I don’t know about you but the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the very first screen shot of Diablo 3 was Yep that’s definitely Diablo. I mean the game visually screams out I am a Diablo game. It has the same isometric view, with a red health bubble in the bottom-left corner of the screen, a blue mana bubble on the bottom-right corner of the screen, and a tool bar connecting them. Blizzard seems to have visually done everything they can to not change the Diablo formula.

Then I started watching the 20 minute gameplay trailer and once action my initial reaction was, Yep that’s definitely Diablo. It seems once again I’ll be walking around continuously clicking my right and mouse buttons as fast and furiously as possible to tackle the 10,000-to-1 monster to hero ratio. The images Blizzard showed of the Barbarian attacking and demolishing any demon in his path was exactly what I was used to seeing from Diablo and Diablo 2. Blizzard does not seem to be changing the gameplay formula in any way, shape, or form.



After watching all of the videos for Diablo 3 and reading every article I could find, a thought came to me … is this new game really Diablo 3 … or is it Diablo 2.5. I have to admit this was in no way what I expected from Diablo 3. I was thinking the game would be similar to World of Warcraft (WoW) or Hellgate: London in both visuals and gameplay. I thought the camera view would be from behind your character and you would select and attack with skills using the number pad like you do with WoW. I was not expecting it to be exactly like Diablo and Diablo 2, and honestly at first I was very disappointed that it is so similar to the previous games. I thought they would try to evolve the game more to be like other games on the market and to push the limits of the Diablo franchise which is over a decade old. Instead all Blizzard is delivering to me is a better looking Diablo game, that appears to play exactly the same. Suffice to say I was thoroughly disappointed.



Then I gave it a couple of days and thought about it and honestly now I am starting to change my mind. I think Blizzard is on the right path. It’s a VERY good thing that when I first saw the screen shots for Diablo 3 my first reaction was that “Yep, that’s definitely Diablo”. I didn’t get it confused at all with WoW or Hellgate. I mean if some one had simply showed me a screen shot of the game and asked me to guess what game it was I would have immediately said Diablo 3. The game is not trying to copy its competitors or even its own sibling, WoW. No, it’s forging its own path and sticking to its roots, which is exactly what the game should do. If the people loved Diablo, give them more Diablo!

I have to admit I am still worried though that this game will be nothing more then Diablo 2.5. The philosophy the Diablo 3 team is taking is to stick as close to the Diablo roots as possible, but they should still try to innovate. I’m sorry but simply improving the graphics engine, changing the tool bar, adding destructible environments, and adding new classes is not enough innovation. Diablo 2 is 8 years old and the game needs more then just a visual improvement and minor gameplay tweaks. They need to give me a reason to buy Diablo 3, rather then just playing Diablo 2 again to get my Diablo fix.

An innovation I would like to see first and foremost is a huge fluid and continuous world. Diablo 2 was broken up into Acts, and once you beat an Act you moved onto the next Act and never looked back. I would like to see Diablo 3 have a huge world map that you can explore, with lots of quests that take you wherever you want to go. There should be huge cities (like the ones shown in the cinematic trailer), small villages, vast dessert regions, wet tropical regions, and high snowy rocky peaks. I want to see a living breathing world that I can explore. In true Diablo fashion the world should be completely different for every person. The game can still have all the same regions, all connected in the same fashion, but each region should be randomly generated like in the previous Diablo games. That is a very important feature to keep I think. It adds incredible replay value to the game, and makes each players experience with the game unique.



Another important innovation would be to have a rich and in depth story that the player truly felt like they were a part of. The other two Diablo games definitely put gameplay first and story a far distant second. I think that needs to change. The story and gameplay need to go hand-in-hand. They player should always feel like they are getting enough of both, and not sacrificing one for the other. Another feature I would like to see is some type of mounted combat. WoW still hasn’t been able to figure out how to do this effectively. Maybe the Diablo 3 team can. Each class could have a set of skills that can only be used when mounted. That definitely would expand upon how the player chooses to tackle the huge hordes of demons that get thrown them. I think these innovations could really make for an epic game, and would allow it to be more then just Diablo 2.5.



This is Blizzard we are talking about here. They are arguably the best PC game developer of all time. Innovation is their company motto (“What’s a motto. I don’t know what’s the motto with you?”). So my question is where is the innovation in this game. In my opinion they haven’t really shown any yet. Now of course this doesn’t mean they aren’t innovating Diablo 3 to be light years better of Diablo 2. I have the feeling they have a lot hidden up their sleeve for this game and they just aren’t showing all their cards quite yet.

I mean the game is most likely at least 2 years away from being released and that’s a lot of time to slowly trickle out information about the story and the gameplay features to the public. Blizzard will probably milk that time for all it’s worth, and at the same time they will probably look to the fan community to give them feedback on everything they have showed, and then in response change the game to respond to the feedback. Blizzard does not put out a sub-par game. Hell they don’t even put out good games. They put out great games or nothing at all.

Well Blizzard let’s see it. Show us Diablo 3, not Diablo 2.5. Until then I will wait patiently, though probably not so quietly.