Stigmata

Well guys, after beating Diablo III on normal difficulty, I’ve begun to slam my way through the game again on Nightmare difficulty. I’ve decided to write this review of the game, mostly because I’m interested in what you all think about it, especially if you’re a big Diablo fan like myself. I’m going to break it down into two parts, hopefully easy to read, because I know how much y’all hate walls of text on your dashboards.

THINGS I LIKED

1. Graphics. The game looks gorgeous, albeit slightly ‘cartoony’ or perhaps ‘WoW-y’. Still great to look at without sacrificing the tone of the Diablo universe, though (haters gonna hate).

2. Physics. The destructible environments are awesome, and it’s all sorts of fun to watch the bodies of your enemies go flying after a solid hit.

3. Skills. The new skill ‘trees’ are fun, easy to use, and keep you in the battle without being overly simplified. The runes system on top of it all makes for some fun tinkering and combinations.

4. History. If you’ve played the first two Diablo games, you’ll recognize all sorts of places and faces, plus the lore items that you find are interesting to get some more background of the world.

5. Pace. The game doesn’t slow down, which is great. The addition of the health orbs make things move along quickly, without coming off as a crutch.

6. Fun Factor. The game is still fun as all hell, and will definitely get hundreds of game play hours from my end, I’m sure. (Not to mention the items, levels, and abilities that get unlocked in further difficulty levels)

THINGS I HATED

1. Length. Diablo III is SHORT AS HELL. It spans four acts, the same as Diablo II, but takes a fraction of time to beat the game on the normal difficulty as it did previously. Part of that is probably the pace, but the levels also seem shorter than they should be.

2. Story. The story is lacking heavily in quite a few areas. Sure, D3 is far more narrative driven than D2, but it isn’t really a better narrative. The ‘twists’ in the plot can be seen from a mile away in a snowstorm, and the voice acting is a little hammy in some parts. (But then again, voice acting! yay!)

3. Level 60 Cap. I know, 60 levels is actually pretty high, but after beating the game on normal difficulty, I’m already level 35. I can easily see myself taking my main character up to the level cap before or by the time I finish the game on Nightmare, which is kind of lame. I know that Blizzard wants us to have something to look forward to in the inevitable expansions, but c’mon.

4. Launch Day Shit Show. We all know that the servers were unprepared for Diablo III’s launch. We all saw the error codes, the overloaded server messages, and we all screamed “What the FUCK?” at least 17 times while trying to play on launch night. I’m sure you tried, Blizzard, but try harder next time.

5. Lack of Character Customization. I love how we can pick between male and female characters now, but would it also be too much to ask for the ability to customize how we look, too? It doesn’t even have to be extreme; I’d just like to have my monk look a little physically different from the other million monks out there. Also, I know the game is supposed to be streamlined, but I miss my attribute points, dammit.

All in all, Diablo III is an awesome game. It’s still a ton of fun to play, and has incredibly high replay value. The story is lacking considerably in some areas, and the game goes by fairly quickly. I could definitely see some hardcore old school Diablo fans being turned off by this entry in the franchise, but I see it as a good in step in the mostly right direction. Well done, Blizzard! Check out the game if you haven’t already! Message me if you’d like to co-op!

4.5 of 5

- James