Request that you please read my review, and in truth, I'll wager that you will probably agree with my conclusions...
I don't think I need to go into the overall review in terms of graphics, sound game play (yep, it's still basically a major click-fest of killing anything close to you, and gets worse at higher levels....). I thought I'd just touch on some major/distinct impressions/conclusion of the game since I've begun it:
- Differences between the 5 characters are certainly there to a degree, but what it comes down to is your choice of game play style, fighting up close via melee, or at a distance using a form of ranged (magic or archery weapons). All have pluses and minuses, but eventually one gets so overwhelmed even trying to move away from baddies, that you end up being very often surrounded by tons of baddies, and up close not matter what the style. So can't really say one is better than the other. Admittedly Blizzard has tried hard to balance them out.
- With the latest patch, although Blizzard has tried to apparently correct this situation and after 180+ hours of game play, I have found that item drops (magic/rare/legendary) for me at least, are basically worthless, when compared to what folks are selling on the Auction House. I just can't imagine where they find them in the game, because I sure can't find them, and to me, as compared to Diablo 2, this is very frustrating at times.
- Also, stuff sold by vendors, after the initial part of the game. becomes absolutely worthless to buy. I've also tried my hand at crafting weapons and armor, and those crafted, were again, worthless compared to what's available on the Auction House. Again, with Diablo 2, the vendors sold stuff that could be considered really pretty good, and you couldn't really use some of it as an immediate upgrade, until further character advancement. That's not the case with Diablo 3.
- So what it comes down to, is that in order to advance in a reasonable time frame thru the game, one really MUST rely on the Auction House, otherwise you will be (very tediously, I might add...) farming over and over and over the same areas, going after that elusive exquisite weapon/armor upgrade. And so the game then quickly becomes a chore. I farmed a couple of boss fights many times, and didn't ever get even a legendary item drop and only few (and not very good quality) rare item drops. That to me, does suck quite a bit....
- Also, to really use the Auction House to your best advantage, you can either hope to snipe some good stuff right before auction end by hanging out in the Auction House (like sniping on ebay), or just plain spend 100,000's to 10's of 1,000,000's of gold to get decent items thru the Buy It Now option, just, at times, to barely survive.
- But.... again thru repetitive farming, one does not accumulate gold quickly. It takes a LOT of farming time to build up even 100,000 in gold, and that won't buy you much.
But wait(!), the good folks at Blizzard have given us a wonderful option, in that you can spend your own "REAL MONEY" (via Credit Card or Paypal) to buy items or gold in quantity with cash, which will allow you to continue on well into the game. And even after spending a lot of your own $'s for items of incredibly high stats and quality, when you get to Inferno Level, you can count on dying over and over and over..... (But the implication to solve that continual dying, is to.......(aha!...) SPEND MORE GOLD!!!....).
You catch my drift here? Because I'll admit that I became a sucker early on and spent some of my own money (over and above the $49.95 for the game disk at Fry's....) to advance my character(s). And now that I am in Inferno Level, getting my butt continually swatted by bad guys that are way stronger than I am (and still no decent item drops of my own....), I feel that I am now truly a SUCKER, in that this game is basically designed to deviously fill the coffers of Blizzard, Inc,. after you've originally bought the game from the retail vendor....
So, between the tediousness of the game at the higher levels (with 5 characters, I've seen among other repetitive plot lines, Cain die, Magda get killed, saved Covetous Shen, pulled up 3 catapults, and fought boss battles, dozens of times, now....), and the money I've spent, somehow I am just not getting the return on my game from what I had originally thought. This game ultimately falls way short of Diablo 2 in many aspects, the most glaringly being item management and a less than free-form environment to run thru (many locations are random but also very many are fixed in Diablo 3). It is basically a great disappointment, and I am now a bit sorry that I got so sucked into it early on.... And so now, I'm stuck with the game for life, but I won't be playing it very much from here on in, and certainly won't spend another $ on it from my credit card (which is mercifully soon to expire....).