Diablo III review

After more than a decade of waiting, evil returns! Diablo II was one of my favorite games of all times, and I have been waiting damn long for this game.

Hell, it's one of those games that 90% of my gamer friends already own and play with me constantly. The other 10% hasn't bought it. Yet.

So, let's take a look at the latest generation of the name that defined dungeon crawling.

Hello ladies...say goodbye to your boyfriends.

I've played and also reviewed the Diablo III Beta during the Open Beta Weekend, and the changes from D2 to D3 is pretty much the same.

So, I'm going to be touching on those that were not apparent during the Beta Weekend, for the rest, just go to that blogpost and read it.


Story

Story was never a major concern in D2.

To put it lightly.

Most people can just breeze through the entire game without really knowing what the heck is going on, short of just clicking on everything on screen, killing them and looting everything.

Do most people even know what his name is? Or even know what role he played??

This time, Blizzard has done a much better job of fleshing out the storyline in Diablo III. Granted, most of the time you can see the twists coming a few light-years ahead, but hey, the core of Diablo III is still the gameplay.

Here's a 5 minute recap of what has happened up till the start of Diablo III:

Done?

The story begins with a star that has fallen near New Tristram, into the old Cathedral (the setting of Diablo I), separating Deckard Cain and his niece, Leah.

Thus, a new generation of heroes has arrived to see what the hell is going on (hehe).

Choosing between the Witch Doctor, the Wizard, the Barbarian, the Monk and the Demon Hunter, players must find and defeat the final two Great Evils: Belial, Lord of Lies and Azmodan, Lord of Sin.

But what role does Diablo play? Wasn't he defeated at the end of Diablo II?

Well, go play the game and find out.

Overall, the story in Diablo III is a good addition to the Diablo lore, hopefully, the inevitable expansions will expand more on the lore.

Stay awhile and listen.

Gameplay

One of the artisans that was not available during the beta was the Jeweller, Covetous Shen.

He's bloody hilarious.

I'm fabulous~! That's what all my wives tell me.

His primary role is to combine gems into the higher level ones for a price, basically the capitalist Horadric Cube from Diablo II.

As with the player characters, the Jeweller and the Blacksmith can level up for a price, and can offer a greater variety of craftables for the player.

At first, they only require gold to level up, but starting by Nightmare difficulty, they require special reagents that drop randomly from monsters: Pages of Jewelcrafting/Blacksmithing (drops in Nightmare), Tomes of  Jewelcrafting/Blacksmithing (drops in Hell) and finally Tome of Secrets (drops in Inferno).

Frankly though, they're not feasible.

They simply cost too much, and the higher level items require those reagents as well, granted that they drop frequently enough that it's not really an issue of shortage of reagents.

Well, at least, the Jeweller can craft gems and remove gems from sockets. Though in all honesty, crafting gems is extremely pricey, and you only require a few certain gems.

A major issue with the Blacksmith is that crafting an item involves a motherload of luck, and it's very likely that 90% of the items crafted will not be suitable for your class, which will be a waste of resources and gold.
For some reason, my Witch Doctor kept getting items that boost bloody Dexterity (primary attribute for Monks and Demon Hunters, mine is Intelligence).

You want Strength modifiers? Hah! I have no control over my blacksmithing capabilities!!
Don't ask.

You're frankly better off trying your luck with the mobs of monsters.

Diablo III's main storyline is very short. You can finish the Normal difficulty and four Acts in maybe 2-3 days. For some, it's jarringly short. However, I feel that it just means that you can start playing in the higher difficulties much sooner.

Diablo 3 comes in 4 difficulties: Normal, Nightmare, Hell and lastly, Inferno. Finishing each difficulty unlocks the next, though Inferno requires that your player character be level 60 in addition to finishing Hell mode.

Frankly the real game starts in Hell mode.

Normal is rather easy, and be easily breezed through in single player mode.

Nightmare is still doable in single player mode, but some segments may require co-op to make things easier.

Hell almost most definitely needs co-op to prevent bankruptcy from repairing items.

Inferno...holy shit. You definitely need to bring some friends along for the ride.

You'll be seeing this screen. A lot.

Most of the time, your deaths will not be because of the Great Evils or any of the storyline related bosses.

It's the Elite monsters.

Elites come in three flavors: Champions, which come in packs; Rare Elites, which has a mini-boss leading a bunch of minions; and Unique Elites, which usually spawn in the same place and has a set name.

The reason why they're so deadly compared to the other bosses, is because they have modifiers on them. They start off easy, with just one modifier in Normal; which expands to two in Nightmare, three in Hell, and four in Inferno.

Depending on the combination of the modifiers, they can easily wipe out entire parties faster than Diablo can.  Heck, it'll probably be faster to take out Diablo than some of the Elites I've fought.

But that's part of the fun and that's where the best loot will come in.

To aid in the career of looting high level shitznitz, level 60 characters will gain a buff called Nephalem's Valor everytime you kill an Elite.

Loot!! Glorious loot!!

It can stack up to 5 times, and each stack boosts your Magic Find (the value used to find better dropped items) by 15%.

The only problem is that if you change any of your skills at all, you will lose the buff immediately and have to start over. Honestly, I find this very counter productive. Part of the fun of the new skills system, is that you can mix-and-match your skills to the current threat: if there is a threat which you seem to be losing often, change it and hopefully do better.

Nephalem's Valor kinda discourages that practice, especially in Inferno mode, which rather defeats the purpose of having a flexible skill system.

But then I guess that's just me.

And, finally there's the issue of the always online-connection. Frankly, I still don't like it. Forcing people to do something, especially us gamers (one of the most demanding but loyal demographics), is never a good thing.

Believe it or not, a lot of people actually do play it single player, especially in Normal mode, where people are getting used to the game or because its rather easy to solo it with a follower. So, when people start feeling the lag in single player, yea well, people are not gonna be happy.

And worse of all, so far, Blizzard has been doing server maintenance every Tuesday ever since the game launched, which means that it fucking affects single player campaign as well!! Why? Cause no Battle.net means no connecting to Diablo III.

I hope this will not be a regular weekly occurrence.

It's so bad Error 37 has it's own website. And now a meme.

However, that aside, Diablo III's higher difficulty is definitely more fun when friends come along for the ride.

Having four players in a single game will it deadlier, tougher, harder, crazier, and more fun. There's nothing quite like seeing two Witch Doctors, a burly Barbarian and a diamond-skinned Wizard running like headless chickens avoiding arcane sentries and mortars from an Elite mob.

And it becomes all the more satisfying when you kill them.

My arse!!

And obviously you get better loot with four players.

Frankly though, overall, the gameplay of Diablo III, is the same as Diablo II, it's still the same old practice of
click-click-click-click-click and loot with some new twists, namely, the potions/health globes, Town Portal and new resources.

However, that didn't mean it was not fun. It's still furiously fun, and the joy of finding awesome gear never fails to falter.

Future

Here's what I'm hoping to see in either future patches/fixes and/or expansions:

1. Higher character levels and new skills to go with them, obviously. Also, I feel the Barbarian and the Witch Doctor needs to be buffed a little.
   
2. Lower costs for the artisans. They're currently very pricey and not very viable, especially the Blacksmith.
   
3. The ability to change weapon sets and skill sets in town without affecting Nephalem's Valor. We had a limited swap primary/offhand weapon system in Diablo II, so a more comprehensive one will let us be able to make better tactical decisions.
   
4. Necromancer!! My favorite class from Diablo II, and you can find a student of that particular Necromancer in a random Act II event, perhaps Blizzard is planning on bringing him back?

For the time being, this is what I can think of. Hopefully Blizzard will surprise us in the future.

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To summarize Diablo III:

The good:

• Awesome, addictive gameplay.
• New skills system encourages trial and error.
• Fast, smooth action when lag permits.
• Easy co-op functions.

The bad:

• Constant online requirement will be a deal breaker for a lot of people.
• Lag due to said constant-online factor, even in single player.
• FPS drops are very noticeable during certain battles, probably needs more optimization.

After 12 years of waiting, gamers everywhere are no doubt having their time of their lives playing Diablo III.

Is it worth the wait? Well, it's not a resounding, absolute yes. It's more like a heartwarming, nodding yes.

There are still some issues that the game needs to iron out.

But the joy of playing this game is undeniable, hearing that gold drop, seeing a rare item (or two!!) drop from a tough-ass elite boss after minutes of furious fighting, the anticipation of identifying the rare item...

All those moments are what make this game a joy to play.

Now excuse me, I need to save Sanctuary.

Not even Death can save you from me!!!