Diablo III open beta weekend

[ProPain]

It's Diablo III open beta weekend, you can download the beta client and play from 12 noon PST (which aparently is 2.5 hours from now) till somewhere till monday. You need a battle account, but if you don't have one you can start one for free, download the game and participate in the beta. There's a level limitation at level 13, which is pretty low if levels match with DII levels, but you can play all classes.

You can download the client here

https://us.battle.net/account/download/index.xml

I think I'll go and try to play a bit, mostly because I'm very much in doubt if I'll buy it anyway. A free trial run might help me decide.

[grs]

In case we get in someday over the weekend, my battle tag is Grookshank#2527.

[ProPain]

I got in last night really late. I played for about 30-45 mins and reached level 5. With the level cap at 13 this weekend, I think we can't see much of the content.

So how was the game?

It's the Diablo hack n slash clickfest we've known for years now. For the first four levels or so I only mashed my mousebuttons, from level 5 onwards I also used the 1 key. So the game isn't overcomplicated . The compelling part of the game is the story, and overall I liked the game a lot. I was really on the fence about buying it but the game beforehand but it grabbed me instantly.

The game's dungeons lack the open spaces that D2 had, everything is much more hallway like and you have more of a sense of moving forward constantly. Also in the outdoors areas. IN this aspect it's more like D1, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it makes crowd control spells very effective.

I picked a witch doctor as my char, it appears to be a sort of caster/ranged combat combo. He shoot's poisened darts and casts spells. He starts of with a really good snare spell, and I felt the combat was super easy because of it. I fouht 2 bosses and a few elites, my health never came close to 50%. When I hit 5 I got a spell that summons 3 dogs to fight at your side and then things became even easier: snare, dogs run in, shoot arrows from the back. The more confined spaces made it really difficult for mobs to reach me. Dunno how combat progresses through the game, but this felt a lot easier than D2 and I think it will get bored quickly, especially after you finish the game once and know the story.

INventory management is the same as always: cramped. I haven't seen any town portal scrolls yet (Havent visited a shop either) but you'll be running back and forth to town quite a bit when you need the money. I think Torchlight does a much better job here. You can send your pet to town to sell stuff and you runinto the occasional merchant in the dungeons. Missed opportunity.

Graphics are nice, it's a much more dark and gloomy game then D2 (but I have only seen a little ofc) Also in this aspect it seems to resemble D1 more then D2. Obviously screen resolutions are much better then D2's 800*600 so the game looks nicer already just because of that.

All in all it's a really nice game from what I've seen, I'll think I'll buy it the 15th. When I compare it with Torchlight I think D3 has a better story, whereas TL has better inventory options. The graphics for both games are really different, D3 being very realistic and TL more cartoony, combat in both games is much more easy than D2 it seems.

Haven't seen any gems/crafting options in D3 and haven't visited a merchant or the auction house yet.