Well... took an hour and a half to get past the login screen.

When I did finally get in, play was quite laggy fighting a group of 5 or more enemies with just 2 coop players. Hopefully this will improve as the servers thin out.

I don't like how I can't assign points to my stats (it's automatic) and the skill system is very linear. Not exactly what I was hoping for. Also, the story and progression feels very "produced" and not very organic. The gameplay ends up being "get from point A to point B" with a bunch of extraneous dialog that has little or no engagement value so it just ends up being *skip* *skip *skip*

The one saving grace is the loot. I'm a loot addict, so that will keep me playing for at least a little while. Kind of a shallow basis for a game... but somehow it works for me.

I don't like how I can't assign points to my stats (it's automatic) and the skill system is very linear.

I know their justification is that stat points are now being altered through loot instead of having to manage too much stuff. I don't know how I feel about that, but it does at least have a reason it's that way.

Not exactly what I was hoping for. Also, the story and progression feels very "produced" and not very organic. The gameplay ends up being "get from point A to point B" with a bunch of extraneous dialog that has little or no engagement value so it just ends up being *skip* *skip *skip*
[/quote]
I was really upset with these bits. While I realize most of the fans don't really care about the story's delivery, it's really sloppy for a game that's been in development for so long.

Guys. The beta was basicly the tutorial where you learn how to play. and some intro to the world.
It's supposed to be super easy.
It will get harder. A lot harder

Personally I think the new skill system will be great. I don't like to be forced to do choices that can't be respecced.
As of now, I can rebuild my entire caracter from scratch whenever I want. (at least the skills part, equipment is a bit harder I guess)

There is also a lot to the game that did not show up in the beta, like elemental weakness/protection that will change things up a lot, and make gear pretty important.
I heard some blizzard guy say that 95% of the loot is only dropped on the higher difficulty levels.

The skills definitely seemed varied to me. Even the runes change things up quite a bit. They were probably one of the things I wasn't disappointed with. I'm just confused how you could play the wizard and not have that different an experience through 5 play throughs. I guess it's only the first 13 levels so you really only have 6-7 of the 23 active skills and none of the passives.

I know, funny, right? 5 play-throughs and they all felt the same. And by the same, I mean "equal chance of not possibly losing". That's, I think, my biggest aggravation. There's no risk, no danger of losing. Whatever skill load-out you choose, you are given a huge I-WIN button. From what I've been seeing of people playing the full version, that doesn't change beyond the constraints of the beta, either. The bland homogeneity of power levels, and the inability to really customize your character, plus the far more linear play than the previous games, just leaves me with an impression of a dumbed-down game that is not for me. Everything I've heard in the last several hours is only reinforcing my determination to not buy this game, and that excludes the log-in issues that are, to me, quite understandable with a launch this legendary.

Maybe Grim Dawn will be cool.

I know, funny, right? 5 play-throughs and they all felt the same. And by the same, I mean "equal chance of not possibly losing". That's, I think, my biggest aggravation. There's no risk, no danger of losing. Whatever skill load-out you choose, you are given a huge I-WIN button. From what I've been seeing of people playing the full version, that doesn't change beyond the constraints of the beta, either. The bland homogeneity of power levels, and the inability to really customize your character, plus the far more linear play than the previous games, just leaves me with an impression of a dumbed-down game that is not for me. Everything I've heard in the last several hours is only reinforcing my determination to not buy this game, and that excludes the log-in issues that are, to me, quite understandable with a launch this legendary.

Maybe Grim Dawn will be cool.

Yea... it's almost like the only difficulty available in the beta was the easiest difficulty in the game.

[quote name='FLeBlanc' timestamp='1337092344' post='4940419']
I know, funny, right? 5 play-throughs and they all felt the same. And by the same, I mean "equal chance of not possibly losing". That's, I think, my biggest aggravation. There's no risk, no danger of losing. Whatever skill load-out you choose, you are given a huge I-WIN button. From what I've been seeing of people playing the full version, that doesn't change beyond the constraints of the beta, either. The bland homogeneity of power levels, and the inability to really customize your character, plus the far more linear play than the previous games, just leaves me with an impression of a dumbed-down game that is not for me. Everything I've heard in the last several hours is only reinforcing my determination to not buy this game, and that excludes the log-in issues that are, to me, quite understandable with a launch this legendary.

Maybe Grim Dawn will be cool.

Yea... it's almost like the only difficulty available in the beta was the easiest difficulty in the game.
[/quote]

So you have to beat the game once in order to get so much as an iota of challenge? Why should I have to waste my time like that in order to finally get to the fun parts?

So you have to beat the game once in order to get so much as an iota of challenge? Why should I have to waste my time like that in order to finally get to the fun parts?

This is the same as Diablo 2?

As far as difficulty goes, I find it very easy to die in Act II. Level/gear/witch doctor specific issues aside, but things do ramp up, much in the same way the original did.

Not saying it's the pinnacle of hard games, just that Act I, let alone the part available from beta is just a tutorial.

[quote name='FLeBlanc' timestamp='1337095597' post='4940433']
So you have to beat the game once in order to get so much as an iota of challenge? Why should I have to waste my time like that in order to finally get to the fun parts?

This is the same as Diablo 2?
[/quote]

Not really. Yes, you had to unlock higher difficulty modes. (Which was one of the most obnoxious things about it.) But no, D2 Normal wasn't the snooze-fest that D3 Normal seems to be. Try D2 normal Duriel with a flame-thrower sorceress.

This is pointless arguing, though. I could be wrong about the difficulty (according to Antheus I am wrong) and it still wouldn't matter, because I strongly object to so many other things (the lack of customization, the silly little plot-gates that make no sense, the single-player DRM, etc, etc...)

Throwing the whole "Act 1 is only a tutorial" up in fact only makes it worse for me, because it adds in the assumption that I need a tutorial to play such a brainlessly easy game. Because, you know, I'm stupid. (Well, I really am stupid, though. So... hmmm...)

I dunno, though. Blizzard still has me by the balls, no matter how much I whine and complain. I've been subjected to a constant stream of texts from my brother-in-law who is much like me in temperament and arrogant asshole-ness, and he loves it. And I want so much to love it. Just.... gah.