Comments on: On Diablo 3’s Story, or: Why Less Is More In Videogames

By: Thoughts: Reaper of Souls. » The Scientific Gamer The Scientific Gamer

Thoughts: Reaper of Souls. » The Scientific Gamer The Scientific Gamer — Sun, 06 Apr 2014 22:54:12 +0000

[…] 3’s story is really bad. Famously bad. It was so bad I wrote a whole extra blog post on how bad it was, and I was far from the only one to notice the badness; basically the entire […]

By: Diablo 3: Zur Repräsentation virtueller Gegenstände | Candy Colored Grab Bag

Mon, 17 Feb 2014 03:16:56 +0000

[…] das Wort Gottes in Sachen Action-RPG. Nicht annähernd. Der Kritikpunkte gibt es viele – die absurde Handlung, die gewollt ‘epische’ Präsentation, der Online-Zwang, die Darstellung weiblicher […]

By: hentzau

hentzau — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:29:51 +0000

That’s not a manual. It’s a pamphlet full of fanfiction. I like the D1 and D2 manuals because they have comprehensive equipment breakdowns, spell descriptions, bestiary entires etc. etc. before they ever get to the horrible, horrible background stories. The D3 “manual” by contrast functions as (I guess) a story primer for people who weren’t born when Diablo was released. It’s a sign that the story has moved front and centre rather than being shoved at the back of the manual where it should be. Which may seem like an odd distinction to make, but there you go.

By: hentzau

hentzau — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:25:48 +0000

Zoltan Kulle is literally the only character in the entire story with a brain, and he seems like a pretty fun guy to boot. Which I suppose made it inevitable that he would be murdered by the player character without ever stopping to find out just what was up with that soulstone.

By: aosher

aosher — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:20:22 +0000

Minor criticism: it should be noted that the Diablo 3 manual is also full of backstory. It is appallingly written, contradicts much of that occurs in the actual game (“Tyrael… [was] no more,” for example, which is odd because he’s pretty abundantly not dead in the actual game itself) and, of course, no-one reads the manual these days anyway – but it feels odd not to have acknowledged that the D3 manual is as much fiction as the D2 and D1 ones were.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:23:56 +0000

Hit the nail on the head. Act 3 and 4 were especially bad. At least with Belial you could kind of see how he was manipulating you with the other characters. There was a point in Act 2 where I wasn’t sure if the Emperor was bad or Adria just because of the dialog. I’d give them credit for that actually. However, you have perfectly described Act 3 and dealing with Azmodan. If hes the greatest general in all of Hell, I’m not sure why they need a hero at all.