To those who play/played D3 and don't like it; why?

I'm just curious.

I played both the first and 2nd Diablo's and this one (after the world's longest software delay ever) just did not pique my interest 5 years ago. I found PoE not long after and just never looked back. I recently received a gift of D3 and it's EP and have played it. It's not bad but lacks something of the older versions (not sure what it's missing other than the dark, gritty feel) and can't even begin to compete with this game, don't even start with me.

But if you stop comparing and just judge it on its own merits (or want of) I've seen far worse. MUCH WORSE.

Why you guys don't like it? Or hate it?

I loved D3 while it lasted. Now I have whatever gear I want and there's nothing to chase. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've also played D1 and D2 and many other action RPG such as secret of mana. I got a pretty good experience of the genre and I was a big fan of the Diablo franchise, even played that dark forgetten expansion Diablo 1 had.

I didn't like Diablo 3 for many reason. First it was a glitchy and buggy and unplayable game when released and they spend most of the first year unbugging it and making balance change like +450% dmg on that skill, the kind of changes you do in intern test. The game was not finished. Many promised features were not even included.

They fixed many things along the way but with lazy solutions that created new problems. Auction house is a failure, they completly removed trading. Skills were unbalanced they introduced those mandatory set items that would kill build diversity. Dodge was not viable at all, they just removed dodge.

My 3rd problem with the game is it's lack of dept, you could get a rare item in Diablo 2 that would be very interesting and fun to read, mechanics were complex. You have this same dept that makes POE so interesting and gives it so much replayability. Diablo 3 items are all so simplified to: DPS, Toughness, Healing. There's nothing else in the game. It get boring rather quickly.

And my last problem with it is, it's design, it kind of feel it want to be gritty and dark, but fail at it with all the flashy color, so it become more a fantasy land. Nothing against fantasy medieval themed games, they can look great, but here it just failed the design were floppy and bad at time. And I think pretty much everyone was expecting a ghotic medieval horror game.

The moment I've read D3 will have an (RM)AH, I knew the game-play will be balanced around it, so I didn't buy it until RoS came out. It's a fun little game, great performance (only played HC) and I really like the rifts & the concept of infinite & tweakable difficulty. But it has some major flaws, which kills it:

* bad build diversity / no choices & consequences
* bad looting / itemization
* too cartoony / childish (D2 was more dark)

They've dumbed down the game too much, simple as that.

Oversimplified game mechanics
Crap story
Bad launch
Didn't like the new aesthetic

Reason #1 was Act 3. I was okay with the story in Act 1, even if it was mediocre, and in Act 2 I thoroughly enjoyed Belial as both a character and a boss (although parts of the Act felt weak, it was still forgivable). However, the transition to Act 3 was weak, the level design began to feel lazy, and above all Azmodan was a very weak character with a completely obnoxious plot device. At some point in Act 3 Normal, immersion went from somewhat ironic to non-existent, and I knew I wouldn't be playing for the lore but despite it. Mechanics would be the sole draw from then onwards. I think this happened on my second play session.

Reason #2 was in-game economy. I'm not directly against real-money transactions, but I tend to be indirectly against them as they legitimize the profit angle for large-scale botting operations, which in turn threaten to hyperinflate the in-game economy with massive inflows of unnaturally procured tradeables. Blizzard's policies in this regard (for instance, minimum prices on RMAH gold, which third-party RMT sites easily underbid) were hilariously naive, and coupled with in inability to adequately combat botting led to rapid and historic economic disaster. So that ruined the trading angle. Within about five weeks of RMAH launch, trading went from something I did often to something I begrudgingly performed.

Reason #3, the final straw, was the Monster Power system. Although this could theoretically be used to create additional difficulty, such use wasn't rewarded; instead, the system could be used to fine-tune drop rates versus monster life to maximize loot per unit time. When properly min-maxed in this manner, going to a higher Monster Power had a trivial effect on actual difficulty, and speed farming was still encouraged. Overall, it represented a major easing in difficulty, giving maximum reward to the simplest play. I quickly reached "perfect" gear and found I had zero incentive to reroll... and like that, I was done.

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Darkfyre wrote:

Oversimplified game mechanics
Crap story
Bad launch
Didn't like the new aesthetic

Thought story was okay on the first play through. Honestly a4 in POE is worse, wheee get to town kill a boss, go to the mountains and kill some bosses, surprise Piety is alive, get past her and kill 3 more bosses before the final Boss boss. Like really?

I think I can stomach like 24 hours of play in d3, the whole fact that sets exist and you pretty much have to get them is pretty boring. And everything is Crit and Multi so there is very little chance of any diversity. Shit combat mechanics, my Fireball or whatever is based off of my weapon damage... dafuq

I always liked sets, that is OK but it does limit things, I agree. I see nothing wrong with the story at all. It's not as good as D2 but it's not a novel I'm reading but a game I'm playing so I give them some latitude.

I have seen MUCH worse story lines in games.

The cartoonish graphics (especially after D2) is to me horrendous and reminds me why I ultimately did not purchase this game 5yrs ago.

"

kolyaboo wrote:

I always liked sets, that is OK but it does limit things, I agree. I see nothing wrong with the story at all. It's not as good as D2 but it's not a novel I'm reading but a game I'm playing so I give them some latitude.

I have seen MUCH worse story lines in games.

The cartoonish graphics (especially after D2) is to me horrendous and reminds me why I ultimately did not purchase this game 5yrs ago.

I have no problem with the cartoonish graphics I love that still of art actually, what I disliked and I think it's a very bad design choice, is when they try to look serious and violent and horror gothic.... while being cartoonish. So it the end it's nothing horrifying or serious and the cartoon part just doesn't look cartoonish enough. It's like if there was two different directors during the creation of the game and they fought the whole time during the creation both were very stubborn, and instead of getting a strong and well pathed art direction it's just thrown up a little everywhere randomly.

Ok, so here's my list... oh man, I get the feeling that this'll be a long one.

1. The auction house.
In and on itself it wasn't bad. In fact, I really enjoyed it. What WAS bad was the real money auction house. It led to quite a few... incidents which was why they decided to shut the whole thing down. Which resulted in two other problems.
2. Gold is useless.

As long as the auction house was there AND repairing gear was costly,you had an outlet for gold.

3. The item generation. Or rather items in general.
First thing that bothered me here: no scrolls. Sure, I only ever played a very little bit of diablo 2 in my entire life, but NO SCROLLS IN DIABLO 3??? That also meant that magic items drop identified. And later on rares aswell, because nobody cares about rares. Which is the second thing that bothers me. Yes, true, legendaries are meant to be powerful. But why do they have to be best in slot no questions asked no matter what? And don't get me started on the cube or ancient legendaries. The third thing in this category: the game forces items with beneficial stats down your throat. Items simply cannot be generated without giving your character a set amount of beneficial mods as a minimum. That is a twisted abomination, simply a wrong version of the average ARPG loot system.

4. The game became too easy AND the gear too good.
Blizzard didn't nerf anything really in that game. Pretty much all the patch nodes read something like "The popular set for class x is now slightly less op. The not so popular set for class x now deals over 9000% more damage with the following 6 skills. Class y has had skill 4 adjusted, it now deals three times the damage, but heals 10% less" That is just... nonsense. Back when it was released,most items were weak af, you were happy if an item had your main stat, a resist and some life. Rare and magic packs had enrage timer and some really REALLY nasty combinations of mods (invulnerable minions mortar quick horde rarw anyone? Preferably something that could cast spells or is damage resistant). Inferno mode did live up to its name. Oh, and even getting into the easteregg level is easier now, because apparently rainbow goblins are a thing.

5. Set items.
They pretty much limit you to one of teo or maybe even three builds simply because of how powerful they are. Oh, and finding them is no problem, you now get one for free for your class of choice if you completed a certain amount of achievements. Great, amirite?

All in all, imo it started out rather well. Story was ok, graphics (back then, when the screen wasn't 300% overloaded with spell effects) aswell and it was a nice challenge.
But patch after patch it got worse. Nowadays you can rush to max level in like 2 hours, and you pretty much grind for the sake of grinding. And barely anyone plays storymode nowadays.
It slowly but surely turned into one hell of a mess. (Pun 666% intended)