After a decade in development, Diablo 3 was a let-down. Can it be fixed? The first expansion pack admits the mistakes, killing the real-money auction house, improving loot in general, and adding a new act and character class. Alas, it’s not enough. Rich Stanton soon grew bored again:
Diablo 3 is not a long-term game – that bedrock concept of what loot is, and why it’s valuable to players, is flawed. Look: I love loot. You’re reading about Diablo 3, so I bet you love loot too. But this is Excel loot, stat loot, loot where the only difference you’ll ever see is visual and the feel never changes. Scrooge McDuck doesn’t sit there looking at his gold, does he? That old duck dives right in. You need to feel treasure for it to be real, and it’s bizarre that creating a sense of virtual weight is one of Blizzard’s specialities – yet Loot 2.0, despite the claims of ‘playstyle-altering’ properties, doesn’t deliver.