Its About Time!
Its been 20 years after the events of the D2 and supposedly all is well that is a meteor crashes at the Tristam Cathedral. Choosing one of four classes you embark on a journey to save the world (yet again).
D3 is simply a blast to play, the controls are quite slick and the action is plenty. i love how they streamline the hotkeys and added more tool tips througout the game so whenever you do get a piece of gear it explains you how it will affect your class (providing you turned ON Advanced Tooltip)
Graphic wise, its a Blizzard game and they do it right. A lot of unique enemies some harken to D2 days with a more 21st century updated look. The boss battles are quite pleasing; even some with multi-stages (courtesy of its WoW cousin)
The soundtrack is what you would expect from these types of games; a rush of drums, a heavy use of horn and wind instruments and it does a great job supplementing the action on your screen.
The sweet goeey center of all diablo games is the LOOT! And there is PLENTY to go around. From trash greys to legardy orange to even set greens, providing your Magic Find is high enough (or your just lucky) you can be the envy of your class.
Taking a page from its WoW cousin is the debut of D3 Auction House. This actually opens up the game to a whole new level. If you don't like a particular set of stats on an item, sell it on the AH! If you want more DEX but can't find the drops, go to the AH. You will have to wade through literally hundreds of auctions, but if your persistent you can find the items you want and further customize your character to how you want them,
Lastly what I want to add is that once you do beat the game (and its not that hard on Normal) you unlock a harder difficulty (sounds familiar?) you beat that and you unlock yet another hard mode. Inferno mode unlcoks after you beat the game three times and that should be considered "end game" for gamers. The loot there is stupidly insane and the amount of life normal enemies have are rediculous. Beware....
What I Did Not Like:
1) No stat allocation!? Seriously... this defies ALL Diablo games (theres only two + expansions) Playing games like Titan Quest, Dungeon Siege (not the 3rd -_-) and other Diablo-like games for the past 20 years. The ability to decide HOW you want to build your character is just as important as beating the game itself. If the warrior wants to be an Intellectual genius, then go for it.. just don't be surprise if he lasts that long.
2) World layout is pretty much the same. The only difference are the placements of the special zones within the world. Not too much of a big deal, but its no longer as random as other Diablo games.
3. Hotkeys are somewhat limited. I would have liked there to be 9 hotbars along with Primary/Secondary instead of 6. There are spells I would have love to use in their situational manner. What I don't get is that Blizzard even stated they didn't want D3 to be a One Skill to Rule Them All like D2 had, but at least D2 had more hotkeys!
Overall whether your a old school Diablo player or a newcommer, D3 should satisify your mouse-clicky RPG needs.