Toem diablo 312/16/2023 This is an area where a plethora of minor changes have vastly improved the experience over the game’s predecessors. The already-compulsive gameplay is, of course, underpinned by the franchise’s staple of loot-hunting. It’s easy to get carried away and find you’ve completed the game on normal (which takes a good 20 hours the first time through) in just a couple of days. There’s hardly any down time, and when you’re in a party of four players working well together you won’t be able to tear yourself away from your PC. The inclusion of health orbs and automatic gold pick-up is wholly vindicated, allowing you to dispatch a horde of monsters, quickly and conveniently heal, gobble up any gold and loot, and move straight on to the next battle. The gameplay is like Diablo II on steroids. One thing that Diablo III doesn’t lack, however, is the ability to completely hook you in. It’s almost as if Blizzard ran out of ideas halfway through, or development for the second half of the game was handed over to another team entirely. The art direction takes a hit in the second half of the game as well, and only one environment across the whole of Acts III and IV stands out in my mind the rest feel like drab filler. In a game that’s supposedly designed for multiple playthroughs, their inclusion is unforgivable. Why they weren’t left on the cutting room floor is beyond me. They convey nothing that couldn’t otherwise be conveyed via dialogue spoken during gameplay (like in, say, Diablo II…), and, even when skipped, serve only to halt all of the action. Not only are these scenes unattractive to look at, to say the least, they’re also utterly pointless. The boss battles (with the exception of the final Act I boss) are all shockingly bad, and before each one the action is paused to give way to a short snippet of in-game cut scene. Act III, and especially Act IV, disappoint quite spectacularly. But, gradually, things start to head downhill from this point on. The change of setting freshens things up (though Diablo II veterans could be forgiven for feeling a sense of deja vu). The CGI cinematics are absolutely sumptuous the music is, of course, superb (this being one of Blizzard’s big three franchises you’d expect no less), and there’s some fantastic voice acting on display.Īct II, for the most part, continues to impress. The spell effects are beautiful, the pouring rain and puddles of standing water are a treat for the eyes, and the variety of settings, enemies and environments is impressive. The move towards a more colourful, fantasy-style universe began in Diablo II Diablo III merely continues the trend, and does so impressively. The art style, though it does not possess the haunting atmosphere of the original Diablo that many would have wanted, is nonetheless a fantastic fit for the game. And yet, much like anticipation for the yearly showcase that is E3, one can’t help but hope that one’s wildest expectations will be fulfilled, even if we really should know better by now. Could the sequel ever live up to the expectations I, and many others like me, would heap upon it? Probably not. Diablo II was the first game that truly engrossed me - for five or six years of my life it bordered on being an addiction.
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