02-12-2012, 08:02 PM
Sorry for the hiatus. My video card was getting screwy and I was troubleshooting. Turned out to be a driver issue (I was running a beta driver to squeeze more pretty out of Skyrim).
I have beaten the beta. It was, simply put, a cake walk filled with minor annoyances and some frustration.
The cake walk part comes from a generous drop and skills system, combined with fairly unintelligent monster AI. D2 could be challenging at times, though rarely due to the monster AI. Even Starcraft 2 AI has to rely on artificial edges, like faster resource collection rates than the player enjoys and faster unit production times (this last is unproven) in order to remain competitive with a real person ™.
The minor annoyances came from laggy spots and getting kicked as a result of the game existing online, not on my PC, and the lack of real challenge.
The frustrations came during server updates when I just flat couldn't play as a result of those self-same updates.
My health did not ONCE dip below 95% during the last boss battle. As I recall, if you weren't careful with Blood Raven she'd maul you. Maybe not kill you, but it would still be close. My level 10 monk DESTROYED the Skeleton King. Bah. Oh, but I got a rare! Wait, it's a barbarian belt and therefore completely useless too me. Hm, maybe I can destroy it and make some better gear?
Honestly, I wasn't raring to go get back to the game the whole time my PC was down. I was more raring to get back on the Starcraft ladder and watch some pro matches from GomTV. it's just kind of ho-hum, let's go bash something and see if we get a good loot drop.
What would really spice things up would be Attribute and Skill assignment at level up like D2. We've already beaten that horse into glue, so I'll leave it at that.
Will I buy the game? Yes. Will I enjoy it? Yes. Will it be worth it? As long as there are at least 10-20 hours of playtime, it will have more entertainment value that a movie, so I'll hazard a yes. Will it be as entertaining as D2? Not without a LOT of changes.
Overall, I think the game has potential, but I wouldn't call this a beta. I'd call it an alpha. The graphics are very pretty, but I've seen better. Earlier I said they were beautiful. They are. But I've still seen better (Skyrim). And the AntiAlaising (AA, which is supposed to reduce the jagged edges and pixelation caused by viewing things at an angle) does not work well. The sound effects are good, too. Someone else on this thread mentioned that the game is a bit too colorful. Well, I guess Buzzard has been doing WoW for too long (please...Chuck Norris? REALLY?? Chuck Norris is my girlfriend -- true story, and rather long). AF (Anisotropic Filtering, which is supposed to improve the image quality of textures viewed at an angle) isn't in the game. And closer inspection of the textures shows that they actually appear to be pretty simple. Put together, it's still pretty, but not stunningly so.
Put in front of me as an alpha, I'd say go with it and mention all the dead-horse-beatings. As a beta, I'm disappointed. I sincerely hope that the final product is VASTLY different from this.
If you'll kindly excuse me, I'm going to go hit someone with a 10 gate timing push with 2/1 upgrades and a pack of Pheonixes.
-Loki
I have beaten the beta. It was, simply put, a cake walk filled with minor annoyances and some frustration.
The cake walk part comes from a generous drop and skills system, combined with fairly unintelligent monster AI. D2 could be challenging at times, though rarely due to the monster AI. Even Starcraft 2 AI has to rely on artificial edges, like faster resource collection rates than the player enjoys and faster unit production times (this last is unproven) in order to remain competitive with a real person ™.
The minor annoyances came from laggy spots and getting kicked as a result of the game existing online, not on my PC, and the lack of real challenge.
The frustrations came during server updates when I just flat couldn't play as a result of those self-same updates.
My health did not ONCE dip below 95% during the last boss battle. As I recall, if you weren't careful with Blood Raven she'd maul you. Maybe not kill you, but it would still be close. My level 10 monk DESTROYED the Skeleton King. Bah. Oh, but I got a rare! Wait, it's a barbarian belt and therefore completely useless too me. Hm, maybe I can destroy it and make some better gear?
Honestly, I wasn't raring to go get back to the game the whole time my PC was down. I was more raring to get back on the Starcraft ladder and watch some pro matches from GomTV. it's just kind of ho-hum, let's go bash something and see if we get a good loot drop.
What would really spice things up would be Attribute and Skill assignment at level up like D2. We've already beaten that horse into glue, so I'll leave it at that.
Will I buy the game? Yes. Will I enjoy it? Yes. Will it be worth it? As long as there are at least 10-20 hours of playtime, it will have more entertainment value that a movie, so I'll hazard a yes. Will it be as entertaining as D2? Not without a LOT of changes.
Overall, I think the game has potential, but I wouldn't call this a beta. I'd call it an alpha. The graphics are very pretty, but I've seen better. Earlier I said they were beautiful. They are. But I've still seen better (Skyrim). And the AntiAlaising (AA, which is supposed to reduce the jagged edges and pixelation caused by viewing things at an angle) does not work well. The sound effects are good, too. Someone else on this thread mentioned that the game is a bit too colorful. Well, I guess Buzzard has been doing WoW for too long (please...Chuck Norris? REALLY?? Chuck Norris is my girlfriend -- true story, and rather long). AF (Anisotropic Filtering, which is supposed to improve the image quality of textures viewed at an angle) isn't in the game. And closer inspection of the textures shows that they actually appear to be pretty simple. Put together, it's still pretty, but not stunningly so.
Put in front of me as an alpha, I'd say go with it and mention all the dead-horse-beatings. As a beta, I'm disappointed. I sincerely hope that the final product is VASTLY different from this.
If you'll kindly excuse me, I'm going to go hit someone with a 10 gate timing push with 2/1 upgrades and a pack of Pheonixes.
-Loki
"How heroic. How compassionate. How selfless. I think I'm going to be sick."
-Skeletorr, the new HE-MAN
-Skeletorr, the new HE-MAN