This must be the reason why D3...

[sacridoc]

They toned down the gothic aspect of the game, it's pretty obvious. But that's been happening since D1, so you can't just blame the current developers. I don't really understand it since the game still carries the M rating.

In terms of environment... D1 > D2 > D3.

It's unfortunate really for people who appreciate the old school games that had really dark elements to them. Funny how in the past kids were just fine (maybe not? lol) playing really gruesome games. But now it's a better marketing strategy to move away from that style towards visuals that resemble Warcraft.

It might have something to do with older graphics too. For some reason older games tend to seem darker because the graphics were more primitive I think. Or maybe it's just rare to make a game with that style these days. Path of Exile has a little bit of it from what I've seen.

D3 is definitely as toned down as you can get for a game that's totally based around killing demons though. I don't think you can call D3 is a Dark Fantasy ARPG... maybe just Fantasy ARPG at this point.

[buddah]

I think he meant the mood of the game.

Yes I know

To clarify, the mood of D2 makes me happy whereas D3 is quite depressing

Good horror movies make me happy while bad comedies are depressing

I hope I made my point clearer

[Deckard Cain]

They toned down the gothic aspect of the game, it's pretty obvious. But that's been happening since D1, so you can't just blame the current developers. I don't really understand it since the game still carries the M rating.

Although I completely agree with your sentiment, they truly could have pulled off a darker more gruesome feeling even WITHOUT the gothic tone. They went to the painterly style and it looks great, but they just did all the violence in a more child like cartoon fashion.

To anyone who is unsure of what I mean, watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtotXRiYimg (the video on page 1) and then skip to 18:00. This part looks pretty dang AWESOME. You see the guts, and it hangs from the mob's mouth. He even has blood dripped onto his chest looking like he just had a meal. I don't see anything like this in the current game, and this got me excited for fights like the butcher etc, where i was expecting some gruesome stuff. Especially compared to his D1 lair of a room LITTERED in corpses and blood. Instead, they give him a lame intro in a little fire pit place. Whoopee.

Even worse for me, the developers 'mocked' our complaints by saying "well its the start of A1, what do you guys expect?!?! it gets progressively more dark as the game goes on." Ummm.... still waiting.

It is just sad that the intro A1 opening is more gruesome than anything in the game now, even though they had plenty of opportunities to make things darker.

[davew2040]

It's actually really funny, because D3 is horrifically grimdark and has tons of really soul-crushing things... but none of these are at the forefront, and most are completely overshadowed by the ridiculous villain speeches and other narm-y crap.

...STUFF...

Some of these are really pushing it.

Diablo's problem is not necessarily with the *ideas*, its problem is clearly the implementation. The complete and utter failure to grasp the notion of subtlety is where it all falls apart.

There are some things that *could* be uncomfortable and depressing if they weren't thrown in your face like a spiraling football. A decapitated head is kind of an unpleasant thought; a basket of heads that explodes with a "clunk thunk clunk" noise on impact isn't unpleasant, it's just a ham-fisted attempt at humor that stops being funny when you see them around every other corner. A soldier getting obliterated by artillery is unpleasant; having a parade of soldiers one after another that *all* die horrifically to artillery as you encounter them is just foolish.

The developers of Diablo 3 thought they knew better, and they apparently thought Diablo 1 and 2 were so ridiculous that it would be a good time to make the third iteration into a tongue-in-cheek parody.

They just didn't get it, from top to bottom. They got almost nothing *right* in Diablo 3 except the feel of the combat, which itself is diminished by the fact that there's really only a handful of viable skill specs in Inferno.

[Ivan E]

Some of these are really pushing it.

I'm not sure if the rest of your post was not meant to segue from that first sentence, or whether you misunderstood what I was saying, but I was more or less saying the same thing you were. There are tons of great, uncomfortable, nuanced ideas present somewhere in the game. They're overshadowed by stuff that is much less compelling and more groan-worthy. If the stuff I indicated in my numbered list was the forefront of the game, the plot would be wonderful, and it would be the sort of thing you could actually discuss with some degree of depth. Of course, it's arguable whether or not that belongs in an ARPG-type game, but it's certainly better than what we currently have. I was lamenting the presence of decapitated heads in the deep, deep background, while baskets of heads constantly explode everywhere, with your attention called largely to said baskets and nothing else.

[davew2040]

I'm not sure if the rest of your post was not meant to segue from that first sentence, or whether you misunderstood what I was saying, but I was more or less saying the same thing you were. There are tons of great, uncomfortable, nuanced ideas present somewhere in the game. They're overshadowed by stuff that is much less compelling and more groan-worthy. If the stuff I indicated in my numbered list was the forefront of the game, the plot would be wonderful, and it would be the sort of thing you could actually discuss with some degree of depth. Of course, it's arguable whether or not that belongs in an ARPG-type game, but it's certainly better than what we currently have. I was lamenting the presence of decapitated heads in the deep, deep background, while baskets of heads constantly explode everywhere, with your attention called largely to said baskets and nothing else.

Right, yeah, I agree with you. Should've worded it differently!

Although it is unfortunate that one kind of has to stretch to realize that the ideas in D3 are pretty good before they're ruined by presentation.

[TheDestructor]

i dont see D3 as being a childish game at all. however many of the people who play it and visit forums come of as really childish

So much this.

End game in Diablo 3 requires quite a bit more thought and coordination than most children's games I've played, but hey, I'm just some random fanboy who doesn't have the advantage of being equipped with enough conspiracy theories to fill an entire season of the X-Files.

[Buffinator]

The only thing childish in Diablo 3 is the thing that once was the cow level. now in diablo 3 its all bright and cheerful but we kill ponies and stuff or whatever they are.

[Bgx]

I think I know what the OP is trying to say, but I'm not sure if he quite understands how deep it goes.

The higher-ups did not say "aim this release at a younger audience." What they said was "aim this release at the largest audience possible." What that means is they're shooting for the happy medium that older, sophisticated audience can hop on and be happy while the childish and younger could do likewise.

Both polar ends of the equation created a product that promotes accessibility over complexity (on its face), and neutrality over controversy. In the end, they created something rather bland, but enjoyable.

Gameplay notwithstanding, Diablo III is propped up on principles that reduce any sort of "bite" it might have had. As a result, the game itself really doesn't have any truly memorable moments in it. It's all expertly streamlined and presented well with great gameplay. However, you can have all of these elements even with a mediocre game.

If you look at the game we have now, you will see how they removed nearly all the controversy - both overt and subliminal. They did their best to cut all controversial Earth-bound ties. There are no overt religious symbolism, there's a nice variety in hero nationalities, and the bosses have no controversial backstories that make for a deep, significant overlay that could give the journey meaning other than "you're bad, so let's save the world!"

We got what we got because it's accessible. Everybody gets it. The stark contrast between evil and good, angels and demons was applied to something everybody understands.


As a note: this is not a criticism persay, it just is. Agree or not, they succeeded. Diablo III broke records based on Blizzard's philosophy of flattening the game. The peaks and valleys you experience in other games when it comes to story-archs will not reappear in Blizzard titles because they are not targeting fringe-audiences - they're targeting the mainstream, the world.

I hope not everyone follows this path. There are still many things i love because they strayed away from mainstream, unfortunately in this business you can't really get big bucks without going mainstream.

D2 was much more mainstream-ish than D1 yet it placed the values D1 had very smartly, D3 went full retard on everything art-style to story. For gameplay it was simple a miss and RMAH with few good ideas they would get anyway because any new game has those.

While its good for sales it kills the spirit of the series, its not anymore a unique piece of work (art) but together glued ideas that will try to appeal to anyone.

[RazeBarb]

I don't see how the video shows anything that's more "adult" than the final game.

Final game has teetees, blood, gore, mangled corpses, etc....