Finally got to play D3 beta

[Daemonaz]

As a long time Diablo player (started in '97 with Diablo 1) I've been highly anticipating the release of this game. I've followed the development on this site for years, eagerly reading through beta reports from numerous of people on these boards and last weekend finally was my chance to play this game.

My plan for the open beta weekend was fairly straightforward: play the classes I'm least likely to play on release. So without much further ado I created a Barbarian as I've never much been a fan of Barbs, and entered the game. Where controls are concerned Blizzard did an amazing job, I felt right back home as I bashed my way through mob after mob. It didn't take much more than about 15min to get totally hooked. Credit where credit is due, the Barbarian is amazing. I don't think I've ever had this much fun smashing monsters; seeing their corpses fly allover the screen. Two hours later I stood in front of the Skeleton King, and dispatched rather easy off him as well. Difficulty wise I'd say the game is a bit easier (and could use still a small boost) than the early parts of Diablo II maybe because there's less difficulty spikes (apart from a unique Unburried boss with the Nightmarish modifier).

What struck me the most of these first two hours of Diablo III? The early game is massively improved. No more running around with gimp mana and auto-attacking half the time nor crawling like a snail because that stamina bar is empty again. It's 100% action right from the start. No need to go to town every 15min and dump all the low quality items you have acquired to pay for indentify or town portal scrolls. And most importantly of all no more inventory tetris (I know that a lot of people liked that inventory system but in my opinion it's a relic from a gaming time long past).

After finishing the beta with my Barbarian I was thirsty for more and addicted. Oh so very addicted and despite my reservations, and not wanting to spoil my release I ended up beating the Skeleton King on all classes; even the Witch Doctor which will be my first class on May 15th. I hunted achievements, and I capped my Blacksmith. Right now it's hard to imagine that I will have to wait another three weeks for release but we'll get there!

Despite all the praise there are also a few things that really grind my gears. The skill menu is really terribly designed. Trying to just change a skill or a rune and you have to go through several screens to find what you are looking for. It would be much better if the skills would be organized in one screen. The same goes for the chat window. It's hard to read anything in there in its current form. Then there was the annoying window popping up every time you picked up a lore book. It's great the lore book plays so that you can continue slaughtering things left and right but why does it have to pop up a window covering near half my screen? That kind of defeats the purpose of the whole lore book. And finally, and this may just be nitpicking, some of the voice acting was a little below par.

Overall I had great fun and I can't wait for May 15th!

[wrugoin]

What struck me the most of these first two hours of Diablo III? The early game is massively improved. No more running around with gimp mana and auto-attacking half the time nor crawling like a snail because that stamina bar is empty again. It's 100% action right from the start. No need to go to town every 15min and dump all the low quality items you have acquired to pay for indentify or town portal scrolls. And most importantly of all no more inventory tetris (I know that a lot of people liked that inventory system but in my opinion it's a relic from a gaming time long past).

You summed up everything I was enjoying with my first few hours of gameplay too. Nothing sucked more in Diablo 2 than starting a new character. That first hour of basic attacks, walking because of no stamina and running out of mana after 2 uses made act 1 almost unbearable. And god forbid you have a build in mind where you need to save attribute and skill points for later, you couldn't have any fun until the middle part of act 3.

[Daemonaz]

Yep exactly. Instead of auto attacking at low levels you now get to choose from a variety of skills. It was immense fun even at low levels. No more do you have to worry about saving skill points, or not having any resources to do anything, or having to walk like a snail half the time while at high levels Stamina meant nothing anymore.

[Penncrow]

I had closed beta access for a while now. Over the weekend, a few friends of mine finally got to play open beta for the first time. One of them loved it while the other was like "ehh". His main gripe is that it was too easy. He thinks he will be able to breeze through the game through inferno in a week or two.

Blizzard, please prove him wrong. (So I can laugh in his face when he dies multiple times)

[jurr]

I had closed beta access for a while now. Over the weekend, a few friends of mine finally got to play open beta for the first time. One of them loved it while the other was like "ehh". His main gripe is that it was too easy. He thinks he will be able to breeze through the game through inferno in a week or two.

Blizzard, please prove him wrong. (So I can laugh in his face when he dies multiple times)

Remind him that he's talking about Act 1 Normal mode. If that doesn't work tell him blizz has a whole warehouse full of nerf sticks that they ain't afraid to use.

[HardRock]

Are you active on the SPF Daemonaz? I seem to remember your name from back when I was only a lurker of the forums.

Anyway, it's always great to hear that veteran D2 player's can enjoy D3 as well.

The skill menu is really terribly designed. Trying to just change a skill or a rune and you have to go through several screens to find what you are looking for. It would be much better if the skills would be organized in one screen.

I can't agree enough. The handling of the hotbar is also horrible. We shouldn't be penalized for wanting to move skills around on the hotbar, but since the hotbar slots are linked to the actual skill slots moving skills between them triggers the skill switch cooldown. Words cannot express how stupid I think this is.

The same goes for the chat window. It's hard to read anything in there in its current form.

If you mean that it's constantly getting spammed by NPC conversation, then you can turn that off somewhere in the options.

Then there was the annoying window popping up every time you picked up a lore book. It's great the lore book plays so that you can continue slaughtering things left and right but why does it have to pop up a window covering near half my screen? That kind of defeats the purpose of the whole lore book.

There has to be a toggle for that as well, because the lore book didn't open for me in the last couple of weeks when I played. Most likely I turned it off, but I don't actually remember doing it.

[Daemonaz]

Hey HardRock,

Thanks for the tips I'll look into those things when I get to play on May 15th. The Lore book popping open a window every time was really annoying! And yes I've been around on these forums a long time but I've mostly been lurking the past few years. I was much more active back in the D2 years.

[Silverbanshee]

Credit where credit is due, the Barbarian is amazing. I don't think I've ever had this much fun smashing monsters; seeing their corpses fly allover the screen.

I couldn't agree more. The Barb was last on my list to try, until the open beta that is. Every time I used Leap on a mob, I couldn't stop grinning

It was the visceral and fun experience that I was looking for and haven't had in a long while in Diablo 2.

Despite all the praise there are also a few things that really grind my gears. The skill menu is really terribly designed. Trying to just change a skill or a rune and you have to go through several screens to find what you are looking for. It would be much better if the skills would be organized in one screen. The same goes for the chat window. It's hard to read anything in there in its current form.

I agree with you about the skill menu, it pulled me right out of the game. I thought at the time it was my lack of familiarity with the skills, but we'll see after a little more exposure to the game. Elective mode is a necessity, though, and they might give some thought to making that easier to find.

I didn't give the chat system much thought, but it was usable when I chatted in game a time or two just to see if people would respond. I will say I don't miss having to continuously press the "N" key to clear my screen of all the screen blocking spam in D2 these days...