Diablo III

Introduction

Following up on the success of the first two titles in the Diablo series, Blizzard Entertainment released Diablo III on the PC first approximately 14 months ago. While many PC players expressed unhappiness with the always-online DRM policies and in-game auction house, it still received positive praise from the press as well as the gaming community. Since that time, the development team has been hard at work at a version of the game for both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.

If you are unfamiliar with the plot of the game, the narrative takes place twenty years after the events of Diablo II and kicks off with a bang when the events of a deadly prophecy start to come true. The player is something of an observer for the entire story, basically aiding the main characters in their attempt to save all of humanity in the world of Sanctuary. Molded around a handful of cutscenes, the majority of the story is told through spoken work and artist illustrations.

The Game Itself: Our Reviewer's Take

For the most part, the core elements of the game remain untouched in the port. Players choose from one of five classes at the start of the game based on their play style. An melee player will likely prefer the Barbarian or Monk while someone that likes to attack from afar will enjoy the Demon Hunter or Wizard. As you progress through the game, you unlock powers and abilities that help you take on more dangerous enemies. You also earn armor and weapons that cane be used or traded in for gold. One nice aspect to character building is that you can swap out powers for others at any given time. It doesn't require a full respec of the character. In addition, you can outfit a NPC follower with higher quality gear in order to add value to the team.

Clearly, the biggest change from PC to console was adapting the extensive control scheme to the PS3 controller. Surprisingly, it feels as if the game was completely built for consoles originally. Rather than using a tedious point and click method, players can move freely using the controller as well as attack in any direction. Combat flows more freely since the player can make immediate decisions when attacking large groups of enemies. It really reminded me of the classic arcade games from my past and the frantic movements I would make slamming the joystick around on the bulky machine.

One caveat to this adaptation is that attacks and powers are assigned to specific buttons on the controller, thus choices are limited to what the player assigns to those buttons within the menu. This will likely draw ire from the PC crowd, mostly because it lacks strategic precision. That being said, Blizzard did a great job of balancing and distributing powers and attacks among those buttons. I can easily manage large groups of enemies with a pulling power, AOE attack, individual attack and dealing power assigned to the four main buttons on the controller. It's also extremely easy for my co-op buddies to do the same in order to create an effective team.

I didn't have any trouble navigating the player menus within the game, although there are a ton of them. You will probably spend half your time comparing different weapons or armor as well as scouring the inventory of the merchants in the game. If you love to explore every nook and cranny of a dungeon, you probably won't be hurting for gold. However, it was a bit annoying to keep traveling back to a merchant to sell off all my loot when the inventory limit is reached. Blizzard does do a solid job of adding enough teleport checkpoint areas to travel back to camp to see a merchant though.

I haven't enjoyed the crafting mechanic as much as the PC version though. It's partly due to being able to find higher quality weapons and armor in the field rather than building it myself. However, I do like the add-on system that allows me to slot my own gems into weapons and armor. It's a nice touch that allows me to play to my character's strengths.