Diablo 3 is the long
awaited finale in Blizzard's well established Diablo series, an
action roleplaying game set around killing off the demons of hell. In
Diablo 3, the player follows the story of Kain, Leah and Tyrael as
the four of them attempt to stop Diablo himself from destroying
humanity as we know it. The player can choose from five classes, the
Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, Barbarian, wizard and monk. Each of the
classes perform differently and bring a great deal of customizability
to the table, with their own unique play style, equipment and skills.
The game itself plays smooth on a top tier rig, but that is to be
expected as the graphics of Diablo 3 are sub par compared to what
they could have been. The textures are washed out and have a mediocre
resolution even with max settings, but the artistic style that
Blizzard has become known for really shines when playing from a top
down perspective, even though they have reused models and textures
from previous titles. Map transitions flow seamlessly and cut scenes
are top notch with amazing CGI and voice acting, which is one of my
favorite parts of the game. Players can and will spend countless
hours exploring the world of Sanctuary, from the cursed forests to
the arid desert, the last stand of humanity to heaven itself. The
boss fights, while easy early on, become a serious pain as one
progresses through the game, giving Diablo 3 it's much needed
difficulty that it lacks on lower player levels.
Once one has slain the lord of hell himself, they can go back through the story with their current level and gear, to tackle sanctuary once again. And again, and again. Diablo 3 is a very repetitive game, as there is not much else to do gameplay wise but kill the same few mobs per act over and over. Sure there are random events placed through the randomly generated maps, but they are few and far between as the player will be focusing on the main story for the majority of their play time. Crafting mixes up the monotony by letting the player collect gems and break down equipment to create socketing gems and craft better gear. But even this has it's faults, because as of this review it costs less to just buy the gems on the auction house then go through the time and effort of crafting them yourself. As with armor and weapon crafting, while you can choose what type of item you want crafted, the attributes and if it even has sockets are completely random and can cause a lot of frustration when trying to craft your own equipment without the aid of the auction house. Diablo 3's multiplayer is it's shining star, as beating through endless hordes with your friends make's the hollow single player experience tolerable. But even this has it's faults, as there are numerous reported claims of players getting hacked through public games even with an authenticator or without even being in an active game, so one can only safely play multiplayer with those they have added on battle.net as to reduce the chances of having ytheir entire account wiped. Couple this with “Always online” drm that gives you latency issues in single player and it leaves a sour impression.
I'd like to give this game a final review based off of how games used to be rated, where 9's and 10's where something you never saw and reviewers we're more blunt than they are now.
Once one has slain the lord of hell himself, they can go back through the story with their current level and gear, to tackle sanctuary once again. And again, and again. Diablo 3 is a very repetitive game, as there is not much else to do gameplay wise but kill the same few mobs per act over and over. Sure there are random events placed through the randomly generated maps, but they are few and far between as the player will be focusing on the main story for the majority of their play time. Crafting mixes up the monotony by letting the player collect gems and break down equipment to create socketing gems and craft better gear. But even this has it's faults, because as of this review it costs less to just buy the gems on the auction house then go through the time and effort of crafting them yourself. As with armor and weapon crafting, while you can choose what type of item you want crafted, the attributes and if it even has sockets are completely random and can cause a lot of frustration when trying to craft your own equipment without the aid of the auction house. Diablo 3's multiplayer is it's shining star, as beating through endless hordes with your friends make's the hollow single player experience tolerable. But even this has it's faults, as there are numerous reported claims of players getting hacked through public games even with an authenticator or without even being in an active game, so one can only safely play multiplayer with those they have added on battle.net as to reduce the chances of having ytheir entire account wiped. Couple this with “Always online” drm that gives you latency issues in single player and it leaves a sour impression.
I'd like to give this game a final review based off of how games used to be rated, where 9's and 10's where something you never saw and reviewers we're more blunt than they are now.
For the Aesthetics
of Diablo, the top down view draws the players further from the
detail, allowing Blizzard to skimp on what could have been amazing
visuals. The textures are muddy and washed out even on max detail,
and the skills themselves seem like they could have had more flair
seeing as the game has been in development for so long and is a PC
exclusive as well, and I do mean Mac and Windows. But when it comes
to the CGI cutscenes, Diablo 3 does an amazing job showing off what
Blizzard can truly attempt. For Diablo being a triple A title, the
visuals could have been more promising, but that's just me nit
picking.
Audio wise, Diablo
3 shines. Russell Brower, the man behind the sound of Diablo does an
amazing job. Everything is fluid. The town, exploring and battle
music is amazing and fits flawlessly. Honestly the only problem I'd
have with the sound is that it's compressed, but that's about it.
Everything fits, to the music, foot steps, fighting and enemies.
Diablo 3's game play, while at first being a beacon of hope in a sea of washed
out FPS's, becomes noticeably repetitive as one progresses. There is
never any change of pace other than what skills you unlock through
leveling up. You can't custom stat your character, instead you can
only gear up and socket to improve yourself. Runing skills was fun
and added some customizability during the first play through, but
after a while they become useless as there are cookie cutter builds
for Inferno difficulty that, if one strays from, you cannot get
anything done without using them.
Finally, is the
buzzword. Is Diablo 3 just plain fun? Yes and no. At first, I was
enjoying myself. Being new to the Diablo series, seeing how it was
different from Torchlight and other dungeon crawlers. I've clocked in
around 30 hours on my main character, so I can comfortably say that I
have gotten my money's worth out of it. Do I wish it was $50 rather
than $60? You bet. Would I buy the game for $60 knowing what I do
about it now? Probably not. The longer I played Diablo the more I
noticed myself going into denial saying “It'll get better” over
and over, until I realized Act 4 is about 45 minutes long and I had
just beat the game. I honestly didn't know what to think after that.
All in all, I feel that this game is just an average experience of an old genre in a sea of washed out FPS games. While Diablo has amazing music, sound, CGI cut-scenes and voice acting, it falls short on it's actual gameplay, graphics, replayability, and the lack of fun the game honestly fails to provide. What could have shined aesthetically
was over shadowed by muddy and reused textures from previous Blizzard
titles, Always online DRM and single player lag killed what could
have been an enjoyable solo experience and the gameplay itself is
just too repetitive to seriously enjoy. Is it bad? Oh no, far from
it. Is it good? Also, no. But does it have potential? Loads. All we
have to do is wait for Blizzard to supply the extra content needed to
make this game the finale it deserves to be.
I give this an average final score of 5/10. It brings nothing new to the genre, other than being a new game from an old series in a market full of FPS games and consoles.
I give this an average final score of 5/10. It brings nothing new to the genre, other than being a new game from an old series in a market full of FPS games and consoles.
