Too Much Color For Fans?

Diablo has always been a series masked with darkness and filled with a Gothic theme. A portion of the fan base was unhappy when they saw all the color and lack of Gothic theme in the game play video. An online petition has been started by some unhappy fans to show Blizzard that the fans want the classic Diablo style. While I can see their point, I believe the game will be better with color. From the artwork we have seen, it is apparent that there will be areas of the World of Sanctuary that, well, look like death. However, many advances have been made in graphics since Diablo 2 and Blizzard should change their style to utilize them. Obviously this game will be 3D, but still have the ¾ overhead view. I think the only way to fill the graphic potential is to use the full variety of hues and saturations to make many environments with unique atmospheres. This could amplify the feeling of the game as the story meanders through Sanctuary and it's attitude fluctuates. In Diablo 2, the only gratitude us adventurers received was the excitement in the voice of an NPC, often old man Cain's. Times have changed and Blizzard can provide us with a more enthralling gaming experience this time.

Above is one of the images posted on the petition site as an example of what to change.

They've added a small light radius to the hero and it removes all light from 50% of the screen. If I'm playing a game, I want to be able to see what is on my screen. There is no point in covering up half the screen just to achieve a dark feel. If players want this, I recommend Blizzard add a couple options for players to add a tiny light radius and drop their gamma a lot.

The other change is the cyan glow to a saturated magenta (assuming they are using CMYK and not RGB, still the same adjustment). I am less sure about this due to lack of experience, but I believe it would also be easy to apply a client option to change this. Perhaps several themes available from vibrant to dead Goth.I believe these options would be easy to include and please the full audience.

However, I still understand the desire for the classic Goth theme which has gone unmatched in gaming. I'd like to know what you think, poll away.

Diablo 3 Gameplay Video

Complete with explanatory, this is a lengthy demo revealed at the announcement of Diablo 3.

Part 1
Part 2

Diablo 3 Cinematic Trailer

Full size download available here. Enjoy.

Sanctuary World Map

Finally, a map for Diablo. Apart from being necessary, this will benefit a lot of aspects of the game. To start with, waypoints will not be as linear and there's potential for more central zones. In Diablo 2, you would start in town and would clear one area after the next towards the end of the level, following the only path possible. I expect to see more options for adventurers in Diablo 3. However, more streamline players (rushers) will be able to stick to the skeleton of the story and avoid some pesky areas. More lenient and extensive questing would make replaying the game more enjoyable. This world map is exciting, the fact that it is released with the announcement leads us to believe they intend to make this such a large game that you need a map.

With at least 15 cities, it looks like this will be a longer game, or at least much more divided. Between the world map, artwork, and screenshots, it looks like there will be a full array of environments from lush to barren, untainted to defiled, and vibrant to callous.

Inclusions and Exclusions: My Expectations

Before you take too much from this and start rumors, this is strictly from my personal expectations of Diablo 3 and have nothing to do with actual statements or information from Blizzard. I draw my information from my own personal gaming experience and the progression of games over time.

Interactive Water: No. Why? Because in video games, particularly 3D worlds, water is just an area with altered physics. Most 3D games do not work well with different physics, and there are no MMORPG's that I can think of that have used water to dramatically improve gameplay. Water should stay in Mario and Zelda style games where the coordination of your character and his movements are the key. These are games where changing physics can add a level of difficulty and interest. Blizzard, being the smart dudes they are, will not have interactive water in Diablo 3 because it won't add to the game but it would take a lot of work. "But WoW has interactive water and it's the best MMORPG ever." The water doesn't add anything to WoW, but they had to put it in there because every full world MMORPG has interactive water and WoW had to compete.

Having taken deeper thought into water and looking at some of the content provided by Blizzard, I have come to a slightly different conclusion. I believe water will have little to no effect, potentially slowing players and disabling some abilities.

Better PVP System: We have all come to love PVP and we know that the Diablo 2 PVP style is far outdated and the WoW system is inadequate for this style of game. I believe Blizzard will emphasize an extensive PVP system including instance based 1v1 and even team fights. There will likely be a PVP ladder much like a Warcraft style ladder, along with the classic highest level ladder. I fully expect a much better and extensive PVP system. What we do know is that random PK'ing will not be allowed. Blizzard intends to thwart griefers and allow everybody to play the game peacefully.

Clan System: Yes, complete with channels, tags, and hopefully even flags. Flags would make me so happy, even a simple Halo style system for creating clan flags would do. It would be cool if clan leaders could upload their own created flags, but this is a flawed system and I doubt Blizzard will waste their time on such a menial aspect of the game. I suspect there will be some new clan aspects never seen before, there often are with each new Blizzard game.

Pets/Mounts: Hopefully not, it's not that type of game. If you want pets, play a summoning char.

Again these are just my expectations of the game with no official information from Blizzard.

Diablo 3 Announcement

June 28, 2008: Blizzard announces Diablo 3 and releases the first glimpses of the game. Included are a cinematic trailer and a lengthy gameplay trailer with explanatory. The site is more extensive and informative than most Blizzard pages upon announcement, but still minimal. I hope to sift through all sources and rumors to bring to correct updates and interesting facts to fans such as myself.