And you nephalem, look what your kind has wrought! These words, uttered at the penultimate act near the climax of the story may serve as an analogy to Blizzards own souped up console version of the oft-criticized PC version of Diablo III.
The game itself remains largely unchanged from the PC version. You select a class out of the five possible classes, barbarian, monk, demon hunter, witch doctor or wizard. Each of them has their own combat style, specific weapons they can equip, as well as a unique resource which they can manage to activate their own skills/spells.
Most of the fun comes in wanton destruction of near endless hordes of foul minions through the games four act structure. Youll explore deep dungeons and vast deserts as well as snow covered battlefields teeming with fallen soldiers.
Watching enemies explode into piles of gold and loot is as much of a treat as ever, and thanks to the revamped loot system, loot is more plentiful and more advantageous than before. Smart drops ensure that new and better items that bear your primary statistic are almost always on the menu. Struggling a bit with a weapon from several levels ago? No problem, the game has you covered. Need an amulet with a bit more dexterity? The game will hook you up. Need some cash for a late night strip club run? ...hang on, thats a totally different game. Its a far cry from the stingy and random loot fair that plagues the PC version and is a rare and refreshing change in a game, to give players what they need, when they need it.
Whats also nice is the fact that you can see immediately if anything you pick up will benefit any one of your three core stats, attack, defense or life (hp). A small text pops up in the lower left corner of your screen whenever you pick up an item and gives each attribute one to three green arrows if its a lot better than what youre using, or red arrows if its worse than what youre using. If you cant equip an item, or its not marginally better or worse, itll just show you dashes. Its a neat system that lets you avoid rummaging through menus just to find out of all that loot youre finding is any good.
Wading through enemies is also easier than before, thanks in part to the immersion factor of the console version. Whereas the PC version has you clicking to move and clicking to attack, the console version has you actually moving and attacking. It may not seem like much, but it adds a level of depth and makes the console version a decidedly different and wholly unique experience.
The interface itself, at least in solo mode, is a mostly uncomplicated affair. You can map any combination of skills/spells to any of your controllers four face buttons, as well as three of the four trigger buttons up on top. This system works so well that you may start wondering why it hasnt been implemented this smoothly before.
Multiplayer wise, its a bit more complicated. Online multiplayer works well, allowing you to jump in and out of games with up to four other players. You also get your own loot online, so you dont have to worry about sharing or loot hoarders, like me. Local co op can be a bit unwieldy with having to access the menu to swap equipment and skills but the Gauntlet-esque style co op is still a blast.
Graphically, the game isnt going to look anywhere near as good as a high end PC, but there are still some interesting effects going on. Knocking over candles or braziers or torches will plunge rooms into darkness, and magic, rare and legendary items still have that neat multicolored glow. The CGI scenes still look quite lovely.
The music and sound effects are also pleasant, for the most part. Big boss battles are accompanied by a loud dramatic fanfare, while slower moments are more subdued. The sounds of enemies exploding is always a favorite.
Blizzard has become a master of rewarding gamers for experiencing content in their games. Besides the usual console achievements and trophies, there are also tons of in game challenges to complete, ranging from simple tasks like dying an item to more time consuming ones like finishing the game with two of the same classes. Most challenges unlock items for your in game banner, a virtual representation of you, in the world of Diablo III. It can be colored and styled with a number of borders and accents and sigils and going online, youll find that no two are ever the same.
With multiple character classes, difficulty levels ranging from Easy to Master 5, a hardcore mode, as well as Paragon Levels that increase your magic item and gold finding abilities at every level up beyond the maximum level of 60, plus tons of in game challenges, theres plenty to keep you busy if you want to experience all the game has to offer.
There are a few quirks that pop up from time to time, however. Significant loading times when starting the game take away from the experience slightly. Sometimes youll notice a lag spike when dozens of enemies are onscreen at once. After getting nearly two characters to maximum level, the game did freeze on me once, locking up my PS3 until I did a hard reboot. All in all, these are minor issues, though.
With its superior loot system, deeper immersion factor and skillfully implemented control scheme, Diablo III stands as an exception rather than a rule. It fixes many of the flaws in the lackluster PC version, while still appealing to console enthusiasts. Slicing through the minions of hell, alone or with friends, has never been so accessible, or as much fun.
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*Next Blog*
Beyond Two Souls First Impressions
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*Are you a Social Butterfly?*
I'm not either, well not until recently. Feel free to stalk ...err follow me on Twitter or Facebook. Yeah I know, but I gotta put em somewhere, right?? Actually this all came about because I was playing GTA and trying to get that Rockstar Social Club thing to work, apparently you can't save in game pics unless you join that. So I joined and I can't log in through the game since my password needs to be 8-16 characters, but on the site itself, its 7 characters. The site won't send me a reset password email either, so I'm stuck, lol. I can't sync my facebook in GTA without joining the social club either, so its kind of funny. Maybe I should just email rockstar?
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*Other Stuff*
Are there any PS3 games you'd like me to review? Let me know! I have Ni No Kuni sitting here waiting but after that I'm pretty wide open to suggestions! (Please don't say Metal Gear Solid 4. =P) I also have FFXIII here, which I plan on trying again one day, I just hate the fact that there's an RPG out there that I can't finish due to the story and characters that I didnt like.
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Happy Gaming!