Game Review: Diablo III

I'll get the ugly part out of the way upfront. As far as game releases go, Blizzard's launch of Diablo III is the worst I've participated in. I always expect issues whenever a new game is released, I really do. But nothing the likes of what I experienced trying to play Diablo III within 24 or even 48 hours of its official launch. This was very surprising coming from Blizzard, given their reputation and resources as a powerhouse in the MMO industry. That said, Blizzard did apologize for the experience, and for me, this went a long way.



Now that that is out of the way, how is Diablo III?

In a word: satisfying. Satisfying in the sense that if you are looking for a dungeon crawl hack-n-slash game that you can play for hours, explore new areas and dungeons, gear your character up, and slowly reveal the storyline of the game, D3 delivers. Like StarCraft II, Diablo III at once felt both very familiar yet new and refreshed. The mechanics are essentially the same as they were years ago. You kill butt loads of mobs in a great, glorious fashion, loot the corpses or containers for gear, and fight big, nasty bosses. The nostalgia of clearing a room of demons, hearing the same familiar sounds of coin or gear falling on the ground really brings a satisfying grin to my face. Simply put, it is Diablo and Diablo is fun.

There is a certain guilty pleasure in playing Diablo III. Its a game that pits your hero (and your companions) against almost insurmountable odds and simply laying waste to them with some incredibly over powered abilities. For example, my Demon Hunter has a power that basically turns her crossbow into a minigun. Ah, the gory sight of her raining death down on the spawns of Hell! So what is new? What did we wait 11 years for? I'm not sure what the hold up was in this games release, but I do like how powers are laid out in an action bar and how characters are customized. I like the new classes, the Witch Doctor and the Demon Hunter. Another new direction Diablo III differs from its predecessors, is that it requires an Internet connection to play and a battle.net account. While there is no subscription fee to play, you do have to access Blizzard's game servers to play the game. As such, joining one of your friend's games is as easy as joining their game and clicking on their banner in town.

Demon Hunter

In Diablo III, each character can have up to two main attacks (click, click, click away!), four support powers, and two passive abilities. I am looking into a new gaming mouse with lots of buttons to support this! As you progress, you open additional powers and unlock runes that modify how a power works. At first I was not too happy with this, as you no longer can spend points in a tree to modify your character, or even directly modify stats, as in Diablo II. However, after seeing how this works I rather like it. I can customize my character on the fly and drastically alter how it plays. For example, I can spec Wicked to deal a lot of AoE damage with traps, grenades, and explosive mines then switch her to a more single target, high damage build. Or I can make her very stealthy and evasive. Stats are modified directly by gear. Which means certain types of gear will be in high demand, which works out fine, as Diablo III now supports an auction house. The novelty with this is that you can choose to spend REAL money on virtual items. Yes, you can now transmute real gold into fake gold and pay to win! Although the real winners are Blizzard and Paypal :) I saw a post from one of my WoW buddy's that he wants to make enough money off of Diablo III to pay for his monthly WoW subscription. Well played, Cyno.

A Wizard doing his thing.

There is also a crafting system. You can train the blacksmith to craft you gear and, eventually, a gem merchant, too. However, it costs gold to train them, and gold to craft an item, and most recipes require raw materials. These materials are obtained by "disenchanting" at least purple level looted gear. This could be challenging, as you can also sell that gear to merchants, put them up on the auction house, or place them in the vault for an alt. As you acquire gems, you can combine them into better versions and socket them into gear that have open sockets.

A hail of arrows!

Now, I've only played up to level 29 so far and have completed Act II, but I am really enjoying the game. One of the things I love about this type of game is that you can simply walk away from it for days and come back later and jump right in exactly where you left off. Its not so complicated that I forget what I was doing or how to play. Conversely, I logged onto my Warlock the other day in WoW and had no idea how to play him (I've not played him in months). And once I complete the story arc in D3,  I get to replay the game, only this time on a more difficult setting. I dig that.

All in all, Diablo III is an action packed, RPG game that is fun and satisfying to play. With Diablo III, Blizzard did not reinvent the wheel but they did put a shiny, new rim on it. It is different from Diablo II for certain, and I imagine some will be disappointed in that, but I found the new character customization rewarding. I do find the game somewhat repetitive at times (weren't we just in this dungeon?) but there is enough storyline to make me press on and see what happens next.

See you in Sanctuary!

Strength and Honor,

-Wicked