Ever wanted to play Diablo 3 like an MMORPG with a third-person camera? Well, guess what? You can't. However, someone has put together a little video showing you what a third-person, over-the-shoulder view would look like for Diablo 3 and it's garnered quite the response. Check it out below.
The video footage was compiled by MonstrousD3. According to his Twitter profile he's a moderator over on DiabloFans.com, a website dedictaed to all things Diablo, including helping players track stats, create fantasy builds and check out the latest content for Blizzard's popular ARPG.
Quite naturally, there was a deluge of comments all asking about how to get their hands on this “mod”. A lot of Diablo 3 gamers really wanted to test this out and see what it would be like playing the game down in the nitty-gritty perspective of an over-the-shoulder form of third-person as opposed to the isometric view that the Diablo series is known for.
However, it turns out that this isn't a mod and there is no way to effectively play the game with this view. As pointed out by MonstrousD3...
“Sorry it's not a mod, I'm just using the same technique that machinima videos are made except I didn't hide the UI.”
Manually modifying the camera's position sounds like a fun way to play, just until you realize that it requires just as much work to reposition the camera as it does to take down the baddies.
Worse yet is trying to adjust the camera in Diablo while you move around – MonstrousD3 points out that the characters move around pretty fast so you would likely need a second person to play as the over-the-shoulder camera to keep up, almost like a war cameraman following a platoon into battle.
This also explains why he doesn't move in the video above. According to MonstrousD3...
“I can move, but I have to control the camera manually and my character actually moves faster than the camera resulting in some start/stop catchup. I'll see if I can grab some more clips with movement.”
I would be interested in seeing how he would manage moving and controlling the camera at the same time, while also fending himself off from all the monstrous hordes trying to rip him limb from limb. It's not like Diablo is known for being a slow-paced game.
Obviously gamers are loving the modified camera; whether or not it's better for gameplay is something that's up for debate. I mean you're giving up a lot of optical real-estate when you go from the overhead isometric view down to the over-the-shoulder camera, limiting how you attack and guard yourself from the demon armies. Then again, maybe some people like having that extra challenge of not being able to see what's coming for them?
Diablo 3 is available right now for home consoles and PC. Unfortunately, there's no mod available for the third-person view and given the game's always-online DRM structure, it's likely that a mod like that may not ever properly arrive until someone gets around the DRM barrier.
