Normally any mention of orcs and elves brings about a torrent of social stigma — a branding if you will — of geekery and the social inept. The later of course is unfair: geeks are not socially inept; they just seemingly prefer to meet once or twice a year at conventions to fulfill their societal requirement of leaving the house.
Last week I had the opportunity to leave the house and attend my very first Blizzcon, which for that weekend was the place for all things orcs, elves, space marines and demons, all thanks in part to my good friend Joseph Hsu who’s a localization producer on Wrath of The Lich King. Being around people with such enthusiasm for all things Blizzard was quite the experience. It still amazes how a single publisher of games can host a yearly convention of 6000+ people.
Of course what would be my time spent at Blizzcon without some hands-on time with some of the most highly anticipated Blizzard games — Oh yes, the games.
At the very first moment of my sit down with the game, there was an instant sense of familiarity. Those that have history with the Starcraft series have the advantage of just jumping right in as if 1998 had never lapsed. Save for the graphical fidelity, new units, and new bells and whistles here and there; nothing has changed much from the base formula of Starcraft. I suppose it’s a good thing considering you have the entire nation of South Korea playing Starcraft almost as a national sport; a few drastic changes for the worse might of resulted in a international 5 party talk with Blizzard and the UN to discuss patch notes.
Alas, having a very familiar unchanged game will also remind players that there is a line between the gosu and the not so gosu. Just like the old days, I found my self incredibly under skilled to players who’ve only played the game a few hours. It’s no fun when you find a Protoss black hole in your base in under 10 minutes.
Unlike Starcraft II, Diablo III had a certain freshness to it while at the same time keeping that click-crazy gameplay that people have come to love — a certain freshness akin to the jump from Warcraft II to Warcraft III. From the updated interface to the jump to 3D, the presentation of the game is amazing. I have no idea why there was so much controversy over the art style; trust me, it works.
I had some reservations about not seeing some of the familiar classes I’m use to, but let me tell you I had a blast playing the new classes, especially the Witch Doctor. Veterans will right away see some similarities to the Necromancer; however unlike the Necromancer which was a more passive “watch your minions” kind of gameplay, the Witch Doctor facilitated very active gameplay. The Witch Doctor had a repertoire of magic and damage-over-time along with pets that run around — in fact, it reminded me a little bit of a Warlock from World of Warcraft.
One last thing I wanted to stress is how streamlined the controls are. In most Blizzard games your hands are constantly moving all over the place. During my time spent with the game I found for the most part my hands were stationary, which is a good thing. It allows players — at least for me — to focus on the action on the screen. The controls are not as complicated as say World of Warcraft but simple enough to give players masterful control over their characters.
Joe
October 21st, 2008
Shuai
October 23rd, 2008