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| "And the Heavens shall Tremble".. I tremble just thinking of playing this game. |
Since we were asked to analyze the formal gaming elements of one of our least favourite games, I thought that it would be appropriate to start off with a list of all the elements that were outline for us in the class:
Players
Objectives
Procedures
Rules
Resources
Conflict
Boundaries
Outcome
When all of these elements can work together in a cohesive manner, generally the game will be enjoyable for the player. I will be outline how each of these elements was portrayed in Diablo III.
The first element, Players, is one that did not strike home with me at all during the course of this game. For certain players who enjoyed the game and invested many hours, I am sure they became very attached to their in-game character as on certain game modes, dying as that character can mean permanently losing everything. For myself however, I felt as though I had no connection to my avatar as there is no customization whatsoever. Sure, you can switch armor sets and colours, but every class has a generic looking character that you must play as. For some this may not be an issue, but it made this part of the game very un-enjoyable.
The objectives in this game could have been vastly improved with a little more thought. Most of the questlines include retrieving an item or making it to a certain point in a dungeon. There was very little variety and at no point did I actually feel as though I was adding anything to the story. I was just another mindless warrior beating monsters to a pulp while everything occurred around me.
The procedures in the game is one thing they did execute well. Everything was laid out for the character in an easy to understand way. The GUI is very clear and simplistic as well as the inventory management screen. The time it took me to fully understand the controls were significantly smaller than I have experienced in other games. Overall, this is one of the few aspects of the game that Blizzard completed well.
Rules in Diablo III are fairly outlined in the same fashion as the procedures. The main idea of the game is to traverse through the quests in the order which they appear in order to unlock the next area. The player is ultimately working towards defeating the evil demon Diablo.
Resources was an area of the game that I had mixed emotions towards. The player can only use certain items depending on the class they choose at the beginning of the game. This mechanic can become frustrating, as monsters defeated will drop a wide variety of items, most of the time being unusable by the player. As a result of this feature, my inventory would take a relatively short time to become full and I had to always be re-arranging based on what I wanted to sell, drop, or use.
When it came to the resource variety however, Blizzard did a great job at adding a surplus of items with different stats and abilities. However, I found that there did not seem to be a wide enough variety of weapon models as I progressed throughout the levels. With such a AAA title release like Diablo, I was expecting a much higher caliber of model variety.
Conflict will be the final topic discussed as I feel as though boundaries and outcome can be found within the other elements descriptions. The conflict in this title happens to be one of the elements that I found to be very boring and monotonous. Although this should be expected in a hack and slash type game, I just found that there was such a small amount of variety in Diablo III that I was already bored during the starting chapters of the game. The dungeons seemed very cookie-cutter in their style and the bosses seemed to lack any depth. Overall, I just felt that this area of the game could have been vastly improved.
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The worst part about playing Diablo III and being so disappointed, was that I really did want to enjoy the game. The elements of the game when looked at individually should have worked well. This was not the case however and along with many other features, the game just became something that I could easily toss off to the side and forget. An example of one of these features was the always online DRM system that the designers decided to implement. For the game to be played, the player must always have a stable internet connection so that they can stay connected to Blizzards servers. This turned out to be a huge flop for the design of the game, as many players upon release were having connection issues and were unable to play the game for hours or even days at a time.
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| What a great way to fill the hype surrounding the game for years. |
Another issue I had with the game was how they handled how the player would handle their resources in the way of upgrades and in game purchasing of items. Before I begin, I should quickly explain that like their other title World of Warcraft, Blizzards Diablo III has an in game auction house where players can sell the items they have looted for in game money. This feature is great in a game such as World of Warcraft where the main focus is on the MMORPG element. In Diablo III however, this takes away from the purpose of having in game shops and blacksmith upgrades. I felt no desire at any point in the game to waste my hard earned money on upgrading my low level bow, when I could just buy a new higher level bow on the auction house. It really drew away from the story and RPG immersion element of the game because I found myself interacting with auction house more than all of the in game shopkeepers.
When it came to the resources in the game such as stats and attribute points, Blizzard dropped the ball in this game yet again. The game does not allow for the distribution of attribute points, unlike other games where you can form the player to your particular play style. This is similar in the skills tree, as the player does not have a skill set dependent on allocation, instead it is determined by the items the player picks up. I felt this really restricted the player and made it impossible to try out different gameplay approaches and out of the ordinary builds. The players were always so restricted and it wore away at what the game could have been.
After playing the game for an extended period of time in the hopes it would improve, it really shocked me as to how the designers went about creating the game. With the success of the two Diablo games before it, it seemed as though all the designers of Diablo III had to do was keep the same mechanics and update the graphics with the newest engine. This was such an opportunity for Blizzard, as there was already an enormous Diablo fan base just waiting to get their hands on the newest release in the franchise. This was not the case however, as Blizzard just strayed away from the things that made the games before III so addicting. While in the beginning of the game, the linear and flashy image of the game seemed new and exciting, these feelings quickly wore off and at times, I forgot why I was really traversing this world. I feel that Blizzard tried to re-invent the game for the newer generation of gamers, instead of catering to their already massive fan base and remaking the originals. While this tactic seemed to work sales wise, it let down many of the fans who waited years to get their hands on this title. While the game looked great, I feel that if the developers had stuck to their original roots, many players would still be traversing the land of Sanctuary.
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