So Diablo III's initial reception has been a bit mixed, to speak lightly. Its rating on Metacritic is viciously low, and forums teem with hateful promises to never buy a Blizzard game again. Alongside the pages of understandable server-related rage, most complaints I've seen have been to do with the game's radically altered skill system.
I must say that in my first few hours of play, I was pretty bitter at Blizzard myself about it. Presented with the new system, I couldn't help but feel that the entire Diablo experience had been watered down.
For the curious few who've yet to play, or hear about the differences, know that you won't be assigning stat points when you level up, to begin with. You also have no choice in what skills you receive, and you can't level them up; skill effects now instead scale based on the gear you're wearing.
It's certainly a pretty jarring experience for fans of the series who haven't been paying attention toDIII's development. After only a short time with the game, I found myself with the strong impression that the game had been sucked dry of all the player choice that made its predecessors so addictive. I lamented Blizzard pandering to the casuals, I gorged on a variety hate threads, and I kept playing anyway.
Having now finished the game on Normal and being well on my way through Nightmare, I can't imagine going back to the old system. The main argument for the new system boils down to a matter of percieved choice versus actual choice. Let me explain.
Diablo II offered the appearance of whole realms of decision-making goodness – but anyone who played the game for long enough understands that there were ultimately only a few viable builds for each class.
The existing skill system didn't encourage experimentation outside of these, either. With both stat and skill point investments being permanent, the decision to try something new could more often than not result in a broken character, especially if you planned to take the character through to Hell mode.
This meant that most of the character building had to really take place before the character was even created – an effective build has to be planned in advance.
Diablo III, by removing permanent choices in stat and skill selection, has you constantly altering your character and trying out different things. Any number of factors can affect how you choose to best build your character at that point – from an epic new item you've picked up, to the enemies you are struggling most against.
Teamplay is a far tastier prospect now too. With DII's permanent choice system, most accepted that they'd be soloing at least most of the time, and their builds reflected that. DIII's changes open up possibilities for players to freely re-spec their character from a 'solo' build to using team-based abilities. Since all of the classes can be used in such a variety of ways, no party ever looks the same either.
Ultimately, by scaling back decision making on a permanent scale, Blizzard has managed to choice at every turn. Not a moment passes when you aren't trying to figure out how to create the ultimate grinding machine with the tools at hand.