Just Dled the Throne of Darkness demo. I'm gonna pass on commenting on the gameplay, because this doesn't seem like a pick up and play game. However, after 15 minutes of play, there is one comment I'd like to throw out. Does anybody else besides me find the 'dong' sound, when the mouse passes over a button, to be incredibly, excrutiatingly irritating?

DeanCo--

Sir, I knew Diablo 2, I worked with Diablo 2, I considered Diablo 2 a friend of mine, and SIR, YOU ARE NO DIABLO 2.

The mis-clicking thing sux. The developers on their forum have told the fanbois (all 6 of them) that there will be a one-button attack at release, but I have some serious doubts about the improvements to be had in this area. Plus the micromanaging of all the various equipments, gems and seaweed take a lot of time better spent hacking and slashing. The outlook isn't too bright for Throne in my eyes. Hope I'm wrong.

In the meantime, I'll be pulling for Battle Lands to give me my Asian combat fix.

It's like someone saw Diablo, and didn't "get" why Diablo is a near perfect game concept. All the things the Diablo titles do right, ToD seems to ape imperfectly. It does actually look intriguing, so I'm gonna wait for the full game and read the manual, etc., but that right there tells you how far off the mark Click is--did anyone have to read the manual for Diablo II?

Didn't think so.

>It's like someone saw Diablo, and didn't "get" why Diablo is a near perfect game concept. All the things the Diablo titles do right, ToD seems to ape imperfectly

Well, in fairness, Click was founded by several of the developers behind the original Diablo, so they know a little about making this sort of game. But I agree, it just seems like a more awkward version in a number of ways.

Stefan

"AIn the meantime, I'll be pulling for Battle Lands to give me my Asian combat fix. "

I think I mean Battle Realms here.

Stefan, you do have a point about the Click team's origins. And ToD does have some good concepts.

I think perhaps, though, that one of the reasons the Click group isn't still making Diablo games is, well, their ideas of what made a good game of that type didn't jibe with the ideas of the rest of the Blizzard crew. I do like the generaly look of ToD, actually, and in theory the nifty details are cool. But from an early alpha/beta version we had, and this demo, it still seems to be an example of overcomplicating what should be a very simple process.

I will reserve judgment until I see the whole game and the manual, though :-).

Quote: "Well, in fairness, Click was founded by several of the developers behind the original Diablo, so they know a little about making this sort of game."

Throne's sole marketing direction seems to be based on the game having been developed by a company founded by Diablo designers.

Does anyone actually know what they did on Diablo? Looking at Click's website, apparently the co-founder Ben Haas, and one other employee animated the monsters ("including Diablo himself!"). No Diablo experience is attributed to the other founder.

Maybe they should call it Ben Haas' Throne of Darkness? :)

Note, I'm just speculating, maybe they do have someone significant from the Diablo design team, was just interested to see if this is marketing guff we all take for granted as being worthwhile information.

What's more odd is that a Diablo clone would be released by the same publisher that makes Diablo. Why create a competing product against your own super successful product line?

Looking at the Click website I see that there's only two people there that worked on Diablo and they were animators and artists. So there really isn't any connection to the gameplay of Diablo other than their attempt to ape it with some new concepts added in. In fact, most of the bios there make me think this is a lot of animators and artists with very little in the way of gamemaking or programming experience.

Maybe they're using their tenuous Diablo connection in ways that are deceiving people into thinking they have certain talents they don't really have?

--Dave

Well, I'm gonna wait 'til I see the finished product before deciding. This game has taken a good long time, and I'm very curious to see how it fares.

I've got no opinion of the game either way, actually. I just thought it was noteworthy that the marketing they've done tying the game to Diablo is a bit over-the-top given the background cited for the employees on the Click website. Just about every preview for this game went out of its way to note that this game is coming from some of the developers of Diablo. Maybe writers should have looked closer at that claim?

Also, it's clear from their bios that there aren't many games under the belts of these folks. One of the programmers has the interface for Rogue Squadron on the PC as his calling card. Um...okay.

Besides, if Sierra wants to throw the name "Diablo" around everywhere when talking about it, people are sure as hell going to use that as a comparison when reviewing and writing about it.

--Dave

Well, after stuggling with the arcane interface, watching some party members stand around and watch while others get slaughtered, and trying to figure out the weapons and formations, I have formulated an opinion.

This game sucks.

DeanCo--

I LOVE asian crap, I've got a dozen books on Japanese history on my shelf. So before they even started they had me hooked. However, the game just sucks. I love the look and style of the game, which they got perfectly, but the game is just no fun to play. Everything Diablo1/2 does well, they mess up. Bah!