Like a tarnished mirror, reflecting the series' storied past, Diablo 3 manages to feel new yet strangely familiar.
"The path to paradise begins in hell."
The above quote from "Dante's Inferno" may fit the beginning of the Diablo franchise quite well. The franchise itself spans three games and fifteen years. The third act of Blizzard's storied franchise is here and while the journey within may be fraught with blood and tears, this is no grand narrative on an epic stage. What it is; is simply, unabashedly, a good time.
You play a hero who comes in one of two genders and five distinct flavors. The classes barbarian, monk, demon hunter, witch doctor and wizard are yours to choose from and they each offer their own signature look and array of skills to fine tune to your liking. You are tasked with making your way to the lairs of three of the lesser evils and destroying them before taking on the big D himself.
Each character class uses their own different resource to power their spells/skills, represented by a large glowing orb that refills over time. The resources may vary but the mechanic is pretty much the same. The barbarian uses rage, the witch doctor uses mana, etc. The demon hunter uses a combination of discipline and hatred, so their orb is split into two halves, which is a bit unique compared to the other classes, even though it works the same way.
The story itself is easily forgettable, as the narrative and quests are there simply to move you from one area to the next. There are easily predictable twists and turns along the road and you'll find yourself coming back not for the exposition, but for the hordes of monsters you get to wade through, hoping they drop valuable weapons and items. At least each area has its own unique feel, from the sorrow filled cemeteries and forests surrounding the first town, to the arid deserts and icy plains surrounded by flames that come later.
After hitting certain amounts of experience points, you'll "level up" and unlike it's predecessor, which rewarded you with skill points you could "assign" to various skills, Diablo 3 streamlines this process by rewarding you with either the skills themselves or various runes that can be used to modify those skills. Its not nearly as customizable as the old system, but it's a lot more user friendly, and greatly reduces the odds you'll end up with a bad build or "gimped" character.
The controls are as intuitive as ever. You move with the left mouse button and attack with the right button. You can hold alt down while you attack for an alternative attack, (which can be binded to any skill or spell), and you have four quickslots which you can toss any spell or skill into for quick access, and you have the town portal and health potions already hotkeyed for you. for quick escapes and even quicker heals. The major downside here is that there's only four quickslots and you may find yourself using more than four spells or skills frequently. Skills and spells fall into different categories such as active, secondary, defensive, etc, but with the exception of passive abilities, they can all be bound to any quickslot or mouse button you like.
Your first playthrough on "normal" difficulty probably won't cause you to lose much sleep, but the difficulty ramps up significantly in the nightmare, hell and inferno difficulties. Stronger monsters and rarer drops await as well, however. Jumping into a game with other players also sends the difficulty soaring and its a blast watching three other players hack and slash their way through the seemingly endless minions of hell.
You can play with up to three others, for a total of four and jumping into a game is pretty easy, as there are options for a random game or you can simply jump into a friends' game. Once in a game, you simply click on the battle standard (each player has a fully customizable one) to zip directly to the other players and join the action. Its all quite seamless and really gets you and your group in the action a lot quicker than previous games where you had to town portal or, god forbid, walk to where your friends are.
Graphically, the game isn't amazing, but there is definite eye candy to be had. Enemies have various death animations whether they're vanishing into pillars of light or bursting apart into an army of worms, they're all quite nice to behold. Destroying enemies in different ways also has a significant effect, wizards can shock and burn enemies to the ground and their bodies with often smoke and crackle with static electricity after death. In comparison, demon hunters can shoot poison arrows at foes and those bodies will turn a sickly color, with green mist rising from their corpses. It's little touches like this that go a long way towards immersing you in the heart of the action.
Visually, Blizzard cinematics have never failed to impress and here is no exception. Taking their art to nearly short-film quality, the cinematics in Diablo 3 set a new high bar in terms of presentation. Textures flow like rivers, light pours in through windows, etc. It's all very lovely to look at, its just a shame that the cinematics, like the previous game, only serve as short, chapter bookends, giving small pieces of the story, that serve as a border for the in game action.
The music and sound effects are fine, with the music ramping up to dramatic levels when you're in a big battle and then fading into the background during quieter moments. The voice acting is okay, though most of the lines are fairly cheesy, again, you aren't playing for the exposition, (I hope).
Diablo 3 also manages to pay homage, in game, to its predecessors, almost to a point where crafting its own identity as a game becomes difficult. You'll recognize familiar characters and areas from the first two games, far more than you'll marvel at new places and foes. This is both a credit and a disservice to the game. If you played the first two games in the series, you'll appreciate the familiarity, but the new car smell won't be as pungent or last quite as long.
Better than the sum of its parts, Diablo 3 manages to walk the thin red line between familiar and contemporary. The minions of hell may be endless, but there will always be those to answer the call of heroes. There's a sense of togetherness here, as even questing solo, you aren't really alone. With the push of a button you can join others on their journeys to defeat evil, in a land thick with danger and overflowing with treasures, that suddenly doesn't seem so far away.