Diablo III’s First High Heavens Remembered
Posted 29 May 2012 by Flux
An entry on the Forbes tech blog revisits those leaked screenshots from 
Diablo III: Blizzard North version. There’s nothing new in the article, but it’s a nice reminder of what might have been, especially now that we can see many of the same (type of) areas in the Blizzard Irvine version of Diablo III.
The original shots are from 2005 (all the screens in this post are from the 2005 version) and were from a far-from-finished game (especially the interface), so who knows how that game’s High Heavens would have looked in the final product, but it’s obvious that the concept at least was embraced by the new D3 team. I’m not including any side by side shots from D3 for the .03% of people who might not have seen it in the game yet, but the rest of you can compare these shots to your own recent memories.
The Forbes article is brief and only has a few of the shots in not very large size. If you want much more gruesome detail about how the original version of Diablo III began and ended, see the article in DiabloWiki. Also, our gallery has every one of the leaked screenshots in much higher quality, plus other pics showing off some of the monsters from the D3 that never was.
We ran a vote back in February 2011 when these shots first appeared, asking which art style you guys preferred. The older D3 won, by a slight margin, but that was long before we’d seen any comparable areas in Diablo III. So let’s revisit that issue now, shall we?
Which version of the High Heavens do you prefer?
- 2) The current Diablo III version. (32%, 731 Votes)
- 4) Impossible to judge old unfinished screenshots vs. new playable levels. (29%, 677 Votes)
- 1) The original Blizzard North version. (23%, 541 Votes)
- 3) Both are awesome. (13%, 302 Votes)
- 5) Haven't seen yet in D3 spoiler SPOILER SPOILER!!1! (3%, 60 Votes)
Total Voters: 2,311
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Ah, the Diablo 3 that could have been…
We can only wish.
Eh, they’re both alright.
Failed To Verify Referrer
always happens when i try to answer poll
From the screens it looks like all Blizzard Irvine did was take Blizz North’s work and just copy/past and made it a much lighter version compared to what Blizz North did. They milked this project so hard its insane.
I’m really, really glad you posted this! I remembered this, and really wanted to dig it up, but I’ve been so deep in D3, I totally forgot about it! The heavens looked familiar, and now I can see why! Thanks!
I prefer the current D3 interpretation of the high heavens. It’s gorgeous… it looks like a nice, heavenly place you’d want to spend time in, rather than another desaturated, bleak labyrinth.
But I’m still wondering which boss battle the Irvine staff basically copied from the old D3 build. Jay Wilson said when he played the old build, they had one of the best boss fights he’s seen in a video game and they tried to recreate that in the current build. But the only boss that stands out from the others is Belial, and I find it hard to believe they had anything like that in the old version given the screenshots they released.
Umm there’s a poll?? I got this [poll id="34"] here poll should be.
I’m more interested in how much the story was reworked.
Does anyone know if the D3 team completely scrapped the old story and started over from scratch ?
Or did they use parts of BlizzNorth’s story?
Adria ?
Black soul stone ?
Fallen Angel ?
I can’t imagine Leah in the old D3 version. Just can’t.
At least, not with the emo-hairdo.
@Flux: Can you ask Max SChaefer or somebody HOW exactly Diablo would have ended up in Heaven in their old version? I’m pretty sure Act 4 in both versions of D3 would have been very similar…how we would have reached there is the question.
I did ask max about that on one of the podcasts, and he had no idea. he said they were in Act One like area in early planning, when he left in 2003. Obviously development went on and story progressed over the next 2 years. I’ll ask Matt Uelmen about it when I interview him next month, since he was at Bliz until 2007 and will know. Will he share info on the record? Remains to be seen.
The idea of “Nephalem” and the re-definition of “Prime Evil” seem especially late-era Metzen to me.
Where is neither? I like the art look of Diablo 3 more but I just don’t like the heaven setting that much. Mostly all the straight roads and stuff.
There is no contest. The art in the final version of Diablo III is absolutely stunning.