Diablo III would probably rank amongst the most anticipated games of the past 12 years and much to our joy, Blizzard announced the third instalment of the series on May 15th 2012. So, in this review I’ll be looking at whether it lived up to the expectations of diehard fans and new gamers alike.
Storyline
Diablo III is divided in four acts, each with its own mood and vibe. You’ll be battling the hordes of hell from the dungeons of act 1, through the beautiful lush oasis of act 2, passing through the war ridden act 3 and ending your quest in the halls of heaven.
Like its predecessors the game has several classes of heroes you can choose from. The three classes with ranged attacks include Demon Hunter, The wizard and Witch Doctor and the two melee classes include Barbarian and Monk.
Money Talks
The inclusion of the Real Money Auction House, AH as it is known in the Diablo circles was seen as a great and efficient way of trading your unwanted items for real money or “DIII gold” that can be used to purchase other items.
Although it serves its purpose the AH also opened a rift in the economy of the game. In short if you can afford to spend hundreds of pounds to buy godly gear you can be extremely powerful, whereas if you decide to play legitimately and farm for loot you will always be underpowered in comparison to those using real money to purchase their items.
Gameplay
In patch 1.05 Blizzard added “Monster Power” (or MP in short) and this essentially increases difficulty by improving Monster Health and attack damage per Monster Power level; reaching a maximum of MP10.
Playing at a higher Monster Power can be rewarding as Magic Find (MF – the stat that determines how good an item dropped can potentially be) scales with Monster Power level. The experience you gain from your kills also increases relative to MP, making it a vicious circle because if you cannot play at a higher MP level you won’t find as much Loot or gain as much experience as someone who does.
For that reason, most people resort to the Auction House for equipment which goes against the whole purpose of playing the game; finding better loot. That unfortunately made me lose interest in the game really quick.
When it comes to actual gameplay, each class has a plethora of special attacks and runes that once activated serve the purpose of further empowering your heroes.
Each skill’s visual effect is beautifully rendered and grants the gamer the sense of real power. You can disintegrate countless demons in a few seconds with a Wizard or bash them to a blood pulp with the Barbarian, and it does feel great in the first few days but as the constant button bashing takes its toll on your fingers it soon becomes old and feels like a chore rather than enjoyment. Unfortunately the only way to be able to survive in higher MP levels is to button bash to keep protecting and attacking skills up, which takes away from the game.
Since patch 1.05 drop rates of Legendary items were doubled and have been further increased with patch 1.08 but even this failed to save the game. That’s because even though Legendary items drop almost every run, the quality of the finds is normally very poor and actual good drops are extremely rare and far apart.
Multiplayer
Blizzard made an attempt to improve multiplayer mode with patch 1.08, making it more worthwhile to play in groups due to a significant increase in Magic Find for all party members. Apart from the MF bonus though, there is little to compel us to play in groups until they make further improvements.
It’s quite pointless to play against other users due to the fact that most classes have a skill or other that can “one shot” the opposite players, making Player vs Player feel repetitive and unrewarding unlike the epic battles we grew used to in Diablo II.
Boss battles were well conceived and are quite hard. Although the bosses themselves were very well crafted, the loot dropped by them vs how hard it is to kill them makes most players that have completed the game skip them altogether from their runs.
Diablo III: The Bottom Line
Of course opinions of this game will differ, but this is an honest & personal opinion from a huge fan of the Diablo series that has been there since the very beginning.
The game is not all bad – with some work and a few more patches from Blizzard the game could possibly eclipse all its predecessors so don’t give up on our favourite game just yet.
In terms of graphics the game looks great and the storyline is gripping and very well-conceived. In short, if you don’t mind the constant need for button bashing and the lack of high quality drops, the game can still be fun to play and it’s a good way to socialise with friends.
Have you played Diablo III yet? What did you think of it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
