Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Genre:Action RPG, Hack and Slash, Dungeon Crawler
Platforms: PC, iOS
Price: $59.99
In the archives of time, Diablo is a strong staple for the PC, and Macs. Bringing in the Role play elements into a genre that well introduced a new term of Dungeon Crawling. Which lead to many hours of running around randomly generated dungeons. Diablo 2 Was a whole new breed of animal. Being one of the most successful commercial games on the top list of PC games to date. I do not need to describe how many hours many people clocked in those games to tell you, they will clock in many more in this game. A fun and well designed game can be found here and there in today’s AAA title market. But most of these games suffer from a few set backs. Short game play. While 16 hours is pretty easy cheese. Trust me, the harder difficulties get harder, and take longer to complete. Adding many hours of exploring, and loot finding. Oh yes, this game is about much loot. Also a few additions for this installment to the series is the Auction house. Dedicated gamers can complete this game roughly in 4 hours via normal mode. The story mode was strong, offering some nice voice acting.
You start off as one of the five classes being a Witchdoctor, Barbarian, Monk, Demon Hunter, and a Wizard. Dichard Cain(the 500 year old Jedi master) offers a vision of the return of Diablo. As such a falling star hits the ground leading your adventure in search of that shooting star. The pace of the said storyline is as quick as you want it too be. However, with things as short movies and lore, can be recovered after to be read and watched. As I played I wanted to know what was going to happen next with the compelling story plot. Within your story plot you are brought about from the dark forests of New Tristram, all the way to the harsh winters of the snowy mountains to the worlds strongest keep.
In most dungeon crawlers today, you get a few set backs if you are a fan of the western Rpg number crunching. The game was simplified. More or less like a MMO. How do you ask? Well they give you outlandish stats such as 100+ Dex, Str, Int, and Vit. Along with other resistances. Within all this crazy stats, it does come with a good reason. If you are not seasoned or know what the heck your doing this game will violently beat you into submission. On Hell difficulty where the game really requires you provide the right stats into your class. The safe thing on this game is you can swap out Skills. Which come in the form of many sorts of combinations. My personal choice is the Monk. Some might consider a “No Skill” Class. It is very much a Tank, as well as a Party healer. Many of the classes in this game can off spec heal without a question too. Offering aids to your party members is what helps a lot. By allot I mean think of passing out free twinkles to your teammates when there feeling depressed, suddenly feeling happy once they get that said cream snack. Oh yea, that kinda help. Each class has there difficulty curve, that varies. Wizard is somewhat of a each, or a challenging class to consider. While it is slow at first to work with. It does pan out to be a very useful class via Inferno mode.
A few let downs for fans are in this game. Such as No offline single player. Does this break the back bone of all who love Diablo 3? No It is for a few things, such as DRM protection, and for the auction house. A few will say after my mention of the AH as “Screw that, I will make my own money” Well when you could make Real life money based off items and or money. I would rethink that logic. Even for a side activity for a few hours a day. I do enjoy the online aspect to this game. The social landscape is bold, allowing you to join random open games. Being able to interact with all walks of life. If you are stuck on a part of a chapter you can pick that part, and find a game someone else is stuck on or doing. And bam, instant connection. While the game moves towards online though, I can see it as one minor factor some people do not like to play with others.
The music is set on that high standard of quality. It is good, but at the same time I think they reused some of World of Warcrafts Same battle music. You know from a instance. The graphical design while the scenery is lovely. It does pose a sense of a few switches in the “random” generator. As such another concern is well, in Diablo 2 you were always granted a confusing or alternating view of each location, where chests and monsters actually dropped loot that made you question your build. One thing I will grant that keeps a good flow is the monsters. With those they are all different from act to act. Completing all 4 acts in normal mode. I felt satisfying exploring every ounce of the landscapes, discovering Rare caves to the simple event for bonus experience. Skills and abilities are set in forms of cool downs and or instant casts. All dependent of Arcane, Spirit, Rage, and Mana. Rather then Diablo 2’s Mana cost per skill.
While in the game something did make me scratch my head. Is it me or are the Lesser evils (the gear checkers) more of a challenge then Diablo himself? The end battle while awesome to glance at, was too easy. Perhaps I was over geared. The Cubs actually won a legit world series, or Lady GaGa was in actual Fashion. The world may never know truly. The games difficulty once past Nightmare mode did build up and I was challenged. Faced with monsters with new tricks and patterns that were hard to overcome. Which was good. On top of the Mini games(events) I found myself addicted to the simple and also complex monsters within inferno. Sadly as all of this at the time was accruing, my account was Hacked. Once requiring all my gear and time spent back.
While pondering I glanced at the Auction house. Which carries allot of loot every one ether has use for or things people choose to inflate in the process. You know, the whole MMO economy. While this feature is not new. One mentionable feature, which is nice, but also dangerous for the safety of many people in the game is RMT. Legalized for this game, you are allowed to sell items or Gold for a price and people can buy that said gold from you. With that said I can see a titanic crash in the works for account safety and well being. If applied with care, can work.The AI Companions are some what unhelpful to a degree unless you give them a majorly damaging weapon. So it is best if you find friends you know and play with them to get through the game.
Closing Thoughts:
While to many this might not be Blizzards crowning achievement in the Diablo series, it is still a fantastic game with allot of room for improvements, and add-ons within patches. The game itself runs well. The graphics while the backgrounds are lovely, the characters look a bit dated. Within reason for the large scale of monsters and lag to occur it is a honest reason. The pace gives you training wheels then brings you up from that to a sports car. By that we mean Inferno. While the game still needs patches to fix some issues such as some skills not working or syncing. In closing, while the RMT is still up in the air for being open. Over all A game that can be amazing for the years to come.
Tips:
“While it would take you a while to build just the right format to survive, it is suggested if you pump into your main stat and plenty of Vit and Int including resistances.Other wise it will become unrelenting hell in Inferno mode Glass Cannons would get destroyed otherwise.”
9.5
