Disappointed By the Diablo III Announcement
6/28/2008
Video Games
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Today Blizzard Entertainment formally announced their latest gaming moneymaker, Diablo III. This was after a week of teasing on their website that something would be released. While I'm happy to see another Diablo game, I'm a bit disappointed that Blizzard didn't do more.
Do you realize that Blizzard's last original franchise (I'm not counting World of Warcraft because it's still Warcraft to me) was Starcraft in 1998? Not that anything is wrong with anything Blizzard has released since then (far from it actually), but that's a really long time to go between creating something new. Blizzard's teaser on their website was displaying subtle references to their old franchises and I had hoped that this would mean something new would be joining their ranks. Though I really expected it to be Diablo III, I still hoped it was not.
I'd really like to see them tackle something new. They kick ass at real-time strategy games. They basically rule the MMORGP genre. I'm not saying they need to do anything radically new like a flight simulator but wouldn't you love to see what Blizzard could do with a first person shooter, either set in the future or set in medieval times? How about a god simulator like Black and White? Heck, I'd even take another RPG if it was set in a different universe with all new characters and stories. I know those options excite me a lot more than Diablo III does.
Partly too is that I'm not a huge fan of the Diablo series. It's my least favorite of Blizzard's major franchises. I'm not all for killing armies of the same enemy with differing color schemes; I got enough of that from the old Golden Axe arcade game thank you very much. And all too often large battles seem to degrade into click fests with the winner determined by how quickly you can click on enemies, spells, and potions. Strategy wise, I never felt like Diablo and Diablo II had a lot to offer and they were far too repetitive.
Blizzard has rarely been an innovator in the industry, rather they've taken established genres and ideas and polished them to a level rarely seen before. That's what their great skill is. But it also makes me sad that they choose to take the safe route yet again and deliver another guaranteed moneymaker when they could push the envelope and develop something new. For now, I'll just keep looking forward to Starcraft 2 and hoping that the next Blizzard game in the shoot is all new.
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