1UP recently interviewed the lead designer behind Diablo III. Evidently, Blizzard picked up ex-Troika Studios bigwig Leonard Boyarsky as part of their team. This is pleasing to know as I'm a huge fan of Fallout and this guy was one of the people behind that as well (I wonder where Tim Cain is now?). If there's a PC game I love more than Diablo, it's Fallout (Baldur's Gate also fits in this category).
So that's very reassuring -- not that I was worried after seeing the 20 minute gameplay trailer. It was exactly what I wanted from a new Diablo game. It's not some World of Diablo bullshit, there's no first person camera... They've nailed it as far as I can tell. I just hope they manage to include things like being able to respec skills (since Blizzard is notorious for nerfing things from patch to patch in Diablo II) and a shared stash (as featured in third party app PlugY). I already know that they're implementing a loot system like the one featured in Mythos, where each character sees monsters drop items specific to them.
So the key to making a good Diablo game isn't necessarily doing anything radically new, it's just making everything better. You don't need to start from scratch because the formula works as it is. Basically you can just refine it and make it prettier and then kick it out the door as the next sequel.
I don't mind if we don't see many more returning classes though. I was a huge fan of the Rogue in the first Diablo, and while I wasn't terribly keen on her at first, the Amazon was ultimately my favorite class to play as (even though bows where one of the biggest casualties of nerfing). I just love those lightning-infused javelins! It's like a bow, but it's not.
One thing I hope they do add for the Barbarian is a few elemental skills since he was damn pitiful soloing in Hell difficulty, which brings me to another want... I hate how un-fun and needlessly difficult it is to play a singleplayer campaign in Hell mode in Diablo II. Every monster is immune to at least one thing, so if you only have one good elemental skill and you come across a monster that happens to have that particular immunity... You're fucked. I think Blizzard competely forgot that there where people who still played the singleplayer campaign for fun.
And although it's speculation on my part, I'm glad they've gotten rid of stamina. I see no gauge for it in the GUI in the videos and that's a tremendously good thing. It was a terribly stupid idea that slowed down the game in Diablo II. I guess they figured that they had to add another incentive for people investing so many points into vitality, because I can't think of a logical reason why it was ever included in the first place. They're talking about wanting to speed up the action in Diablo III though. That's one of the reasons they added the health orb drops, so coming from that side of things, I think it's safe to assume that stamina is gone.
Strangely, the news of Diablo III's coming also made me much more interested in StarCraft 2. When Diablo III comes out, I'll make sure I have a capable PC just for those two games (Blizzard is very good about making games that can run on low system requirements though).
So that's very reassuring -- not that I was worried after seeing the 20 minute gameplay trailer. It was exactly what I wanted from a new Diablo game. It's not some World of Diablo bullshit, there's no first person camera... They've nailed it as far as I can tell. I just hope they manage to include things like being able to respec skills (since Blizzard is notorious for nerfing things from patch to patch in Diablo II) and a shared stash (as featured in third party app PlugY). I already know that they're implementing a loot system like the one featured in Mythos, where each character sees monsters drop items specific to them.
So the key to making a good Diablo game isn't necessarily doing anything radically new, it's just making everything better. You don't need to start from scratch because the formula works as it is. Basically you can just refine it and make it prettier and then kick it out the door as the next sequel.
I don't mind if we don't see many more returning classes though. I was a huge fan of the Rogue in the first Diablo, and while I wasn't terribly keen on her at first, the Amazon was ultimately my favorite class to play as (even though bows where one of the biggest casualties of nerfing). I just love those lightning-infused javelins! It's like a bow, but it's not.
One thing I hope they do add for the Barbarian is a few elemental skills since he was damn pitiful soloing in Hell difficulty, which brings me to another want... I hate how un-fun and needlessly difficult it is to play a singleplayer campaign in Hell mode in Diablo II. Every monster is immune to at least one thing, so if you only have one good elemental skill and you come across a monster that happens to have that particular immunity... You're fucked. I think Blizzard competely forgot that there where people who still played the singleplayer campaign for fun.
And although it's speculation on my part, I'm glad they've gotten rid of stamina. I see no gauge for it in the GUI in the videos and that's a tremendously good thing. It was a terribly stupid idea that slowed down the game in Diablo II. I guess they figured that they had to add another incentive for people investing so many points into vitality, because I can't think of a logical reason why it was ever included in the first place. They're talking about wanting to speed up the action in Diablo III though. That's one of the reasons they added the health orb drops, so coming from that side of things, I think it's safe to assume that stamina is gone.
Strangely, the news of Diablo III's coming also made me much more interested in StarCraft 2. When Diablo III comes out, I'll make sure I have a capable PC just for those two games (Blizzard is very good about making games that can run on low system requirements though).
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