Anyone else disappointed with Diablo 3?

[HarryPot]

I was so thrilled to play the game. But when I reached Nightmare, it started to bore me. Then reaching Hell, at around Lvl 50, I couldn't play it any longer.

After so many hours, not a single nice item!!!!! And the story, it is so linear.

I remember playing Diablo 2 non-stop trying to find better items. Even in Normal you would get some Set Items and some Unique Items. Here in D3, not a single Set or Legendary item after playing the whole Normal and Nightmare difficulties. And in Hell, nothing changes. Even the Rare items I get are crap.

And buying in the Auction House is boring and you need a stupid amount of gold to actually get something decent.

So, anyone else feels the same way?

 

[ka-spot]

I want to try the game, so I can be bored too, but the price is still wrong, and I want offline single player..

 

[hkim1983]

I have problems with Diablo 3, but I don't quite agree with what you're saying.

Diablo has never been known for its story, in fact, honestly, Diablo's story is pretty bad if you look at it retrospectively (and yes, I'm including Diablo 1 and 2). Diablo's greatest strength was the atmosphere it created in Diablo 1, which unfortunately, was lost in Diablo 2 and never reclaimed in Diablo 3. If you were a new player to the Diablo series, I could understand your disappointment or failed expectations in the story (since this is what people look for in a game now), but as a veteran of the series, you really should have known better.

Now, let's talk about itemization. I have problems with the way itemization is implemented in Diablo 3, and I have problems with the drop rate of usable items in Diablo 3, but I don't agree with what you're saying at all. First things first, I have found 4 legendaries and 1 set item. Aside from the 1 set item, I actually did not find any of those items via elites or bosses, but rather from jars and "white" enemies. My MF was fairly low too at the time, so that's irrelevant. 2 of my 4 legendaries sold for quite a lot, the other 2 were trash. My one set item was also trash. What I want to establish is the random and gambling factors involved in loot based games like Diablo. Just because I've found 5 of these items in my playthrough doesn't mean you'll find even one. Under normal circumstances, this doesn't really mean anything to be honest, as long as what you are finding is usable.

Therein lies one of the major problems with Diablo's itemization system. The vast majority of stuff you find on your own (with some possible exceptions, most notably in rings/amulets) is completely useless to you where you are at in the game. A lot of people talk about Inferno when they mention this (and I can verify that), but even when you go back to earlier difficulties, the majority of drops I've encountered were totally useless to me for that particular act and only useful for previous acts/difficulties. Although I feel that legendary/set items should be slightly buffed in terms of drop rates (and actually, legendary/set items need to be buffed stat wise too, the weapons in particular are almost useless), it would be fine if they remained as is if you could STILL FIND USABLE ITEMS FOR YOURSELF, which you can not (unless you have god like luck).

As for the Diablo 2 argument...well, I'm not sure what you're remembering, but the vast majority of set items were complete trash in LoD (remember that set items did not exist in D2 original). Finding trash set items is no different than what we're currently seeing (trash rares, or yellow). Uniques (or legendaries as they are now called), were also mostly trash except for a few particular, highly coveted items. Yes, I did find more uniques in Diablo 2 than I did in Diablo 3, but how many were actually usable or tradable? Only a fraction of them.

As for the AH, yes, I agree that gold is currently (still) inflated, despite the fact that it is stabilizing. As for not being able to buy anything? If you're not at level 60, it's a moot argument. The stuff that's tens of millions is the stuff that's way overpriced. That being said, it's not difficult to amass wealth in gold if you're savvy with commodity markets (this is no different than trading in Diablo 2, it's just more efficient now). Buy low, sell high. Do some research into the type of gear that is highly desirable, look for items that are clearly worth more than what they're selling for, buy it up, and then resell at a higher price.

 

[Nightarchaon]

online only was the deal breaker for me, this class of game i like playing to kill a few hours on train journeys,

and thats before we get to real money Auction hours and all the hacking issues.

Glad my pre-order collectors edition failed to arrive at Game, pre-ordered torchlight 2 on steam, at least steam has an OFFLINE mode...

sadly i think we are in a transition from boxed games, to online style streaming being the ONLY way to play games, with Diablo 3s always on DRM being the middle ground, and lets face it, how long before EA or Blizzard cotton on to the fact that with the ENTIRE game streamed they can turn it off when they want to force you to buy a new game.

I can see the greedy sods doing it sooner rather than later, Turn off access to Diablo 4, or COD 32 or Gears 72 and release the next in the series, now roll about in your scrooge mcduck money pit.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I didn't even play it 20 hours before I put it down. And towards the end of that, the only reason I was having any fun was because I bought items off of the auction house.

It's, quite honestly, a terrible game.

Save your money. Buy torchlight 2 in a month.

 

[Windgrace]

I didn't even play it 20 hours before I put it down. And towards the end of that, the only reason I was having any fun was because I bought items off of the auction house.

It's, quite honestly, a terrible game.

Save your money. Buy torchlight 2 in a month.

Torchlight 2 seems like it will be really good. The videos I've watched from the beta look fantastic.

D3 was fun in Normal. Nightmare added a bit of challenge. Hell got boring. In Inferno now and I'm sick of knowing it takes an hour to grind out like 150-200k gold and that individual item upgrades are in the 3-5 million price range. I can progress ok in Act 1, but it's tedious and unrewarding. I haven't had a single item drop that's useful for me. No legendaries with over 80 hours played. D2 endgame was fun doing MF runs, Baal runs, leveling, etc. This is "Oh gawd, those soul lashers have WHAT affixes?" (Shielding, Mortar, Invulnerable Minions, Fast, etc) It doesn't make the game fun or challenging.

 

[HarryPot]

If you were a new player to the Diablo series, I could understand your disappointment or failed expectations in the story (since this is what people look for in a game now), but as a veteran of the series, you really should have known better.

I never played the first Diablo. But played Diablo 2 quite a lot. I know the story wasn't that great. Maybe I'm referring more to the maps that got you trough the story. They were HUGE. In D3, I find myself seeing how all the paths are, in the majority, very linear. And even the story felt more extensive. In D3 I sometimes felt as if I were completely lost in what was happening in the story. D2 kept me more interested. Tho, I couldn't say this is the turn-off for me in D3.

As for the Diablo 2 argument...well, I'm not sure what you're remembering, but the vast majority of set items were complete trash in LoD (remember that set items did not exist in D2 original). Finding trash set items is no different than what we're currently seeing (trash rares, or yellow). Uniques (or legendaries as they are now called), were also mostly trash except for a few particular, highly coveted items. Yes, I did find more uniques in Diablo 2 than I did in Diablo 3, but how many were actually usable or tradable? Only a fraction of them.

I almost never played D2 online. All my items in which I used to pass Hell were obtained from the game drops. I know, most sets were crap, but it was exciting being able to complete a set. Bragging to friends about how I had completed, or had almost completed, a set. About unique items that had cool names or some cool attributes.

Even if few were actually useful, it felt gratifying to be able to get unique and set items without much difficulty. At Hell, I rarely picked up rare items (not a single magic item was picked up). Because I knew that uniques came quite easily.

That being said, it's not difficult to amass wealth in gold if you're savvy with commodity markets (this is no different than trading in Diablo 2, it's just more efficient now).

But I never traded in Diablo 2 and the game was still enjoyable and wasn't that hard. In D3, without the AH, it would have been literally impossible for me to beat Hell. In D2, once past Nightmare, money wasn't such an issue. Your items were acquired by playing. Money was just for buying potions, etc. Which reminds me, ONE potion per each 30 seconds!!!!!

I want to try the game, so I can be bored too, but the price is still wrong, and I want offline single player..

Requiring to be online is also a PITA.

This is "Oh gawd, those soul lashers have WHAT affixes?" (Shielding, Mortar, Invulnerable Minions, Fast, etc) It doesn't make the game fun or challenging.

Some blue/yellow mini-bosses aren't only more difficult than the actual bosses, but some are almost impossible to kill. I had once a Vampiric Regeneration Minion (something along this), and I swear, he was immortal!!

Also, boss fights in a closed environment aren't very good.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It might be I'm older. But from what all my friends which played the game tell me. And from what I see in the internet. D3 seems to have left much to be desired.

It might be that after so many years I expected too much. But the truth is, right now I want more to play D2 again instead of playing D3.

 

[Windgrace]

Well it seems like Blizzard completely ignored everything that the LOD expansion and subsequent patches brought to Diablo 2. The best runewords, high runes, elite unique items, high tier set items, and some other things like gambling and cut them out entirely. Why take one step forward and 10 steps back? Probably a marketing thing so Blizzard can release "new" content in future expansions to eek a few more $ out of people. As it stands now, D3 isn't fun and it's replayability sucks. Inferno isn't a challenge, it's cheap. The drop rates are atrocious. The auction houses take the fun out of gear grinding and is required to progress. The market is absolutely insane right now. There's like no point to over half the skills/runes after nightmare difficulty.

 

[malman89]

I didn't even play it 20 hours before I put it down. And towards the end of that, the only reason I was having any fun was because I bought items off of the auction house.

It's, quite honestly, a terrible game.

Save your money. Buy torchlight 2 in a month.

I haven't even been able to PLAY my D3 and I've almost come to this conclusion. I loved the original Torchlight. I'll give D3 a shot once I get my new computer, but it's not looking good.

 

[hkim1983]

online only was the deal breaker for me, this class of game i like playing to kill a few hours on train journeys,

and thats before we get to real money Auction hours and all the hacking issues.

Glad my pre-order collectors edition failed to arrive at Game, pre-ordered torchlight 2 on steam, at least steam has an OFFLINE mode...

sadly i think we are in a transition from boxed games, to online style streaming being the ONLY way to play games, with Diablo 3s always on DRM being the middle ground, and lets face it, how long before EA or Blizzard cotton on to the fact that with the ENTIRE game streamed they can turn it off when they want to force you to buy a new game.

I agree that online only was not a wise decision and did not work out for them (with all of the exploits players were still able to utilize and all of the accounts that were hacked). The single biggest complaint I hear from people is that it was online only and they had only intended to play it single-player, and this is a very legitimate issue.

I also think we are in transition, but I'm not as paranoid as you are. It's not entirely a matter of forcing you buy the new game, it's also a matter of maintaining these servers beyond the point of revenue covering the expenses. This is a more complicated issue that I don't wish to expand upon though.

It's, quite honestly, a terrible game.

Save your money. Buy torchlight 2 in a month.

If you honestly think Diablo 3 is a "terrible" game, then you clearly have not played a lot of games in your lifetime. I am not a D3 defender, but D3 is not a terrible game. It's clear that it wasn't your cup of tea, and that's fine.

I'm also looking forward to Torchlight 2.

Torchlight 2 seems like it will be really good. The videos I've watched from the beta look fantastic.

D3 was fun in Normal. Nightmare added a bit of challenge. Hell got boring. In Inferno now and I'm sick of knowing it takes an hour to grind out like 150-200k gold and that individual item upgrades are in the 3-5 million price range. I can progress ok in Act 1, but it's tedious and unrewarding. I haven't had a single item drop that's useful for me. No legendaries with over 80 hours played. D2 endgame was fun doing MF runs, Baal runs, leveling, etc. This is "Oh gawd, those soul lashers have WHAT affixes?" (Shielding, Mortar, Invulnerable Minions, Fast, etc) It doesn't make the game fun or challenging.

I find what you're saying perplexing because my experiences have been the opposite. I actually thought normal was really, really boring, and things got progressively better until I played Act 2 Inferno for the first time. I still think Act 1 Inferno is the most fun I've had in Diablo 3, and it's the last time you're allowed any kind of freedom or creativity on how you want to approach the game.

Grinding gold is one of the least efficient ways to amass wealth in Diablo, although it's good in terms of getting the initial investment required to start taking advantage of the commodity market. I agree though, tier 1 and even 1.5 gear is inflated, and unfortunately, this is the kind of gear you need to progress beyond Act 2 in Inferno. I also agree that it's depressing, and almost pointless to play beyond a certain point simply because the game isn't dropping USABLE items in enough quantity to reward the player for his/her efforts. It's not the set/legendary drop rates that are the problem, it's what I just outlined.

I personally hated boss runs in D2. It was ok for the first few months, but after you've logged in thousands, and thousands, and thousands of runs, the sheer repetitiveness and tedious nature of it really gnaws at you. I've come to hate almost everything in life that is tedious and repetitious, but doesn't offer any tangible reward. That's just my personal opinion though.

I also agree with the stupid affix combinations you can run into in Inferno. Blizzard doesn't know how to handle difficulty in their games, what they've created is artificial difficulty that creates frustration and not accomplishment. There's little to no skill in this game to begin with (and there never really was any in Diablo in general, it's not a skill based game), so there's nothing you're getting out of this (which is made worse in conjunction with the horrible drops).

 

[koban4max]

well, i'm off to D2. who's with me?

 

[ScottishCaptain]

I was going to write a massive diatribe here about Diablo 3, but I'll keep it down to one and only one point.

Every single change Blizzard has made to the game thus far (usually without telling us) has not been for the better- in fact, the majority of the changes have made the game even more tedious and monotonous then it already is.

What caused me to leave though, was this:

In the up-comming patch for 1.03, they're retroactively changing the way Increased Attack Speed (IAS) works on weapons and items you ALREADY HAVE. They're not changing it for the better either- IAS will soon become an irrelevant stat, even though at the moment- it is one of the most important stats when gearing up to do damage.

The fact that I can happily piss away $100 of real money in their "Real Money Auction House" bidding on good gear that is good today- and have Blizzard turn around and make that gear worthless in a future patch, raises huge trust issues for me. It also says that their play testing and Q/A has failed on multiple levels, especially if they think they need to go and change this **** post-launch.

So I stopped playing Diablo 3, specifically because of this.

I know virtual items are virtual items and they don't exist- but part of the fun was finding stuff better then everyone else, and knowing that it was valuable and worth money either as in-game gold or real-world cash.

Blizzard has shown that they have the power to change everything, even if you've paid real money for it. And they will do so whenever and however they see fit.

Why waste time building a giant sand castle when Blizzard can (and will) simply stumble over and knock it down?

-SC

 

[HarryPot]

well, i'm off to D2. who's with me?

Count me in.

Now I just have to make Diablo 2 work in Lion.

I hate having to use BootCamp just for it.

 

[koban4max]

Count me in.

Now I just have to make Diablo 2 work in Lion.

I hate having to use BootCamp just for it.

damn..only if ya had snow leopard

 

[Consultant]

Blizzard nerfed Magic find & increased cost for repairs =(
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5888889794

My conclusion: all the changes are made to force people to use the auction house with real money.

Edit: and read this analysis about the 1.0.3 update http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5890100318

 

[antonis]

Count me in.

Now I just have to make Diablo 2 work in Lion.

I hate having to use BootCamp just for it.

Plays perfectly fine with wineskin.

 

[InlawBiker]

My conclusion: all the changes are made to force people to use the auction house with real money.

I was looking to see who would say this first. You're exactly right of course.

If you look at the WoW franchise they started they can keep it going with recurring fees. This has been a gold mine for them. Diablo 3 has no fees. How do they propose to make all their money?

They're following the latest micro-transaction trend in gaming. You just make the game a total slogfest. Good items are exceedingly rare. Casual gamers who don't have dozens of hours per week to play will buy items for $1 or $2 to keep going.

So far I have not used real money, but I've been able to get adequate gear to stay alive in the fake gold auction house.

Overall, I don't find the game compelling enough to spend more money to play even more. It's the same bad story over and over again.

 

[Consultant]

I was looking to see who would say this first. You're exactly right of course.

If you look at the WoW franchise they started they can keep it going with recurring fees. This has been a gold mine for them. Diablo 3 has no fees. How do they propose to make all their money?

They're following the latest micro-transaction trend in gaming. You just make the game a total slogfest. Good items are exceedingly rare. Casual gamers who don't have dozens of hours per week to play will buy items for $1 or $2 to keep going.

So far I have not used real money, but I've been able to get adequate gear to stay alive in the fake gold auction house.

Overall, I don't find the game compelling enough to spend more money to play even more. It's the same bad story over and over again.

Yeah, quite annoying considering it's $60.

In contrast, Valve made team fortress 2 free but the in app purchases are optional and involve tradeoffs.

 

[leman]

I am very dissapointed. I like the gameplay changes, but the game itself is very boring and offers only a small amount of content in relation to the price they ask for the game. The normal mode was very boring, and then I am supposed to run the same thing a second time on a slightly more difficult setting so that I am able to get to challenging gameplay at last. Any sane game offers a difficultly slider to adjust it to your preference. But with Blizzard, you have to grind even that. And I don't even mention the item balance, the abundance of useless rare items in game (in D2, you were always happy to find a rare, in D3, I just vendored them because that stuff was dropping left and right), or the totally absurd heaps of gold that were thrown at you right from the beginning. Or that awful, cheesy, horrible story and incompetent character voicing (the Barbarian was great though). I uninstalled D3 with a strong determination never to buy a Blizzard game again. At least until they start creating something new again and offer a competitive price for their products. 60€ for a 10 hour game is NOT a competitive price, no matter how often they force you to rerun it.

 

[cerote]

I am quiet happy with it.

Yes the 1.0.3 patch did alter some stuff but I am getting better gear drop now than before the patch on act 1 inferno. I am actually getting useful gear. And the cost for making items helps a lot too.


As for repairs I was little off set by the cost going up but then I noticed I was actually getting more money dropped than before so that made up for the repairs when I need it.

Their goal there was not to keep barrelling into a mob and die and repeat. Shows even more since they have the mobs health set to reset when you resurect. Used to be the mobs health slowly regen'd; now it is instant full health.

 

[gdeputy]

former long time diablo 2 player here.

Most of these complaints are pretty pointless.

I played diablo 2 for maybe 5 years and I can count on 2 hands the number of really really excellent items I found.

Your rose tinted glasses are betraying you.

Dupes are what made D2 filled with great items.. it was an exploit.

Drops in diablo 2 were extremely limited also, and the only reason they did drop more was because you could quickly kill boss, get pre-determined drop and recreate game all with MASSIVE MF gear (hell difficulty was a breeze).

Not possible on inferno.

The game is incredible imho, everyone complaining doesn't remember what sucked about d2 (the same boss kill over and over) and what's awesome about diablo 3 (finally I can get best loot just by PLAYING).

 

[AcesHigh87]

D3 is not a perfect game by any means; no game is. D2 wasn’t either but people can’t seem to remember this.

I can admit, D2 was significantly better than D3 on a lot of levels. However something people seem to forget is how long D2 was out. It was polished to that nice shiny finish, it wasn’t released like that. D3 is a game, just like any other, and it will always have it’s issues from the get go. Bitching about them all won’t change that. All it did was make Blizzard create 1.0.3 which people bitch about even more. The Diablo community these days is impossible to please.

I’ll admit that, yes, loot drop is kinda ****. My main character is wearing 95% AH gear and I think one thing from the Blacksmith (got lucky on the random properties) but I got all that gear from the Gold Auction House and never paid more than 50k for any of it. Yes, things cost insane amounts if you want the best gear ever but have you tried just getting good gear and then earning **** yourself? Or at least earning money to buy the better stuff? Now I’m just getting ranty... anyway.

It has flaws, any game will. Give it time though. Everyone freaking out and claiming how horrible it is won’t make the game any more enjoyable, it will just make it annoying. 90% of the same people bitching still play daily so what’s the point?

 

[InlawBiker]

To be fair, I'm pointing out that the game seems to be centered on the auction house, which is undeniably true. But I haven't seen anything that makes me need to spend real cash to buy imaginary gear.

I'm still playing the game and enjoying it. Every 10 levels or so I find myself under-geared, then I go to the Gold AH and buy some stuff, maybe sell my old. Then it's not so hard for another 10 levels. DiabloBay!

If I had to slog through hundreds of hours to find good items I would quit.

 

[doh123]

I'm so disappointed I've never bought or played it.

 

[HarryPot]

Casual gamers who don't have dozens of hours per week to play will buy items for $1 or $2 to keep going.

I read at the BattleNet forums that one guy actually made around $80 dollars in a single day selling equipment.

Maybe I'm an exception, but I hate games that need you to spend real money to keep enjoying a game.

I can admit, D2 was significantly better than D3 on a lot of levels. However something people seem to forget is how long D2 was out. It was polished to that nice shiny finish, it wasn’t released like that. D3 is a game, just like any other, and it will always have it’s issues from the get go. Bitching about them all won’t change that. All it did was make Blizzard create 1.0.3 which people bitch about even more. The Diablo community these days is impossible to please.

But right now D3 feels like it will always be updated to keep the Auction House alive. That's their objective now. They just don't want your $60 dlls for buying the game, they want you to keep spending money after that. This alone is a very big difference with D2. In Diablo 2 I NEVER played online basically because I didn't liked getting insane items that made the game so easy. D2 was updated with the sole purpose of improving the game and the user satisfaction.

Also, in D2 with many characters I got stuck in Hell because a lack of items, and had to keep playing to find better items, but also because every build was so different. Right now, with skills being able to change constantly, you can always have all the combinations every time. Tho most just end with the same skill set, since most skills are garbage at the end of the game.

It has flaws, any game will. Give it time though. Everyone freaking out and claiming how horrible it is won’t make the game any more enjoyable, it will just make it annoying. 90% of the same people bitching still play daily so what’s the point?

This is not the experience I'm having. Me and 3 other friends who bought the game, already gave up on it. All four of us were D2 fans. Truth is, I would have loved D2 with just new graphics and new items. It was the perfect game. For me.