By Nathan Grayson on April 11th, 2012 at 8:00 am.
Diablo III’s Barbarian is quite the nuanced character. His culture is… well, and then there was this exploding mountain that… OK, he kills stuff with axes big enough to be chopped down by normal axes. Also, he leaps onto his squishy loot pinata enemies like Mario if he’d been the victim of an oh-so-trendy gritty reboot. Honestly, though, Diablo isn’t really the place to live out my fantasy of Reginald Spleenfury, the exceedingly well-read and business-like barbarian who struggles to push back against a society that refuses to understand his ways – and is also largely illiterate and has yet to invent business. So I’ll probably just roll his underachieving, overkilling slacker cousin Powthwack Kabiffzott and check my brain at the door.
Diablo III, as everyone on the planet knows, is closing in on a May 15 release date. Last week, we got to meet the Demon Hunter, but will next week bring another video to whet our click-click-clicking appetites? I’m gonna go with yes. Well, unless a meteor collides with the planet, instantly yet painfully obliterating us all. Ah man, I totally just jinxed it, didn’t I? Oh, this is so awkward.
11/04/2012 at 08:04 MythArcana says:
Diablo III’s Barbarian Shouts and Breaks Things? Are you sure you aren’t talking about Bobby Kotlick?
11/04/2012 at 10:58 Yor Fizzlebeef says:
Thought they were one and the same : /
11/04/2012 at 14:28 Perjoss says:
if I’m honest I’ve never seen Bob Kotick and the Diablo 3 Barbarian in the same place at the same time.
11/04/2012 at 08:08 felisc says:
good old trailer. decent chunks of gameplay footage + voice over. that’s nice.
11/04/2012 at 08:25 Corrupt_Tiki says:
Still don’t know if I’m 100% sold on the enemies flashing white when hit thing.
Hopefully there is an option to disable it.
11/04/2012 at 09:03 f1x says:
I hope so,
thats the only thing so far that ive seen which is a bit annoying, specially because of the atmosphere is really well created but that flashing thing is a bit.. distracting,
but yes hopefully it can be changed or maybe in the final game is not as obvious
11/04/2012 at 09:34 MrMud says:
It irks on you a bit at the start. But to be completely honest, when you are playing you quickly forget about it.
11/04/2012 at 12:25 Martel says:
Agreed, I had completely forgotten it even happened anymore.
11/04/2012 at 14:05 d32 says:
Or there will be a mod for that!
Oh, right. That’s illegal.
11/04/2012 at 14:23 f1x says:
not ilegal, just not supported because of the online “feature”, lets not be too demagogic
but if you think about WoW, Addons could be easily supported for Diablo3, as it dosnt collide with the anti-hacking (yeah bye bye Jamella lol)
11/04/2012 at 08:34 Amun says:
It’s startling just how different the tone of this is from the original game. D1 was horror through and through, D3 looks like a neon carnival shooting gallery. =/
11/04/2012 at 09:24 Azradesh says:
I lost my rose tinted glasses, can I have yours?
11/04/2012 at 12:52 Amun says:
Diablo was (and still is) genuinely creepy. Diablo 3 appears to be “epic.”
Argue with me, please.
11/04/2012 at 14:31 Ringwraith says:
Well, the first also didn’t have respawning in single-player.
That always makes things more tense for a start.
11/04/2012 at 17:25 Azradesh says:
Oh please, Diablo isn’t creepy in the slightest. Amnesia is creepy. You might have been scared when it came out becuase you were much younger, but if you are still creeped out by those pixels then you have other issues.
I agree that Diablo 3 isn’t creepy, but nor was Diablo 2. As for you comment to Xzi about Diablo seeming like a tell of “horror and woe”, if you played Diablo 1 well, it too is a shooting gallery.
I think the different feel might be down to the music and sound as Yor Fizzlebeef said bellow.
11/04/2012 at 19:37 gritz says:
You’re just 100% off the mark on this one. Walking into the Butcher’s lair for the first time in Diablo was creepier than just about anything in the arpg genre.
11/04/2012 at 20:59 Azradesh says:
Sure, when you were young. Still creepy? Don’t be silly.
11/04/2012 at 22:43 Answermancer says:
I found Diablo 1 creepy, but then again I was a kid.
I never found Diablo 2 the least bit creepy, and in fact the lack of atmosphere in that game made me kind of hate it for a while (but it was fun in co-op so ultimately it grew on me).
Diablo 2 was the massively successful game, much moreso than Diablo, so why you’d expect Diablo 3 to be anything like the first game confuses me.
11/04/2012 at 09:36 MrMud says:
I see you don’t mention D2 anywhere in this text. This is a good thing, because if you did I would laugh at how D2 is much more carnival colours than D3 is.
The parts of D3 that I have played (beta) are very atmospheric and much, much closer to the artistic feel of D1 than D2.
11/04/2012 at 09:55 PoulWrist says:
I played Diablo 1 recently, it’s got a way different mood. And it reminds me of when I first played it after getting it for my birthday :’)
11/04/2012 at 09:59 Kdansky says:
Are we talking about the same D1/D2 with the palette-swapped enemies that frequently showed up bright pink, garish yellow or neon blue?
11/04/2012 at 10:21 Xzi says:
That’s exactly what I was thinking. Even as a kid I remember being high on sugar and wondering if these games were going to give me a seizure.
Diablo 1: http://imageshack.us/f/525/diablo1.jpg/
Diablo 2: http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/attachments/113396d1245390796-diablo-3-blizzard-gibt-neue-screenshots-mit-monstern-frei-shot3.jpg
Yep, no color to be found there…
Seems to me that they’ve actually made a decided effort towards creating a darker atmosphere in Diablo 3. Probably because of the fan outcry driven by nostalgia and misinformation.
11/04/2012 at 12:50 Amun says:
Sorry if I was confusing, I was talking about the atmosphere or feeling of the original vs the sequels. It appears that Diablo 3 is more focused on providing the player with infinite streams of stuff to blow up rather than a labyrinth of obscene monsters ready to kill you. Hence, D3 looks like a shooting gallery at a carnival more than a tale of horror and woe.
11/04/2012 at 19:56 Enso says:
I don’t think it’s fair or accurate to compare the atmosphere of a game you have played to one you haven’t.
11/04/2012 at 14:08 d32 says:
That’s childish, choosing the most extreme screenshots from both games. Also, Amun was talking about D1, not D2.
11/04/2012 at 10:32 f1x says:
Thats what happens when you remember old games, if you happen to play them again… you realize how they actually look aged now
I mean I’m 29 now, when I played diablo1 I was like 14 (I didnt play it straight away when it came out, perhaps 1 year after), of course it was scary, dark, etc
11/04/2012 at 11:01 Yor Fizzlebeef says:
I don’t know… I did not play the original Diablo when it came out, but actually several years after I had played Diablo 2 and I agree on the different mood that the first one sets. However, I think that has mostly to do with the music and sound design rather than graphics design. The music in the first one is just so deliciously… satanic?
11/04/2012 at 17:45 Hanban says:
I remember playing the demo where you got to fight the Butcher. His room was not tidy. All these naked people put on spikes. Eugh.
I also remember trying to make the pitch to my parents why I should definitely be given some extra money to buy Diablo. Since my dad’s from South America both of my parents knew it basically meant devil.
“But moooom, you KILL the demons. It’s basically a christian game!”
11/04/2012 at 19:54 Enso says:
I don’t think it’s fair or accurate to compare the atmosphere of a game you have played to one you haven’t.
11/04/2012 at 08:47 TheWhippetLord says:
A barbarian hero in platemail? Heresy! A proper barbarian’s armour progression should consist entirely of gradually sturdier posing pouches.
11/04/2012 at 09:16 MonkeyMonster says:
and slightly more intricate tattoos
11/04/2012 at 15:32 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
A posing pouch WITH AXE BLADES ON THE OUTSIDE
And on the inside too because he doesn’t afraid of anything.
11/04/2012 at 08:57 UncleLou says:
I was actually surprised just how much the beta feels like Diablo, and nothing else.
Anyway, I am glad I loved the beta as much as I did. It would kill me if I was in the disappointed camp in this case.
11/04/2012 at 09:01 Skeletor68 says:
Can’t wait! CE pre-ordered. Looking forward to it!
11/04/2012 at 09:10 cpy says:
Metzeeeeen! Not him again :(
11/04/2012 at 09:13 kikito says:
Is there an option to deactivate the “shiny particle effects”?
11/04/2012 at 11:41 Torn says:
Set video settings to low, I imagine.
Or, you know, get over it and enjoy the game.
11/04/2012 at 18:57 lasikbear says:
You could always wear sunglasses.
11/04/2012 at 09:18 stahlwerk says:
The VA sounds a bit like the Pirate from Stacking. YARR!
11/04/2012 at 15:35 disperse says:
Sounds like the spokesman for the Old Spice commercials.
11/04/2012 at 09:20 Skeletor68 says:
Would love if we get resurrected Rakanishu and Bishibosh and other guys from D2. Loved some of the humour in it.
What part of Wirt will we find this time?
11/04/2012 at 09:37 MrMud says:
There is the corpse of Rakanishu in Den of the fallen (an early underground part in the beta).
11/04/2012 at 09:42 Ninja Dodo says:
perhaps of interest: http://gdcvault.com/play/1015306/The-Art-of-Diablo
11/04/2012 at 10:21 stretchpuppy says:
Reginald Spleenfury, lol
11/04/2012 at 11:46 kyrieee says:
The script for the VO is just so overwrought.
I never imagined that I wouldn’t be excited for D3. What a strange world.
11/04/2012 at 14:26 Weretoad says:
Judging from the comments on this article, too many people are babbies when it comes to how picky they are about this game. Good sign for Blizzard I’d say, at least people are passionate about their product.
11/04/2012 at 15:19 Hoaxfish says:
Both these class trailers make me laugh, there’s something about the narration that makes it sound like he’s reading out of a toys catalogue.
I think its the way he details the specific mechanics (“maximum fury”) at the same time as trying to keep it “flavoured”.
11/04/2012 at 16:47 RavenGlenn says:
Is it just me…or does the Barbarian go Super Saiyan whenever he gets angry enough? >.>
15/04/2012 at 03:57 mAnon says:
Me too.
But it looks like the non-existing Super Saiyan 5…
11/04/2012 at 19:45 Greggh says:
This article made me smile :D
Thank you Mr. Grayson!