Diablo 3 is one of the most exciting games on the horizon, even despite the fact that Blizzard is horribly reluctant to pin a date on when we can expect all the hype to come to a climax. The developer has just teased out a new set of screenshots, showcasing Diablo 3’s newly revised inventory and skills system. Read on for the full story and gallery.
So why the excitement? Well, for one Diablo 3 is made by Blizzard, creators of World of Warcraft – by far the biggest MMORPG in the world. Diablo 3 is shaping up to have considerably more of a single player element – as in, you won’t have to play alongside internet strangers – but its coop multiplayer has been a profoundly important feature since the series began in 1996.
Diablo 3 has already managed to rile up series fans too, even with only a handful of screenshots and a handful of gameplay videos to go by. Following the grand unveil last June, a petition was even set up to call for a “darker, more realistic” look by players fearing too much of a WoW influence would spoil the series’ gloomy style.
Unfortunately for them, Blizzard doesn’t appear to be making any compromises in its artistic direction. The new inventory and interface shots display a system that is undoubtedly far darker and moodier than Blizzard’s MMO design, but it’s also wearing its WoW influences firmly on its sleeve.
Diablo 3 senior artist Mike Nicholson told a recent Blizzcast “What we’re trying to do is see, ok what works about the WoW icons? They’re illustrative; is there a way to try to maybe bridge the gap. You know what worked about the more symbolic DII icons, and what works with the WoW icons, and trying to find a way to put the two together.” “They are colorful because you’re going to have a lot more of them than you would in DII,” he added
So the message is this: yes, it’s going to look a bit like WoW, but only because Blizzard is packing in a metric ton of new items, skills, runes and powers that just wouldn’t be distinguishable in the old-school dingy Diablo colour scheme.
