I know, I know. Low brow joke, I'm sure New Jersey is a lovely place to be. About 100 times better than Tristram, I swear that whole town is an established disaster. I'm even sure the plotted plants there are cursed as well.
You're probably thinking out loud "Why am I reading this crap?" "Who does this guy think he is?" "How can I have your babies?" Well to answer the first two, I have to let you all know how much of a headache Tristram is before I continue with the rest of Diablo 3. See, Tristram is where the whole series began, the titular demon Diablo was sealed beneath it and awakened in the first game, then the town is destroyed in the second game and our 3rd outing begins in New Tristram. I don't know who sold the real estate but they are going to have a few angry letters sometime around next week.
There, Tristram rant overish. Now onto D3. This game is fun. Hands down it's fun. It's a bit simplified and that DRM nonsense is back but it has a good game at it's core.
This game however doesn't look like a game that's been in development for 5ish years. More like the standard 2 year development. Seriously, despite gorgeous backgrounds and interesting design; this game isn't on par with most PC titles (Witcher 2). What is there graphically, is pretty solid and it works. Even if the character models look like slimmed down WoW sprites. The cinematic though? Gorgeous and brilliantly done, it's getting to the point where Blizzard won't gets points for that though. Style for the armor is also detailed but that ship sailed a long time ago. I know Blizzard has good visual art designs. Now if only they could update their in game engines like Star Craft 2. . . . . . . .
Combat is standard Diablo/Dungeon Crawler. Click where you want to go, character moves their in an uncomfortable looking fashion and then run into something that is upset at you for living and click it till it falls on it's keys. Rinse repeat. Thing is, games like Diablo reward the player by making the fights, even with friends, difficult. So when you pull through, you feel accomplished. Abilities are assigned to the number keys so you hit the things with every thing you got until you run out magic rage. Unlike the older Diablo games though, your liquid angst refills itself over time; eliminating Mana potions to pick up, and also remove s huge chuck of tension of battle. It gets to a point where the Wizard doesn't even run out of Mana before the last demon kabooms itself. It's nice that it regenerates but it's that it regenerates way too quickly I have a problem with. Literally ten seconds and my Wizard is back to full fighting prowess. There was a split second I was worried but after the second time I know I'd have enough magic to use in a second I just went back to my regular attack. No sweat. In fact the only time I was challenged in the game was with the final fight with Diablo. I quickly got used to Hell mode with the only annoying mode being a rare elite waiting for me behind a door. Not even that 40 year old drunken girls scout was that aggressive. And cheap. Seriously, it had the ability to box me in and create swirling flame death at me. Christ.
The story is well. . . . . . yeah. It's alright but it's not very engaging. Big bad is here to mess up your front porch, go on a country wide killing spree. Except for Tyriel, your character and series returning Deckard Cain; all other characters are forgettable. Leah? I got the feeling she was the protagonist of the game and your character was just there to help. Nope, she's just there for a lousy twist and doesn't have an emotional payoff. Seriously, everyone forgets about her and the status quo continues. It's weird, I know Blizzard can create memorable characters that are balanced and interesting (Raynor and Kerrigan) but here? Two characters and not much else. Pretty much I renamed all the other characters Cannon Fodder and added a number. I was lazy.
Other than the annoying DRM that doesn't work, seriously, people have cracked it. The fact you need to have an internet connection to play is dumb. For some though, they cracked it and are playing it offline. The only downside is they don;t get to play with friends or partake in the auction house with the option to use real money. Which is a good idea in theory but that's been hacked too. A four year development cycle and it has security gaps. Wow.
All in all it;s still a good game but I can't recommend it while it costs 59.99. I would wait for the price to drop at least to 40 or 30. You'll still have fun but the fact that Torchlight 2 will have the same content, minus the DRM fiasco for 20 dollars kind of tells you something.
Diablo 3 gets 7.4 outlandish resurrection spells out of 10.
I didn't review Mass Effect 3 because I want to wait for the "True Ending" DLC, see how that turns out. Also for Max Payne 3, us PC gamers have to wait till this Tuesday. Review for that might be up at some point over the weekend.
