Based on a discussion in the comments on another one of my posts, I found out that access in the Diablo 3 beta is limited to the 1st act. From what I can gather the first act concludes with a battle against the Skeleton King. Not wanting to rush to the end of my beta experience, I decided to look for a detour.
Not being in a hurry to get to the end of the single player, I decided to give multiplayer a try. Once again I was pleasantly surprised at the mild learning curve using this feature. With a simple mouse click I was on jumping head long into my Diablo 3 multiplayer adventure.
Joining a group was rather painless as I simply clicked on another player’s banner and it transported me, to them, within the dungeon. Soon enough I was hacking and slashing (more correctly – blow gunning and spell slinging) my way through the instance. One thing did stand out as rather odd though, there were piles of gold everywhere and no one else seemed to care.
It wasn’t too long before a tool tip appeared that let me know that my loot was actually my loot. What I was seeing was mine alone, the others were seeing their own gold piles and loot drops. Personally I think that is cool as hell, no rolling for loot. If it drops it is yours!
One thing I did appreciate was the fact that the monsters were a tad harder to kill and there were plenty to go around. I wasn’t overly concerned with who was doing what and it didn’t really seem to matter. Hack and slash all the way! To be honest I spent some of my time in those groups doing little more than collecting loot and admiring spell effects and animations.
I didn’t spend too much time in group because I did not want to face the Skeleton King for the first time with a bunch of strangers. I will either face him alone or try and get Razor or maybe a GTFOOTF reader to jump in with me to make the kill. Either way he will go down this week.
Once I kill the Skeleton King it will sort of illuminate the main issue I am having with this game genre. In Diablo 3 as well as all of the others, there is a definite end to the game. You kill the big bad baddie at the end and its over. Sure you can replay the level for more gear, but what’s the point? You do need that gear for anything because you have already “won”.
Don’t go all “you can use it in the auction house for real money” on me here. I know that and I will probably do that as well. But it will not change the fact that technically the game is over. Right? At that point isn’t it nothing more than an endless grind? At least in WoW once we kill the final baddie, we can look forward to the next expansion. What should I be looking forward too in Diablo 3? Diablo 4?
Right now none of that matters. It will be some time before I actually finish the game. Overall my experience with the Diablo 3 multiplayer system is positive. I can see it being a great way to blow off some steam in the next few months. I am enjoying the game and in the end that is all that really matters.
Please take a second to smash the “Like” or the +1 button to help me spread the word about Diablo 3 multiplayer!
As an aside, I gather that up to the Skeleton King is actually only the first part of Act 1. I’m seeing figures like a third or a half of the act being bandied around.
As for the “what should I be looking forward to?”, to really enjoy D3 (or any Diablo), you need to be able to get your head into the space that this is an arcade game, not an MMO. Despite the levels and the gear and the stats it is not really a game of progression – it’s a game of action. Once you’ve killed the big baddie, you kill him again for the same reason as you play Solitaire again after you’ve won a game – because the actual gameplay is great fun, not because it’s going to progress you to another zone.
Of course, if the actual gameplay fails to deliver (and I still find Diablo 2′s gameplay great fun even though it’s a decade old), then D3 has failed to deliver.
@ Carson – I guess I do need to try and make the mental switch from MMO to and arcade style of game. It has been awhile so that will take some adjustment.
You wouldn’t be looking forward to the next game, they will most likely come out with an expansion like they did with Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction.