PC
Published by Blizzard Entertainment
Developed by Blizzard Entertainment
Creating a sequel for a multi-million selling
series whose fans have been clamouring for a sequel for the best part of
a decade is no easy task. Do you make wholesale changes and upset those
who want more of the same or do you keep the winning formula largely
untouched but simply create a refined version of what’s gone before with
a few minor changes here and there? Blizzard are not a company for
making wholesale changes and risking upsetting their incredibly large
number of fans so it should come as no surprise that Diablo III doesn’t
do a lot to change the Diablo experience. In fact this latest in the
series is just as addictive as you would expect.
Diablo III offers four acts of intense
action-RPG action. Set two decades after the events of Diablo II, the
game begins with Deckard Cain and Leah, his niece, searching texts in
Tristram Cathedral when suddenly a flaming star falls from the heavens
and smashes into the cathedral. Things go from bad to worse as not only
do the once buried corpses in the area make a reappearance, along with
other demonic beasts, but it’s also revealed that the last Lords of Hell
are unleashing a ‘tide of darkness that will drown the world.’ In
essence the storyline isn’t a classic but then it doesn’t need to be as
it sets the scene for the game pretty nicely indeed.
There are five character classes for you to
play as in Diablo III: Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor and
Wizard. Essentially these offer five very different ways of playing then
game as each class requires different strategies in order for you to be
successful. At first the classes don’t differ much at all but as your
character gains levels and acquires primary, secondary and passive
skills the gameplay experiences with each class becomes more and more
distinctive and rewarding. The game offers numerous difficulty settings
and even a Hardcore Hero mode that only provides one life for your
character; if your character dies once in this mode, it’s game over. The
game offers ten hero slots per region per account so you’ll get the
opportunity to play through the game with both the male and female
versions of all the classes if you want to do so. Thanks to the random
level and enemy encounter generators in the game you’ll never have the
same experience twice which makes the idea of multiple playthroughs much
more compelling.
The hack-n-slash action is just as fun and
addictive as you would expect from a Diablo game and certainly the core
of Diablo III is pretty much the same as in the previous titles in the
series. You’ll be constantly on the lookout for better equipment and
ways to spend your gold. Your blacksmith and jeweller need to be
levelled-up and it’s certainly an expensive process but the items they
offer as a result of having their skills improved more than make up for
the costly effort. Some modern gameplay aspects have been included
however. There are a large range of achievements to acquire which cover
the general gameplay, campaign, co-operative play, crafting, Hardcore
mode and others which are class specific. There are auction houses for
spending both the in-game money you’ll acquire on your travels and real
money. The game also allows you to play with the assistance of a
follower, an AI controlled character that follows you and takes part in
your battles. Followers level-up during the course of the game and there
are three very different followers to choose from but you can only have
one with you at any one time.
You’ll want to have some human companions
however. Thankfully you can play co-operatively with up to three other
players, either joining their games or having them join yours. You might
think that having other players assisting you reduces the game’s
challenge. Thankfully this isn’t the case as the difficulty of the
game’s AI enemies seems to scale to how many players are taking part in
the game. This forces you to work together to achieve success and not
simply employ individualistic strategies which in turn makes for a more
rewarding multiplayer experience.
As much as I’ve enjoyed, and will continue to
enjoy, Diablo III my initial experiences with the game were ones of
frustration and the reasons for this essentially boil down to the method
of digital rights management (DRM) employed for the game. The problem is
that you need to be signed into your Battle.net account at all times,
even when playing the single-player game. For most this won’t be an
issue but not everyone has a permanent Internet connection and should
they lose their connection during play they will be booted from the
game. I do have a reliable Internet connection but during the week that
followed the game’s launch it definitely appeared as though the servers
couldn’t cope with the sheer amount of people wishing to log into their
Battle.net accounts. I barely managed more than a handful of hours
during the first week’s play as I either couldn’t login or when I did
manage to login it wasn’t long before I was booted out with an error
code. Whilst I was pleased my character didn’t lose any gained
experience or items that were collected, it was very frustrating being
returned to my previous checkpoint and having to play through the same
sections of the game over and over again. Thankfully those issues now
appear to be sorted out, although lag can be a problem at times, but it
definitely highlights potential problems with having to be online and
logged in one-hundred per cent of the time.
When the first screens of Diablo III were
made available online a few years ago there were quite a few complaints
from hardcore fans of the series who thought the visuals were too
colourful and weren’t dark enough in their tone and if anything were a
little too cartoon-like in their appearance. Having played the finished
game however I can’t really see what all the fuss was about. Yes Diablo
III may not, at first glance, be as sinister looking when taking a
cursory look at the screenshots but the game in motion is just as
atmospheric and in some respects as sinister as you would expect from a
Diablo game. You could argue that the game could have looked better but
Blizzard have never been about making their games utilise cutting edge
hardware, instead preferring their games to run adequately on the
majority of PCs and Macs out there which certainly makes sense. That
said however, the game certainly looks more than good enough and
certainly better than any action-RPG that I’ve played to date. I also
appreciated the variety in the game’s environments rather than having
similar looking ones during the entirety of the game. Whilst the in-game
graphics aren’t exactly state of the art, the game’s cut scenes are
stunning and as visually impressive as anything I’ve seen in a PC game
to date.
Diablo III offers both cinematic and quest
dialogue subtitles allowing you to follow the game’s storyline in
addition to all of the important comments made during the game by the
main characters. You can also enable the option to display quest
dialogue in the chat menu which gives you a chance to see most of the
comments that your character and any followers that you have with you
make. Some comments are not subtitled however. There are times when you
can’t pick up items because there isn’t enough space in your inventory
and your character will tell you that he can’t carry the item but these
comments aren’t subtitled. Thankfully this isn’t a problem because you
will see the item you’ve clicked on spin around and return to the ground
signifying that you don’t have the space required for it in your
inventory. I’ve also noticed that whilst some of the comments that your
followers make are subtitled – sometimes in speech bubbles – some are
not. None of the omissions are important however. There are no visual
clues for some of the key sounds in the game and there are times when
the game’s music will change to alert you to impending danger or simply
to heighten the tension and deaf gamers will simply be unaware of this.
The wait for Diablo III has been a long one and given that it’s now the fastest selling PC game to date it’s fair to say that many have been waiting to get their hands on it. The game doesn’t do much that hasn’t been seen in the Diablo series before and whilst there are some nice additions here to the formula found in Diablo II, the game is more of a refined experience rather than a dramatically different one. That’s certainly not meant as a complaint however as Diablo fans wouldn’t want the experience to differ too much. The need to be constantly online when playing the single-player game is certainly a contentious issue and will prevent those without access to permanent Internet connections from enjoying the game which is far from ideal. Digital rights management issues aside however, Diablo III is a superb game that will keep fans of the series busy for months, if not years, to come.
