Diablo 3 wasn't quite the game I was expecting. I found my opinion shifting wildly from thrilled too frustrated. I discussed other APRGs in an earlier entry. Having played biggest release in the genre this year, it deserves a review.
The biggest problem by far is the online requirement. Lag in a single-player game is just ridiculous. Every time I enter the game or alt tab back from the desktop, I'm greeted with a slideshow of my character being mobbed. I quickly learned to park myself in a safe spot, cowering from basic enemies. Of course in multiplayer it's acceptable, that's just the way things are, and you'll have friends to watch your back – hopefully.
But when you get going, the core gameplay is spot on. The controls are near perfect. Aiming abilities, drinking potions, navigating and grabbing loot is satisfyingly easy. You encounter the occasional mis-click where the hit box of the enemy in front is too big, or you collect useless grey items. But these occasions only stand out because they are few and far between.
The skill system is the highlight of the game. It actually innovates within the genre, rather than following the standard skill-tree template. Each class has a set of active and passive skills that are unlocked as you level. At any time, you can have 6 active and 3 passive skills selected. The combinations you pick define your play style. Do you go for a frenzied Barbarian, focusing on high DPS, or equip a shield and hunker down, beating opponents in a war of attrition?
Active skills can be further customised by applying runes. Each rune provides an additional bonus that can simply add extra damage, or change the mechanics entirely. The freedom to change your skills is fantastic. When an ability isn't on cool-down, you can freely swap it, even mid-combat if you're a skilled clicker. This can help overcome the random difficulty spikes.
And the difficulty is really random. To begin with you have to play through on normal, which barely offers a challenge. But in nightmare and beyond, rare and elite enemies become a real problem. This is because they are assigned random bonus abilities, leading to difficult scenarios with my Barbarian. I had to resort to extreme tactics, unable to fight my opponents properly. As an example, a set of enemies that spawn because of the story were given the jailer ability. Faced with three enemies that could root me to the spot and kill me in two mighty swings, I had to change my entire skill set. Equipping ranged abilities and using hit and run tactics until I was victorious 5 minutes later. These groups of enemies are often harder than most boss battles.
Surprisingly Blizzard announced that they were unhappy with the current endgame. The genre hasn't had an endgame with depth so far. The standard formula is to let players explore different class builds and find great loot, pretty simple. But even with the plans to add PvP, Blizzard feels that something is lacking. I think the reason for this is the story combined with too many linear zones.
The story is just ridiculous, it had to be really considering the title and previous games. The voice actors for the main characters do their best to make it credible, but the dialogue is terrible. It's like a West End theatre company putting on a school production. This is compounded by the fact that the secondary characters are the most interesting. Ignore the main characters that contradict themselves and don't recognise obviously evil characters. Instead have a chat with the Blacksmith, your companions or the Jeweller. I found myself actually caring about what they had to say and looking forward to the next chapter in their tale.
Unlike previous games, the over-world design is static. Only the dungeons have randomised layouts. This only highlights to the player the repetitiveness of the game, removing any point in exploring. Why bother when you know what direction the boss is in?
I'm not going to discuss the craziness of the real money auction house in detail; that could have an entry all to itself. It only serves one purpose; making money for Blizzard. That may be a cynical view, but there were simpler options to block illegal item-selling. Just have the gold-based auction house, with very restricted trading between friends. When I last checked the real money auction house, it was plagued with inflation being driven by speculation.
At its heart there's a great game. But it's hampered by unnecessary online systems, and poor design choices that took away replayability. I would recommend it, but only if you find it discounted or have friends for multiplayer. Don't play with random people. It's as bad as you'd expect). Guild Wars 2 is not far from release. Although it's not exactly the same genre, the amount of content and price eclipses Diablo 3.
