So to eliminate quick leveling in certain areas and mf running the same boss over and over, we have exploited questing with chest runs and boring items. Or just horde gold and buy your items. Nice going blizzard.
I think Torchlight was just as good and it came out what, 2 years ago?
So you're saying that pretty much always doing only Baal Runs to find a very specific set of items and gain levels, facing against the repeated types of mobs from the Baal Throne room, over and over again, was better than actually having to play four Acts and seeing plenty of different environments? You preferred it when D2's main entertainment was ultimately limited to one or two bosses usually ran by bots? I have my own disappointments in DIII, but some people need to check back at what they were doing when they "played" Diablo 2. There's of course a difference between people whom actually played and completed D2 only to "leave" it behind maybe just a few months after they completed it (like they would for almost any other games), and enjoyed every bit of it, and others whom played it for years non-stop and pretty much ended up going for the same character builds and playing the same levels and run the same bosses over and over again.
I still remember when for many months (if not years) my game-play in D2 was limited to solo Hell sessions of the following, after created my own passworded game (doing everything manually myself, no bots, no maphacks):
- Running Act I's The Countess, for Runes or some specific Uniques.
- Running Act I's Andariel, when I really felt like it (no maphack, Catacomb Levels were a bitch to solo sometimes).
- Running Act II's Summoner, when again I really felt like it, the Arcane Sanctuary's four paths were tricky to "rush" for a Barbarian without an Enigma. I would sometimes find the Summoner on my "first try" (first path chosen), but that was usually not the case, with a 25% chance to find him on the first go.
- Running Act III's Council Members in Travincal for various items they could drop.
- Running Act III's Mephisto (Durance of Hate levels were so big it was often discouraging to do that manually, but I did it anyway).
- Running Act IV's Diablo, but as a Barbarian the Chaos Sanctuary was a bitch due to having to deal against Oblivion Knights and their multiple casts that were a real nightmare for melee characters. That was until Blizzard at some point decided to remove their ability to cast Iron Maiden, which could one-hit your best geared melee Barb or Paladin (if not using those magic hammers).
- Running Act V's Eldritch the Rectifier + Shenk the Overseer, very easily accessed by porting to the Bloody Foothills' northern portal, and from there going north for Eldritch just a few meters away, and going south from it (the Portal) down the alley right into Shenk and his minions. Those two usually took merely two or three minutes to run with a decently-geared toon.
- Running Act V's Pindleskin. It's a classic for bots and non-botters alike, good item drops only surpassed by Baal as far as I can remember.
- Running Act V's Baal. Again of course a "classic", basically Diablo 2 could be called "Baal 2", seriously.
That "variety" in game-play, environments and types of monsters encountered and randomization experienced was limited by my own desire to run for specific bosses... NOT because I actually wanted to "see those environments". Diablo 2's nature forced us all to run for items where their source was at their best. Not everyone had bots (although most people wanted them anyway), and not everyone had a toon with an Enigma capable of teleporting around doing runs super fast even manually, nor that everyone actually "liked to" play as a Sorc or an Hammerdin. I for example preferred the Barb and the Druid (Assassin wasn't bad either). I did my "solo Magic Find runs" usually with my Barb, sometimes with my Druid. I would do all of that manually and sometimes I would limit myself to just run for Pindleskin over and over again for anywhere between one to three hours (sometimes non-stop barely blinking my eyes between sessions).
If it wasn't for that, then I would check the games list and look for the inevitable "Smexy Baalz 054" or "Baal Ownzlolz 67" pub Baal runs, or sometimes I would go to specific private channels for a series of passworded 7 or 8 players Baal runs that would last anywhere between one to five or six hours, non-stop, with the exact same 7 other players, taking short breaks in between some sessions and coming back later on (when everyone waited until all 8 players were present). Still, the "game-play", if I can call it that way, was limited to just doing that. Either I would play alone doing those same things over and over again, or I would just join pubs or private Baal runs (sometimes Chaos Sanctuary runs, too) and... yep, that's it. And of course some of those runs were actually created by a bot, with all 7 other players actually following a bot (usually a Hammerdin at Level 97+).
The goal of D2 was to get good gear, not to run bosses non-stop, but people did that most of the time of course since they obviously were the main source of gear for everyone, and mobs alone couldn't cut it when it came to the "best drops" and drop frequency (along with loot tables due to mob levels limitations compared to bosses). That system "worked" from when the game was released to this day, but contained within D2 itself. It didn't have to be "copied" and pasted to other D2 clones or D2-reinvention attempts left and right in the industry. Diablo 3 did not need to be "like" D2 in the sense that people would - again - end up "playing" the same freaking levels to go on the same boss runs over and over again. What would be the point of doing that in D3 if we already have D2 for that? Did people (and D2 fans) really wanted to do that over again? Really? Only with updated graphics but with the exact same game-play?
I think we needed something at least a "little bit different"...
My "biggest" disappointment in Diablo 3 is the loot, in general. I think it's the main issue in the game and a lot of people so far seem to agree. It's very generic, it feels "repeated" (usually having to look for items giving extra stats and that's pretty much about it), and the satisfaction of finding "yet another rare" faded away after I got to Act III on Normal with my first toon. But despite the fact that D3's general loot is just light years
behind D2's loot variety and randomization, I still prefer to actually play the game and pretty much "having to" go through the four acts. I also actually "want to" (not that I have to) clean all the maps from available caves, cellars, crypts and whatever random Events I can find. It feels more complete that way and more polished over logging in a D2 session to immediately go to Act V and wait in town for that "teleporter" Sorc or Hammerdin with their Enigma armor to get to the Throne room, open up a portal and finally getting to "play" for approximately five minutes, only to have everyone leave in a hurry for the next "Baal Runz 108" run.
The only thing I think that would tremendously help D3's variety would be - beyond balancing classes - increasing the loot variety, and for all that is Holy (or Hellish) remove the ability to craft Rares, and DO SOMETHING about those gray and white items. D2's whites could be use to create Runewords, gray items could be in used to socket in specific Jewels, such as Ethereal items for Hirelings, etc. D3's crafting system COULD do something about grays and whites, being able to mix in specific (new) materials that would make a white into a magical blue item, or... I don't know... something. Just look at D2 as an example (I'm not speaking to anyone here specifically now I'm just thinking out loud). It doesn't have to be the exact same as in D2, really, but D3's loot variety and magical bonuses' variety alike NEED to be improved upon. When (or if) that is done, D3 will suddenly become much more interesting.
As of now I do really enjoy D3, but ironically I don't enjoy it for the rush of items that I was expecting to enjoy it for. I'm actually enjoying D3 for the actual game-play, seeing my Barb or my Demon Hunter performing those skills, doing their ridiculously well-done animations, seeing mobs flying left and right, getting pulverized to smithereens, blood splattering, visual effects flooding my eyes and those particle effects that give life to the whole experience. I enjoy D3 because of its gorgeous and detailed environments, because I love seeing and hearing a calm river run by the edge of a map as I smash piles of rock for some loot. Because I absolutely adore going in a lost sandy crypt that have part of its infrastructure crumbling by my feet as I contribute to further demolish it when seeing unstable pillars physically shocked and destroyed as I make the screen shake with my Hammer of Ancients to clean that elite mob that dares getting in my way.
I mean... I do have my complaints but damn, D3 is an actual
game-play experience that goes beyond a "rush for items" that D2 seemed to be all about. I think that unfortunately D2's very nature "spoiled" many fans for the wrong reasons. Too many were expecting D3 to be like D2 was, as if it "had to be" like D2 again, almost as if D3 didn't have the "right" to be different. Well, good thing, Blizzard actually put game-play into D3. The only thing now is that the loot variety needs to be improved, not that it needs to become an items rush again, it just needs some improvements, and we'll be set for good, in my opinion. In the meantime I'm still tremendously enjoying it. And I've played much better games mind you, I'm just saying, D3 is a damn fine and solid game, much more polished and "complete" than many other trash fast-food games we've been getting since the past couple of years from so many dev teams all around.