Blizzard Entertainment has released a shiny new trailer for their upcoming top-down action-RPG Diablo 3, this time showing off the Follower system. Those who have played Diablo 2 will be a bit familiar with the system, as the Followers in Diablo 3 are basically the new and improved version of a hireling from Diablo 2. Game director Jay Wilson has said that Blizzard wanted to build the Followers up to new heights.
“We specifically wanted to change them from the notion of a faceless, nameless person that you hire to a distinct character who has a strong personality, strong views of the world, a unique class and chooses to follow you not because you pay them, but because they look at you as a great hero that they want to be around and help,” said Wilson. It sure looks like they’ve done just that. The video that introduces the Follower mechanics shows off the three distinct types of Followers and the vast amount of customisation that is available to each. Customisation not only accounts for looks, but affects their skills as well.
The three distinct types of Followers that you can level and customise based on your play style are: Kormac the Templar, Lyndon the Scoundrel and Eirena the Enchantress. Each Follower can be equipped with rings, amulets, weapons and a unique item. For example a templar has a holy tome.
Followers aren’t nearly as adept as your main character and as such won’t be able to equip as many items as players can, according to Wilson, and the most important thing for a Follower is their weapon. The weapons themselves aren’t exclusive to the Followers, so you’ll have to decide if you want your character or your Follower to have weapons as you progress, but usually they won’t be using the same type of weapon that your character will use, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue, ideally. Wilson used the example of a player choosing the Barbarian class who uses two-handed weapons like axes and Lyndon as his Follower who would use a crossbow and daggers, so the two wouldn’t conflict too much.
The Followers will appear each at a specific point in the game, one at a time, and you have to earn their trust through Mass Effect 2 styled loyalty quests before they will help you. Wilson mentions that if you do the Follower’s personal quest but you don’t want them to follow you, you can send them to town where they’ll always be available for you to play with. There is no penalty for choosing one Follower over another, which means that you can play around with each and find one that benefits your play style, or indeed just opt to not have a Follower and go solo for a bit.
The player gets to choose from one out of three abilities for their Follower at five-level intervals up to level 20. Players can more easily customise the Followers to suit their play styles this way. Players won’t be upgrading the Follower’s individual skills, just their abilities. The idea is to keep things less complicated so that gamers don’t feel like they’re controlling a second player. “Some players want to really maximize the amount of damage that they do so they can focus on abilities that increase the damage their Followers do. Some really prefer the Follower to take more of a support role, they don’t like the notion of the Follower stealing kills from them or stealing some of their glory — in those cases you can make a Follower who tends to be more in the background and provides you with buffs or heals or possibly debuff enemies with things like slows and other kinds of debilitating attacks,” said Wilson.
The mentality behind the Followers is probably one of the most fascinating things about them. According to Wilson, Diablo 3 is going to be very fast paced, so with the Followers Blizzard is sort of forcing the story on the players. They will comment on the world, comment on their actions and interact with other players without ever slowing down the action that the people love.
But what about actual combat? How will Followers work there? The player won’t be able to actively control them like they would a pet. Instead they have a complex AI that drives them. How players contribute to Followers is the abilities, weapons and items that the player gives them. Also, unlike hirelings in Diablo 2 which were more or less not able to be healed most days, any health or mana pots that players consume will also heal their Follower if they are nearby for the full benefit. Always a pleasant thing.
Finally, a use for all of those unused potions in Diablo 2. Make your Follower tank damage or spam spells, and then get your character guzzling those potions, keeping your ally strong and healthy.
What happens if a Follower dies, though? “If a Follower dies, one of the other things we didn’t want to happen was: ‘oh, my Follower’s dead I’ve now got to go back to town.’ It basically makes you want to not use a Follower, because you fell penalised for using them. We wanted to get away completely from the notion a Follower is someone you hire and pay money to — we didn’t like that notion. We liked the idea people just want to follower the player because he’s a hero, and people follow heroes,” said Wilson. They combat this by allowing your dead Follower to recover on their own after a while, but players can accelerate their downtime by focusing on the Follower and pulling him back up into the fight, Gears of War style, while whatever killed it no doubt looks on in eager anticipation for more fresh meat.
Out of the story mode, Followers won’t be available for players in Player-versus-Player activities like the brand new Arena mode or during cooperative play. “We found that having four players and four Followers on-screen all at once was pretty chaotic and hard to tell what’s going on. We logic’d out that a player is better than a Follower, they’re better companionship and they’re certainly more effective than a Follower.” said Wilson. If, however, another player leaves, your Follower will return to your side.
It seems then that your Follower will be just that: a friend and a companion that will boost your Hero through combat and confidence as well as compliment its skills and abilities. They will be a light and interesting thing to look after while playing, and add another layer of depth in what is shaping up to be one of the most complex games in the next few years. It will be interesting to play around with the Follower mechanic and test out just how much of an upgrade it is over the old hireling system.
Diablo 3 will be in a closed beta phase later this year and is scheduled for a PC release some time next year. Or so we hope.
Location: Durban
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