Well, having played some more online coop last night, I have to say I think this game is rather badly designed and pretty boring come Act II.
We're playing in Hard. Through Act I, it was a struggle, and a rewarding one. Big yellow bosses, even blue enemies, were scary and had us scrambling for cover. We picked skills based on what would support the team - zombie dogs for distraction, grasping hands to slow mobs, freeze to stun them and let us escape. Since then, with a plethora of Legendary pick-ups (I've 3, my two friends 4 or 5 each), our firepower is ridiculous. We slaughter everything with as little as passing a gaze. Big, hard, yellow boss baddy? Down in a couple of second combined firepower. Using vampire bats, and with 70 health regen per second, I can stand in the middle of a mob and blast them with bats and I heal as fast as they can hurt me. which quite frankly is necessary because it's nigh impossible to see what the hell is going on!
The effects are glorious - in isolation. But all together they make it impossible to see anything. And everything starts to become more garish as we level up. The costumes are more colourful, the spells are more colourful, everything's more colourful, and each little battle looks like a 2 year old has eaten their pack of twelve crayons and puked all over the screen. Spells everywhere; particle effects everywhere; can't see a goddam thing; monsters are dead; move on.
What's worse is the levelling is virtually pointless. It has no satisfaction. New skills and abilities tend to be worthless. They cost more mana/energy/hate than the old skills we're using but do less damage in general. Why would I send a zombie running into the enemy instead of suck them dry with vampire bats?
The balance in this game is poor. Hard modes are impossibly hard to begin with (and weren't an option when we started the game) but become no problem once you've progressed a bit. Drops are too rich and empowering. Skills are fun to look at but seem badly balanced such that one sticks to the few staples.
D3 offers crazy hundreds of hours gameplay farming and looting, but I'm not feeling much interest. Which I guess is a good thing, as it's the sort of game one can play a little of every now and now, rather than a meaty 'must play to the end' experience. Ultimately though, I do not consider this a coop game. It's like every other coop game - several players all individually doing their individual thing with zero requirement for teamwork.
We're playing in Hard. Through Act I, it was a struggle, and a rewarding one. Big yellow bosses, even blue enemies, were scary and had us scrambling for cover. We picked skills based on what would support the team - zombie dogs for distraction, grasping hands to slow mobs, freeze to stun them and let us escape. Since then, with a plethora of Legendary pick-ups (I've 3, my two friends 4 or 5 each), our firepower is ridiculous. We slaughter everything with as little as passing a gaze. Big, hard, yellow boss baddy? Down in a couple of second combined firepower. Using vampire bats, and with 70 health regen per second, I can stand in the middle of a mob and blast them with bats and I heal as fast as they can hurt me. which quite frankly is necessary because it's nigh impossible to see what the hell is going on!
The effects are glorious - in isolation. But all together they make it impossible to see anything. And everything starts to become more garish as we level up. The costumes are more colourful, the spells are more colourful, everything's more colourful, and each little battle looks like a 2 year old has eaten their pack of twelve crayons and puked all over the screen. Spells everywhere; particle effects everywhere; can't see a goddam thing; monsters are dead; move on.
What's worse is the levelling is virtually pointless. It has no satisfaction. New skills and abilities tend to be worthless. They cost more mana/energy/hate than the old skills we're using but do less damage in general. Why would I send a zombie running into the enemy instead of suck them dry with vampire bats?
The balance in this game is poor. Hard modes are impossibly hard to begin with (and weren't an option when we started the game) but become no problem once you've progressed a bit. Drops are too rich and empowering. Skills are fun to look at but seem badly balanced such that one sticks to the few staples.
D3 offers crazy hundreds of hours gameplay farming and looting, but I'm not feeling much interest. Which I guess is a good thing, as it's the sort of game one can play a little of every now and now, rather than a meaty 'must play to the end' experience. Ultimately though, I do not consider this a coop game. It's like every other coop game - several players all individually doing their individual thing with zero requirement for teamwork.
