This is a copy paste of my review from another site, I wanted to open it up to tips and criticisms. Have a read:
Diablo has returned. After 12 years, the wait is over with the release of Blizzard's latest iteration of the universally acclaimed series. It hasn't been without controversy, however, with the revelation of the always-online requirement of the game and the introduction of the real money house. So is it worth the wait, or should Diablo have stayed firmly within the depths of Hell?
Visually, the game looks great. You'll visit varying locations ranging from the dark, gloomy town of Tristram to sandy, desolate deserts, even moving into the realms of Heaven and Hell itself. Although the texture resolution or general level detail isn't all that high, you'll be treated to a plethora of beautiful effects as you smash, disintegrate, freeze, burn or mutilate your enemies in all manner of ways. The sound effects feel very satisfying and add a sense of weight to each swing or shot that you unleash upon the minions of Hell. The soundtrack, however, remains fairly generic and unmemorable - despite the appearance of the Tristram theme - complemented with mediocre voiceovers to drive the narrative.
As expected, the story plays a largely secondary role to that of the mindless loot grind. The main storyline is pretty much your run of the mill 'bad guy comes back to destroy the world and you must stop him' plot, complete with cheesy monologues and one dimensional, incompetent villains. One particular example includes Azmodan, supposed master commander and tactician of Hell, appearing in front of you through visions periodically telling you his next move for an entire act of the game. While I realise that it is hard to maintain any semblance of a deep or ambiguous plot in a game in which the overlying premise is the war between Heaven and Hell, it still doesn't excuse the almost comedic portrayals of some of the characters. However, beneath all of that lies a decent building of the lore behind the various locations that you will explore, which is done through the discovery of journals and diaries which are played to you in an unobtrusive audiobook-like fashion.
The gameplay in Diablo 3 is arguably one of the most important parts of such a title. You have access to five different classes - the barbarian, demon hunter, wizard, monk and witch doctor - all of which have their distinct characteristics and skills. The attributes and skills have been 'streamlined' (something of a key word in recent times, it seems); you can't choose which attribute you want to increase upon levelling up, it's all done for you automatically. The attributes themselves have also been reduced to just four types - strength, dexterity, intelligence and vitality. The skills have also been overhauled; each skill has six runes, unlocked at various levels, which alters the skill, sometimes dramatically. For example, equipping the demon hunter's 'chakram' skill with 'twin chakram' rune produces two chakrams at once, like you'd expect. However, changing it to 'shuriken cloud' instead creates an aura which constantly damages enemies around you over time. This rune system is impressive in its variation, allowing you to change your skills on the fly, preventing players from potentially screwing up the growth of their character as the changes are all reversible. For example, fifty levels in playing as my wizard, I decided I wanted to try and create a melee build. Instead of having to spend hours upon hours creating and levelling up another wizard, I was simply able to change my skills and their respective runes to switch to a build I wanted. The online experience is also well implemented in that it is fairly seamless; it takes very little time to jump into someone else?s game, provided they have opened it up to the public. As you'd expect, enemies get stronger and more numerous as more players - up to a maximum of 4 - enter the game, so you'll really have to work together to bring them down. Going up to level 60, I found Diablo 3 to be an engaging and fun experience, frustratingly addictive in its character progression and simplicity.
However, one of the main problems I found while progressing through the difficulty levels was the steep curve, or rather the poor design that led to difficulty that seemed artificial. There are four difficulty levels in all: normal, nightmare, hell and inferno. It was no secret that normal was designed with the casual player in mind; Blizzard themselves had said in the build-up to release that it would essentially be like an extended tutorial, which it pretty much is, as you'll almost be able to play through your first run through of the game blindfolded. That doesn't change much when you progress to nightmare difficulty either, as the challenge only really begins around halfway through hell mode, where you'll find a few tough mobs that require some strategy to defeat. For me, hell difficulty was probably the most fun mode, providing a good balance between challenge and the sense of character progression in terms of how powerful you felt your character was.
After progressing through the game on hell mode, you'll land on the fourth and final difficulty level, inferno. And you'll die. A lot. The phrase 'brick wall' seems depressingly appropriate for this level, as you'll often be trapped between summoned walls, having to navigate pools of poison and lava or trying to dodge mortar fireballs to name but a few, all of which can kill you in an instant and those aren't even the minions of Hell, many of whom will be capable of killing you in one hit. This brick wall goes against what Blizzard had been saying in the build-up to launch, about how all different kinds of builds would be completely viable like they were in Diablo 2 and this somewhat artificial difficulty effectively shoehorns you into playing a certain way to progress. Now, to progress on to inferno mode in the first place it is a requirement that you reach the maximum level, which is 60. After this, you'll be at that level for the whole of inferno difficulty and the only way to make your character stronger is through gear, and here lies one of the greatest flaws of the game.
Diablo 3 differs from both its previous iterations and clones by placing more of an emphasis on your gear than your inherent stats. Itemisation dominates Diablo 3 and features probably the most controversial aspect of the game - the auction house. As is implied in the name, this area allows players to bid for any type of item made available at a starting bid by another player. The problem I have with this feature is that it takes away what I feel is one of the most important parts of these types of games - the thrill of finding good loot. Players are able to find some extremely powerful gear in the auction house straight from the get go; not only that, but loot that you gain from bosses is almost always very poor - throughout my whole playtime, I have not found a single piece of equipment comes even close to what I can find in the auction house. This means that you no longer feel any excitement when killing a boss and waiting to see what sort of loot you'll find; why bother when you can simply buy better gear at the auction house? Instead, it all becomes a massive gold grind. All these factors mean that the game eventually becomes rather stale once you hit the level 60 mark; there doesn't seem to be a real endgame or any point to keep playing once you hit that brick wall in inferno or beat it entirely.
All in all, Diablo 3 still retains a lot of what made the previous iterations so addictive and engaging. However, this is marred by questionable design choices which stifle the experience, and I can't help but feel that many of these have been implemented to support the auction house and by extension the recently released real money auction house. In the end, Diablo 3 is a good, solid game, but it seems that Blizzard's own corporate greed has kept it short from becoming truly great, and in its current state it doesn't seem to have nearly as much longevity as the previous game which earned such universal praise all those years ago.
Overall rating: 7.8/10
Diablo has returned. After 12 years, the wait is over with the release of Blizzard's latest iteration of the universally acclaimed series. It hasn't been without controversy, however, with the revelation of the always-online requirement of the game and the introduction of the real money house. So is it worth the wait, or should Diablo have stayed firmly within the depths of Hell?
Visually, the game looks great. You'll visit varying locations ranging from the dark, gloomy town of Tristram to sandy, desolate deserts, even moving into the realms of Heaven and Hell itself. Although the texture resolution or general level detail isn't all that high, you'll be treated to a plethora of beautiful effects as you smash, disintegrate, freeze, burn or mutilate your enemies in all manner of ways. The sound effects feel very satisfying and add a sense of weight to each swing or shot that you unleash upon the minions of Hell. The soundtrack, however, remains fairly generic and unmemorable - despite the appearance of the Tristram theme - complemented with mediocre voiceovers to drive the narrative.
As expected, the story plays a largely secondary role to that of the mindless loot grind. The main storyline is pretty much your run of the mill 'bad guy comes back to destroy the world and you must stop him' plot, complete with cheesy monologues and one dimensional, incompetent villains. One particular example includes Azmodan, supposed master commander and tactician of Hell, appearing in front of you through visions periodically telling you his next move for an entire act of the game. While I realise that it is hard to maintain any semblance of a deep or ambiguous plot in a game in which the overlying premise is the war between Heaven and Hell, it still doesn't excuse the almost comedic portrayals of some of the characters. However, beneath all of that lies a decent building of the lore behind the various locations that you will explore, which is done through the discovery of journals and diaries which are played to you in an unobtrusive audiobook-like fashion.
The gameplay in Diablo 3 is arguably one of the most important parts of such a title. You have access to five different classes - the barbarian, demon hunter, wizard, monk and witch doctor - all of which have their distinct characteristics and skills. The attributes and skills have been 'streamlined' (something of a key word in recent times, it seems); you can't choose which attribute you want to increase upon levelling up, it's all done for you automatically. The attributes themselves have also been reduced to just four types - strength, dexterity, intelligence and vitality. The skills have also been overhauled; each skill has six runes, unlocked at various levels, which alters the skill, sometimes dramatically. For example, equipping the demon hunter's 'chakram' skill with 'twin chakram' rune produces two chakrams at once, like you'd expect. However, changing it to 'shuriken cloud' instead creates an aura which constantly damages enemies around you over time. This rune system is impressive in its variation, allowing you to change your skills on the fly, preventing players from potentially screwing up the growth of their character as the changes are all reversible. For example, fifty levels in playing as my wizard, I decided I wanted to try and create a melee build. Instead of having to spend hours upon hours creating and levelling up another wizard, I was simply able to change my skills and their respective runes to switch to a build I wanted. The online experience is also well implemented in that it is fairly seamless; it takes very little time to jump into someone else?s game, provided they have opened it up to the public. As you'd expect, enemies get stronger and more numerous as more players - up to a maximum of 4 - enter the game, so you'll really have to work together to bring them down. Going up to level 60, I found Diablo 3 to be an engaging and fun experience, frustratingly addictive in its character progression and simplicity.
However, one of the main problems I found while progressing through the difficulty levels was the steep curve, or rather the poor design that led to difficulty that seemed artificial. There are four difficulty levels in all: normal, nightmare, hell and inferno. It was no secret that normal was designed with the casual player in mind; Blizzard themselves had said in the build-up to release that it would essentially be like an extended tutorial, which it pretty much is, as you'll almost be able to play through your first run through of the game blindfolded. That doesn't change much when you progress to nightmare difficulty either, as the challenge only really begins around halfway through hell mode, where you'll find a few tough mobs that require some strategy to defeat. For me, hell difficulty was probably the most fun mode, providing a good balance between challenge and the sense of character progression in terms of how powerful you felt your character was.
After progressing through the game on hell mode, you'll land on the fourth and final difficulty level, inferno. And you'll die. A lot. The phrase 'brick wall' seems depressingly appropriate for this level, as you'll often be trapped between summoned walls, having to navigate pools of poison and lava or trying to dodge mortar fireballs to name but a few, all of which can kill you in an instant and those aren't even the minions of Hell, many of whom will be capable of killing you in one hit. This brick wall goes against what Blizzard had been saying in the build-up to launch, about how all different kinds of builds would be completely viable like they were in Diablo 2 and this somewhat artificial difficulty effectively shoehorns you into playing a certain way to progress. Now, to progress on to inferno mode in the first place it is a requirement that you reach the maximum level, which is 60. After this, you'll be at that level for the whole of inferno difficulty and the only way to make your character stronger is through gear, and here lies one of the greatest flaws of the game.
Diablo 3 differs from both its previous iterations and clones by placing more of an emphasis on your gear than your inherent stats. Itemisation dominates Diablo 3 and features probably the most controversial aspect of the game - the auction house. As is implied in the name, this area allows players to bid for any type of item made available at a starting bid by another player. The problem I have with this feature is that it takes away what I feel is one of the most important parts of these types of games - the thrill of finding good loot. Players are able to find some extremely powerful gear in the auction house straight from the get go; not only that, but loot that you gain from bosses is almost always very poor - throughout my whole playtime, I have not found a single piece of equipment comes even close to what I can find in the auction house. This means that you no longer feel any excitement when killing a boss and waiting to see what sort of loot you'll find; why bother when you can simply buy better gear at the auction house? Instead, it all becomes a massive gold grind. All these factors mean that the game eventually becomes rather stale once you hit the level 60 mark; there doesn't seem to be a real endgame or any point to keep playing once you hit that brick wall in inferno or beat it entirely.
All in all, Diablo 3 still retains a lot of what made the previous iterations so addictive and engaging. However, this is marred by questionable design choices which stifle the experience, and I can't help but feel that many of these have been implemented to support the auction house and by extension the recently released real money auction house. In the end, Diablo 3 is a good, solid game, but it seems that Blizzard's own corporate greed has kept it short from becoming truly great, and in its current state it doesn't seem to have nearly as much longevity as the previous game which earned such universal praise all those years ago.
Overall rating: 7.8/10
