I'm sure that my review will piss some people off, but the truth has to told, at least in my opinion. When they first announced the game back in '08 i was very excited. For years Diablo fans were begging Blizzard for the next installment, i wish they would have ignorned the fans. One other thing i would like to add, I am a hardcore, longtime fan of the series. I played D1, it's expansion and D2 with it's expansion. I've played hundreds of hours with the first 2 installments.

Okay, so what's wrong with it? Let's start with bad first.

1. Having to be online, even playing a single player campaign.
2. Single player lag, this is almost unforgiveable.
3. Barely passable graphics, character models are poor with low poly count.
4. No stat distribution. Jay's excuse doesn't cut the mustard.
5. No skill trees. (same as above)
6. Weak plot, it was totally obvious what was going to happen.
7. Voice acting was poor.
8. The main campaign is way too short, it felt like a demo. Act 4 felt tacked on.
9. Music was just okay, I miss Matt Uelman.
10. Automatic skill gain by level, after 30 level you just get crapping upgrades that usually hinder most players build or playstyle.
11. $60 for a game that could be finished in under 20 hours or less.
12. Account security, alot of players are getting hacked, Blizzard should be ashamed by this.
13. Almost no replayability. Because of the poor design choices, it seems that they were going after a quick buck.
14. Real money auction house, paying real money for ingame items just seems crazy. The funniest part is the RMAH isn't even live.
15.No PVP at launch.

Im sure there is more, but it's 1:30 am in the city of the angels.


Okay now for the good.

1. Overall it's a decent hackfest.
2. Some of the dungeon events i thought were cool.
3. I actually liked the achievment system.
4. Holding down the left mouse button relieves index finger stress. No ore clicky click.
5. Background scenery was nice.
6. Secret area was alot of fun. ( I am withholding the name of purpose).

Graphics: 4/10 - Poor models, fog effect was hard on my eyes.
Gameplay: 5/10 - Almost no strategy required. Just hold down the mouse button.
Replayability: 2/10 - After the first play thru, i didn't feel the need to start over again.
Story: 3/10 - weak story overall.

Overall this game on a rating from 1-10 = 5.5 out of 10.

My final thoughts; Blizzard was a company that i held with high regard, after this release i will definately wait for a friends reccomendation for their next release.

Ad 1,2. There's no single player mode in D3, just so you know :)
Ad 14. Why crazy? Some people have other stuff to do rather than play D3 and have money they are willing to spend to get a decent gear. What's wrong with that?

Pretty much describes my experience except for No.8 (not even out of Act 1). First full price ($80AUD) game at launch i bought for a longtime - really disappointed although initial gameplay is OK.

I must be playing a different game, but I have 22 hours put in the game and I am still on Act 1 Normal.

There's more story in Act 1 than there is in other full games.

No stat distribution + no skill tree = no cookie cutter builds, and that's a good thing.

No replayability... you're not serious, right?

Sweet, It took me about 8 hours on my first playthru for act 1, I might be losing my mind, but it seemed that every act after the first gets shorter. I'm glad that you are enjoying the game. However, on my second playthru, i just blazed thru the first act in just over 1 hour.

Such bullshit, and you know it.

I don't think calling it "crazy" is a big exaggeration. I don't want to judge anyone and if someone wants to do this then he should be able. But what is the point? Obtaining items is essential part of the game. Then why not to pay someone for playing your game in the first place?
Playing games should be fun. If it isn't then either something's wrong with the game or with the player...

I must have missed most of your post, sadly imho there isn't replayability in this game. I've been very lucky and have looted 5 legendary's, the awful truth is some of my blue's are better than my legendary's. I miss the day when an item or set piece actually added something beneficial to my character other than stats.

You are going to have blast in the upcoming PvP then, without a fat wallet good luck.

While you are taking your time with it, you should know that it is the longest act and has the most plot or lore books. Act 2 is decent, but 3 and 4 are short, plot-less and just an excuse to throw anything at the player. These two go hand in hand. In D2 people would have 3 Paladins or 2 Barbarians replaying to create different builds.
When you hit lvl 60 in D3 you have everything unlocked, absolutely no reason to replay that character.

Anything close to a build comes in form of equipment - enter the AH, buy your way to victory!
I don't have any problems with the current form of it, aside that is it almost necessary beyond Normal.
A lot of people are complaining of poor loot drops. Because there aren't any skill points or attribute points to make your character stronger, people are being locked in certain parts of the game unable to progress without better equipment making the AH unavoidable.

I think stuff like this really hurts the longevity of the game, because beyond lvl 60 there's nothing much to do, but farming.

Some valid points but for me Diablo was always going to come up short and this should be your expectation based on Diablo 1 and 2 that you played

Yep........ I am a fan also and have Diablo 1 and 2 + Expansions and now also Diablo 3 Collectors.

However

Knowing the shortcomings of the first 2 games I had a slightly lower expectation and although not being pat of beta I could see development via Youtube videos so I had an inkling of what to expect

Online - yeah it sucks and the servers were a bitch from the start. This I hated but I knew they would improve.

Lag - Yeah its there and I dont find it unforgiveable as its there for a lot of online play.

Graphics - I dont like the fog stuff but the background design is fine and the engine passable however it does seem to be a starcraft II engine in disguise LOL. Still decent and Diablo never had exceptional in this catagory anyway. Its a Tile based game which is why having slight randomness works.

Plot - yep same as I mentioned before - Played the first two knew what to expect.

I could go on but I dont see the need

A lot of people here have said a lot and hey I agree to 80-90% of everyone here as its a bit dissapointing but I try not to sound out when angry or emotion is still with me from the outset as it just then is biased towards dissapointment.

My opinion is the journey in Diablo has been enjoyable. I like the jump in and play approach, the fighting is enjoyable, the scenery in the most part is varied from act to act and a lot goes on at 1 time making battles fanatic.

Dont like the camera much and dont like pressing the Z key as thats pretty useless
Love the music, like the voice acting (cain still sounds great and brings back memories)

In the end I can see the dissapointment, but it has not distracted for me the fun aspect, and as for re-play, you have quite a few classes to play through, plus open account policy + pvp later - seems to me its not the end for diablo 3

Not a great start, but far from a disaster.

You guys rock by the way as You mentioned so much that I had to open up the game again and see it myself, so thanks for all the valid points you guys make.

oh to keep it balanced - Random events suck b***s and missing a book of lore or a conversation is a pain in the arse. Still it is random and it made me play a lot longer because of it LOL

Technically, when you play alone, you are in an instance that is created by the server just for you. Call that single player or not, your choice.
I wouldn't call that replayability, but bad systems design.

Oh this has been adressed soo many times...
I'm not pissed off, you're entitled to you opinion. Just don't make your opinion equal with "truth". Ok?
What I think is....that basically the biggest mistakes D2 fans make is that they basically expected D2 with better graphics. That's the point.
While I agree with point 1 of the bad the rest I cannot agree.
I love Diablo 2 and I love Diablo 3. So here's my reply.

Ad.2 - I expreienced no lag myself. Yes, the always online DRM is stupid, but at the same time good internet connection could be counted as a system requirement just as a good processor.
Ad.3 - In 5 years you'll be grateful that the graphics look as they do. They're distinct, artful and not that bad. It's not Battlefield 3. Because the gfx look as they do, in 5 years they won't look that dated. Just look at WoW. It's still pretty although the engine didn't change in several years.
Ad. 4 - That is actually a good thing. The vast majority didn't play characters other than a specific 'build". You'd probably never make a melee sorceress based on str in D2 or an int barbarian. Why would you? Also now the stats can be modified extensively by gear.
Ad. 5 - Same as above. Skill trees only made character creation more rigid and most players never chose any skills past a specific build. And (pre 1.13) a mistake in point distribution often ended in a poor character that can't do much.
Ad. 6 - D2 had a "poor" plot too. There's a baddie, go kill. That's the story of pretty much every Diablo game. It's a typical heroic fantasy.
Ad. 7 - I played the localized version, but I've heard the English voices. Not that bad.
Ad. 8 - Speed runs of Diablo 2 are around 2 hours. It didn't have a longer campaign, just the dungeons and areas were more tedious to traverse.
Ad. 9 - I can agree with that :P
Ad. 10 - See "ad. 5" + you don't have to choose those upgrades. That's the point of the new system. It's flexible, choose whatever you like at any time to suit the current situation or your playstyle. In D2 I often made a character just to find that he (or she) was to weak for higher levels and had to redo and play from the beginning again. No more.
Ad. 11 - Today a game that takes 20 hours to beat is a looong game. Most take less than 10. Also, did you count doing all the achievements, beat the game with all the classes and on all difficulty levels?
Ad. 12 - That I can also agree with. For now all you can do it to get an authenticator.
Ad. 13 - See "Ad. 11".
Ad. 14 - Afaik the money goes to the seller and Billz only takes a small share. It's a semi good way to deal with "illegal" item trading on ebay - something that would happen either way. BTW I am puzzled by why so many people are annoyed by stuff that are optional to use. Nobody makes you use the AH or the RMAH. I mean yes, a player can have an unfair advantage in PvP just because they're rich (virtually or really), but that was the same in D2. There was item trading on forums, there was item trading on ebay. The AH is just a sure way not to get scammed.
Ad 15. That I can also agree with :P

With the good I agree.
My score would be:
GFX: 7/10 - They could be better, it could have more postprocessing, tesselation, SSAO and whatnot...but I know that in several years it won't look as dated as the currently "beautiful" games look.
Gameplay: 10/10 - intense, action packed, extremely addicting. Bosses require strategy, some enemies too. Yeah, mostly it''s a click-fest, but as if D2 was any different.
Replayability: 9/10 - tons of stuff to see, to explore, random events, dialogs, lore, achievements, varied classes, hardcore character, multiplayer...
Story: 5/10 - not too complicated, but not as obvious. A typical hero tale as in all Diablo games.

They added respecing into D2 with the latest patch. Guess that's another fine game down the shitter, right?

As for Oldschool...
I don't think you've actually played the game, have you? There's no way in hell (or normal / NM / inferno) that you can finish A1 in one hour. No fucking way.

And I'm not sure what you're going on about with the itemisation? Legendaries are basically Unique items from D2. The overwhelming majority were trash in D2 and it's the same in D3.

Have you actually played either of these games or is your 'review' based on reading forums and watching youtube?