Official Site: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/
Source: Youtube Channel machinima
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Platforms: PC
Release Date: May 15, 2012
Genre: Action-RPG
Pros:
-Fast-paced gameplay with satisfying combat mechanics
-High replay value with variable play-styles and randomly generated content
-Vast array of abilities and runes to customize a class
-Easy drop-in/drop-out multiplayer with little to no problems connecting
-Incredibly detailed work in aesthetics, game mechanics, and end-game content
Cons:
-Requirement of persistent internet connection causes some problems
-Lots of imbalances in classes, items, difficulty, and content
-Auction house breaks some of the game mechanics
-Although high in end-game quality, game lacks content quantity
-Eventually becomes a never-ending grind/farm fest
I think I'm finally ready to give a review, and even now I feel it might be too soon to give one. There is no doubt in my mind that I found Diablo 3 to be a lot of fun; however, I also have my complaints about it much like others have. The biggest complaint I probably have about the game is that it wasn't entirely complete when it launched. The game still had bugs that broke the game or allowed players to exploit them to gain an unfair advantage. There were imbalances to classes where one was significantly stronger than the others. Items were also incredibly imbalanced where uncommon items were stronger and better than rare or even legendary items making finding unique items pointless. Player versus player is still not implemented yet for good reasons of the game not being entirely balanced yet. There was a point in the game where no one could get past the last difficulty level and it became a long and difficult farm for better equipment. Blizzard has been hard at work at balancing the game so that players can still enjoy the game, even at end-game. Since launch, connection issues have been resolved, items and classes have been constantly getting balances, a new level mechanic called "Paragon Levels" was implemented to allow an extra 100 levels past 60 to be gained so players would still gain some sort of progress while playing in the Inferno difficulty, and even now more mechanics such as enemy strength levels is being tested and put into the game. The game is definitely more fun with friends than playing solo or with public players, so that's another factor to consider when deciding to buy the game. To put it simply, the game was worth the $60 I paid for it and I can see myself continuing to play the game for quite a while. The thing is, Blizzard hasn't abandoned the game and its players as they still continue to update the game and probably will years afterwards and so the game will progressively become better and more refined as time passes.
Aesthetics
This is a tricky category to go through. For sure, hands down, the graphics and art of the game is top-notch and some of the best you'll see for a top-down action-RPG. The environment might not be as atmospheric and dark as the first two Diablo games in the series, but it certainly brings the world to life with detail in every aspect. Every object, model, animation, particle effect, and subtlety in the game has a purpose in bringing the player closer to the world they play in. The cinematics are possibly some of the best Blizzard has ever done in their career with beautifully crafted environments, involving characters, and exciting choreography. The combat animations and effects are flashy but not distracting and yet still retains a very fast-paced gameplay akin to its predecessors. The user-interface is compared a lot to Blizzard's other game "World of Warcraft." I really love the user-interface for Diablo 3. It's clean, straight-forward, and aesthetically pleasing. It really bothered me in the first two Diablo games where I couldn't see what skills I had and their key placements weren't ideal. Some prefer the darker look of Diablo 1 and 2, and for atmospheric purposes it worked. In terms of gameplay though, it was actually very annoying when enemies blended in with the environment. So development worked around it and made sure enemies were visible and in clear view while still maintaining a believable color palette and design of the world within Diablo 3. If anything, the level designs and fight mechanics for the bosses in the last half of the game was possibly the only thing that really disappointed me mainly because of how incredible the first half of the game was like. Seriously, one of the bosses in the game is absolutely the best boss fight I have ever had in terms of aesthetic and AI mechanic design throughout the entire series. That boss is how all the boss battles should have been like throughout the game. I won't say which boss battle it was *COUGHACTTWO* but most players will know which one I'm pointing to if they come across it. So all in all, visuals are almost perfect in the game.
For audio, sound effects and voice acting were great. I was pleased to see that the player's character had speaking parts to the game and was more involved with the people around them rather than being the silent hero that kills everything. It really brought out each of the character's personality and made them more believable in the world they're fighting in. Sound effects were just as detailed as the visuals. In the visuals, even tiny things such as leaving footprints and rag-doll effects to dead enemy bodies were accounted for. So for the sound effects, every little object, attack, enemy and environmental effect had their very deliberate attention to how they sounded like. A player can tell what kind of enemy is right outside of the screen, what kind of item dropped, or what to be cautious of because of how unique each sound effect was and how the player reacts to them. Even if a player doesn't hear a trap or see an exploding mine, they'll heard the initial start-up and know to be careful around them.
The music is another story. There isn't anything wrong with the music in Diablo 3. They're appropriate, they intensify the mood, and they do their job as background music. Unfortunately, none of them really stuck. The most recognizable track is probably the log-in screen, that also plays right before you reach Diablo, and even that doesn't really have much of an impact. I was hoping to hear at least one track that I'd really enjoy listening to, but they were all just..."there". Then again, music is very subjective and some people may really enjoy the music done in Diablo 3 aside from hearing it in-game.
What bothered me more than anything in the game was the progression of the story. I won't delve too deep into details as it might spoil some plot points for those who haven't played the game yet. To be frank, there were a lot of points in the story where I just felt dissatisfied even though some of the plot twists were predictable. There were so many ways to have made the story so much better, but the game went for cheap emotional reactions and typical story changers. I also really didn't like some of the writing for the last half of the game. All the main enemies constantly threatened the player so often that it became a joke rather than a daunting foreshadowing. You will probably hear the lines "it is futile" or "but it is of no matter" from the enemies more times than you will ever hear in all the games you've played throughout the year combined. Aesthetics: 8/10
Buttons
The biggest improvement from the previous two games to Diablo 3 is the controls of the game. Skills were always juggled around to be used effectively in Diablo 2 and more so in Diablo 1 and it didn't make it easier that there wasn't a definitive user-interface that was easy to use. Blizzard's simplified combat mechanics with 4 slot skills and two mouse skills make a comfortable and highly viable control scheme that works alongside their "customizable class build" mechanic so that players can still be unique despite having access to all the same skills. No longer do you have to click every individual gold piece in order to pick them up as it made no sense to force a player to do so if they're going to pick them up anyways (You can walk over money to automatically pick them up now). No longer do you have to pick up or buy identify scrolls or teleport tomes as the player in Diablo 2 would eventually have so much money or find them so often that they never ran out (In Diablo 3, you right-click an item to identify them and you can activate a portal to town whenever you want once you have the item for it). In terms of controls and inventory/statistics window mechanics (which doesn't block the entire screen anymore), Diablo 3 is definitely the best out of the series. All the controls, keys, and user-interface makes the most sense (also, hotkeys can be customized to fit any sort of layout needed). Buttons: 10/10
Concept & Content
Diablo 3 is obviously a different game from its predecessors despite having the same game type layout (Kill, loot and level). There were many players upset about the new skill mechanics where the player eventually receives everything at max level and can switch them around. It isn't like most traditional RPGs where a player had control over their attributes and chose a skills tree to focus on so that each character was unique. I love the new mechanic and accept it whole-heartedly as I've played so many RPGs and am done with having to start an entirely new character of the same class just to experience a different build. With the new skill mechanic, I can experiment with all sorts of builds without having to start new characters and be creative with my play-styles. And since end-game mostly consists of grinding and farming, I can have fun changing up my build and sometimes challenging myself into crazy non-conventional skill sets. There are currently five classes to choose from and I've tried most of them out, albeit my witch doctor isn't very far. Each class provides a unique experience throughout the game. The core game hasn't changed much: talk to town NPCs for quests, kill enemies along the way to the next part of the story, loot for better equipment or junk to sell, level to become stronger and gain more abilities to utilize until you beat the game. Once you beat the game, you play the game over again with a higher difficulty choice. Besides stronger enemies and better loot, you also encounter special mobs with more special abilities. Some of those special abilities can provide quite a challenge where they can snare a player, pull them into a mob, create a pool of lava under them, or freeze them in place. After the player has reached the hardest difficulty level and beaten that, it's a hardcore grind from there on out. The player will mostly be killing, looting and leveling in an infinite loop to prepare for the release of Player vs. Player mode. In terms of content, there's quite a bit of items to collect; however, the nice ones are incredibly rare. What was mentioned about the game that didn't seem to really reach full potential was the spontaneous special events. It's true that there were some, but there wasn't really enough to keep the game dynamic aside from the randomly generated special mobs. The one factor that might have broken the game is the Auction house. You can see it as a way for Blizzard to make extra money, or you can see it as Blizzard's way to protect its players from fraudulent trades from a third-party, it still factors in as part of the game. The auction takes out a lot of the excitement of finding items on your own in the game and a lot of the social aspect player experienced in Diablo 2 and 1 with players bartering and trading on their own in the lobby chats. I know people who spends hours just going through the auction house trying to find the best items and trying to make money off them. It doesn't really affect individual players right now since a player can choose to use the auction house or not, but it will definitely make a difference once PvP comes into play and those who have the money or gold will have an obvious advantage over those who don't use the auction house. Blizzard is still adding more content to the game with no additional charge and has a history of updating games well after its release, so I still have high hopes that Diablo 3 will continue to grow and provide entertainment value for the next few years. Concept and Content: 9/10
Duration
Normal difficulty doesn't take that long to complete if the player goes straight through it. Normal difficulty is practically one huge tutorial so that players can get used to the game so that they'll be ready for the real challenges the game has in store. Diablo 3 is actually slower in speed than Diablo 2 yet it has a nice pace to it. It never gets dull and draws the player in while never letting going. It's pretty satisfying killing one large mob after another to level up and get better loot to kill even stronger enemies. I have around 90 hours on my main character and close to 200 hours with all my characters combined and I still have more hours I can pull out of it by playing my other characters with friends or grinding my main character to increase her paragon level. Diablo 3 is definitely a game I'll keep coming back for, even if just to login to kill stuff. Duration: 10/10
Fun
My first few hours with the game was horrible because of my laptop. It took forever to install and the graphics were so messed up and it was impossible to see anything. I eventually got the graphics to be somewhat visible, but it was still pretty difficult to get through the game. I eventually bought a new laptop specifically geared towards gaming and my experience with the game changed a lot. Diablo 3 is definitely a lot of fun and I still get my enjoyment out of it playing different classes and trying different builds out. I don't really have an ending impression on it as I'm still currently playing the game and still enjoy it. Despite some of the disappointments I faced throughout the game, playing the game was and still is entertaining. Fun: 10/10
Overall
Like mentioned above, "despite some of the disappointments I faced throughout the game, playing the game was and still is entertaining." I don't regret buying the game on day 1 for full price as it has become the most played game out of my entire library. The combat is satisfying, playing with friends can be quite the bonding experience (especially against the special mobs in Inferno difficulty), and replay value is high so the game wouldn't burn out that quickly for those wanting a game to play for a long time. For some, Diablo 3 is over-hyped and over-rated, but it is undeniable that it's a fun game for those who enjoy top-down, point-n-click, Action-RPGs. Overall: 9.4/10
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