Game Review: Diablo III

I'll get the ugly part out of the way upfront. As far as game releases go, Blizzard's launch of Diablo III is the worst I've participated in. I always expect issues whenever a new game is released, I really do. But nothing the likes of what I experienced trying to play Diablo III within 24 or even 48 hours of its official launch. This was very surprising coming from Blizzard, given their reputation and resources as a powerhouse in the MMO industry. That said, Blizzard did apologize for the experience, and for me, this went a long way.



Now that that is out of the way, how is Diablo III?

In a word: satisfying. Satisfying in the sense that if you are looking for a dungeon crawl hack-n-slash game that you can play for hours, explore new areas and dungeons, gear your character up, and slowly reveal the storyline of the game, D3 delivers. Like StarCraft II, Diablo III at once felt both very familiar yet new and refreshed. The mechanics are essentially the same as they were years ago. You kill butt loads of mobs in a great, glorious fashion, loot the corpses or containers for gear, and fight big, nasty bosses. The nostalgia of clearing a room of demons, hearing the same familiar sounds of coin or gear falling on the ground really brings a satisfying grin to my face. Simply put, it is Diablo and Diablo is fun.

There is a certain guilty pleasure in playing Diablo III. Its a game that pits your hero (and your companions) against almost insurmountable odds and simply laying waste to them with some incredibly over powered abilities. For example, my Demon Hunter has a power that basically turns her crossbow into a minigun. Ah, the gory sight of her raining death down on the spawns of Hell! So what is new? What did we wait 11 years for? I'm not sure what the hold up was in this games release, but I do like how powers are laid out in an action bar and how characters are customized. I like the new classes, the Witch Doctor and the Demon Hunter. Another new direction Diablo III differs from its predecessors, is that it requires an Internet connection to play and a battle.net account. While there is no subscription fee to play, you do have to access Blizzard's game servers to play the game. As such, joining one of your friend's games is as easy as joining their game and clicking on their banner in town.

Demon Hunter

In Diablo III, each character can have up to two main attacks (click, click, click away!), four support powers, and two passive abilities. I am looking into a new gaming mouse with lots of buttons to support this! As you progress, you open additional powers and unlock runes that modify how a power works. At first I was not too happy with this, as you no longer can spend points in a tree to modify your character, or even directly modify stats, as in Diablo II. However, after seeing how this works I rather like it. I can customize my character on the fly and drastically alter how it plays. For example, I can spec Wicked to deal a lot of AoE damage with traps, grenades, and explosive mines then switch her to a more single target, high damage build. Or I can make her very stealthy and evasive. Stats are modified directly by gear. Which means certain types of gear will be in high demand, which works out fine, as Diablo III now supports an auction house. The novelty with this is that you can choose to spend REAL money on virtual items. Yes, you can now transmute real gold into fake gold and pay to win! Although the real winners are Blizzard and Paypal :) I saw a post from one of my WoW buddy's that he wants to make enough money off of Diablo III to pay for his monthly WoW subscription. Well played, Cyno.

A Wizard doing his thing.

There is also a crafting system. You can train the blacksmith to craft you gear and, eventually, a gem merchant, too. However, it costs gold to train them, and gold to craft an item, and most recipes require raw materials. These materials are obtained by "disenchanting" at least purple level looted gear. This could be challenging, as you can also sell that gear to merchants, put them up on the auction house, or place them in the vault for an alt. As you acquire gems, you can combine them into better versions and socket them into gear that have open sockets.

A hail of arrows!

Now, I've only played up to level 29 so far and have completed Act II, but I am really enjoying the game. One of the things I love about this type of game is that you can simply walk away from it for days and come back later and jump right in exactly where you left off. Its not so complicated that I forget what I was doing or how to play. Conversely, I logged onto my Warlock the other day in WoW and had no idea how to play him (I've not played him in months). And once I complete the story arc in D3,  I get to replay the game, only this time on a more difficult setting. I dig that.

All in all, Diablo III is an action packed, RPG game that is fun and satisfying to play. With Diablo III, Blizzard did not reinvent the wheel but they did put a shiny, new rim on it. It is different from Diablo II for certain, and I imagine some will be disappointed in that, but I found the new character customization rewarding. I do find the game somewhat repetitive at times (weren't we just in this dungeon?) but there is enough storyline to make me press on and see what happens next.

See you in Sanctuary!

Strength and Honor,

-Wicked

The Return of Netrunner!

From the never-even-saw-this-coming-news category, the good folks over at Fantasy Flight Games
are releasing one the THE best card games ever made, Netrunner. Created by the genius of Richard Garfield, whose other game design credits include a little card game called Magic:The Gathering, Netrunner was set in the cyberpunk world of Shadowrun.

In the original game, players played the game representing either the huge, wealthy, agenda driven Corpaorations or as a crafty and capable tech savvy Netrunner. The Corps player would secretly play Agenda cards and try to advance them by spending his resources, called bits. he would try and protect these secret Agendas by setting up anti-hacking programs, called ICE. The Runner player, though less resourceful, would spend his turns gathering bits, hardware, and programs and other such equipment until he felt he was able to make a "run" on one of the Corps Agendas. If he was successful, he would reveal what the Corps was up to, and score points. But breaking ICE is no easy task, and if he cannot do it before the Corps player can advance the Agenda, the Corps player scores the points.

Holding my old Netrunner decks has got me feeling a bit nostalgic, but during the CCG bubble of the mid 1990s, this is one game that was severly overlooked and eclipsed by its older sibling, Magic. Its fate was the same as many CCGs of that era, though not at all well deserved. There were a few expansions but I guess Wizards of the Coasts felt it had to be let go.

FFG will be re-releasing the game in the sci-fi setting of their Andriod universe. I am genuinely happy Netrunner is being redone, though I am very curious to see the FFG iteration of this great card game. It will be a LCG release, which I find to be a great format for card games.

I'll post a more detailed review of the FFG version of the game once it is released. Meanwhile, check out the press release from FFG below:

 http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3272

Strength and Honor,

-Wicked

The Battle for Sanctuary begins!

Diablo III releases tomorrow! It was a hard decision, but it looks like the Demon Hunter for me. See you all in New Tristram!

Strength and Honor,

-Wicked

Game Review: Lords of Waterdeep

Any game with a Drow on the cover is win.

Lords of Waterdeep is a super fun board game for two to five players that brings the elegant worker placement mechanic of an excellent Euro game to the fantastical setting of The Forgotten Realms in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. The game is as rewarding to play as it is fun and promises for a great evening of gaming with your friends. 

With this game, Wizards of the Coasts really flexes its considerable gaming muscle by producing such an engaging and fun game. The box alone is very unique and the quality of the components is top notch. Through out, the immersion of being a D&D game is evident, right down to the chits used as gold coinage. There are plenty of D&D hallmarks. From the art of the quest cards to the map like game board depicting the city of Waterdeep, there is no doubt that this game takes place in the Forgotten Realms. And this is one of the games main strengths to me. Unlike many worker placement games where you may be farming for grain or corn, or gathering wood or food, your resources are hearty adventurers that you send forth on valiant quests to further your particular Lord of Waterdeep's agenda. From a role-play standpoint, players take on the roles of quest givers. I made the joke that an entire thirteen week Encounters season is completed with just one Quest card! :)

Jason intently considers his next turn

But it also very much has the look and feel of the quality Euro game that is is. There are wooden Meeples representing Agents and colored dice cubes standing in for the adventurers: Warriors, Rogues, Clerics, and Mages (the rarest to acquire). There are play mats for each player to track their resources that really harken back to games like Puerto Rico and Agricola. The game is also similar to the game Caylus. The mechanics are simple. Each player is dealt a Lord of Waterdeep card and that identity is kept secret from the other players. Each Lord has an agenda that players try to forward during the game that earn them additional points at the end. Each turn, the players place Agents on different locations on the game board. Each location can only be chosen once (mostly), and each location yields different benefits. Players may also elect to build additional locations for players to occupy. For example, I place an agent at The Plinth and receive one Cleric. As players accumulate adventurers and gold, they can then "spend" these resources to complete quests (of which there are different types, such as Warfare or Skulldugery), which in turn grants the player points on the tracker or some other benefit. The trick is players have limited Agent access (in a five player game we had only two) so where you place your worker becomes very strategic. The turn order can change each turn (by someone occupying Waterdeep Castle) so someone may take a location you need to complete a quest before you have a turn. Add to this the ability to play Intrigue cards that either help you or hinder your opponents, and you have a very strategic and dynamic game. At the end of the 8th turn, players reveal their Lord cards and tally up their points. The player with the highest point total wins. 

The scheming begins!

We got to play two games and each game was different. However, each game we began to see more and more how the mechanics worked and the multiple ways one can earn points. Jason looked to be the clear winner in our first game, he was scoring quests that had huge point values early on, but through some savvy game play Chip came from behind and won by just two points. Our second game saw Jason coming in second again, but Seth won by building additional locations and earning huge bonuses for them due to his Lord of Waterdeep card. 

All in all, Lords of Waterdeep is a great worker placement game wrapped in the finery of a fantasy D&D setting. If you are a fan of one or the other genre, or both, you will definitely enjoy giving this game a try. 

Lords of Waterdeep has an MSRP of $49.99 and is produced by Wizards of the Coast. 

You CAN do what I said you could do!

Guild Wars 2 Trailer

Just thought I'd post this as a follow up. It's an old trailer, but it gives a very good impression of that "painterly" style I mentioned they will be using for this game.

Enjoy!

-Wicked

Avengers Assemble!

If you have not seen the genius that is Joss Whedon's "The Avengers", stop what you are doing. Stop. Just stop. Car. Get into your car. Drive to the theater and go see this movie. Twice. Back to back. Go. Now. Stop reading this and go. Go. Now. You will thank me later.

Excelsior!

-Wicked

Beta, Beta, Beta!!!

Hey Folks!

So much gaming goodness has been afoot over the past few months! Recently, I have had the opportunity to play in a few Beta tests of some upcoming games. The result is I have not had enough time to properly test them all, but I did play enough of each to get a very good snapshot of how the games will be, and I must say, I am excited for all of them. So, what I have I been testing?

Guild Wars 2

The races of Guild Wars 2 

Not since the days of yore (i.e. Star Wars The Old Republic) has there been such a frenzy of anticipation for a MMO release. The folks over at ArenaNet are close to releasing their highly anticipated MMO, which continues the storyline established in Guild Wars. I was impressed with so many new and innovative features of this game. It was very fun to play, and I can easily see myself trying it out once the game is live. Some of the features I liked the most were the Dynamic Event questing system, the Skills system, and how your attacks and powers are based upon which type of weapon combination you are using. But the biggest impression was simply how gorgeous the game is. The amount of detail in the game is amazing. As my buddy Roman said, it is like playing in a highly stylized and intricate painting.


Diablo III

The Witch Doctor causing some Confusion in Diablo 3

Wow. This one has a special place in my heart, as I am a huge fan of "dungeon crawl" anything, and Diablo was my first true video game on my "new" computer back in the early 1990s. This time around, Blizzard updated the graphics, added more story and new classes, including the ranged Demonhunter and the way too cool for words Witch Doctor! Like StarCraft 2, Diablo 3 does feel familiar, yet that is why I think I like it so much. New Tristram is in need of heroes! Again, really looking forward to this release, which is just next week!!! May 15, 2012!










World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

Pandaren Monk 

Yep, the Pandaren will be making their official entrance into WoW with the next expansion. I love the changes made to WoW graphically. The starting zone for the Pandaren looks like something out of Disney's Mulan. Beautiful! Like ancient China on the back of a giant Sea Turtle. The new Monk class was fun. Despite the cluster**** that was 1,000 Pandaren trying to click on the Edict of the Unclickable, the starting zone was fun, and I got a good impression of the new Monk melee class. I did copy over a level 85 Mistweaver Monk, the melee healing spec, but I had no idea what I was doing so I stopped playing. This looks to be a "love it or hate it expansion for WoW", but I'm a fan boy and loved what I did get to play.

Much more in depth and detailed reviews will follow once these games are released. This is just my initial impression of these great games coming our way. So keep a weathered eye on the horizon for some truly fun online games.

-Wicked