In Diablo 3, once you hit level 60 and kill Diablo on inferno difficulty, you are pretty much done with the game, and the endless grind to find better loot to simply kill monsters faster begins. I did the tedious grind and it eventually gets old. I also found myself on the auction house trying to sell my hard-earned loot for gold , or buy better gear for cheap. This was a method I see every time I log in Diablo 3. The Auction House crippled the replay value of this game in a way and I consider it a bad addition since the whole game revolves so much on it. Most of the time, you are simply hunting for any loot that has some value to sell. So I decided to completely remove that aspect from my playthrough that involves me having just one life. See how the game feels.
Yes, I decided to play a hardcore character. A mode that I've always wanted to tackle, and to make it a bit more interesting, I won't be using the Auction house for any reason. for the people unfamiliar to Hardcore mode - Once you die, your character and the gear he/she is wearing will be gone forever. There is no way of getting him back. Initially, I was planning to replay the game in softcore with a monk class( Since I haven't played one) without using the Auction House at all, just to see how the game feels without it. But I find it hard to manage since all my character's gold, storage, and crafting are shared across all characters, so it didn't feel much of a fresh playthrough. Then I noticed a couple of my friends wanted to progress through hardcore, so I decided to do my 'no Auction House' playthrough on hardcore since it's completely separate from softcore.
I got the idea from Kripparrian, a Twitch streamer who got the Diablo 3 world first Diablo kill on hardcore inferno difficulty. Right now, he's attempting to finish inferno on hardcore again with just self found loot. His is a bit extreme since he's only using loot found on the ground and nothing else. For me, I simply want to eliminate the Auction House from the picture.
No purchase or selling from the auction house, that's pretty much the only rule I placed myself and it's turning out to be a lot of fun. It's not as punishing as you think too. The loot found in-game and crafted items I made were just enough to keep me alive until now. I've had a few close calls when we went through act 3 normal (Because we like pumping the Monster Power up every now and then) but it definitely made the game interesting again.
How I'm playing Diablo 3 right now is exactly how it should have been, minus the hardcore. When I first went through the game with friends, we literally had Auction House breaks every now and then to see if we can sell and score new loot. When we all return to progress further, we find ourselves steam rolling the content thanks to our new gear we got from the Auction House. In the early levels, some players don't really care if its good or not and just want to earn more gold than the amount you get if you sell it in a merchant, so you usually find really good gear for your class at ridiculously low prices.
So far so good, Currently level 33 and doing this is getting me hooked again to Diablo 3. How I'll react when my Monk dies, we'll just have to see when I get there. But that lingering thought that I could die at any moments keeps it exciting, especially now since we are at Nightmare difficulty and lag in this game can definitely kill. It's definitely interesting and hopefully it stays that way all the way to the end. Hardcore inferno Diablo kill? Wishful thinking.
Just in case you missed the announcement, or choose not to acknowledge it, Diablo 3 is coming to PS4 and PS3. PC gamers are not too happy about the announcement since it doesn't include an online connection to play, while console players not familiar with the series are excited on how its going to turn out. Well, here's some gameplay footage showing how the console version in action.
