About a month has passed since the release of Diablo 3. I have managed to beat the game a number of times with different characters putting in about 100+ hours of time into the game. This doesn’t take all the time I spent on the Gold Auction House or playing my Hardcore Mode character; but that is what the plus is for. I would venture to say I probably logged in around 120 hours total. Enough about me specifically, lets get to the review.
Diablo 3 is a traditional top down hack n’ slash dark fantasy game. Diablo created this genre and it is still the most finely honed blade in the arsenal of the every growing genre. The game is told through the lens of your hero. Who is a predetermined person; male or female occupying one of five different classes. This is, at first, seemingly limiting. But in the end, the game gives you some many options with gear, rune, and skill combinations. That anymore customization might actually bog the game down. Also, having hand drawn cinematics for each class and each sex; is very nice although fully rendered ones would have been even better.
The story of the game is rather simplistic but with every major step being marked by industry leading cinematic cutscenes make it had for anyone to argue that the presentation of the game isn’t top notch. My favorite moment from the game so far is when my Monk was first battling a few skeletons in the beginning of the game. He used a special move that made one explode and as it did the axe the skeleton was wielding actually looked like it was going to fly into my face. There is no stereoscopic 3D in the game, but the physics engine is so excellent that things like this are not unheard of. I really enjoy when you kill a sand worm that the head of the worm separates from it’s body like you decapitated it. The graphics can certainly push any top of the line card out there but they can also run on modest systems that came out within the last few years. Many people also say that they can run the game on their laptops on the lowest settings. This is great but it also explains why Diablo 3’s art style keeps to the low end of the high end so that it doesn’t alienate any potential players. It is definitely a better looking game than any PC counterpart. But it isn’t going to blow anyone’s doors off. The cinematics are definitely the stand outs on the graphics front and even though I know it takes around six months to make each one. I can’t help but complain that I would have liked to see a few more. They were just SO GOOD and given the fact we couldn’t create our own characters, some character specific full CG cinematics would have been nice. At least after being game, if no where else.
The gameplay in Diablo 3 is incredibly addictive and is the reason that you will either be coming back to Diablo 3 every single day or not be able to make it through the first playthrough on Normal Difficulty. The game really is either love it or hate it. Either you buy into the system of getting new abilities and runes every level; along with new loot or you don’t. Having played through the Normal Difficulty with three characters and all most done with two more. I can say that the Normal Difficulty while good for people just starting out; is not Diablo 3. Nightmare, which is the next difficultly up is actually where the game begins. It’s very difficult to understand the thinking behind Blizzard making this decision. Many casual players will certainly be able to weather the difficulty spikes in Normal. But most serious players and certainly people who have recently played Diablo 2 will have a major problem being engaged enough to get through Normal Difficulty and into Nightmare. As a big fan of hack n’ slash games but not a person who has ever played Diablo before I somewhat appreciated Normal Difficulty but when I found out how different Nightmare was; I also felt like I had just completed the longest and most unnecessary tutorial mode in all of video games. Besides this, the amount of terrible loot in the first 2 ACTS of Normal is incredible. Even the “Rare” items for the most part are so low level and worthless that once you hit the second 2 ACTS if you have any left you will end up selling them to merchants rather than trying to sell them on the Auction House or sending them to another one of your characters. The developers obviously wanted players to use the Auction House, I just wish they would have at least tried not be so blatant about it. How many white item crossbows can one Barbarian find?(This occurs mostly in the first ACT of the game on Normal).
Getting new gear and new abilities every level is an excellent way of making people keep coming back to a game. The main problem is that most of the interesting abilities are only unlocked after the end of ACT 2 and even on Normal Difficulty most people will find that the second half of the game is incredibly harder than the first half. This goes double for Nightmare and all further difficulty modes. The difficulty is a STRICT new game plus mechanic in which the player finishes the game and then starts the new difficulty with all the gear and levels they earned in the previous difficulty. They will then begin to see gear and enemies adjusted to their new level of difficulty. But this also extends to events, dungeons, etc… In Nightmare difficulty you will see things that you just won’t see in Normal. I would assume this is the case as you move up in the difficulty and level ladder. This system is interesting but it is not even hinted at in the beginning of the game and while the developers did talk about enemies being harder and having more abilities in their pre-launch discussions they never once mentioned that opening up new difficulties meant also opening new events, dungeons, etc… All of this said, the average player will probably not notice any of this and assume it is due to the randomly generated environments rather than a difficulty change. In fact, most people who have played as many hours of Diablo 3 as I have; probably only have one character and are probably in the third difficulty mode Hell, right now. So perhaps this was the designers idea and I’m just exposing it here due to my unconventional play style.
All of the music and audio in the game is incredible. Everything from a score that even after 100+ hours makes me want to hear it more. Over heard conversations that can be some of the best world building devices in the game. These provide a kind of atmosphere that all the next generation of graphics in the world can’t do. The cinematics that are epically scored and epically voice acted. Many AAA products out there have incredible scores or have excellent voice acting. But Diablo 3 tends to take all of this up 11 and then blows the roof off the building. This is the standard that all audio for all video games should be judged from now on. Anyone want to hear a goatman die, just give Diablo 3 a whirl.
I could probably talk about Diablo 3 for hours and write about it for pages of text. The game is as deep as you want it to be. If you want to see everything in the entire game you are probably going to have to put in around 200-400 hours depending on how good you are at it. This is the type of game that takes around 30 hours to beat and another 300 to master. There are a lot of hidden treasures and events in Diablo 3 and I don’t want to spoil any here. But suffice to say that if you are a Blizzard fan you will find some loving easter eggs of every sort in Diablo 3 that are waiting for you to find them.
Of course, doing the above with friends is easier than ever with the multiplayer functions of Diablo 3. Much like Starcraft 2 which is also all ways on the internet, Diablo 3 has an all ways online function which makes it easy to see when your friends are online and you can hop into their game or vice versa. The game gets harder; the loot gets more plentiful and the monsters certainly change in quantity and power. If you fight a boss in single player make sure you are ready for a MUCH harder boss if you get some friends together and try to beat him again. Of course, I’m sure there are diminishing returns eventually but you won’t find that before you hit the much higher difficulties. While the designers see Diablo 3 as a multiplayer game, I think the most people will probably play the campaign at least once alone. Which is fine, although the way the game is balanced right now some of the characters might make getting through alone a little harder than with others. I’m sure they will balance this out eventually, it’s only been a month. But right now, taking a friend along for the second half of the game isn’t a bad idea no matter the difficulty.
Currently Diablo 3 has no real money Auction House and no PVP. Both of which were promised and look like they are probably going to take several more months to come to pass. But even without these features, Diablo 3 is the most feature rich and interesting game I have ever played. Perhaps only trumped by World of Warcraft itself, at least here there are better graphics and no monthly fees. I have plenty of small criticisms of Diablo 3 but none of them are anything more than personal taste or just wanting even more of what’s all ready there. It’s been ten years since the last Diablo and frankly while everything in the world and video game industry has changed; there is one constant Blizzard makes EXCELLENT games. Diablo 3 could only be better in my dreams, 9.5/10…
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