Poll of the Day > All versions of Diablo 4 will lack an offline mode

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/diablo-4-wont-have-an-offline-mode-all-versions-ar/1100-6471115/

What a bunch of morons
---

Always online has never bothered me to be honest.
---

Yeah, it sounds like it's almost like a Diablo MMO light, where you don't even have a choice, you share the overworld with other players.

I don't care about always online at all, at this point pretty much everyone has access to online, so it's not really a negative.

Even the Real Money Auction house that launched with D3 wasn't really a big deal, you could just avoid using it, like I did.

The biggest problem with D3, for me, was the difficulty....of which there is none till you play through the whole game. I only finished D3 with the witchdoctor (closest to druid), and Paladin (probably because I hadn't played since launch when the paladin DLC dropped).

I got the NEcro dlc, but didn't even get halfway through the game with it before going back to path of exile.

The next biggest problem (again for me), was lack of character customization. You couldn't control how you built your characters at all (much like WoW). It was basically a WoW version of Diablo, and I hated that.

From what I hear difficulty is up AND you can actually control how you level up characters again in D4, so.....maybe it'll be worth playing/getting. We will see...but I'm not pre-ordering it that is for sure.

I still need to try and go back and actually play through as a necro sometime in D3 I guess. I spent money on the DLC so I figure I should at least get to end game and play it a bit. I actually played
endgame the most with the paladin since when I first played there was not that much endgame (with my witchdoctor).

Honestly though I don't know if I'll ever be able to do the slog through normal difficulty with a necro, it freaking puts me to sleep.
---

trodi_911 posted...

Always online has never bothered me to be honest.

Its a bad sign in my eyes because diablo is definitely the kind of game that can be enjoyed offline but by removing the option you lump all players into the online mode which will likely be chock full of microtransactions

Theres just no way they are gonna release a big tent pole title like this without some kind of ongoing monetization and I shudder to think what kind of absurdity theyre gonna cook up after the fiasco that was the RMAH and how much that totally ruined the loot system of D3 in its early days
---

Also I hope characters actually use their weapons again

Every character in d3 ends up essentially being a different type of mage that just uses their weapons as stat sticks for their skill damage
---

trodi_911 posted...

Always online has never bothered me to be honest.

It's less of an issue for PC games, but it has prevented me from playing the Switch version of Diablo 3 on a few occasions. You can only play seasonal characters offline if you first load the game with an internet connection, so if you're out somewhere and decide you want to boot up the game after playing something else, you're out of luck for playing your seasonal characters. For solo play, that's really annoying, particularly where it's completely unnecessary. Even with PC games, I've had plenty of instances where I've been using my laptop somewhere without and internet connection and been limited in which games I could play because of online requirements, which is annoying.

Most of the time, no, it's not a huge deal, but it can be an annoying issue that interferes with playing what I want to play. To that end, if an online requirement can be avoided, it really should be, and it's rather annoying that so many publishers insist on ignoring that (usually for reasons of wanting more control over how we play the games we buy).
---

This is fine. Diablo II was effectively always-online in the age of dial up transitioning to high speed internet. Even people who tended to stick to solo play would play on battle.net, just in private games.
---

Mead posted...

Also I hope characters actually use their weapons again

Every character in d3 ends up essentially being a different type of mage that just uses their weapons as stat sticks for their skill damage

Yep, that was yet another problem, of course it was exacerbated by the fact that until you actually maxed out a char level wise and finished the game on normal, you could pretty much just wield the level 1 equipment you got and breeze through the game (a bit of an exaggeration but not much of one).

Everything was broken down into DPS and pretty much you just would occasionally get a better item (didn't matter what stats) with higher DPS and just equip it...and keep auto-destroying everything pretty much.

Pet classes (like the witch doctor) were even sillier as they were also based of primary stat + weapon in damage and could just kill everything for you while you just walked through the game.

Might be why I actually finished as witch doctor because I had to pay even LESS attention so it didn't make me fall alseep as much.....I could focus on other things, instead of just mindlessly clicking on enemies for hours....but maybe it was just that I hadn't seen the story yet as I played with WD so at least had that to look forward to.

Think there might have been new story for when Paladin was released as well...maybe that helped me finish as him (he was also very mindless if I remember right).

Anyway D3 ruined that type of game more then any of the diablo clones in the past. Loved Titan Quest, Sacred etc....tons of really run D2 like games over the years. None of them, even the ones that I didn't like that much, bored me to tears like D3.
---

wolfy42 posted...

Even the Real Money Auction house that launched with D3 wasn't really a big deal, you could just avoid using it, like I did.

You could avoid using it, but you couldn't avoid that the game's itemization was built around trading (and thereby giving Blizzard money): items that were useful for you were a small minority of the items that would drop for you, meaning you basically had to trade if you wanted useful stuff. Loot 2.0 fixed that by making class-appropriate gear significantly more likely to drop (something like 90% of gear drops are suitable for the class you're currently playing), which makes for a much more enjoyable experience.

wolfy42 posted...

Honestly though I don't know if I'll ever be able to do the slog through normal difficulty with a necro, it freaking puts me to sleep.

I don't believe you need to start with normal difficulty anymore. If you've cleared the campaign already and/or have a character at level 60, most difficulty modes should be unlocked. Even if you haven't, you've got Normal, Hard, and Expert to choose from, with only Master and Torment I-VI locked behind that requirement. Torments VII-XVI are locked behind completing certain solo Greater Rift levels, but you definitely will not need to access those difficulties right away to have an enjoyable experience on a new character. Those are tuned for late-endgame gear.

Mead posted...

Also I hope characters actually use their weapons again

Every character in d3 ends up essentially being a different type of mage that just uses their weapons as stat sticks for their skill damage

I'd actually say I have the opposite complaint: the fact that every skill (with maybe a couple exceptions) bases its damage off of weapon damage meant that there was no difference between mage characters and ones that actually used their weapons to attack. Weapon damage ended up being an important component of what should have been stat sticks, which created that homogenization you're complaining about.

Mostly, though, I feel the biggest problem with D3's itemization is the reliance on skill-specific legendaries for so many builds. Weapon choice wasn't based on what did the most damage, it was based on getting the right legendary drop to boost your chosen skill, with weapon damage then being the most important stat to look for on that legendary. Other ARPG's fall into the same trap, certainly, and there's nothing wrong with having build-defining equipment, but most D3 builds had almost every slot filled with such equipment (and a pretty small handful of clearly-BiS alternatives for less-defined slots), which really limited the process of searching for upgrades.
---

So I must be connected to the internet? While this isn't a major issue it dose make the game useless if your internet is out for whatever reason. What is it with almost every game being a "gotcha!" game lately?
---

trodi_911 posted...

Always online has never bothered me to be honest.

Always offline has never bothered me to be honest.

A shame developers and publishers don't actually give a shit about what I actually want out of games, because they can't monetize offline single-player as effectively, so they can't keep pressuring me into endlessly paying them for weeks and months to come just to play the game I already paid $60 for.
---

ParanoidObsessive posted...

A shame developers and publishers don't actually give a shit about what I actually want out of games

Indeed.
---

trodi_911 posted...

Always online has never bothered me to be honest.

It will when the servers get shut down and you can't play your always online games anymore.

wwinterj25 posted...

What is it with almost every game being a "gotcha!" game lately?

Honestly, that's mostly just the AAA industry. You get the occasional indie game pissing off kickstarter backers by going Epic exclusive, but the real shenanigans are coming from the big-name publishers that have shareholders to answer to and can rely enough on established brands to push the envelope on nickel and diming their customers. Just temper your enthusiasm for any larger title such that you're pleasantly surprised when one doesn't engage in such dickery, and you'll be fine.
---

adjl posted...

Just temper your enthusiasm for any larger title such that you're pleasantly surprised when one doesn't engage in such dickery, and you'll be fine.

Oh I do that more and more these days. Buying in a sale/price drop if at all due to this shit. Don't get me wrong some companies are still doing good but that number gets smaller and smaller as time goes on.
---

trodi_911 posted...

Always online has never bothered me to be honest.

It bothered me when it first started appearing. Now I'm basically online all the time anyways so it doesn't bother me. At least in terms of multiplayer.
---

Clench281 posted...

This is fine. Diablo II was effectively always-online in the age of dial up transitioning to high speed internet.

Probably the most incorrect and dumb statement I've read all month, ok?
---

Aculo posted...

Clench281 posted...

This is fine. Diablo II was effectively always-online in the age of dial up transitioning to high speed internet.

Probably the most incorrect and dumb statement I've read all month, ok?

lmao
---

The gameplay trailer just looked almost exactly like D3 to me. Not very excited.

Millea posted...

The gameplay trailer just looked almost exactly like D3 to me. Not very excited.

You're saying a Diablo game looks like a Diablo game? How dare they!
---

wwinterj25 posted...

You're saying a Diablo game looks like a Diablo game? How dare they!

Disingenuous sarcasm aside, a game made 8 years and almost two console generations later probably shouldn't look like almost nothing has been changed or updated since the last one.

Though granted, it's hard to tell based solely on a trailer.
---

ParanoidObsessive posted...

wwinterj25 posted...

You're saying a Diablo game looks like a Diablo game? How dare they!

Disingenuous sarcasm aside, a game made 8 years and almost two console generations later probably shouldn't look like almost nothing has been changed or updated since the last one.

Though granted, it's hard to tell based solely on a trailer.

I mean, presuming a similar art style (which is a reasonable presumption given that they're part of the same series), ARPG's generally don't look that dissimilar, superficially. The nature of the games doesn't lend itself to huge leaps in graphical fidelity (nor has graphical fidelity made that much of a leap in the past decade), given that the models you're looking at tend to be pretty small, and the fundamental gameplay is going to be the same (that is, run around killing large hordes of enemies). The differences between ARPG's arise mostly in the character-building mechanics, skills, and philosophies on how endgame should be structured, none of which are going to be obvious at a quick glance.
---