Diablo Junkie

Diablo III was unveiled at Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational in Paris and over the course of the weekend we were able to see quite a bit of gameplay, talk to a couple of top Blizzard staffers about it, and listen to a host of panels about the game. We figured the time was right to look at the ten things that are central to Diablo III.

A while back we examined the top 5 differences between Starcraft 2 and Warcraft 3. Now, it’s time to examine the Diablo 3 announcement, the demo and the trailer, as well as all the additional info that has been released by Blizzard. Here’s the top 5 differences! 1) More color, less darkness According to lead producer, Keith Lee, Diablo 3 is going to feature more outdoor environments with a lot more colors. Instead of pleasing the core audience though, this move has so outraged gamers that they started an online petition. They want good, old darkness back and the colors out the door! 2) Less monsters, more varied killing Jay Wilson, lead designer on Diablo 3, states that instead of hack-and-slash through throngs of monster, Diablo 3 players will have to focus on killing fewer but tougher monsters. Things like positioning, skills, and so on will have a greater effect than they did in Diablo 2. For example, the Berserker monster has a charged up attack that deals massive damage. If you dodge the attack though, the Berserker is left vulnerable. Similar fate awaits the Skeletal Shieldbearers when they drop their shields. 3) Epic heroes, class quests According to Jay, the new Diablo 3 characters will be more badass than ever before. Judging by the demo, it seems likely that there could be fewer characters but with a lot less overlap than say WoW. Class-specific quests, armor, etc are also in the works. 4) COOP play - large-scale, harder battles Judging by the demo, it could take four or more characters to kill a boss in Diablo 3. I hope these bosses can be defeated by a single player too (same as Diablo 2 ubers). The coop play will be through Battle.net - it’s not 100% clear whether that will be free (same as Diablo 2). 5) No more potions, less downtime In order to speed up the game, the designers have removed the massive belts full of potions. Instead, each monster has a chance to drop a red sphere that replenishes health. That means that you can go into combat even when wounded and get healed that way. There’s more than five differences? Discuss below!

Shacknews.com sums up the information released/discovered so far about Diablo 3. More nerdgasms ensue.

At the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, Diablo 3 lead designer Jay Wilson, presented a rundown of the design philosophy behind the game, covering its origins, the game's approachability, and the design team's "better gameplay, less carpal tunnel" approach."

Blizzard’s Worldwide Invitational 2008 starts in half an hour in Paris. If you can check the intro image - there’s a dark shape that is more and more visible.

UPDATE: Diablo 3 is OFFICIAL! Live news from the event:

12:15 — Announcement…..!! Guy playing Diablo music on an acoustic guitar…

12:18 — Footage of large scale battles, comets streaking across the sky, demons, Diablo 3 officially announced.

12:20 — Jay Wilson, lead designer on Diablo 3 coming out. He’s going to demo the game.

12:20 — It’s apparently still an action RPG. Same interface — red
health and blue orbs. Skill bar at bottom. 3/4 overhead perspective.
Character with 2 axes hacking at demons in what appears to be a foggy
cathedral. Has a jumping attack where he smashes the two axes into the
ground.

(Watch Diablo 3 trailer here)

12:21 — The axe guy is the barbarian class. Says improvements have
been made, like the hotbar for skills. Using the mouse wheel and tab
key you can quickly switch between skills. Whoing inventory. Appears to
still have slot limits. Using enchanted axes with frost and lighting
,which stuns and freezes opponents.

12:25 — Each piece of gear is custom designed for each class. Barbarian puts on demonic sort of garb with giant devil horns. Barbarian can hop across gaps on the map. Barbarian dislodged a rock wall and dropped it on zombies, killing them. Demoing moving whirlwind attack.

12:33 — Witch doctor can cast out locus swarm, which spreads between targets and deals damage. Can summon mongrel things that he can cast locust swarm on, which buffs their damage. Outdoor environment now. Quite pretty in that vibrant, slightly cartoonish Blizzard graphical style. Like with StarCraft 2 and it’s similarities to the original, Diablo 3 looks and sounds, at least at a glance, quite similar to previous games. Witch doctor also has a mass fear type of ability.

12:36 — Multiplayer will work over battle.net. Heads into a final fight against some gigantic moving trees. Final boss here, called siegebreaker assault beast, is absolutely gigantic, maybe around six or seven times taller than the player characters.

12:37 — Demo ends. The crowd roars…

Blizzard has opened the floodgates! A few dozen screenshots have been released thus far and here’s the ones that I found most interesting. Be sure to check the official Diablo 3 announcement too.

The Barbarian hacking through skeletons. Note the duel-wield.

The Witch Doctor and his mass-effect spells. I guess he’s the new Sorceress!

This is a close-up of the armor. Note the level of details. It looks proper 3D.

It’s the Witch Doctor again. Note the depth of the level. It looks pre-rendered but it’s certainly beautiful.

Enter the Boss! It looks five times bigger than the character!

This is the demo that was given during the Diablo 3 announcement in Paris.

You can download the high-quality gameplay footage here. Check out the Diablo 3 screenshots too.

Updated (June 28): Finally, Diablo 3 is announced and here’s the Diablo 3 trailer!

You can download the high-quality version here.

Blizzard has launched an official Diablo 3 forum at Battle.net. Just click here (no posting allowed yet).

You can check a screenshot below:

Let’s hope and pray there’s a Diablo 3 announcement at the WWI.

Below is the main box image for Diablo 3!