Diablo 3

[JanuZ]

There are 4 acts, but after finishing it on normal, you have to do it on nightmare, then Hell and then Inferno.
you get to about level 35 when finishing Normal, 50-55 in Nightmare 60 in Hell and then Inferno is more like raid content for max level.

I played about 7 hours 30minutes yesterday, so just over 3 hours per act. Should be able to finish Normal and maybe Act1 Nightmare today. I expect that I can keep about the same pace through Nightmare and then slightly slower in Hell. Blizzard has reported that they expect it to take months to finish Inferno because you will need to do some extra playing in Hell just to get the gear to survive Act1. There are 3 Tiers of gear available in Inferno.
I think a more normal play time will be about 4-5 hours per act with some people going up to 6-7. I just play through the quests. I go into every extra cave I see, but I don't explore much extra and I take an exit to next level as soon as I see it to avoid backtracking. I do listen to quests though I sometimes click through it if I have finished reading the text before the NPCs finish talking.

[Gunnzie]

But the higher levels are just playing the same game through again but at a higher difficulty are they not? Or is it different environments?

[JanuZ]

same story, though the layout is random and there should be new abilities, at least on the random boss packs. If it is anything like Diablo 2 it will also be multiple abilities on packs in later difficulties. Also there are alot of random events that don't spawn on every playthrough, for example in the beta there were 2 events that could spawn in the Crypts but it was random if they spawned or not.

Personally I don't really consider the game starting until later difficulties, Diablo type games have seldom been about the story and more about challenge, replayability and items. Though I have been impressed with the story so far.

[Vargen]

I just finished act 1 last night. hoping to be able to do some multiplayer tonight though act 2

[TE_owner]

I wonder if Torchlight 2 will have the same connection issu... OH WAIT! #Iamamassivehipster

[Luminance]

Lumi#2993

[Switchback]

cant beat that...there is something about diablo that just keeps you going....im enjoying the lore atm but once ive completed on normal the real grind will begin

[Azunai]

But the higher levels are just playing the same game through again but at a higher difficulty are they not? Or is it different environments?

Consider normal difficulty the tutorial/lore briefing and Nightmare a good first taste. Hell and Inferno is where it's at, both in terms of challenge and decent items :-)

Also, yes, Blue and yellow mobs will have 1 extra ability per difficulty lvl. So 4 on Inferno! And already in Nightmare they can be a right pita.

[JanuZ]

You can say that again. I am fighting a Yellow Dune stinger ( those that spit poison wasps ) with Waller Frozen and right beside him was a blue group of same mob with illusionist and jailer. Had a purple close by with Molten.

[Arcticfire]

Arctic89#2648

[Jamoe]

Jamoe#2479 (when I managed to install the game :/)

[hubbah]

Goodluck doing act 3 on nightmare if your steaming trew.. i cant even kill the firstpack of mobs because i got 2 shot.

[Tutonic]

I'm Tutonic#2521

[Treach]

I feel I need to point out that Diablo 3 seems to default tothe US servers. Please make sure you change it to EU servers in the game options or you;re gonna have a bad time.

[Jewelz^]

Been reading lots of bad reviews on this game!

Should I buy it?