Top 10: Diablo 3 questions Blizzard needs to answer

Over the weekend Blizzard confirmed one of the worst kept secrets in gaming – Diablo 3 is in development. Five days after the event and the internet is still ablaze with excitement. Diablo is back. PC Gaming is back. While Blizzard’s announcement came with a mass of information, including a mammoth gameplay video and a fact sheet, there are still plenty of unanswered questions just begging to be, well, answered. We trotted down to the pub, opened a tab and didn’t leave till we had our Top 10: Diablo 3 questions Blizzard needs to answer etched in our table. Let the good times roll.

10. What the hell happened after the end of Diablo 2?

Blizzard has done a wonderful job of getting information out at the same time as announcing Diablo 3. Here it is straight from the horse’s mouth: “It has been twenty years since the events of Diablo II. Of those who faced the Lords of Hatred, Terror, and Destruction in the battle over the fate of Sanctuary, there are few still living who can bear to remember the horrors that the Prime Evils wrought upon the world. And of those who did not witness the terrible events firsthand, most believe the stories to be little more than myth. But something evil is stirring once again in Tristram, and it may already have claimed its first victim: Deckard Cain.” That’s great and all, but there are befuddling story questions that have us stroking our beards feverishly. Following the destruction of the Worldstone at the end of Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction, why wasn’t there a swarm of the demons? Where are Diablo’s brothers, Mephisto and Baal? What happened to Diablo? Gaaaah!

9. How many players will Diablo 3 support in multiplayer?

We know that the game can support about eight players in multiplayer (although it plays better with around five), but we have no idea what the maximum number Blizzard will settle on. There’s not much more to say on this one. Here’s hoping Blizzard makes an announcement soon.

8. What World of Warcraft gameplay features will be used in Diablo 3?

For many, Diablo 3 looks too much like World of Warcraft. But will the influence stop there? What gameplay features that we know and love from Blizzard’s mega MMO will find their way into Diablo 3? Do we even want any? How about professions? In Diablo 2 you could socket items, but there were no professions as we know them from WoW. Might jewel crafting make it into Diablo 3? Or how about weapon crafting? Please, though, no flower picking.

7. How the hell am I going to pay for this?

You might think, what they hell kind of question is this? Allow us to explain. Diablo 3 is a single-player and multiplayer game for the PC with distinct MMO elements. While Diablo 2 and its expansion Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction doesn’t require a monthly fee, could Blizzard employ such a business model for Diablo 3? The PC gaming landscape has certainly changed in recent years, with subscription fees proving increasingly popular for games with online functions. Even if Blizzard doesn’t make gamers pay regularly for playing Diablo 3 online, might a micro transaction model be put in place? Could we be charged for entering certain areas or equipping in-game items? The sooner we know the better.

6. Will Blizzard budge over Diablo 3’s controversial new art style?

If you haven’t seen it already, just take a look at this. It’s an online petition with, at the time of writing, 22293 signatories. What’s their problem? Diablo 3’s new artistic direction. From the petition: “What we want: A darker, gothic, cryptic and creepier environment. A more realistic artistic direction, more independent from the Warcraft universe art direction. Darker dungeons without a blue/green environment, Diablo dungeons are dark and shadowy. Slightly less colourful and less vivid outside scenarios, they are too heavily influenced by the World of Warcraft ones. And most importantly: An independent and renewed artistic direction, not a recycled art direction taken from the Warcraft world, Diablo never was meant to be as cartoon’ish as Warcraft, they shall have independent and distinct styles, this isnt happening in Diablo 3, at first sight it looks like a remake of World of Warcraft, graphically and artistically speaking.” Ouch. Question now is, will Blizzard, a company that can seemingly do no wrong, take any notice? Is the game too far into development for the art style to change? Questions, questions, questions…

5. How will the player versus player combat work?

This just in – Diablo 3 will feature PVP combat. Here’s the quote: “We have a large focus on cooperative play for Diablo III, and the mechanics and design decisions related to multiplayer are likely going to be based on supporting and encouraging it as much as possible, and not breaking it down. That doesn’t mean that PvP won’t have its own focus, but those are details and features we aren’t yet discussing.” So, we know it’s in, but we don’t know how it’s going to work. And how will Blizzard prevent team killing? Should it prevent it? Thoughts?

4. Will Diablo 3 come to the consoles?

First we heard that it definitely wasn’t coming out on consoles. But now the situation seems slightly different. In an interview with the Guardian Blizzard COO Paul Sams said he didn’t know whether the game would be coming to the consoles, saying the decision would primarily be down to the game’s controls. As a hack and slash action game Diablo 3 would be much easier to make work with a console pad than, say, Starcraft 2 or World of Warcraft. And the financial lure of millions of guaranteed sales will prove hard to resist, especially among Activision’s top brass. This is a hugely important question that is sure to hang over the head of the game’s development for some time. And if a console version is in the works, will there be cross platform play? The mind boggles.

3. Will I have to upgrade my PC to play Diablo 3?

Ah system specs, one of the first questions any discerning PC gamer wants to know the answer to when a game is announced. Online, the feeling is that Diablo 3 won’t be a game that pushes PC hardware. This is a feeling based on the mammoth gameplay video released to coincide with the game’s announcement, which showed a brighter, more cartooney Diablo. Indeed, if World of Warcraft, the phenomenal success of which many put down to the fact that it works on such a wide range of PCs, is any indication of the path Blizzard will take here, the developer may follow suit with Diablo 3. One of the most interesting questions that still needs to be answered about the game is what line Blizzard will take here. Will it take the hardcore route, or will it take the softcore route? Answers on a post card please.

2. When will the damn thing come out?

Wouldn’t you like to know? Well so would we. Blizzard’s famous mantra ‘It’ll be ready when it’s ready’ will inevitably apply to Diablo 3, which we love of course. But it would be nice to know what year the game will be coming out. We know the game will use some upgraded features of Battle.net that will be introduced for the release of hotly anticipated RTS Starcraft 2, so, applying basic logic, we can assume Diablo 3 won’t be coming out until after Starcraft 2. And, since Starcraft 2 hasn’t even got a release date yet, we shouldn’t expect to get our sweaty palms on the third Diablo game any time soon. At the earliest we would say Christmas 2009. It has, after all, been in development for four or five years. Fingers crossed Blizzard doesn’t keep us hanging too long!

1. What classes does Blizzard have up its sleeve?

Only two classes have been revealed so far – the Witch Doctor and the Barbarian. We know there will be a total of five classes in Diablo 3 (as in Diablo 2) when it ships, which leaves a total of three classes yet to be confirmed. Since classes are one of the most important things in any role playing game, what Blizzard has up its sleeve here makes this unanswered question extremely important. Archer and Sorcerer are safe bets. Paladin was always a favourite. Simon, our video producer and one of the stars of The VideoGamer Show, would love to see the Assassin return. We’re slightly disappointed by the news that only five classes will be included in Diablo 3, given that Diablo 2’s expansion, Lord of Destruction, brought the total to seven. Does Blizzard have a completely new, unseen class up its sleeve? We demand to have this question answered!

There’s loads of Diablo 3 related questions we came up with that didn’t make it into our Top 10 list. Have you got any? Let us know in the comments section below?