I played a Necromancer to lvl 25 this weekend. Didn't finish Act 1, because I couldn't be bothered after having reached max lvl for the beta.
Performance and Graphics:
Graphics are alright, but far below current gen games. The character models feel a bit blocky somehow. Played well on my i7-6700k, vega 64, 16 GB RAM on 2560x1440. Some bugs, but not bad. The performance issues I had were all related to it being online. Quite a lot of rubber banding now and then, felt a bit janky and two disconnects in two days.
Audio:
Good, though the music was forgettable. It was a bit messy soundwise with too many sounds drowning out each other.
Gameplay:
I like that it feels more like a skill tree than D3. I really, really dislike that one can only have six skills usable at a time and it costs money to respec. It sucks, since I can't experiment without grinding money to respec back and forth. Either let me use more skills or let me respec freely. This mix feels off.
The skill use is time limited hidden behind the mana/essence regen limitation. It works alright, but it takes getting used to switching between skills not only from tactical point of view, but also from a mana regen point of view, for example:
Use damage skills, then use a curse to regen mana, use damage skills again, use curse and maybe another mana regen skill, maybe use the basic skill to regen mana faster. It is quite a lot to keep track of, but I'm not sure it's beneficial to the fun factor.
The quests feel mostly well done, but not great thus far. Didn't capture me yet so I stopped playing when I reached lvl 25. Feels a bit too much MMO sometimes, but in general not fetch quests and the voice acting is from decent to great.
Monster design is similar to the earlier games, with more difference in size. The biggest drawback is the almost absolute level scaling. It makes me feel too little progress.
Story:
Nothing very interesting thus far, but servicable as a motivator to keep leveling up. New, manipulative evil arrives, the hero chases her and encounters problems that need to be overcome by doing different quests. The biggest drawback is that a lot of the story is presented as dialogue, which while well done, is akin to telling instead of showing what is happening in a movie.
Summary:
I'd give it a score of "above average", but there are better action rpgs out there. I won't buy at release, but in a few months to years probably.
Performance and Graphics:
Graphics are alright, but far below current gen games. The character models feel a bit blocky somehow. Played well on my i7-6700k, vega 64, 16 GB RAM on 2560x1440. Some bugs, but not bad. The performance issues I had were all related to it being online. Quite a lot of rubber banding now and then, felt a bit janky and two disconnects in two days.
Audio:
Good, though the music was forgettable. It was a bit messy soundwise with too many sounds drowning out each other.
Gameplay:
I like that it feels more like a skill tree than D3. I really, really dislike that one can only have six skills usable at a time and it costs money to respec. It sucks, since I can't experiment without grinding money to respec back and forth. Either let me use more skills or let me respec freely. This mix feels off.
The skill use is time limited hidden behind the mana/essence regen limitation. It works alright, but it takes getting used to switching between skills not only from tactical point of view, but also from a mana regen point of view, for example:
Use damage skills, then use a curse to regen mana, use damage skills again, use curse and maybe another mana regen skill, maybe use the basic skill to regen mana faster. It is quite a lot to keep track of, but I'm not sure it's beneficial to the fun factor.
The quests feel mostly well done, but not great thus far. Didn't capture me yet so I stopped playing when I reached lvl 25. Feels a bit too much MMO sometimes, but in general not fetch quests and the voice acting is from decent to great.
Monster design is similar to the earlier games, with more difference in size. The biggest drawback is the almost absolute level scaling. It makes me feel too little progress.
Story:
Nothing very interesting thus far, but servicable as a motivator to keep leveling up. New, manipulative evil arrives, the hero chases her and encounters problems that need to be overcome by doing different quests. The biggest drawback is that a lot of the story is presented as dialogue, which while well done, is akin to telling instead of showing what is happening in a movie.
Summary:
I'd give it a score of "above average", but there are better action rpgs out there. I won't buy at release, but in a few months to years probably.
