#Diablo 3 review series#

That said, the fully animated cutscenes are absolutely stunning, and I think BlizzardвЂ™s cinematics team is legitimately the best in the industry. These cutscenes and conversations are skippable, but that doesnвЂ™t prevent their appearance from being annoying, especially when youвЂ™re in the middle of vendoring or crafting and are dragged into a cutscene because a party member triggered the next step in your quest. In Diablo II you would occasionally get some lore through a quest, or would watch a cutscene at the end of an act, but for the most part you could move through the entire game without engaging with the lore or narrative.Дiablo III decided this was a problem, so the game is filled with cutscenes, story quests, and conversations. Diablo has never had a particularly strong story, but in previous games the story generally took a back seat. On the whole, I consider Diablo IIIвЂs combat to be a clear, positive evolution from what was in the previous games.Д«y far the weakest part of Diablo III is the story, and this is mainly a problem because, unlike the previous games, Diablo III is constantly throwing narrative in your face. ItвЂ™s replaced with new frustrations (jailer/desecrator/invulnerable minions?), but IвЂ™ve yet to run into a monster pack that I literally canвЂ™t touch. You may find some really difficult monsters, and you may need to coordinate with the rest of your party and adjust your skill builds, but the frustration of running into one of Diablo IIвЂ™s lightning-immune/frost-immune champion packs as a Frost Orb/Chain Lightning sorceress is gone. Far more so than in Diablo II, youвЂ™ll find that you need to be aware of your surroundings to survive on any difficulty beyond Normal. Unique monsters and champion packs have interesting new modifiers that make combat much more dynamic and exciting. Mowing down hordes of enemies is as satisfying as ever, and every class has a number of viable, gratifying ways to do so (unless youвЂ™re on Inferno difficulty). The actual combat of Diablo III is where the game really shines. ItвЂ™s straightforward, satisfying, and most importantly, fun.ДЇor everyone with some experience with previous Diablo games, the big question is, вЂњHow does Diablo III compare to Diablo II?вЂќ The answer is that it definitely feels like a Diablo game, but how it stacks up to its predecessor will really depend on how you remember your Diablo II experience, what your expectations are for this game, and what parts of the Diablo franchise most interest you. ThatвЂ™s the pure core of the game, and I think one of the reasons why the franchise has been so well received. Pick some skills, fight huge waves of monsters, blow the crap out of everything, get loot, and repeat - against stronger monsters.

#Diablo 3 review series#

If youвЂ™re coming to Diablo III as a newbie to the series or the genre, the premise is simple. ItвЂ™s been a long time since IвЂ™ve been awake until 3 AM every night playing games, and, even with its problems, I suspect my friends and I will be playing Diablo III for quite a while.

In the face of its flaws, though, Diablo III is a tremendous amount of fun. There are certainly valid complaints to be made about the game. Fundamentally, Diablo III has a number of flaws some of them are minor, and some of them are fairly obvious. My buddies and I each have at least forty hours of game time on our main characters, and weвЂ™re still going strong. WeвЂ™re now a little over a week after launch, and most of the problems appear to have been smoothed out. Always-online requirements a rough first couple of days for the servers a real money auction house (that, at the time of this review, still isnвЂ™t live yet). It took almost eleven years after Lord of Destruction, but Diablo III finally released, and it was met with immediate controversy.