Is Diablo III worth the money?

[Munch]

Originally Posted by AClockworkMelon

I imagine if it wasn't called "Diablo III" and had been released by some other company it'd be blasted by everyone for how boring it is.

Titan's Quest?
Torchlight?
Borderlands?

Nope - you may not like playing different difficulties over and over, but there are plenty of people who do.

[Nava]

Originally Posted by Snowboarder Bo

It looks good and is easy to play. Like, super-easy. Here, I'll give you the main combat strategy for the game: left-click, left-click, left-click, left-click, right-click, left-click, left-click, left-click, left-click, left-click, press 1, left-click, left-click, etc.

That would be left-press, right-click, left-press, 1, left-press...

[XT]

Haven't read through everyone's response, so most likely everything I say here will have already been covered. Also, might piss a few people off, as right now I'm frustrated with the game.

Is Diablo III worth the money?

First off, the answer to this is 'yes'...'but'. It's worth the money, and it's fun to play and even replay, but there are some aspects of the game that can be quite frustrating. For one, it's internet only. I'm sure you know this, but you need to REALLY know it, and evaluate your internet connection, not just for how fast it is but for how reliable it is. My home internet (from CenturyLink) basically sucks, in a nut shell (or a large donkey sack). Oh, it's fast enough, no doubt...but it's highly unstable, cutting out several times a day for anywhere from 20 seconds to a minute or so. No big deal usually...but when playing this game, especially solo, it's VERY frustrating to get booted and have to restart a level from scratch every hour or so. Especially when you've just managed to clear to that nice shinny chest after dying several times (more on this in a sec), and the reward is in sight...and then bam, internet goes down just long enough to lose conn and you are back to square one. Maybe...depends on where the latest checkpoint is, since frustration factor number two is you can't save your game progress on your own. It autosaves at several fixed checkpoints in the game. Oh, it will save your loot, as long as you've put it in your bag before your internet went tits up for the 5th time this evening, but you are going to have to slog back through everything you just did, even if the next checkpoint is in sight.

Which brings us to frustration factor number...well, whatever whining rant number I'm on now. Gear and difficulty level/dying. This game is all about gear. Get that in your head first off. Oh, I can see the rolling of eyes...ALL of these kinds of games are about gear. Sure...but in order to even play the later levels (well, assuming you want to survive more than a few seconds when you meet an elite pack) you have got to gear up. And the only way to do that is to BUY stuff. Crafting? Forget about it...don't waste your money. It's not worth it. I've spent literally 100k trying to craft one usable helmet that I could (possibly...another rant on this in a few) buy at the auction house for a tenth the price. That is, unless I want something decent, in which case my options are to pony up enough gold to make Bill Gates wince. The only crafting that's worth having is gem crafting...and here you are going to sink literally a boat load into trying to create the higher level gems. To get, say, a star gem you need to craft at least 3 of the previous types (30k gold each) and then craft your gem (an additional 80k)...and for this you get a marginally better gem than the one you had. There are better gems, but unless you are dead lucky (I'm not) you need to find the plans for them, since they cost in the millions of gold to purchase.

On to dying. In the early levels, the game is quite fun and you probably won't die very much. I think I went through the entire first play through with my Demon Hunter and died maybe once. On Nightmare it was still playable, but I probably died once per act at this point...maybe a touch more. Again, it was fun, my guy was leveling and a few deaths are no worries. By Hell though I was having to gear up (after wasting a ton of money on crafting that I wish I had back now), and I was dying fairly frequently. Maybe 1-2 deaths per boss mob and a few deaths per level if I ran into one of the elite packs in a bad situation. At this point I started to watch YouTube videos on how to spec my DH and what gear I needed, and started trying to buy what I needed. I finally managed to make it through Hell though, and thought I was geared pretty well. Until Inferno. Basically, forget it unless you are a god like player with the Gear of the Gods. After perhaps 2 dozen deaths I managed to make it though the first act. I haven't even been able to survive an entire play through of one of the random dungeons or even just wandering around at the beginning of the second act yet. The elite packs are just ridiculous. Wall, imprison, fire, poison and arcane traps are the norm. Oh, and they are faster than you too. Basically, even in optimal situations (narrow winding passages where I can run, drop traps and shoot over my hip as I flee like a coward) I'm generally dying multiple times. And that's IF my internet connection manages to stay up, which it won't.

There are some other rants dealing mainly with the folks on the auction house, but I think that hits the highlights. Is the game worth it? Yeah, even with the frustration factor, I'm glad I bought it. I've played some games with friends and co-workers on less than Inferno and enjoy it...on Inferno, even with 2 or 3 friends party wipes happen literally all the time and folks get frustrated and bolt. But if you are planning to buy this game, make sure you have a decent internet connection that is stable. Fast helps, but the critical thing is it needs to be stable. If it isn't, then don't buy this game (or really any other MMO) because all you'll get is even more frustrated. And this game has frustrations enough with a good connection.

That's my two cents anyway. Just needed to get that all off my chest.

[Cubsfan]

Originally Posted by XT

Until Inferno. Basically, forget it unless you are a god like player with the Gear of the Gods. After perhaps 2 dozen deaths I managed to make it though the first act.

Wait. You only died 24 times through the whole 1st act of whats supposed to be the hardest difficulty in the game and you are complaining that it's too much? This is with the gear you used in Hell too right? What were you expecting to happen in Inferno?

[XT]

Originally Posted by Cubsfan

Wait. You only died 24 times through the whole 1st act of whats supposed to be the hardest difficulty in the game and you are complaining that it's too much? This is with the gear you used in Hell too right?

No...this was after I spent basically all the gold I had to buy the best possible gear I could. Lots of resist, armor, vit and dex plus every piece I could get with a gem in it and the best gems I could make. THEN I died repeatedly. Hell, regular mobs were killing me, let alone the elite packs and the various boss mobs (I think the Butcher alone killed me 6 or 7 times).

What were you expecting to happen in Inferno?

Well...I expected that, as a game it would be 'fun'. It's not fun at that level. It's horribly frustrating. You can't level anymore (you can't even go there unless you are 60) so your character isn't getting any better. The loot dropping isn't as good as what I've bought (since it's from later acts presumably) so that's no help except to generate gold...but my repair bills are in the 10k or higher, so it's mostly a wash wrt gold (oh, I'm making a little, but not enough to buy the higher ticket things I really need to survive a bit better in this ridiculous level).

Seriously, if they want to make the game this ridiculous then take out the idiotic level cap. Or make sure that the stuff that's dropping in a given act is actually useful in helping you to survive IN the freaking act. Don't make me have to buy stuff from later acts in order to play the one I'm in. Don't make me have to buy gear in the from hundreds of thousands of gold to millions just to play...or make it so only elite players who are either dumping in hundreds or thousands of hours into the game OR buying stuff with actual money can play the game at all. Literally, I can't play through Act II....I've tried several times to just get through past the bridge and have died dozens of times. I have yet to be able to play through a random dungeon in this act yet. Every time I've tried an elite pack in there has wiped the floor with me. I've died over and over and the elites are still just about at full heath and my gear is shot to shit. Where is the fun there?

[Otara]

Originally Posted by Cubsfan

Wait. You only died 24 times through the whole 1st act of whats supposed to be the hardest difficulty in the game and you are complaining that it's too much? This is with the gear you used in Hell too right? What were you expecting to happen in Inferno?

I think the problem is the game from 1-4 feels so short compared to the original game that its easy to see the acts 1-4 as being replaced by the difficulty levels. Ie the difficulty ramps up as you increase in gear, and your average player can expect to get there.

Except they arent, so you're either left with a game that feels short compared to earlier versions, or one that feels like a major change in difficulty, to the point that it feels frustrating by comparison.

It would be interesting to know if they were really expecting the huge dropoff in play and saw that as a worthwhile tradeoff for the people paying RL money that are left, or whether they have actually flubbed it. I know I wont be buying any sequels for it unless massive changes were made.

No easy way to know directly for now of course as it wont be publically acknowledged for years, if ever.

Otara