Forget error 37 already!
The night that the game was going to be released was really exciting. I also bought the game before it was released and was waiting for the servers to come online. That night was indeed a failure for Blizzard. Yes, there were millions of people waiting for that release and as soon as the servers were online everyone wanted play it but Blizzard should have anticipated the inevitable. They knew how many games were sold so they should have been prepared. That infamous 'Error 37' ruined the night of many people myself included. I say one more time. Blizzard failed big time there. I have seen many reviews, read forums and many people, rightly so, were furious about this issue. What people don't understand is, this matter is entirely different from gameplay. This is disappointing but this issue should not cause people to dislike the game itself. What I believe is, because of this frustration many people gave low scores to this game. Your scores should not be based on this. It should be based on the gameplay.
Another issue that many people hated is that you always have to be online even when playing a single player game. This sometimes causes latency issues and it is of course something quite stupid when you are playing a single player game but overall I don't think this is a big issue and again like 'error 37' should not cause you to dislike the game. I did not have major issues and latency almost never caused any problems to me.
NOW THE GAME ITSELF
Before I start my review I'd like to talk about my Diablo history. I was very young when the first game was released so I missed most of it though I have watched/played some of it. I played Diablo 2 extensively. Finished the game several times and until the release of Diablo 3 I was still playing it. In order for this review to be more healthy I will compare D3 with D2 and will not include the first game at all. Many people compare those two games and say that after D2, D3 was a total failure. I will try to show why I disagree with that.
Diablo 2's most groundbreaking part was (visual/graphic) details. I remember myself standing still and looking at the details of a room for several minutes in certain places. I was really happy to see that Diablo 3 delivered something even more beautiful. Details are really intriguing. The graphics are gorgeous... and environments. They are basically stunning. I can write a seperate review just about the environments. They are really fascinating and I cannot stop myself from staring to the details and the beauty of them. Being able to zoom in is also a great opportunity to inspect the game further. So graphicwise D3 is a total success.
DIFFERENCES
Blizzard made some changes with the game, which I believe allowed the game to flow, brought more action and liberated you from doing most of the unnecessary stuff that you had to do in D2. Firstly, no more scrolls of identify and town portal. You don't need to waste time on going to the vendor every now and then to buy those stuff. You simply click and it's done. That was unnecessary and removed. Potions and gems can actually stack now! Never understood why Blizzard did not do that in D2 but doing it in D3 was certainly necessary. Removing stamina. This maybe thought as reducing the difficulty of the game but I don't agree. Running out of stamina was causing you to slow down and in some certain cases you had to return to the town and refill it if you did not have any stamina potions. This was totally unnecessary and I do not think it was making the game more challenging. It was only making it more boring. You had to walk for a while to regenerate your stamina, run again and do the same over and over. Removing stamina did not make the game easier, it just sped it.
No more points when you level up
Another difference between D2 and D3 is that there are no more skill points that you need to spend to unlock or strengthen new abilities and no more points to increase your stats. I did not like the fact that game itself distributes the points that increases your stats. I think people should have the freedom to allocate their points in the way they want because through it you can tailor your own way of progressing your character. Though the other part is a success. Leveling up to unlock new skills is actually better than just spending points on abilities that may become useless after a certain point. Rune system allows every skill to be useful even at max level and being able to use more skills at the same time makes the game more fun and also makes it customizable in the way you want. Another great addition is the passive skills. They really have a big impact on how you want to build your character and can change the game significantly when you switch from one to another
Professions
D3 added two professions to the game: Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting. Blacksmithing allows you to make use of useless magical items and also allows you to craft items that are actually useful. I liked that addition though only problem is when you are crafting an item you may sometimes need to craft the same item many times before you can actually get something useful. I found that quite frustrating but other than that it is a good implementation.
The best thing about jewelcrafting is that now you can remove gems from your items. That is a big change and was really necessary. Your gems are no longer gone to waste when you decide you are not going to use the socketed item with them anymore. That was totally necessary.
Mana
That is a small change but I believe it was a necessary one. A sorceress and a barbarian requires the same thing to use their entirely different abilities was a bit nonsense. Though when we look at the release date of D2 it's understandable. But it is not anymore so fury, spirit, arcane energy and hatred/discipline are well thought and well adjusted energy sources. They also have some small effects on how you play the game so as I said not a big change but a necessary and a good one. Also in D2 whatever class you play you had to give some points to energy in order to increase your mana and it was quite frustrating.
Potions
Blizzard decided to make some changes with them aswell. Firstly they removed mana and reju potions. Mana regeneration is not a big issue anymore so if you are a bit careful you almost never have problems with mana. Instead of slowly regenerating your hp, health potions now instnatly restore your health like reju potions but now have a cooldown. So they removed the mana challenge from the game, which is also something allows the game to flow like many other changes, and they introduced the challenge of managing your hp since you cannot spam potions anymore.
Classes
Now I will compare the classes in D2 and D3. I will not include LoD classes since we do not know if there will be an expansion for D3 so it would be unfair to just say that there were more classes in D2.
Barbarian vs. Barbarian
This fierce fighter is the only class that was preserved by Blizzard. In both games going dual wield or swinging your giant weapons is really fun. With barbarian you are always in the middle of the action and especially in higher difficulty levels you should be able to be resillient enough to survive while smashing the minions of hell. As there are more skills to use at the same time and as there are passive skills that adds remarkable stats it is possible to be more flexible while you are playing with your barbarian in D3. You can be a proper tank or a decent damage dealer and more importantly you are not restricted with mana. Most of the great abilities of barbarian from D2 like bashing, leaping and whirlwind are carried to D3 but now they even look better. Barbarian class is certainly a success. It has all the cool stuff from D2 and given even more cooler stuff.
Wizard vs. Sorceress
Sorceress was the class that I played more than any other class in D2. I loved it and I still do. Wizard is a bit different from sorceress. It introduces some new and nice abilities though lacks some of the cool stuff of sorceress like frozen orb (which was my favourite spell). With D3's graphics some abilities of the sorceress would look gorgeous if they were not abandoned. It is not easy to imagine but if sorceress herself was implemented to D3 I think it would be slightly better but wizard is certainly not a failure and a really good class to play with and a good substitute to sorceress.
Witch Doctor vs. Necromancer
They both command undead minions and hurt their enemies with some really cool spells. Those new spells of witch doctor are really amazing and especially against big group of enemies they are effective and look great. Though skeletal warriors and mages and of course golems from D2 were better minions and would look amazing if they were in D3. Witch Doctor's spells are better but Necromancer's creations are way more cooler.
Monk vs. Paladin
True believers. Paladin with his shiny armour and monk with his iron fists. Have to say that I haven't played much with paladin so cannot judge it but I really did not like it that much so have to say that monk is a better class to play with and I would not prefer to be able to play with paladin instead of monk in D3 though as I said do not have extensive knowledge about paladin. Just finished normal difficulty with it and did not have that much fun. Monk on the other hand in more fun to play with his quick attacks and some nice abilities though it also would not be my first or even second choice.
Demon Hunter vs. Amazon
Amazon was a really fun to play character in D2. You were both able to play with bows/crossbows or with javelin. With Demon Hunter your only option is ranged weapons so in that aspect Amazon was better. Also Amazon had some nice ranged abilities that Demon hunter lacks but new abilities that Demon Hunter has are also fascinating. I would prefer Blizzard to keep Amazon instead of Demon Hunter but that new class is also fun to play and like every other class in D3 it is a success.
Conclusion
What people failed to understand is that Diablo 3 is not exactly a Diablo game in the sense everyone expected. They made some big and small changes to the game and that is why people who loved the game before now hate it. I think that approach is wrong. Those changes, at least most of them, were absolutely necessary. Maybe not every single change was a good one but most of them are well adjusted. Diablo was one of the best games that the gamers have ever seen and Diablo 3 is also a great sequel and certainly does not undermine the achievements of its predecessors and I think it brought the game to a different level which is still lots of fun. I most certainly think that Diablo is the best hack'n slash game and looks like it will remain so.