System requirements for being a Geek? Get excited about Diablo III
June 28th, 2008
There are a few defining characteristics for geeks, many of which can be hotly debated. Using a custom version of Linux as your day-to-day operating system, knowing how to code in the assembly language of an obscure piece of hardware that doesn’t even get used anymore, scolding your friends for not having strict doctypes on their webpages about cats they own.
There’s another sort of geek, and that’s the one that gets chills when he or she sees an opening cinematic crafted by the team at Blizzard.
Blizzard’s official site has cinematics and screenshots, as well as some FAQs and their usual frustrating lack of a release date.
Diablo III has been announced.
Which has me in a mind to wax nostalgic about Diablo II. If you’re a new geek, or one in training, you may not have gotten bitten in the past with this addictive franchise, created by Blizzard Entertainment (Heard of World of Warcraft? Same guys).
Some of us were caught up in the Diablo II and Starcraft days - this author remembers the earlier days of the original Warcraft and Diablo, released in the late 1990s when Blizzard was making itself known as a serious contender in the game industry. Warcraft II cemented that place, and when Diablo II came out with shine and polish on an already great game, it seemed like they’d have fans for life.
They do. Ask over five million Koreans, still playing a game that’s over a decade old. The Diablo franchise is even older, and has a fanbase that ranges far beyond the übergeek. It is one of the top selling titles of all time.
The gameplay is straightforward — you have a character which you view from above, whom you direct by clicking your mouse. Right-click, and he or she attacks or casts a spell. Simple, no?
Your character walks around the world, with settings ranging from desert to lush jungles, and you fight your way through quest after quest. Defeated enemies drop items and gold, which you can pick up to sell, equip, or use to purchase other items. Of course, there’s something about an eternal struggle between good and evil, and your place in the middle, I think.
The real fun, however, is in how your character progresses. Although your character gets further along in the game to advance the story, the real appeal is in the changes you can make to your character.
You decide what happens in terms of adding skills, weapons, armour, magic, etc. And before you run away with memories of people dressed up in funny cloaks and rolling 20-sided dice, understand that all this happens in a deliciously simple way. Diablo is often frowned upon by those into ‘true’ Role-Playing Games, because it takes a quick arcade approach. A friend of mine once summed up the core of her addiction with the statement, “It’s a shopping game.”
Add amazing voice acting and stunning cinematics to advance a great story, and you’ve got a winner.
News on the Diablo III is sketchy as it’s just been announced, but if you haven’t tried its classic of a predecessor, I’d suggest picking up Diablo II. A surprising amount of retailers still carry the Battle Chest edition, which bundles the sequels and expansion sets. Even the most pokey computer you’re likely to surf with should be able to run its 7-year old graphics with ease - and the game looks surprisingly good, given its age.
I for one look forward to a good old (new) hack and slash - a worthy successor to the ones I’ve spent hours playing with my friends and girlfriend.
And, of course, when you’re done that, keep a keen eye on Blizzard’s official site for all the news about Diablo III.
Tags: Blizzard, culture, Diablo, Diablo 3, Diablo II, Diablo III, games, gaming
One Response to “System requirements for being a Geek? Get excited about Diablo III”
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Diablo II is one of the very few games I have obsessively played in my life. The single-player story is engaging enough, the gameplay is tough without being insane. As a benchmark for intuitiveness, I played over 50% of it until I finally got my hands on a user’s manual… the only thing unintuitive from that experience was key-binding. Utterly impossible to figure out without someone telling you how to do it. Plus, leveling up you character was richly rewarded. Just as you had gotten fed up with your spells, etc, you cross that line where the heavy-hitting spells and skills are, and suddenly, you’re like a walking weed-eater through your enemies. Gave a great feeling of satisfaction. Plus, there were tons of different ways to upgrade your characters, since choosing one skillset would improve others later on, and prevent you from really expanding others. Finally, kudos to Blizzard for keeping online Battle-net servers running TO THIS DAY for when people decide to break out their old copies, their level 50 whatevers and have at it again.