Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Price: $59.99
Release Date: PS3 & Xbox360 Sept 3rd, 2013, PS4 2014
Genre: Action role-playing, dungeon crawl, hack and slash
Where to buy: Amazon, Best buy, Gamestop
While we covered the popular release of Diablo 3 quite a bit has changed. A overall improved game from its former shell. If you are curious of our coverage of the game locate that here. In this review I am talking about the console port, via Play Station 3. While I pretty much talked about everything such as spells and abilities is within my older review. I will focus heavily on the controls, graphics, and over all appeal.
It seems like a late arrival on the consoles. But it is here. While the PC port relies heavily on the Auction House as a means of loot. This game stands on the terms of being a still fun experience. We noticed a curve of improvement of drop rates with items within the game. Making near the end of act 2 being the sweet spot for you to pull out your Magic Find gear and start farming. The gear since launch has been buffed in a term that would be considered big time. Legendaries feel like tools of destruction. Not being just a fashion accessory.
Leveling in the game takes a interesting turn as well. With each difficulty, matching the PC port Normal through to inferno, all have off-set difficulties. What each mode does is enhance the challenge of the game. From Hard to Master V. Better drop rates, better experience points. As well as hard as nails. In a good way. While I heard many complain about the drop rates being crap and the items having no substance. This is partly true, but at the same time disagreeable once you advance in the game. Hell even in Diablo 2 the drop rates usually was a thing to frown on. Until they overhauled the game with many updates and the ever classic expansion, Lord of destruction. Of course it was a easy choice to copy and paste all the elements of D2 into D3. I assumed some sort of deal was made for a console port then (which there was before it was all set in stone). By level twenty nine I was at the end of the game, and whipping on Diablo’s xenophobe alien looking ass quicker then who knows what.
Graphically, you know the field of view, or the view range was cut back due to hardware constraints. The over all effect is its still a pretty grim and impressive looking game. Spells, and many of the environment effects are somewhat left intact. Crumbling walls from weak points, still leave blood splatter and body parts all over the place. Character zooming was removed from the game(you can see a large model of your character if you pause the game.) Cut scenes are clean and look great in HD. Which one of blizzards strong points were presentation usually with those kind-of-things.
The Mutli-player was very fun, the PVP, or the brawling in the game was a interesting animal that I will bring up for this segment as well. locally, or Couch buddies for the slang of it. I managed to try a 4 player local game with a few friends, then afterwards got online. Almost instantly, I was in a another persons lobby, able to enter mid session(this excludes if the person is going against a boss however). Loot online wise is not shared, and you can pickup whatever you wish without the worry that another jerk will just take that mega super duper rare from under your nose. However locally you will have that issue, so bring the right friends. *smirk* You can select whatever Act, part of Act, or bit you unlocked to join into. That is if anyone is on that part, or have a open session. You can set your settings to friends only if you do not care for some random leech(person who logs into your lobby, and just takes Exp vs helping making issues harder for you) to log into your lobby. To end this bit I will bring up the Brawling part of this game. It is somewhat new, and pretty fun, while going against premade players, those being forum, or guide junkies who just use a copy and pasted set up for there characters. Who in fact are cheap players, who can not think of a clever build for themselves. However are mince meat Vs my Monks build. What I did tell you I was very Tanky haha. IT holds up well as a mode, but do not expect that heavy amount of traffic on this mode after awhile.
Controls are surprisingly tight, and work. On the PS3 copy I was playing left analog felt smooth and was responsive. The new feature, evasive rolls is handled with the right analog stick. With the buttons on your pad, you can go into the options and swap it to allow you to map whatever abilities to any button you wish too. Except the Directional buttons. With the game you can customize your character to any thing you want until you Need to adjust more defensively. This being Inferno. With my Monk I from the start went more tanky, then Dps wise. With that I focused on fast regen, and plenty of Dex and Vit to boost my evasion, and hit points. Hit on Life is a big MUST if you are Melee. Use it well, or may your repair bill make you rage quite a bit.
In closing:
This is what I would like to fairly say, is a pretty darn good port of the PC game. It is not tainted by bad drop rates, nor bad combat design (people do not use the right ability matching). Frame rates do happen in this game, a lot like how they happen in the PC copy. That comes with massive amounts of enemies on the screen at once. Items, weapons, and armor in general did get a massive improvement. After complaining to myself for a few hours on the first act, I got a few rares, then things began to pick up. It is all based on Luck. Luck people, not you are suppose to get the droprates right away. I do know some players picked normal > Easy while playing then whined that they got crap drops. Now this is against those who swapped to Hard mode within Normal, and got plenty of items galore. While the items were lackluster via magic items, it really is all dependent on your magic find (you need this to be at least 35%+ in order to feel the different, noobies). Or even the bonus items you gain when you buy the PS3 copy, or the Xbox360. By the last half of the game I felt the spoiled nature of constant drops of the Legend weapons and gear. Bringing me over to the extra difficulties. Having a extra kick in my step. While I can understand every ones frustrations with not having a lucky drop rate, it is all dependent on how you balance your damage, defense, and MF correctly. Not knowing how to do so, will give you the lazy conclusion of what you are feeling. Hell half of the people heard were whining vs learning up on the game. After I sat down and studied how to improve those better drops and keep my character alive long enough, I was a Monk-tank-death-incarnate. Overall It was a pretty solid experience that I say most conclusively get it. If you do not own a PC that can play this, this is the next best thing.
9.0
