One of the most awaited games of all time, Diablo III, has left a bittersweet taste in our mouths just days after it launched. With the exception of, maybe Half-Life 3, this was probably the game everyone was asking for and looking forward to play the most, yet because of some not-so-good choices made by their developers, the Blizzard team, the game leaves a bit to be desired. Let’s discuss this in depth.
Now, we know that gaming as a form of art is subjective, we know that at some points we’re nitpicking and talking about preference rather than actual problems, and above all, we know that being the sequel to Diablo 2, one of the best reviewed games of all time, you’re gonna disappoint a bunch of people no matter what you do. Still, we believe some of these complaints are genuine and do hold a point. These are 5 things we wanted from Diablo III but didn’t get. Do you agree with our list? Jump over to the comments section, and feel free to yell at us.
1- Offline Single Player Mode
There is no reason why a game that can be played and beat in single player mode requires constant Internet connection to Blizzard’s Battle.net servers. If we wanna play by ourselves, and just experience the game as lone warriors, we should be able to. What if the user doesn’t care about auction houses, invites, nor stuff, and just wants to have the Diablo experience for one player updated since the Diablo 1 & 2 days?
2- Servers That Actually Let Us Log In
Even if the excuse for the always-on DRM is that it’s preventing people from hacking and duplicating items (again, we don’t care that much if we’re just playing single player campaigns), the game should work. A lot of users straight up haven’t been able to log into the game they bought, and while people say stuff such as “chill, it’s only a game”, we don’t quite get why this is something gamers should put up with. Imagine going to a play or football match and being told after you’re seated “hey, there’s not gonna be any events today. Come back in a week.” People might be able to come at another point in the future, but this is clearly not going to leave a good taste in their mouths.
3- Character Customization
Remember how in Diablo 1 & 2, if you wanted, you could create a physically oriented necromancer that could wield the biggest swords in the game, or a barbarian with a high mana stat? Say goodbye to that, as now leveling up just means your stats go up the way Blizzard intended without any input from the user. And that might be efficient, but removing things you could do in previous entries hardly ever works well with fans.
4- A complete, non-broken game
We know releasing buggy games and patching it as the producer notices is the common practice nowadays, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it. Be sure to save often, as many decisions (such as the one depicted above) could end up crashing your game. We’ve read reports of even the “controlled fury” achievement for the barbarian being bugged, and it’s not like achievements prevent or enhance the fun, but these things should have been tested before release, they even had a beta to try all of these things out.
5- Having Diablo III Be Dependant On Skill Instead of Money
Being that Blizzard Activision also wants its share of the micro-transactions market, an auction house, were players can use real money to buy in game items is featured in Diablo III. That means, some of the weapons in the game could be a drop, or could be yours by just imputing your credit card number. And sure, equipment alone doesn’t mean you’ll beat the game or you’ll be the very best player, but it sure does help, right? One player can simply have all the strongest gear by paying his way instead of working for it, and that’s just against the spirit of the franchise. Sure it’s legal, but doesn’t mean we have to like it.
All in all, times have changed, and Diablo III is a great fun game, but we think that by looking at the past, and what they’ve done with the franchise before, Blizzard Activision could learn a thing or two.
