First Impressions

I finally got my copy at Brochiere, Robinson's Galleria last Wednesday. I got it for Php 3,100.00 something with no extras. Jonas Diego and co-Diablo 3 Philippines blogger got the same thing for Php 2,550.00 (click here for the full details) and he got a poster for it too! What the...?

I'm kinda thinking Brochiere owes me!

That aside, I started playing it Thursday afternoon and, I gotta admit, I was pretty excited.

I do have to say that while waiting for Diablo 3 to come out, I've played other Diablo-type games like Drakensang-Online and Path of Exile, so comparisons to those games are bound to come out whenever I talk about Diablo 3.

Click for a larger image.

Having played those games for the past few months, I sort of got over my indignation over Diablo 3's requirement for an always on Internet connection. Meaning, although you can install the game in your computer and play it solo you have to go online, register with Blizzard's Battle.net and log into one of their servers for you to actually play this game.

Drakensang and Path of Exile both work with that kind of mechanics so I had gotten used to it. It has its own pros and cons, of course. The bad thing about it is that you are always at the mercy of the stability of not only your Internet connection but also of the stability of Blizzard's servers. Although you paid for this game (I'm assuming that you did), it will not always be up to you when you will be able to play this game.

Obviously, this seems to be a response to piracy but it terribly inconveniences those who actually buy their games legally.

The good thing about it is that your game will always be up to date. If the "social" thing is more your thing you might find a lot of things to like about it because you can chat, trade, and do the auction thing. But for someone like me who doesn't care about all that stuff (I mean, I just want to play the damned thing by myself without anyone else intruding on my little happy time) all of that is just unnecessary stuff.

But I can live with it.

What do you guys think? Is this always online thing something that can stop people from pirating Diablo 3? Even if you have pirated software and codes there is still the matter of logging into Blizzard for authentication so you can actually play it.

Anyway, as for the game itself...

I think it's pretty awesome. The action and effects are pretty cool. I'm playing a Barbarian (currently Level 19) and he's pretty brutal.

I'm kind of confused about customization though. I mean, the development of the character through skills is kind of confusing. One would think that you gain more and more passive skills as you go along, but from what I'm seeing you only gain access to passive skills as you level up, but you get to choose what passive skills you can use at any given moment. When you choose one skill, you drop another. Is that right? Would it make more sense for you to be able to have both passive skills at the same time as you grow?

Yeah, right now that skill system is very confusing.

Click on thumbnail for a larger image.

I hope to get a better grasp of how characters are developed as I play the game further. In comparison, Path of Exile has a pretty awesome skill tree. (See image on the right.) You get to choose which attributes you can enhance as you level up, no confusion at all.

I was already at Level 19 before I first encounter my first socketed item. Wow! That far in? I'm not sure what to put in it yet because I've yet to actually encounter gems or any kind of item that you can put in a socket.

I find Normal Setting rather difficult (what more in the more difficult settings of the game). I've lost count how many times I've died (I'm guessing around 15 times now). It's crazy but it's all right: a challenge is what it is.

Graphics-wise, beautiful as Diablo 3 is, I have to make another comparison. Path of Exile's graphics is really just more stunning. But what Diablo 3 has got over Path of Exile is excitement of gameplay.

And to me that's a very important part of the game.