically switch your entire spec in just a few clicks. If you've played as a frost-specced wizard the entire game, you can just change a few things and suddenly you're fire-specced. No need to create an entirely new character to play another specialization. On the negative side, this means that there are few to none really meaningful choices when it comes to creating and developing your character. It's all just given to you, and you can just pick and choose what you want to use, and repick at no cost if you're not happy with what you've got. I'd like it better if they had used some sort of re-training system. Like in Titan Quest, where you need to go to an NPC and pay them to remove the unwanted skills.

Removal/postponing of features

It has also been said that quite a few features that was announced at some point, has later been removed from the game. I'm trying to find a comprehensive list of these features, but so far haven't been able to do so. I have, however, found a few featured that was once either announced or in the game, but has since been either scrapped entirely, or pushed back to post-release.

The first one I found was the Talisman. I hadn't heard about this one, but after reading a bit about it, it sounds really sweet. I can't really understand why they decided to remove it. Basically, this is what would have replaced the classic charms from Diablo II. The Talisman was a separate inventory that could only contain charms, which in this case looks like they're parts of enemies you've killed rather than... Whatever the charms in Diablo II were. You'd fill the available slots in the Talisman (I'm assuming the slots would unlock as you level up, or something, I've seen screenshots where some slots seem to be unavailable) with these charms, and they'd give you extra bonuses. But now it's gone. Bashiok has said that they want to bring it pack post-release, and I really hope they do, 'cause as I said, it sounds really sweet. I mean, the charms in Diablo II were nice, but I'd rather have something like this, that doesn't take up my regular inventory space.

Another removed feature, although it can't technically be called a "removed feature" from what I've read, is the brutal death animations. In case you don't know, or don't remember, what I'm talking about, when they first showed the game, the very first video released, they had a boss at the end that, instead of just knocking the players to the ground when they were killed, actually picked the player up and bit off its head. These animations will, unfortunately, not be in the game. And while I understand why, as all of these would have to be scripted very carefully to actually work, which would've taken quite a lot of time, it's a bit sad. I'd been looking a bit forward to seeing my character being brutally slaughtered when I fail. There's no word on whether these will be implemented at a later date, but somehow I doubt it.

One postponed featureg that I, personally, don't really care that is pushed back, is the PvP arena system. I am not a PvP player, and while the PvP system in Diablo III might be better than what it was in Diablo II (which was essentially non-existant (ear-gathering!?)), it's still utterly uninteresting to me, and I'm very glad they decided to postpone this to get the game out earlier.

The last removal I want to mention is one of the Artisans, the Mystic (the other two being the Blacksmith and the Jeweler). The Mystic was originally going to be the goto-NPC for scrolls, potions, magic weapons, runes, charms and enchantments, as well as being able to mass-identify. During the beta she lost the ability to create potions, scrolls (which has all been removed from the game or made into non-item functions), weapons, runes (which you now gain at levelups) and charms (which was removed with the removal of the Talisman). She was basically reduced to an enchanter, and they decided to remove her until they had given her more of a purpose. Which I can understand. I'm just curious how they will eventually re-introduce her.

Auction Houses (both gold and Real Money Transfer)

While having an Auction House in a games like World of Warcraft and other MMORPG's makes sense, I'm not so sure that having it in a game like this does, though. To be quite honest, I'm very conflicted about how I feel about this. On one hand, I feel like it will be a bit of "pay-to-win", only that you're restricted to stuff that other players have found and put up. On the other hand, I probably wont play with anyone who'll actually use this. At least not for buying items. I, and those I'll play with, might sell stuff for real money... But I'm pretty sure at least I don't want to buy anything for real money. I might buy stuff on the gold-AH, but I highly doubt I'll ever use the RMT-AH for buying anything. So... Yeah. I don't know.

They'll probably use the Action Houses as another excuse for the always online DRM as well. Bah.

Conclusion

As a result of all of this, my expectations for this game has been significantly lowered. I'm far from as enthusiastic about Diablo III as I was when it was first announced back in 2008. I'm still very much looking forward to it, but I'm not feeling it as much as I used to do. I hope I'll be proven wrong in the end, and that it'll be as epic it's supposed to be... But yeah, we'll see.