WWI - Diablo 3: Gameplay Demo
Once the Diablo 3 trailer had finished, Jay Wilson (Lead Designer for Diablo 3) took the stage, asking the audience “who wants to crush some demons?” before proceeding to demonstrate about 20 minutes worth of very impressive looking gameplay, which is detailed after the cut.
The first section of the demo showed the Barbarian making his way through an underground crypt. Outside of the graphics (more on those later), the most obvious change was the interface. The iconic health and mana globes remain, but the potion belt has been removed. In it’s place is a very WoW-like hot bar, allowing you to have a number of easily accessible skills on screen, as opposed to Diablo’s unwieldy method of binding skills hidden away in menus to funciton keys. It’s also possible to quickly switch between your main skills using the mouse wheel or tab key. Jay promised that these controls are “so simple you can play it with just a mouse, but allows for easy skill combinations and deeper, more satisfying combat”. And given that Diablo’s main focus is combat, this can only be a good thing.
Watching the Barbarian in action, it’s clear that he sticks to Blizzard’s design ethos of “there’s no such thing as too much power”. And a lot of that apparent power is thanks to the engine being used. Whilst still employing an isometric viewpoint, the engine is now fully 3D. This, coupled with the sounds and ability effects allow you to feel the force behind the character, as well as how connected he actually is to the environment. While some argue that the game has lost the griminess and sense of horror of the earlier games (based on just a handful of screenshots, natch), you can’t argue that it isn’t pretty and incredibly detailed, and the outdoor environments shown were beautifully designed, looking almost like a painting.
Judging from the demo, the engine can happily have a vast number of enemies on screen at once (as should be expected in a ARPG), but also the scale of the bosses is now much more apparent. What’s more, the scenery plays a big role in events. It is destructible which not only adds to the immersion and connection with the world, will also have tactical uses. Jay showed off using a weakened wall to crush a horde of zombies. However, mechanics such as this in games often come off as forced, i.e. ever having such scenery near large groups of enemies. Let’s hope Blizzard can strike a balance between fun and overuse.
Speaking of enemies, they’ve had some changes too. Instead of merely running at you and attacking, some will employ a number of different game mechanics that will keep combat fresh and varied. Berserkers have a charge-up attack that can do massive amounts of damage if it connects, but he is stunned shortly after performing the attack, giving you time to dodge and counter-attack. Elsewhere, there are summoners that, while relatively weak themselves, can summon in powerful demons; cultists who can become possessed by a demonic entity, making them much harder to kill; and enemies that carry shields, allowing them to form defensive lines in front of frailer but more dangerous enemies. Engagements involving a mix of these (as well as whatever else the introduce) will make for much deeper, more involved combat.
As mentioned above, the potion bar has been removed. While potions will still be in the game, they will no longer be the be all and end all in a tricky situation. Instead, enemies will drop globes that, when clicked, will instantly replenish some health. Similar to the runes of healing introduced in The Frozen Throne, these globes should go some way to move the bias away from potion usage, and also reduce downtime between fights. In fact, it will actually encourage engaging enemies. Only red globes were shown in the demo, but one would assume that enemies will also drop blue ones, to replenish mana.
Jay then went on to introduce a new character class, the Witchdoctor. Judging from the abilities demonstrated, it seems that the Witchdoctor is a spiritual successor to the Necromancer. He commands hordes of minions and uses disease based spells. Interestingly, it is possible for the Witchdoctor to buff his pets using his damaging abilities, giving them attributes based on the ability used. Jay summoned some Mongrels, and cast the Locust Swarm ability on them, allowing them to deal additional poison damage. Oh, and one more thing: he has a Wall of Zombies. ’nuff said. While they haven’t finalised which classes would be coming back, it does seem that the introduction of the Witchdoctor does signal that my dear Necromancer wont be returning.
Details of the developer panel on the design philosophy of Diablo that followed this demo can be found here.
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