There’s been a recent news that was posted on a lot of gaming websites concerning Blizzard’s upcoming game; Diablo III. And a lot of people weren’t happy about it at all…
The reason for that is due to the controversial decision of Blizzard TO REQUIRE GAMERS TO PLAY DIABLO III ONLINE EVEN ON SINGLE-PLAYER. Yup, you read that right. You won’t just need to authenticate the game once online, you’ll need to have internet connection (broadband from what I believe) at all times to be able to play SINGLE-PLAYER. There will be no more LAN modes, nor offline single-player for Diablo III.
Now what if you don’t have internet connection at home? Or in a 20-hour plane trip and you want some hack-and-slash gaming to kill time in a very long flight? Blizzard says "there are other games to play besides Diablo III" when you're stuck with no internet. It’s just another way of Blizzard saying “well, sucks to be you.” And a lot of people were not pleased at all.
Add the fact that Blizzard also said that "Diablo III mods, are not allowed and banned". For those people who may think “so who gives a damn about mods anyway?” lemme explain just how this impacts not just Diablo III, but the gaming community. Are you playing/enjoying that game of DOTA? How about CounterStrike? Those games are mods built on top of an existing game namely WarCraft III (for DOTA) and Half-life (for CounterStrike). So just imagine if developers didn’t allow or give the community the tools to develop game mods, you prolly won’t be playing DOTA or CounterStrike anymore. It is just a sad day for Blizzard fans, and I whole heartedly agreed with the community who voiced their concern about this entire thing.
As a fan who waited nearly 10 years for this game, its simply heartbreaking to see a beloved franchise slowly evolve into something like this. It simply doesn’t feel like Blizzard anymore. And I guess there’s a reason for that…
Enter Torchlight.
To those who don’t know, Torchlight is a hack-and-slash, action RPG in the same vein as Diablo by Runic Games. Before you say “copycat!” it would be nice to know WHY they have the same gameplay. It’s because Torchlight is developed by the VERY SAME PEOPLE WHO MADE DIABLO I & II.
Here’s a trailer for their last game; Torchlight
I got to play the game last year, and I was left wanting more. It was everything I ever wanted from a Diablo sequel and more, but it lacked multiplayer which was a much needed feature for games like this. Thankfully, Runic Games listened and now incorporated not only multiplayer to its sequel, but made everything that should have been on Diablo III, namely:
- Offline Singleplayer Experience
This for me is one of the most compelling reasons why I loved Diablo games in the first place. I can get play the game however I wanted it; solo or with friends. And I don’t need an internet connection to play. If I wanted to play a game that’s always connected online, then I’d simply be playing an MMO instead which kind of defeats the purpose of the singleplayer experience.
- Multiplayer over LAN
One of my best memories of Diablo II, was going on a LAN party with my friends on a computer shop and playing the hell out of the game while being with my friends physically. Nothing beats playing a dungeon crawler than with a bunch of friends huddled together and having some pizza and drinks on the side. Also, another advantage of LAN is that there will be little to no lag at all whenever we are playing since we are not using the internet to play anyway.
- Mod support (including a built-in mod editor)
Just having an official editor built-in the game is godsend. This would not only make mod creation easier for fans, this would open up the game to many more gameplay experiences after you’ve completed the main quest. DOTA on Torchlight anyone? XD
- Low System Requirements
Another good thing about Blizzard games back in the day, is that they work on almost any PC, even low-end ones. To date, StarCraft II has a pretty high system requirement that is fine for most people with updated PCs, but sucks for people who are still stuck with their dual-core PCs. If SC2 is any indication, I’m pretty sure that Blizzard will be making Diablo share the same if not higher system requirement as SC2. Thankfully, Runic Games knows more than anyone that making games work on a lot of PCs generally gets more people to play their game.
- Affordable Price
If anything, games nowadays are pretty expensive. And with Diablo III rumored to be priced around $60 (roughly Php 3,000+) which is about the same price as StarCraft II, its nice to know that Runic Games said that they will be pricing the game at around $20 (roughly Php1,000) to $30 (roughly 1,500) for the retail copy of the game. Damn. All that goodness for half the price of Diablo III? Sign me up! XD
As much as I’ve been a fan of Diablo, the new changes implemented are simply too much for me to tolerate, and I’m simply disappointed as to how it turned out. After 10 years of waiting, Blizzard simply treated people who vigilantly waited for their sequel like crap, and that’s simply not fair at all. With how things are shaping up, I’d prolly be getting Torchlight II instead of Diablo III. What about you?
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