The Forces of Hell Are Taking Me Back (So I Can Kick Their Asses All Over Again)

Blizzard’s Diablo franchise has had a special place in my heart gaming personality for a long time.  My first encounter with Tristram was at a Magic: The Gathering tournament held by a friend of my brother’s. To no one’s surprise, I was outed from the tournament early on, so I decided to play some computer games.  Diablo happened to be there, and I couldn’t stop playing.  I was playing as rogue and was loving it.  My gaming chops were still rather undeveloped, so I never really got past The Butcher in my limited time with the game.

I never did get the game for my own computer.  I was in middle school and had next to no funds.  However, I did find a Playstation version, so I snatched that up.  It was similar enough to satiate my desire to slay demon spawn, but still left me wanting.

Then, my buddy Matt got Diablo II after it’s release.  It entered our weekend gaming hotseat along with Starcraft and Age of Empires 2.  Again, I never did get the game for myself, because I was terrible with money in high school.  Diablo II took what I loved of the first game, and expanded on it tenfold.  More locations, more classes, more enemies, bigger bosses, etc.  It was the first game, turned to 11.  However, I never really played it online, aside from direct IP games in college.

Today, Diablo III is just weeks away from release.  In preparation for launch, Blizzard announced a weekend stress test open to the public.  I downloaded the game that night and jumped on as soon as I could.  Then, despite some Battle.net issues, my wife also downloaded and we joined forces.  I didn’t get to spend nearly as much time with the game as I had intended, but I was blown away but what I had seen.

The moment I loaded the game, the combat felt like second nature.  The same control scheme as normal: two mouse buttons for separate attacks/abilities, click to move, etc.  Same 2.5D perspective.  However, this is actually where the bulk of the similarities end.

While the core and soul of the game have remained the same, Blizzard has made a bevy of improvements to the experience as a whole.

Combat
Fighting hellish legions and the hordes of undead, never felt so great.  Combat has much more weight to it now.  Some of the more powerful effects shake the screen a bit, which makes you feel like you are shaking this broken world.  Additionally, you are rewarded to taking risks in combat.  There are environmental hazards you can utilize to damage your enemies.  For example, if you see support beams on a wall, hit them, and massive stones will shower your foes, stunning them and dealing damage.  You also get XP bonuses for laying a smackdown on large groups of monsters.  The more you kill, the more bonus you get.  Don’t just pick off stragglers, jump into the heat and kick some ass.

Abilities
I will speak  to classes in just a moment, but the abilities available are excellent.  There are some classics that return, such as the Barbarian’s whirlwind.  However, the skill tree has been completely redone.  No longer do you get skills points that you apply to a specific skill as you see fit.  Rather, abilities are divided into 3 categories; attacks, activated abilities, and passives.  In attacks, you have a primary and secondary subset.  Primary attacks, from what I have seen, generally help you generate your main resource, which may be rage, mana, spirit, etc.  Secondary attacks use your resource for various effects.  The activated abilities are exactly as they sound.  These are like healing abilities or dashes, etc.  Likewise, passive abilities are also exactly as they sound.  From level one, you can see everything you will have available and when.  As you level up, various attacks and abilities will unlock.  At any time, you can open up your skills and switch what you want available.  But, the biggest change here, is how you use the abilities.  Your mouse buttons are reserved for your attacks.  Activated abilities are tied to the 1-4 keys, and passives are always on.  So, as Diablo I and Diablo II only allowed a total of two abilities at once, Diablo III now allows you to have nine.  Two attacks, four abilities, and up to three passives.  (By the way, if the rumors of a console version of the game are true, this new layout for abilities really lends itself to that platform.  I think I would continue to play on PC, but would still be interested to see how Blizzard would work it.)

Classes
Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor and Wizard.  At first glance, they don’t seem to cover much diversity.  However, many of them are amalgamations of Diablo II classes.  The Witch Doctor seems to cover most of the Necromancer ground.  The Demon Hunter combines the Assassin’s traps and devices with the Amazon’s range.  The Monk covers “white mage” duties of the Paladin, but fights more like the Assassin.  The Barbarian and Wizard are pretty much just as they have always been, though.  My only hope is that the Druid will come back in an expansion.  I think it would fit in with the new game quite well.

Story
As always, the story revolves around Diablo and his minions waging war against the mortal realm.  However, it is the delivery of the story that I like.  It his handled by voice over and text box, largely as it always has been, but you are still free to move freely.  Move too far from a speaking NPC, and you’ll miss the conversation, but the freedom is nice.  Additionally, you’ll find lore objects in the world.  When you pick these up, they will launch a bit of lore voice over, but will play regardless of how far you move.  It’s a small thing, but I liked it quite a bit.

Crafting
At one point in the beta, I completed a quest for an NPC and set up shop as a blacksmith.  He offered to salvage useful materials from items I find and create new ones.  Additionally, he could be leveled up to learn new items by paying some gold.  I was only able to scratch the surface of this system, but I like the additional options it provides.

Battle.net
Diablo I had no online component, as this was not a prevalent feature in the industry at the time.  Diablo II arrived on the coat tails of Warcraft II, which found a bit of success with the online community.  Starcraft really made Battle.net a huge success, too.  During the life of World of Warcraft, Blizzard has really expanded Battle.net and incorporated it into a universal service among all of their games.  This has also reached Diablo III.  Just like with WoW and Starcraft II, you can see what your friends are playing and invite them to come play.  This also allows for exponentially improved co-op in Diablo.  I’ve had some “pulling teeth” experiences trying to set up a private game with friends in Diablo II.  Now, I only have to send an invite, they appear in my lobby and with a click of a button, we are in a game together.  It’s a great service for Blizzard diehards.

The Little Things
- In multiplayer, each player is provided their own loot by the game.  No more arguing over who gets to pick up what.  You only see what the game has given you and nothing else.
- No more scrolls of town portal.  It’s a universal ability for everyone.  And they aren’t tied to any particular person.  Each player has their own instance of the portal, so you don’t have to wait for everyone else to go through before you do.
- Health potions are on a dedicated hotkey.
- Acheivements.  ‘Nuff said.
- Gold is picked up on contact.  No more clicking to pickup money!  Some items even allow you to gather gold from farther away.
- Health pickups.  ’Nuff said.
- Dungeons have what I call “exit stones”.  When you get deep in a dungeon, you can click on these to leave instead of having to backtrack.
- Inventory space is managed more efficiently, albeit less realistically.  Large two-handed weapons now only require two spaces in your inventory.  In fact, nearly any weapon or piece of armor is that way.

I could probably keep extolling the virtues of this game, but I’ll end up losing the plot.  For now, I’ll just leave it at this: Diablo III is looking like the best advancement of a Blizzard franchise that they have ever had (I’m not counting WC3 to WoW; that jumped genre).