What is Diablo 3?

[acercon]

Could you Diablo 3 players explain to me what the game is really like? My friends are trying to get me into buying this but I am not sure If I would like it. I played a bit of PoE and I liked that, I think Diablo is really similar.

Some questions:

Does this game still get updates and are the updates free or is it paid?

Once I buy the game is it pay to win at all, or can I unlock all content for free.

I am guessing this is a pretty grindy game, is there like a story to play through? and what do you do once you finish the "Story"?

Thanks!

[ARikozuM]

Diablo has a story?

Spoiler

I'm kidding.

Diablo 3 is a pretty mild version of the first two games. The combat seemed overly simple for my tastes. The AI difficulty and ease of finding the "best" weapons were almost easy to do. It felt a little mindless once you get to lvl 5 and just mash the button killing everything in sight. 

 

I'd suggest playing the first two but the 3rd was weak as a game, but great as a story. @acercon

[acercon]

Just now, ARikozuM said:

Diablo has a story?

I have no idea 

[ARikozuM]

Just now, acercon said:

I have no idea 

Which one are you looking to play?

[acercon]

Just now, ARikozuM said:

Which one are you looking to play?

3

[SquintyG33Rs]

41 minutes ago, acercon said:

3

so most of the complaints about gameplay have been fixed since the expantion in my oppinion. it's not pay to win, it never was, you buy the game and that's it

the expansion adds an extra act to the story and an extra class. it is not mandatory to be able to play at all. diablo 2 is much more like PoE than 3 is but it's still the same genre.

 

I personally think that even thought it's a triple A title since it doesn't come with the same kind of stupid price tag like a CoD or what not, it's totally worth it.

 

GLHF

[R3ep3r]

50 minutes ago, acercon said:

Could you Diablo 3 players explain to me what the game is really like? My friends are trying to get me into buying this but I am not sure If I would like it. I played a bit of PoE and I liked that, I think Diablo is really similar.

Some questions:

Does this game still get updates and are the updates free or is it paid?

Once I buy the game is it pay to win at all, or can I unlock all content for free.

I am guessing this is a pretty grindy game, is there like a story to play through? and what do you do once you finish the "Story"?

Thanks!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_III 

good luck reading that. 

[Ryoku]

2 hours ago, acercon said:

Could you Diablo 3 players explain to me what the game is really like? My friends are trying to get me into buying this but I am not sure If I would like it. I played a bit of PoE and I liked that, I think Diablo is really similar.

Some questions:

Does this game still get updates and are the updates free or is it paid?

Once I buy the game is it pay to win at all, or can I unlock all content for free.

I am guessing this is a pretty grindy game, is there like a story to play through? and what do you do once you finish the "Story"?

Thanks!

If you wanna learn a bit about Diablo 3 check out Rhykker on Youtube he does overviews on the different Classes and their most popular builds.  Will give you a good idea what to expect on end game content for the game.

[Taja]

Repetitive game, and I feel it has no purpose. In diablo 2 I played with all classes, and it was fun (tough every diablo game is kinda grindy).

 

But diablo 3 just gets boring fast, I guess it can be fun if you play with friends and/or like repetitive games.

[Praesi]

Its Fun, but has no Chance against its predecessor.

[aithos]

13 hours ago, acercon said:

Could you Diablo 3 players explain to me what the game is really like? My friends are trying to get me into buying this but I am not sure If I would like it. I played a bit of PoE and I liked that, I think Diablo is really similar.

Some questions:

Does this game still get updates and are the updates free or is it paid?

Once I buy the game is it pay to win at all, or can I unlock all content for free.

I am guessing this is a pretty grindy game, is there like a story to play through? and what do you do once you finish the "Story"?

Thanks!

Contrary to what gamers who are "fans" of one or the other will tell you: the games are shockingly similar.  They each have a story that is neat the first time you play through and then will subsequently be ignored forever because in ARPG games you play the game a billion times.  They each have a lot of unique and varied builds that go through up and down balance patches each season to keep things interesting.  They both revolve around getting a lot of loot that makes your character seemingly invincible, etc.

 

To answer your questions:

 

Is the game still updated?  Sort of.  There are (currently) no new expansions planned, but the game get balance updates, new items and some new content from season to season.  For example, since RoS (the expansion) launched they have added a bunch of new maps, the reliquary cube, a ton of new items, and overall the gameplay has been revamped pretty substantially in how you approach end-game.  They also have released a new class, done special events like the throwback to Diablo 1 graphics mode, etc.  With that being said, at this point it's more likely that Diablo 4 will be announced than a new expansion will be coming.

 

Is the game pay to win?  Not even a little.  You buy the game and all the content is unlocked.  There are no microtransactions, there is nothing like PoE's stash tab, there is no auction house, nothing.  You can earn rewards for participating in each season and completing the achievements but we're talking about a single set of "transmog" armor (like an MTX) and extra stash space each season for completing the conquest.  The "normal" gear in the game is all like MTX where you can make any piece of gear look like any other piece of gear you've found that the character can use.  It's a far superior visual system for armor than PoE and frankly I think buying the game and getting all the content is the FAR better model.  PoE's supporter packs and the cost of MTX armor sets are retarded (even though I love the game).

 

Is there a story?  Yes, you'll play it once and then go right to adventure mode after that.  It's also much better than PoE with the dynamic difficulty system and the bounty/rift system.  It makes leveling far faster and getting to end-game is simple and easy.  In PoE only highly skilled players can reach end-game in a day or two, in D3 anyone can do it.  However, in PoE once you get to end game and get a couple pieces of gear anyone can complete the highest tiers of content...where in D3 it takes considerable investment to maxing your character if you want to compete on the leaderboard.  I think D3 has a better balance when it comes to difficulty and reward, I think PoE has the far superior gear/skill system.

 

Overall the game is as grindy as you want it to be.  If you intend to push the limits of greater rifts... then yes, it's very grindy.  You will need perfectly rolled ancient versions of the best items that are virtually impossible to get without devoting an absurd amount of time and unlike PoE you can't just farm currency and "craft" them because of how the ancient and crafting system works now.  Or rather, you can but it is a LOT more RNG.

 

I think it's worth trying, but you need to go into it with an open mind and understand that while many of the underlying concepts are the same... the delivery and implementation of those is pretty different.  In D3 it's very common to get power-leveled once you've played through the game once because everyone is SSF these days (no trading).  The only way you can trade items is if the person is in party with you when it drops and then you can give it to them for a short period of time.  So it highly encourages party play.  Also, the affixes on "unique" (legendary) items are not set... so you can get a version of an item that is garbage because it doesn't have the right stats such as crit chance, crit damage, etc. 

 

I used to heavily prefer D3, now that I am more familiar with PoE I am leaning towards that (once 3.0 comes out and eliminates the difficulties that may swing it) but the MTX system is still stupid for PoE.  D3's is FAR more rewarding and varied.  Give it a shot, it can't be very expensive these days (make sure you get both the base game and the expansion).

[Seamonster420]

I didn't much care for Diablo 3. One of the big differences from the first two games is the dungeon lay outs aren't randomized giving the game very little replay value imo.

[Tsuki]

11 hours ago, aithos said:

Is the game still updated?  Sort of.  There are (currently) no new expansions planned

actually not true. the necromancer update will be a full expansion, likely similar to RoS.

11 hours ago, aithos said:

Contrary to what gamers who are "fans" of one or the other will tell you: the games are shockingly similar. 

fan here. i disagree. the skill systems are completely different in all of them. sure the basics of the game are similar, but thats just like saying they are also similar to PoE and Torchlight and Grim Dawn. which is technically true but not wholly accurate.

 

 

D3 had its issues when it launched, it was crap. But with RoS and the loot 2.0 update the game is awesome and worth getting.

[aithos]

On 5/12/2017 at 2:02 AM, Tsuki said:

actually not true. the necromancer update will be a full expansion, likely similar to RoS.

When they announced the necromancer update at Blizzcon they specifically said it would NOT be an expansion.  It is a content pack, more like a DLC and is not going to include new acts, is not going to raise the level cap, and is not going to include all of the other content that goes along with an expansion.  So I'm sorry, but you're wrong.  Go watch the announcement if you don't remember, I was expecting them to announce a new expansion and was disappointed.

 

Quote

fan here. i disagree. the skill systems are completely different in all of them. sure the basics of the game are similar, but thats just like saying they are also similar to PoE and Torchlight and Grim Dawn. which is technically true but not wholly accurate.

You can disagree all you want, if you ignore the aesthetics (the interface) and look at the underlying systems they basically do things the same.  The only real difference is what options are presented to the player and where they place the emphasis of the experience.  I was working on an ARPG of my own last year before work/life got too busy and one of the things I did was a detailed comparison of the two games (and my concept) in order to identify what I felt were the strengths/weaknesses of each game.  I have something like 50~ pages of detailed analysis on the games, the TL;DR: they are mostly the same.

 

For example, in PoE one of the big emphasis points is the huge skill tree right?  Well when you break it down what is 99% of that tree?  Life, ES, types of damage, crit, movespeed, etc.  There are only a few dozen "notable" nodes that are actually build defining and the result is that most builds just go around the tree getting the same stats to hit adequate amounts of the same stats.  D3 chooses to eliminate the redundancy and instead presents players with skill/rune choices instead and ties life to gear/gems.  The result is that either game has a huge number of viable builds, each game has handful of "top-tier" builds per class, and most successful builds wind up similar in stats across the board.

 

I like the skill tree, but you could just as easily remove it and still have EVERY SINGLE by just limiting selections to notable nodes. 

 

Also, yes the skill systems are different... but it's mostly superficial.  In PoE you have multiple classes that can make each "archtype" of build, but for the most part they all play virtually the same unless a particular ascendancy is what enables the build or makes it broken.  Otherwise there is very little different between a freezing pulse Witch vs Shadow (as an example).  In D3 you pick your class which directly determines which build you are going to be able to play, but you still have the archtype's available (Uliana's monk, Sunwuko, Inna's Mystic Ally, God Monk, etc). 

 

The support system is just replaced by runes and unique affixes on gear, many of the unique affixes completely alter or empower the abilities and are build defining the same way certain supports or notable nodes in PoE do.  It's a different presentation, but the underlying system is still roughly the same.

 

Quote

 

 

D3 had its issues when it launched, it was crap. But with RoS and the loot 2.0 update the game is awesome and worth getting.

I agree.  Diablo 3 has gotten substantially better since RoS launched and has continued to get better, and I recommended the OP give it a shot since it isn't very expensive.  I think most people who like one game will also like the other if they give it a fair shot without bias.  Each game has things that it does well (better than the other game) and they have obviously influenced each other.