04-23-2012, 10:52 PM
To chime in with my thoughts after a few hours of play:
I really enjoyed my brief time in Sanctuary. As soon as the music started I had a rather strong feeling of nostalgia hit me and I was super-excited to see if the game would hold up to my expectations.
The atmosphere is great, the game sets a grim tone from the get-go and there are a lot of little things that make you feel like you really are in the most god-forsaken place in Sanctuary. Everything works for me, color palette (if a bit heavy on the grey, overall), scenery, voice acting and especially the music. Having some sort of physics engine that has banners fluttering (right word?) when you dish out a mighty blow next to them is also rather cool
.
Gameplay-wise... well, there really isn't enough of it in the Beta to come to a final verdict, in my opinion. I'm not a fan of the limited amount of skills and the way they are set up by default, I haven't gotten around to fiddling with custom key bindings though, so controls might turn out to be a non-issue come release. The limited skills available in the Beta were annoying, I'd very much have liked to try out something like a final setup and various "builds". As it were, the Barbarian and the Monk played very similar, same with the Demon Hunter and the Wizard. I had the most fun with the Witch Doctor, though that's definitely just me, no objective ranking of classes.
I missed the D2-style overlay map, other than that most changes felt like improvements. No more scrolls and pots clogging up the inventory, auto-gold pickup etc. made the game more fun for me. Not to mention the shared gold and stash, no more muling sessions where I log in the wrong character three times in a row... What I've seen of the Follower (Hireling) and Artisan systems seemed interesting enough but again, what little is in the Beta is not enough for a definitive opinion on my part.
All the little nods to the previous games (and the major ones coming with the storyline) had me smiling often. Black Mushroom, anyone?
In summary: I bought the game and have the client sitting on my computer, awaiting the 15th.
take care
Tarabulus
I really enjoyed my brief time in Sanctuary. As soon as the music started I had a rather strong feeling of nostalgia hit me and I was super-excited to see if the game would hold up to my expectations.
The atmosphere is great, the game sets a grim tone from the get-go and there are a lot of little things that make you feel like you really are in the most god-forsaken place in Sanctuary. Everything works for me, color palette (if a bit heavy on the grey, overall), scenery, voice acting and especially the music. Having some sort of physics engine that has banners fluttering (right word?) when you dish out a mighty blow next to them is also rather cool
.Gameplay-wise... well, there really isn't enough of it in the Beta to come to a final verdict, in my opinion. I'm not a fan of the limited amount of skills and the way they are set up by default, I haven't gotten around to fiddling with custom key bindings though, so controls might turn out to be a non-issue come release. The limited skills available in the Beta were annoying, I'd very much have liked to try out something like a final setup and various "builds". As it were, the Barbarian and the Monk played very similar, same with the Demon Hunter and the Wizard. I had the most fun with the Witch Doctor, though that's definitely just me, no objective ranking of classes.
I missed the D2-style overlay map, other than that most changes felt like improvements. No more scrolls and pots clogging up the inventory, auto-gold pickup etc. made the game more fun for me. Not to mention the shared gold and stash, no more muling sessions where I log in the wrong character three times in a row... What I've seen of the Follower (Hireling) and Artisan systems seemed interesting enough but again, what little is in the Beta is not enough for a definitive opinion on my part.
All the little nods to the previous games (and the major ones coming with the storyline) had me smiling often. Black Mushroom, anyone?
In summary: I bought the game and have the client sitting on my computer, awaiting the 15th.
take care
Tarabulus
"I'm a cynical optimistic realist. I have hopes. I suspect they are all in vain. I find a lot of humor in that." -Pete
I'll remember you.
I'll remember you.