Guild Wars 2 vs. Diablo III

We’re nearing the release of Diablo III and Guild Wars 2 can’t be too far behind. Are you wondering which one of these behemoth titles to support? Well, let me analyze some aspects and see what you think. Or you could just get both like I will, but if not, let’s break them down.

Graphics

Diablo III: The graphics are a bit cartoonish with the use of bloom to hide the lack of details. They feel outdated immediately and not at all polished, at least when I played the game. Could AA fix it? I don’t know. The design however is great and I really like it. It’s either love or hate. But even though they’re not technically impressive, they’re still beyond satisfaction in my eyes. It’s just something with Blizzard, they know exactly what I want from graphics.

Guild Wars 2: Significantly more detailed world than what Diablo offers, and it’s an massive multiplayer world as well designed for thousands of players at once and not just eight like Diablo. However, some animations are horrible. The design is flatout ugly in my opinion but on the other hand the world has details and feels like a unique world. It’s really up to you to decide whether Guild Wars 2’s graphics are impressive or not, because to me they’re not.

Player versus Player

Diablo III: Zero attention and focus on PvP. In fact, PvP won’t even be included on launch. After that, all balancing will be done with PvE in mind primarily, no rankings, leaderboards or any statistics. Blizzard are purposefully working on making esport and impossibility for this game. Talk about having a complete shit attitude, Jay Wilkinson. It’s like they’re giving PvP:ers a big fuck you but have a nice day. A real tragedy that removed Diablo III from my most anticipated list rankings and canceled my Collector’s Edition pre-order. I will get the regular edition now.

Guild Wars 2: The focus is on electronic sport (esport) and ArenaNet are working several major leagues to assure that Guild Wars 2 become a major esport title and all the balancing will be done with esport in primary mind and focus. Paid tournaments, rankings, statistics, matchups, PvP a primary focus of the game, amazing World vs. World vs. World PvP events, well, you can pretty much call it perfection in terms of attitude towards PvP from ArenaNet. This is what ever single game should have for a mindset. There’s no doubt in my mind that Guild Wars 2 will completely trash Diablo III and Star Wars when it comes to PvP.

Game depth/PvE

Diablo III: It won’t take too long before you hit max level. Once you do, what will be left for you is to grind better gear for PvP. And explore the new promising difficulty of Inferno. I really hope this difficulty is as difficult as Blizzard say, because otherwise this game will be very short. In terms of depth, it’s been simplified significantly. It remains to be seen whether or not it can be exciting and scary playing on Hardcore Mode in Inferno Difficulty and then maybe some PvP arena with Hardcore characters. Blizzard can still save Diablo III, it is not entirely doomed yet, but the damage is severe and will require a lot of work. The “PvE” experience can still prove to be out of satisfaction.

Guild Wars 2: If you think PvP is all you can do in Guild Wars 2, you’re mistaken. There will be thousands upon thousands of hours of content in PvE to explore. From dungeons to massive server raids. With Guild Wars 2 not having a monthly cost to enjoy as well, you can expect a lot of quick expansion packs coming and tons of new content on monthly basis. Some of it might not be free, but still, there will be an unprecedented amount of content to explore upon launch in Guild Wars 2. Can they finally get rid of killing 10 rats? It remains to be seen.

Summary

Diablo III: Though it appears to have failed to live up to my initial expectations in terms of PvP and overall depth, Diablo III can still emerge as a great product upon release. The mere thought of venturing into the Sanctuary with my friends online on Inferno difficulty and barely making it out alive is a nostalgic feeling that Diablo II boosts so much that there’s nothing any title can to do take that away from me. Do I expect to play Diablo III for as long as I played Diablo II, or even to have the same amount of great memories? No. And that’s why I believe the game has failed my expectations. I really wanted it to be an esport title. I wanted massive focus on PvP and the availability of player killing in the open world. I will give Diablo III an honest chance because I truly want to face Diablo once more. If we look at The Old Republic, that game has improved every single patch and I don’t see why Diablo III can’t do it. But I remain a realist.

Guild Wars 2: Everything about Guild Wars 2 sounds too good too be true. It’s a rare occasion. The esport focus, the PvP focus, the leveling curve, the PvE content, the micro-transaction philosophy, the balancing, the depth, well yes, this game does indeed sound perfect on paper. I just hope ArenaNet can deliver on about half of all the promises they made and I see Guild Wars 2 going down in history as possibly the best game ever made. But that remains to be seen. It all depends on all those promises being implemented in a perfect way that truly works. I hope I get into the beta so that I can try this game out myself and see whether it is something that delivers or not.

Which game are you buying? Diablo III or Guild Wars 2? Or are you buying both like me?

It could possibly the best MMO ever made.

Tags: Action RTS, Arenanet, Blizzard, D3, Diablo, Diablo 2, Diablo 3, Diablo III, Games, Gaming, Guild Wars 2, GW2, GW2 beta, Hack N Slash, Lord of Terror, MMORPG, PC, RTS, Video Games