I often find myself in much the same kind of scenario in modern games too - Bosses with unfair mechanics built into them to make them artificially harder, timed missions that can only be completed with a scant few seconds to spare so you have to play them near perfectly to progress, obligatory vehicle sections that barely work, repetitive side missions, all hallmarks of bad game design. But all things I'll put up with if the game world is interesting enough.
During this time I was also prodding at the world of RTS. I was already deep into Red Alert 2, and once the gleam started coming off that and I realised I couldn't make good custom maps for it to save my life, I started looking for something else. I'd played the game based on War of the Worlds, which was a rock solid RTS that let you play as both martian and human alike accompanied by extracts from Jeff Wayne's glorious rock opera as a soundtrack. I owe that game for introducing me to that musical triumph, but I also owe it for feeding my imagination with beautiful cut scenes like this.
Sadly rather poorly recorded there, but you get the idea. I soon found that I wasn't particularly interested in modern warfare, in Red Alert I loved the weird science elements and exaggerated Cold War vehicles that gave the series it's character and in War of the Worlds I loved the Victorian sensibilities of the humans, with their steam powered tanks and primitive submarines, and the elegant, alien war machines of the martians. It wasn't until a tiny company that you might have heard of called Blizzard released their latest game that I found another RTS that I could really sink my teeth into and get hooked on, and that game was Warcraft III.
At the time, Warcraft was unlike anything else I'd played. I'd never experienced a Warcraft game before, and found the slightly cartoony graphics and colourful, expressive art style to be a delight. Getting deeper into the game, the mechanics were fun, the initial units all seemed to have their own quirks and then I got into the story I found myself getting attached to members of all factions. The story of Warcraft III wasn't just a matter of all four factions fighting against each other, there were splinters in the factions themselves and each character was not only struggling against their external enemies, but often internal squabbles and betrayals. I found myself attached to Illidan and Kel'Thuzard, despite the fact there's a case to be made that they're both terrible people, and I found myself a tiny bit heartbroken by the eventual fate of Sylvanas and Grom. And of course I hated Arthas with a firey passion.But who didn't? Not to be inflammatory, but idiots, that's who. The fact I could get so involved in the world and story of an RTS was mind blowing, and I absolutely loved the fact you had a hero on the battlefield you could level up throughout the mission, giving it an RPG element to it as well.
Once I'd finished the expansion The Frozen Throne, I was more than ready for Warcraft IV to come along. It was one of the first games I could imagine myself being truly hyped over, and I'm sure you all know how that turned out by now. Since then I've had very little to do with Blizzard as a company. I was never really able to get into Starcraft, even though it was dripping with fantastic humour and both Jim Rayner and Kerrigan were fantastic characters, I just didn't find the gameplay or overall story as engaging as that of Warcraft's. I also have no interest in MMOs, a game genre that seems to take the worst parts of RPGs and put them front and centre, so World of Warcraft was never going to be for me. I kept tabs on the lore for awhile though, but with each new expansion bringing about the death of a character I once loved, I soon just gave up on that too. I was curious about Starcraft: Ghost, and have played a little Hearthstone recently, but with WoW being their one big product and Starcraft II not drawing me in as I'm afraid I might be a little lost having not finished the original, Blizzard and I haven't really crossed paths much in the intervening years.
Until a few days ago.
About a year ago, Blizzard released the third game in their other big tent pole franchise, Diablo III and from what I gleamed at the time it was a disaster. Always online DRM and in game loot that seemed to be programmed to bolster the online auction house instead of enhance player enjoyment made the game sound like a terrible deal on launch. I'd also never been into dungeon crawlers, but Torchlight II had opened my eyes to just how fun they could be and when I started to hear that the latest patch ahead of their expansion for the game was making Diablo sound a lot more fun and a lot more playable, well I had to give it a try.
Upon it's arrival, I couldn't help but notice how pretty the box art was. Certain PC games seem to have taken an unusual approach to packaging their games. They have a box that opens out at the front, revealing very pretty art and... Nothing else. To get to the game itself you have to open up the top, as per usual, and more often than not are met with a standard issue plastic DVD case. That being said, Diablo's cardboard inlay is a rather beautiful affair that opens out into even more beautiful art and some gameplay screenshots from here.
Inside I hoped to crack open the DVD case proper to find a big, meaty manual - Mainly because that's the kind of thing I like with my RPGs, even if I never read most of it. It's nice to have something I can just quickly reference without having to load up Google, but alas nothing here. What I did find though, was these.
Oh Blizzard, you savvy corporate whores, you!
Getting into the game proper, after a standard issue install, registration, log-in, etc. All the joys of PC gaming that have been around as long as I've been PC gaming, basically! I was treated to a rather impressive opening cinematic. I feel like I can't give Blizzard too much credit for this, as they've practically honed it down to an art over the years. They are the company that gave us gems like these.
Character creation is nothing to really shout about. You have a choice between Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor and Wizard. You can also choose Crusader, but only if you buy the brand new expansion Reaper of Souls. Which was prominently advertised to me before I started the game, and I feel like having the Crusader sitting there on the selection screen is just taunting me in and of itself. The character creation amounts to each character class having two character models, a male and a female, with no option to customise them beyond that. I'm a touch disappointed in this, as even Torchlight II had limited character customisation on it's various classes, and for a company as big as Blizzard with their extensive experience in the MMO field to come out with such a basic system is a touch baffling. I was also rather disappointed you couldn't put spaces in your name. What if I wanted to be a barbarian called Conman The Boobarian? Or just wanted to give myself a surname? That's a basic thing that can add just a touch more depth to your character, but unless you want to be known GeraldHarrison throughout the game it's impossible.
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| With thanks to vicogaming.com for the image. |
Eventually I chose the female Witch Doctor, based on the fact that she had a pretty kick arse mask. Of course, my first mistake was assuming that the gear I was looking at in the character creation was my starter gear. Oh no, friends, as soon as I was dropped into the game they stripped all that away. Literally.
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| With thanks to the Something More Than Sides blog for the image. |
Once I was over that madness, I began to get into the actual game play and I have to admit - It's really fun. I think the Witch Doctor was a good choice for me, as I really enjoyed her initial blow dart attack and her first passive, which grants you three protective demon hounds, has been pretty helpful in not getting me killed. She also kind of reminds me of the stoner trolls in Warcraft III, which is possibly problematic when we're talking about the only black human character in a game and not a bad Jamaican stereotype hiding behind a bunch of skinny blue trolls, but I have to admit it makes me smile anyway.
One thing that did baffle me, and that game manual I talked about earlier would have come in very handy to explain, was that once I gained my second power it wiped my standard melee attack from my hotkeys and I couldn't find a way to get it back anywhere. I've read that if you're playing a caster weapons become largely obsolete as things you hit people with, and instead their stats bolster your spells and other abilities. My mind can see how this logic makes sense, but on the other hand, sometimes I just like having the ability to bash something over the head with my sword. I think I might have to play as a Barbarian at some point, if only because I'd like to see how the weapon animations work at some point.
That being said, Diablo's dungeons are fantastic - Both the quest dungeons, and the optional dungeons you can walk right past if you like. I was charged with finding a crown in a crypt, and there were three choices of door to go down to find it. The first door I went down turned out to be on the one the crown was in, but for a lark I explored the other doors and I'm glad I did. They had the best loot in them that I'd found in the game, a variety of interesting enemy types and some of the other optional dungeons I've been in were rather sprawling and bore exploration in their own right. Considering this is the meat and bones of the game, I'm glad they nailed this. If I have one complaint so far, it's that the game is too easy. I'm not sure if that's just because I have decent gear and it's early game, or if I need to up the difficulty a bit, but we'll see how things go and I'll adjust accordingly.
There are a few other nitpicks and praises I could level at that game, but I think having spent a couple of hours on it the highest compliment I can give is that I'll definitely be playing more. Character customisation seems to come more from loot and gear than anything else, and while I'd prefer the colour palate to be a touch brighter, at least the darker, moodier tone they've gone with fits the world and story. Overall, I like it, and if I could send but one message to Blizzard it'd be 'Something as fun as this again, please! Maybe Warcraft IV afterall?'
A man can hope, a man can hope...
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