Diablo 3 PC Review – Story, Graphics and Gameplay

The girlfriend got naked while he was in front of the computer pounding away the mouse. Intentionally she asked “Are you gonna give me a massage?”. Without even looking at her he said “Do you really need it that bad? Can it wait till I complete this quest that I just started? “. It’s been more than a week since they broke up now. Moral of the story – No Moral, just level up.

Diablo 3 isn’t very different from its earlier Diablo versions. It’s an improved version of course but, with enough changes that will make your wait for over a decade worth while. May be you can play around with this for another decade. That is if you’ve ever got your hands on previous version or at least heard of Diablo before. Not the super car darn it. Don’t worry, we’ve got everything covered in our Diablo 3 PC review.

For those of you who don’t know about it, Diablo is a dark, fantasy, horror, hack and slash MMO RPG series for the PC and Mac, from the makers Starcraft and World of Warcraft. Frankly, I feel I’m wasting my time writing this article. I could rather be replaying it in Hell mode. For those looking for a verdict, DON’T. Just buy, beg, borrow or steal and start playing it. The game is going to blow your mind away and also your computer. Every game has its bag of issues. Skyrim did too but Blizzard didn’t make you wait 12 years to piss on all our expectations. For others who want to know a brief history about the franchise and how the game plays out, let me warn you, this one is pretty long.

Diablo 1 and 2: The story in retrospect

“Hello my friend, stay a while and listen….”

The fight between good and evil has been on even before both parties existed. Tyrael, one of the Archangels succeeded in suppressing the Demon lord Diablo and captured him in something called a Soulstone. Enter the humans, who build the town of Tristram over where the Soulstone was buried. In the first part, your character gets to explore this strange town and all the weird crap thats been happening around. With the help of Deckard Cain – The Elder, you learn the secret of the Soulstone then find and kill the mortal form of Diablo. In an effort of destroy the soulstone, The ‘Hero’ smashes it into his skull. Don’t you ever smash anything to your skull if you want to destroy it.

As the game would have it, our hero gets processed by Diablo and goes off to find his brothers. In the 2nd part, it is seen that the player’s character from the last part frees the two Brothers of Destruction, and becomes Diablo himself. Together they plan to rule over again. You’re given the job to banish the trio’s plan and kill them. You end up rescuing Cain and Tyrael, who help you get along parts of the game. The game is divided into four acts, each of which takes place in a different realm. The cutscenes that come up after each act are awesome but too little to keep you engrossed. By the end of the 2nd part, Mephisto and Diablo are slayed but Baal escapes and is never seen. It was just a matter of waiting for an extension of the game.

In the expansion pack for Diablo 2 – Lord of Darkness, the player faces Baal(Bail), the last of the three remaining Prime Evils , as they are aptly referred to, and eventually beats the shit out of him. Tyrael discovers that the Worldstone, the artifact that is the cause of the entire plot in the first place, is corrupted. He destroys it in one of the best cutscenes of the game.

Diablo 3 PC Review – What’s next?

“Seven is the number of the powers of Hell, and Seven is the number of the Great Evils.”

I thought 13 was the devil’s number. Anyway, there are Four Lesser Evils apart from the Prime Evils. Belial and Azmodan are the only two left in line because the rest have been put to rest in the previous installment. The four act story of Diablo 3 takes place 20 years after the death of the Prime Evils. A major part of which revolves around Tyrael, who has become the fallen Archangel for his actions in the last game. The story starts off with, literally, a bang. A falling star crashes into the Tristram Cathedral, where Cain(How old is he now??) and his niece are waiting for something to go bad. You enter the game attempting to investigate the explosion and end up in this long and winding story with some nice twists. The Demon Lord is back again from wherever he was. So is Adria, who was last seen in the 1st part. It is up to your character to save the world, yet again.

There are more cutscenes in this game and hence you are treated to some really intense story telling. Also there’s Leah, Deckard’s niece. Eyebrow raiser? Bummer. she’s a whiny baby more often than not.

Graphics and Sound

When I first played Diablo II, like many others, I was instantly hooked to it but wanted the game to look better. When I saw the beta version of Diablo 3, I knew a storm was coming. The storm took a little too long but it made history by selling 3.5 million game copies within 24 hours of its release. The difference between now and then’s version of Diablo lie in the details. The custom graphics engine has polished the rugged looking game into a final fantasy movie. It’s much better than that because the hardcore nature of the game has escalated to a higher level. The detail that’s been put into each character shape and the environment is outstanding. Your GPU is in for some serious crunching ahead. You can get a better look at your character by zooming into him/her a little so stare all you want at the female Barbarian’s over-muscular thighs.

The part towards the end of Act III was the part I enjoyed the most as you face Azmodan, I never expected him or rather it, to look what it looked like. Quite a few bosses to beat along the game and great after effects follow. Shattering doors, Forests, Boss battle locations, damaged bridges and the roads between new and old Tristram are quite eye catching in terms of graphic richness.

The gothic setting is very well maintained by the orchestral music that plays at right times. The game does go mute but those are times you’ll be engrossed in the visuals around. The way caves light up as you move forward, the way a forest can be set a flame with a witchdoctors spells or the slash and blood splashing effects will keep your jaw dropping. The game gets so fast paced that all you’ll see is embers and flashes fill your screen with explosion and war cries in the background. Voice acting is top notch as every character has something to say. Some cheeky lines along the way and some awesome ones too. No complaints whatsoever with regards to the visuals.

Gameplay

Although the entire story is backed up with so many characters that it could compete with The Lord of the Rings, Diablo isn’t about the story. It’s about the gameplay. It’s about the multiplayer realm. Get a spare mouse or two because your mouse is going to get raped.

The game was built keeping Blizzards DRM policy in mind so you need to be connected to the internet at all times to play and following the footsteps of Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 isn’t designed for LAN play. The game might seem overwhelming as you descend deeper and deeper into a dungeon before you feel, where the hell is this quest taking me? The answer lies in the question. Hell.

The environments have never been more interactive. You could smash a wall in a cave and it will collapse on enemies reducing enough burden on your already sore fingers. You don’t have to click on the gold to pick it up, just touching it should do. Now that’s highly appreciated among many other improvements. Health potions drop which instantly replenish health unlike previous parts where you need to use up a potion.

This game’s difficulty has been mellowed down by a lot as it feels so much easier to level up. And hence came the new Hell and Inferno modes of difficulty where you have better loot and rewards. Co-Op in Diablo 3 kicks ass royally, just as good as it feels in DoTA. Nothing better than to beat up some ass with your friends until the player versus player module comes out. You want a fight, you’ll get a lot. It’s so addictive, even though there are so many achievements to be earned in each facet of the game, you’ll never get enough of it. If you’re looking for a strategy guide, they’re a zillion of them on the internet.

Did I mention Diablo is also all about loot too? There’s a lot of accoutrement to be collected, caves and dungeons to clear, tons of side quests to perform, bosses and minions to be fought and yeah, even more loot to be stacked – Gold, Weapons and Armor that drop from killing enemies or by opening random chests located in the game. You can trade stuff with friends online or sell it at the in-game merchant.

Characters and NPCs

The toughest decision that you may have to make will be which character type to choose. In Diablo 2, Players could play as an Amazon, Barbarian, Necromancer, Sorceress or the Paladin. With the Lord of Destruction Expansion, came the Druid and the Assassin. Each character class has its own strengths and weaknesses. The Barbarian for example is a master of hand combat specializes in melee attacks where as a Sorceress or a Necromancer would be the way to go if you intend to use a lot of magic.

Diablo 3 has five character classes as well – The Monk, Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Wizard and Demon Hunter – each of whose gender can be selected as well. I hardly found the female barbarian feminine. These characters are essentially derivatives of the ones in the previous parts. The maximum level you can achieve is 60 unlike Diablo 2 where it was 99. Mana has been replaced by class specific resources.

• Barbarians builds Rage as they take or deal damage.
• Monks generate Spirit every time they attack.
• Wizards have Arcane Power to cast their spells.
• The Witch Doctor still generates Mana overtime
• Demon Hunters have a slightly complex resource system compared to the rest. Half the resource tank for Discipline and half for Hate – for tactical and offensive abilities respectively.

The inventory management system remains the same but the skill tree has changed. Skills automatically are learned at specific levels and can’t be used until you reach a particular level. Collecting runes however gives you some control over the skills you possesses. Adding a rune to a spell or power changes how the power behaves.

Like in Diablo 2, you can have a helper to get around the single player quests. These helpers have their own story to tell, which adds to the game time. There are 3 followers to choose from. The Templar, the Scoundrel and the Enchantress. Of all, I felt the Templar was the most resourceful as he has the ability to heal. Additionally, the game offers artisans who can upgrade your gear, which earlier was completely the players responsibility. Cain, for a good reason, won’t be the one to identify unknown items. Hence the job is given to the Mystic. Then there’s a blacksmith and a Jeweler too for crafting and repairing parts or adding sockets to weapons and other gear. Talk about keeping you occupied because it’s your responsibility train and upgrade them.

The Bad and Sad about Diablo 3

Something I’ve been wanting to do since I started writing this article. Bad server connections and a downtime of around 10 hours is unacceptable especially when you have to be logged in even to play the single player campaign. I like to believe that this won’t be the case for long as time passes and the traffic eventually simmers down. I feel sorry for those with slower connections. Get an offline version out before anything else or someone else will find a hack.

Talking about hacking, many Battle.net accounts have been reported hacked even though they claim to have improved the security. They were anticipating it and why not? They seem to have a well staffed customer service. They rolled a patch out a week after the game was released. The patch you released, Blizzard, was a complete botch job. I had to reinstall the game and the correct client for my location. WHY DIDN’T YOU GIVE ME THIS CLIENT IN THE FIRST PLACE?

The story mode although intense felt very small and is same for all character classes. A little variation specific to each character class would go a long way increasing the replay value. They announced that this is the end of the story but not the end of the franchise. The fact that you can’t choose a specific skills to unlock is another thing, as a result of taking the skill tree off. The amount of gold drop is very less and online trading requires you to have a tonnes of it.

Blizzard has evidently made big money. With all the controversy surrounding the game about no offline play and safebox secure Battle.net 2 account, You can expect it to go haywire with the introduction of the Diablo 3 Auction House where people can pay real cash for items. The loot you get in the game, flatly put, is balls up. To get through the new Inferno Mode, you will have to visit the Auction house. When people can spend money on games like Mafia Wars and some shitty ville, I see a massive potential for Diablo 3 – the catch here is, Blizzard takes 15% of the charges. This ‘service’ apparently will be plugged into Battle.net in the second week of June.

Diablo 3 – Thumbs up or Bums down?

Who am I kidding? 12 Years of work was put into this game. If they tested this game for another 6 months, It would’ve beaten every other game out there. People will play it anyway for the next 20 years or till the next part rolls out. I’ve come to learn that the rating system is completely flawed. Being a true gamer and putting all the bad out-of-game experiences aside, this game is definitely a MUST PLAY. No doubt. But if it’s one of those times you’re desperate to play and all that shows on your screen is Error 37, Good Luck then Buddy.