Friday, July 4, 2008

Differences between Diablo 2 and Diablo 3

A while back we examined the top 5 differences between Starcraft 2 and Warcraft 3. Now, it’s time to examine the Diablo 3 announcement, the demo and the trailer, as well as all the additional info that has been released by Blizzard.

Here’s the top 5 differences!

1) More color, less darkness
According to lead producer, Keith Lee, Diablo 3 is going to feature more outdoor environments with a lot more colors. Instead of pleasing the core audience though, this move has so outraged gamers that they started an online petition. They want good, old darkness back and the colors out the door!
Diablo 3 screenshot

2) Less monsters, more varied killing
Jay Wilson, lead designer on Diablo 3, states that instead of hack-and-slash through throngs of monster, Diablo 3 players will have to focus on killing fewer but tougher monsters. Things like positioning, skills, and so on will have a greater effect than they did in Diablo 2.

For example, the Berserker monster has a charged up attack that deals massive damage. If you dodge the attack though, the Berserker is left vulnerable. Similar fate awaits the Skeletal Shieldbearers when they drop their shields.

3) Epic heroes, class quests
According to Jay, the new Diablo 3 characters will be more badass than ever before. Judging by the demo, it seems likely that there could be fewer characters but with a lot less overlap than say WoW. Class-specific quests, armor, etc are also in the works.
Diablo 3 screenshot

4) COOP play - large-scale, harder battles
Judging by the demo, it could take four or more characters to kill a boss in Diablo 3. I hope these bosses can be defeated by a single player too (same as Diablo 2 ubers). The coop play will be through Battle.net - it’s not 100% clear whether that will be free (same as Diablo 2).

5) No more potions, less downtime
In order to speed up the game, the designers have removed the massive belts full of potions. Instead, each monster has a chance to drop a red sphere that replenishes health. That means that you can go into combat even when wounded and get healed that way.

There’s more than five differences? Discuss below!

2 comments:

Blogpirat said...

Not really easy to compare Diablo2 and Diablo3, because there will be so many changes.

I also created a little Diablo-Blog. If you are interested, feel free to visit me at http://www.diablogamer.com !

regards,
Martin

Anonymous said...

My conceptual visualization of the Diablo series originally consisted of a Starcraft-style ideology.

There was an infestation of a small human (Terran) town by something dark and sinister (Zerg). The effects of this corruption were not immediately evident, but as time progressed, the horrifying reality came to fruction in the tyranny of King Leoric. After the King's own son, Albrecht, was taken captive by the high-functionality demons (smarter Zerg), Leoric's own guilt led him to his own corruption from the Lord of Terror himself (can't beat 'em, join 'em!).

It wasn't until Diablo 2 that angelic forces began to intervene, which brought further story twists... My conceptual connection with the Protoss. It was discovered within the Starcraft series that Protoss and Zerg are derived from the same "caste" and it's not ironic that the Demon forces and Angel forces can be reflected upon the same caste as well. With that being said, we even have some evidence of cross-contamination in the effect of the angel Izual becoming corrupted.

An interesting idea I've had involved an Act where an angel was literally trying to "tame" the lesser demons. You go through the level, fight the angel, and {cutscene story} with his spiritual energy weakened, the bonds the angel holds on controlling and containing the sinister forces within the monsters is all but destroyed. The demons turn onto the angel, and swarm and kill him. You then see your hero run to a gateway (think of the portal between the Palace Cellar and the Arcane Sanctuary), and you hear the voice of your character saying something in regards to the dark wanderer, and how it is impossible to control the dark forces and how the character can't recall the once noble purpose that propelled him/her to initially stand against the forces of evil.