Chapter 191: The Demon Hunter
After watching the CG, everyone was full of emotion (gankai).
"Awesome! The CG quality of Thunder Film Studio is still this high!"
"Incredible, every single strand of hair on that girl is crystal clear. The boss must have burned a ton of cash again."
"What does this opening mean? I don't get it. That old man is so unlucky, how did he get hit by a meteor? Is it because he never helps old ladies cross the street?"
"The girl is dumbfounded. Where's my grandpa? Oh wait, where's my uncle?"
"Hurry up and get into the game, I can't wait!"
Entering the game, the first thing was a character selection screen.
Against a backdrop shrouded in darkness, five hero characters stood around a campfire, their faces hidden in the shadows, only their silhouettes visible.
These people had different appearances and varied attire—some wore cloth armor, some leather, some plate armor. Their weapons included giant axes, crossbows, staves, and more.
Zou Zhuo was also a bit excited. This was a pretty unique character selection screen, giving a very strong sense of immersion, like facing a group of weirdos.
Unlike other RPGs, where the characters you could choose were just flashy dolls.
In the center stood a tall, burly barbarian, wielding a giant axe, wearing simple armor, and covered in tattoos resembling primitive totems.
Chen Mo hadn't used the appearance from *Diablo 3* for the barbarian; instead, it was similar to *Diablo 2*—no longer an old man with white hair and a white beard, but a muscular guy like Kratos.
"Barbarian? Looks like a class similar to a berserker."
Zou Zhuo moved the mouse and clicked on other characters.
Each time he selected a character, that character would step out of the shadows and walk over to the campfire, allowing the player to see their face clearly. The previous character would retreat back into the darkness.
A demon hunter, cold and dashing, wielding a crossbow.
A wizard, manipulating magic to destroy everything.
A monk, skilled in combat techniques with an Eastern flair.
A witch doctor, wearing a mask and wielding the power of life and death.
Zou Zhuo clicked through each character one by one, checking them all out.
The first version only had these five classes. Chen Mo planned to add the Crusader and Necromancer, along with ladder and season modes, in future updates.
These five classes had distinct appearances, allowed gender selection, and once selected, there was a dedicated interface introducing the class's role, skill characteristics, and story background.
As someone with a bit of OCD, Zou Zhuo quickly read through the backstories of all five classes.
Soon, he realized the difference between the class design in *Diablo* and other games.
At first glance, these classes seemed very similar to classic Western fantasy roles (warrior, mage, archer, paladin, etc.), just with a different coat of paint. But after carefully studying the skills and backstories, he found significant differences.
One of the most notable differences was that there was no clear distinction between defensive, offensive, and support roles. All classes were offensive, just with different methods of dealing damage.
Moreover, the backstories of these classes were perfectly integrated with the world of *Diablo*.
Take the demon hunter, for example. In the backstory, they lived in a land of fear, possessing a power within that could resist demonic corruption. This allowed them to use demonic power as a weapon, wielding crossbows and firing flaming arrows with arcane trails to eliminate enemies.
They were a group of fanatical warriors, sworn to a single purpose: to destroy all creatures from the Burning Hells.
Compared to an archer, the demon hunter's backstory fit the overall setting of *Diablo* much better, and their various skills and talents were completely different from an archer's, giving them their own unique flavor.
"Demon hunter? Feels like a pretty cool class. I'll go with him."
Zou Zhuo selected a male demon hunter and entered the name "zzz."
A starting demon hunter character appeared on the screen. He was basically unarmored, holding a somewhat shabby small crossbow, with a lean build, but his eyes seemed to carry a chilling, murderous intent.
Zou Zhuo, whose main race was the Undead, really liked this feeling. He clicked [Start Game].
As a slowly unfolding scroll appeared, a deep voice narrated his past.
"My family died at the hands of demons from the Burning Hells. Witnessing such a tragic scene is enough to torment you for a lifetime."
"I was tortured by fear and loneliness until salvation arrived."
"Those who saved me were survivors determined to destroy the demons of the Burning Hells. They saw in me the power to fight against demons, and so I became a blade of vengeance."
"Now, I am ready."
"A fallen star landed on Tristram, and the dead rose again. And I will send them back to their graves. The prey of the past is now the hunter."
With these few simple sentences, the demon hunter's identity and reason for coming here were clearly explained, while focusing the player's goal on that key story element: the "fallen star."
As the game screen appeared, Zou Zhuo's demon hunter stood quietly on a dark wasteland, with a small town faintly visible in the distance.
"Not a first-person perspective, just as I thought."
Actually, everyone already knew this was a third-person perspective game, but when he actually saw the game screen, Zou Zhuo was still a bit disappointed, because first-person would have offered a stronger sense of immersion.
Still, since Zou Zhuo was used to playing *Warcraft*, he was quite accustomed to this third-person perspective.
The graphics were extremely detailed. It was clear Chen Mo had put a lot of effort into the visuals. Every detail, texture, and pattern had reached a very high level, completely different from those old-school third-person RPGs.
The interface was very clean, with a clear style. Zou Zhuo moved the mouse to roughly check the skills for each button and quickly understood the game's controls.
He spun the character around in place a few times and confirmed that this was undoubtedly a 3D game—3D scenes, 3D models, everything was 3D, and the quality was high. Chen Mo had just locked the camera, so players could only experience the game from a third-person perspective.
The character's movements were very smooth, and the arrow flight trajectory when attacking was well done.
However, the overall atmosphere of the screen was very oppressive. Even before encountering many undead, the entire scene was already filled with a deathly aura. Dim streetlights, broken carts, and fallen corpses painted a picture of a very grim world.
The demon hunter continued forward and soon encountered the first zombie monster.
An arrow shot out, and the monster growled as it lunged at the demon hunter. Zou Zhuo controlled the demon hunter, moving and shooting at the same time. Soon, the monster fell to the ground.