14 DAY TRIAL // Some long-term fans of Diablo III have criticized the game because they believe Blizzard has dumbed down the core gameplay features of the series, but one leading developer working on the game says that the team has only made it easier for gamers to engage with the game.
Julian Love, the lead technical artist working on Diablo III, has told Eurogamer that, “I definitely don’t see it as dumbing down. One of the disadvantages beta testers have is they only see the early portion of the game.
“That’s the portion of the game that really does need to be simple and approachable in order to live up to our mantra of easy to learn and difficult to master.”
Love believes that the overall complexity of Diablo III is the same as that of the second game in the series, but the team at Blizzard has managed to create a better balance when it comes to when various game systems are introduced to the player and how much information he needs to absorb at each point.
The developer added, “A lot of those things are just re-prioritised to flow into the proper portion of the game, where you’ve already gotten used to the early systems and early combat, and now you’re ready for more. That’s a big part of the process of just getting it to ramp up properly.”
Diablo III will be instantly familiar to all those who have played any of the other two installments in the series, but Blizzard has streamlined much of the game experience and has introduced a real money Auction House in order to allow gamers to do more trading via an official game mechanic.
Diablo III is out on the PC and Mac and Blizzard has been recently ambivalent about the possibility of also getting the hack and slash experience on home consoles.