Impressions of a Classic Diablo fan

[The_spyder]

So, I saw a YouTube video on this game and was immediately intrigued. Being an old school fan of Diablo 1 and 2, the aesthetic was instantly appealing. I of course immediately downloaded the demo. What follows are my impressions after about 2 hours of gameplay.

First off, the look of the game LOOKS very much old school Diablo. Although there are some basic quality of life things that need to be tweaked, such as making the wire frame map a bit more transparent (I had to turn it off in several places just so I could see what was going on in the game, an issue that D1 didn't even have), it looks good. I would also recommend that a feature be added to highlight item drops as they tend to blend into the background as well.

Navigation works like the original, even to the point where I could hold shift to 'Shoot' from range. I would comment that there's still work that needs to be done here as with attempting to click individual enemies, the UI would sometimes just not select anything. And picking up items often required clicking to go TO the item, then clicking again (and sometimes a third time) to pick it up, this despite having plenty of room in my inventory.

What follows is MY OPINION. While this LOOKS like Diablo, it flat isn't. Anyone looking for a Diablo clone, may be in for a rather disappointing experience. At least I was severely disappointed.

No classes. While in the long run, this will likely be an improvement over the Class system in the original, the difficulty of the first few levels is such that, if you don't have a VERY SPECIFIC focus, you are going to have a bad time. And this isn't properly communicated to the new player. I had half a dozen aborted starts before I realized that, although I wasn't choosing a class at the beginning, I had to PLAY like I did. If I didn't I ended up dead. Not saying this is a bad idea, merely that this should be really stated LOUDLY to the players.

Item drops. For whatever reason, the developers have severely limited the drops, at least in the early dungeon. For items, fine. but that means that you are going up against the first boss mostly with starter gear (also see above about classes) and likely zero healing/mana regen. While I did beat the first boss, it was usually without any resources in reserve for the next level. Yes, there's a "Fix" for that, but it is quite penalizing.

If it were my game, I would increase the potion drops by a factor of 3 or 4, AT LEAST. Not just getting past the boss, but on into the second section, this makes all the difference in the world. I would also add in a Home base, much like Tristram in Diablo. Give the player the chance to go to a hub where they can rest up and re-supply.

The designer may wish for a more difficult experience, and that's fair enough. I am not here to tell them how to make their game. I am saying that anyone like me, who wants a Classic Diablo experience, as clearly being advertised by the art style, will likely be disenchanted very quickly. This is still a beta, and as such I hope that there's a whole lot I haven't seen about the game. I will say that, if the game launched today "as is", I wouldn't pay money for it. Which is a shame, because it looks AWESOME. And there's absolutely a niche for a game like this.

TLDNR. If you want Diablo 1, this isn't it, "YET". If they change things, it could be awesome. and I will keep watching it. But it isn't what it appears to be (at least not to me).

[osur]

greetings! thank you for playing

you can totally change the transparency of the minimap, using the + and - keys.
you can also highlight items on the ground using LeftAlt (or whichever key you rebind it to)

as for the rest, i very much appreciate your input! balance is certainly not final and will be subject to many tests and changes. i hope you will be interested in revisiting the demo at a future date, once balance is closer to the final result.
thanks again for writing!
best,
-osur

[The_spyder]

I appreciate the information that I missed the first time.

What I would say is that the aesthetic is very Diablo 1, as I am sure was intended. You are going to draw a lot of people (like me) based on that alone. But the aesthetic sets up a certain expectation, that it will play LIKE Diablo 1, which this does not.

You have something here, I won't deny. But you will likely encounter customers like myself based on the visuals. You will need to clearly call out this difference, or you are likely to get negative press based on players thinking that this is "bait and switch". Even if you never call it a Diablo clone, the graphics do that, in big bold neon letters that would put the fires of Gondor to shame.

If you want to make it more like Diablo, crank back on the difficulty (by upping the item drops) and adding in ability to grind and/or restock/resupply. If you want a more hard core experience, as appears to be the case, make it VERY CLEAR at the outset. And again, in the menus, and again, and again and again. And again.

Also, some feedback. The YouTuber who showcased the game mentioned that you "Didn't like health bars (for the enemies), because it broke your immersion". You are setting yourself up for failure here and I'll tell you why. Playing on my laptop, I found it almost impossible to see the character model changes you implemented to reflect damage.

And with at least one method of play, you are allowing the players to mess around with elemental damage. And the item drops I have seen mention elemental damage/resistances as well. This means that the player might potentially encounter monsters (bosses??) that are resistant or immune to the chosen damage type. Add in the fact that attacks have a "chance to hit", and you really can't determine how much damage is getting through, and if it is elemental resistance, or simply a run of misses.

This is going to be a VERY HARD SELL for players who bump their heads up against a boss, but do no damage "seemingly", or are unable to determine what the incremental gain/loss is. For a game that is already difficult, depriving the player of reasonable ways of determining the best weapon to fight individual enemies is a problematic decision. And assuming that the game will have random boss/monster encounters, that's a real problem. Maybe allow the players to toggle on/off the enemy health bar? Just a thought.

Also, I can not stress strongly enough that the limited potions severely hinders any caster classes, like prohibitively so. To such a degree that, at least early game, it is adding an additional level of difficulty beyond which most players will be turned off.

I don't want to tell you how to make your game. But these are definitely challenges you will face and have to find ways to overcome.

[osur]

you're not the only one to present valid situations (playing on a laptop) where having no healthbars is a detriment. i have some ideas (though not necessarily healthbars) that aim to make these situations 'playable'. it'll be something in a future update, but rest assured i am well aware of the issues and while it is my vision, i don't wish to be stubborn about it and restrict players from enjoying the game.
thank you once more for the feedback, it is greatly appreciated

[Arendeth]

please give the player at least some minor mana regen