Chinese Movie Analysis

The Chinese Gameplay Movie was our first look at the E3 cinematic everyone is abuzz about, even though it seemed to me like it was playing in fast forward.  I would attempt to describe the scenes I saw from the movie here, but words I believe would utterly fail me.  Instead I saved a number of stills from the movie, which were placed into a small collage which you can view here.

After the cinematic shots we are taken to our friend the Barbarian walking around the desert city of Lut Gholein.  Not really much in the way of action here, as he is just walking the outskirts of the town.  It appears to be night though, in this is one of the better night shots of Lut Gholein we´ve seen.  You can see how well the light radius works now, even as the Barbarian wanders past several torches set on rustic tripods.

A transition brings us to the Amazon, who is traipsing around the Act I wilderness.  She fires an Exploding Arrow at a wall to see its graphic, which is still the same as it was before (but still wonderful to see). 

Another quick transition brings us to the Necromancer, back in Lut Gholein.  First he paused to light a torch, then descends the stairs that lead down into the Sewer level of Act II.  It is another look at him in his fully armored graphic, and I notice a little change to the way he looked prior to this movie.  Perhaps it is a small graphical tweak but he appears almost older, more emaciated.  But then it may merely be my viewpoint.

A transition brings us to the real gem of this video, which is the Sorceress casting her Ice Storm spell.  The spell calls down shards of ice, which rain down on the opposition.  One casting of the spell lasts a good while, but this may be because this particular Sorceress´s Ice Storm may be at a high level.  Nevertheless she casts about five Ice Storms, effectively slaying the small army of Dried Corpses that were advancing on her.  Only a lone Dung Soldier is not killed by the barrage.

We go back to the Necromancer, this time firing his Teeth spell at what looks like to Hunters or perhaps Huntresses.  The spell, though impressive to see, doesn´t appear to do the kind of damage necessary to do away with these creatures.  The Necromancer then retreats, perhaps to regroup or change to a more effective spell.

Still in Act II, this time with the Sorceress, who seems to be exploring the underground areas of the desert.  At one point she stops and begins casting Firewall, surrounding herself and the whole area with leaping flames.  The graphics and the effects are quite astounding, and one monster wanders into the flames only to be incinerated by them.

Now above ground, the Sorceress has armed herself with the Firebolt spell, and was attacking several unidentified creatures with it.  Even for a low-caliber spell, the Firebolt remains impressive, though it doesn´t do much damage it appears.  This is followed by a very quick shot of the Paladin as he is casting his Holy Bolt spell at a Zombie in Act I.

We come back to the Necromancer, now in Act II´s underground regions.  He casts a Bone Armor spell, which is the first time we´ve seen the graphic for this spell in action.  It appears as sort of a revolving, almost-lightning looking field.  Then the Necromancer unleashes his Clay Golem, and since this is a pre-E3 build he casts 3 Golems who begin to fight the monsters approaching him.  The Golems are quite impressive, as now the Gargantuan Beast placeholder graphic is gone.  Another interesting point is how this Necromancer switched from Bone Armor to Clay Golem so quickly.

After this we are treated to the Sorceress using her Inferno spell to deal some damage to the creatures in Act II´s Harem level.  This spell is very unlike its Diablo counterpart in that it´s almost like a flame-thrower, shooting fire out at high speed.  The jerky motion that the Sorceress has while casting it will probably be taken out in later builds of the game.

Back with the Necromancer again, this time as he runs from a Firewall-casting enemy that seems to float mysteriously over the ground.  The Necromancer is armed with a large scythe and doesn´t appear afraid to attack the enigmatic enemy while he can.  We have seen these enemies before, and they appear to be some of Act II´s nastier ones.  The fact that they seem to have more than one spell (but all seem to like fire-based spells) might also mean something.

There is a quick transition and we are treated to the Sorceress hurling a Fireball at a small group of enemies, but this happens a little too fast to pick up details.  Then we are with the Amazon as she makes a quick tour of a piece of Act I´s wilderness scenery.  That too is quickly replaced by the Sorceress once again, this time clearing the air with her Nova spell.  In this particular build the Nova spell is yellow instead of blue, but it may be a change that simply hadn´t been implemented yet in other builds.  No matter what the color, its power is still undisputed.

So ends the Chinese Gameplay Video, a lot of new footage and our first sneak peak at what the full E3 Cinematic will look like.  The video left me with a few new questions, as well as a burning desire to finally be able to play this game.  It isn´t too long now, just a few months away.

 

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Iron Maiden
Harkening back to an inquisitional torture, the Iron Maiden curse causes all damage an enemy does to you to be returned to that enemy as well.  Part of the Necromancer´s
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