Diablo III

I have a gaming sin to confess.  Up until this past week, I had never played any of the Diablo games.

I know they are iconic.  I know they are right up my alley in terms of gameplay style.  But growing up I just never had a computer that could keep up with them.  PC games were never a major part of my life growing up.  I almost considered completely eliminating them from consideration for coverage, but the few PC games I did play have had a massive impact on my gaming journey.  

But Diablo wasn't one of those games.  My experience with it was on a demo CD that came with an issue of "PC Gamer" in 1996.  I remember finding it a bit scary, (remember, I was 8) but also fascinating.  I wouldn't say this was right in the middle of the satanic panic, but it was definitely still a thing.  Aside from Doom, I don't remember any game leaning so hard into the whole hell/Satan/demons thing as the first Diablo. Even with Doom, you had to get pretty deep into the game to actually see that stuff and you also had to pay attention to the little bits of story.  Diablo had the prince of darkness right on the cover, beckoning you to come try and stop him.  Everything about the aesthetic of the ironically named world of sanctuary just screamed "evil."

Back then, Diablo was an upstart franchise for a developer on the rise.  I wouldn't say it put Blizzard on the map, the original Warcraft did that, but it kept their positive momentum going and helped them grow into the juggernaut they are today.  When Diablo III came out, it was a huge deal.  Fans of the franchise hadn't been back to sanctuary in years and were longing for a return.  The world had changed quite a bit and a release on home consoles opened it up to a whole new gaming audience (I know the first one was released for the PS1, but it isn't particularly easy to find and apparently its not a great port).  This was a true, died in the wool triple A title.  I remember it being polarizing at launch, with more old school fans disliking it and newer players finding it to be excellent.  Now, however, it seems to generally be regarded as a good to great game.

I think that's about accurate.  I will say this definitely made me want to go back and try the old ones, which is a positive.  I also think it is going to make a great case study for this blog, because it epitomizes what is great and what is not so great about modern gaming.

First, the game looks and plays absolutely fantastic.  I played the PS3 version, so I am sure the PC version looks even better. Everything is clean and detailed and it has some of the most impressive backgrounds I have ever seen in a game.  I found myself stopping to look at what was going on in the background more than a few times, whether it was an ongoing battle or a ruin crumbling.  The characters look great and the enemy animation is super smooth.  There's no clipping or glitching or out of place frames, everything here is top quality. The sound is great too, none of the individual tracks are standouts but the music and sound effects fit the game perfectly.  The voice acting is pretty good, something that older games don't usually offer.

The gameplay is similarly tight.  My character always did exactly what I wanted him to do, when I wanted him to do it.  Movement felt good and attacks were responsive.  Hit detection is spot on and the controls are intuitive. I venture to guess they were dumbed down a little bit for consoles, but that's a good thing.  Never once did I get crossed up trying to attack an enemy or use an item or run away.  All the button mapping makes sense, which sounds like it shouldn't matter but believe me, it does.  When you are getting mobbed by enemies, you need to know exactly where to go for your panic trigger and a lot of games don't make it intuitive.  

You choose one of five character classes at the start of your adventure, each with their own unique abilities and stats.  Some are ranged attackers while others are melee attackers, but all of them are at least interesting.  You can also find AI companions throughout your journey who compliment your character.  Credit the A.I. here, these guys are all incredibly useful and always more of a help than a hindrance in battle. Chalk another point for modern games, that wasn't always the case way back when.  The game sends you on a variety of quests across four different chapters, with your ultimate goal to trap all of the 'prime evils' to prevent them from destroying humanity.  There is some depth to the story, but it isn't too involved and not super memorable. They did a good job of making the characters likable though and the locations are varied and interesting.  Each chapter puts you at a different hub town to return to as you take on the main quest.  There are sidequests here and there, but not many, which leads me to one of my gripes.

I really don't understand why every game nowadays has to be the one and only game you ever play again.  I managed to complete the main quest and story of Diablo III in about 15 hours, but that's barely scratching the surface of what this game offers. Like seemingly every game since about 2010, beating the game on normal opens up a new game plus mode, where you have to beat the game again.  Of course, enemies are harder this time around, but that doesn't change the fact that you have to play through literally the same exact game again.  Diablo III is good enough that I might consider actually doing that, but then I would have to dedicate all my free time to leveling up, grinding, etc. in one single game.  I just don't have time to do that anymore.  In a long RPG with and end in sight its different, but games like this will just suck up your time, for better or worse.  That includes taking it from other games.  It used to be you could play Super Mario 64 AND Final Fantasy VII AND Half Life, either back to back or simultaneously, and still have times to sneak in some games of Madden or MLB.  Now, you basically have to choose one game.  Your options are Diablo III OR Borderlands OR Destiny.  If you want to truly get the most out of these games, you have to give them all your attention because there is just so much content.

Don't get me wrong though, that's not necessarily all bad.  I would rather them include too much content than not enough.  I am a completionist at heart, so in a way I am thankful that Diablo III helped me break some of those habits.  For the first time, I didn't feel bad about myself because I ignored the rifts or whatever other raid content there was.  I didn't feel like I had to complete all the multiplayer activities just to complete them.  And that's to say nothing of the expansion pack, which I have heard is fairly substantial.  I even heard there was an auction house where you could buy stuff with real money, though I wasn't able to find such a thing.  Maybe it was something that got cut?  Or its just on PC?  Either way, I find stuff like that takes the whole "immerse the player in the game world" thing way too far.  Isn't buying the initial game enough?  I will say though that unlike other games of this ilk, Diablo III doesn't shove all this stuff down your throat.  It was content to just let me enjoy the story without trying to force me into multiplayer BS or make me buy stuff.

My last complaint is that I found my playthrough entirely too easy.  I know the idea is to play through the game multiple times at different difficulty levels, but even for an initial playthrough it wasn't challenging at all.  Once I got about half way through the game, nothing could stop me.  I'm not the kind of person who researches what class is the best or what an optimized build looks like in games like this, but maybe I stumbled upon one by accident?  Is the monk super OP and I jst didn't know?  Either way, I was able to stand in the middle of mobs and just attack without any risk of dying. I was able to stand toe to toe with bosses, which should never happen in a game like this.  I am sure it's a lot harder on the higher difficulties when I am sure they can one shot you, but the initial playthrough should have been a bit more challenging.

That's a lot of negative, but I want to make it clear that this is a very good game.  Most gamers I know would agree with that, but always like to remind me the first two are better.  I can see why this was seen as a departure to Diablo and Diablo II, even in screenshots I can tell those games are much darker and more sinister.  But that doesn't mean its bad.  Far from it.  Diablo III was a good time and I may even go back some day and do some of the extras.  Not without playing the originals first, of course.

8.25/10