How does Diablo 3 play with a WoW style camera?

Gamer Monstrous3D has put together something a little different over on YouTube — a video of gameplay footage from Diablo 3 with a modified MMO camera angle. The behind-the-character view looks like something right out of World of Warcraft. The video itself is unfortunately pretty static, and as Monstrous3D explains in the comments section, the character moves too quickly for the camera, resulting in some staggering when running around.

This isn’t a mod that you can simply apply to the game, the camera is being manually controlled. The video was made using the same technique and tools as machinima videos, only without removing the UI component of the screen, which leaves the viewer with the unique perspective. Diablo 3‘s top-down camera angle is almost an iconic part of the game, something that makes it instantly identifiable, which makes the video a little jarring to watch at first. And it becomes fairly apparent in the video that some of the weapon and attack animations were designed specifically with that top-down camera perspective in mind — they look downright odd when viewed from behind, because they were never designed for that camera perspective.

Yet at the same time, it does leave one with some delightful daydreams of an MMO set in the Diablo universe. While it’s a cool idea, I do find myself wondering exactly how something like that would work. Part of Diablo 3‘s appeal to me is the flavor of the landscape and that inescapable feeling that you’re one of not so many people left on a world that has been ravaged by demons. I don’t know if an MMO with hundreds of nephalem running around to save the world would really feel right. Regardless, Monstrous3D is going to work on a video that features some movement as well as static gameplay, but in the meantime you can watch the gameplay video below, marvel at what a difference a simple change in camera angle can make to a game, and catch more of Monstrous3D’s Diablo 3 videos on his YouTube channel.