Thoughts on Diablo 3

So, I wrote most of this awhile back, but I never posted it because I wanted to beat all the modes first.

As an avid Diablo 2 fan, I was put off by the idea of weapons damage = spell damage, no skill tree choices, and limited spell slots. You get a good amount of spell slots, although I wish I could use more of my abilities. In Diablo 2, my Necromancer used almost 15 spells all at once, and I felt powerful. My Witch Doctor feels more limited, but I do like playing him anyway.

There are weird/stupid changes to the Diablo format, such as the removal of runewords and the reduction of gems. The new crafting system has better functionality and results, but something about combining elements in the Horodric Cube felt more fun.

I feel like there’s less loot, too, and the loot that you get has less variations in magical abilities. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s just how it feels when I play it. The loot I get in the game just never really amounts to much better than what I already have.

I don’t like the removal of skill trees and stat upgrade choices. One of the most fun parts of D2 was making hard choices on where to place points on the tree, and I loved it when my skeleton army would increase because I would pump up the level of that skill (and boost it with wands and stuff with magical skill upgrades). I miss creating a character in that way. This new game doesn’t feel like character creation; it feels like building a cloned character that will end up being exactly the same as every other Witch Doctor, played the same exact way.

I don’t like the multiplayer system. Instead of creating a room function like D2, they do a “Jump right in” button that misses the point of why D2 was so great. In D2, you could create a game with a specific purpose. In D3, all games are either duel or mission mode. No drop games. No trading rooms. No hide-and-seek mode. All the fun user-created playstyles are impossible with the way this multiplayer is set up.