Diablo 3 is the Diablo you know and love, minus the tedium that reared its ugly head in older installments. Scrolls are nonexistent, items' finer points are highlighted green to lessen the thought provoking struggle to decide which item is better, the potion guzzling madness has been toned down completely, and there are frequent checkpoints in case you ever want to go outside. The combat here is just as fun and intuitive as ever; the game is a fun clickfest whether you want to go it alone or with your acquaintances. Every new spell/skill here seems to matter unlike the hefty amounts of seemingly cool fluff in the last game waiting for you to make the wrong decision and ruin your character; this game wants you to succeed. I don't think the cast of playable characters of #2 can be topped, however the new guys and gals are interesting in their own rights and mix the abilities of their predecessors in exciting ways. The audio presentation is a standout here- from the protagonist and accompanying merc's many lines for almost every new encounter to the simple fact that excerpts you find sound off while you run along creates a nice pacing; the action never stops. The cinematics are up to blizzards standards, perhaps even surpassing them with the showcase of not one, but two biblical encounters that though short, must be seen to be believed. The art style is definitely world of warcraft-esque(cartoony) unfortunately, however it looks great and doesn't hold back with the gut spewing gore seen in the last installments. Though the immersion level is definitely higher with the player character interacting with everyone, the plot kind of resorts to the typical blizzard twist that I guess must be in every one of their games these days. This twist leads to the epic locale of the finale, so I'm not complaining...too much. The voice acting is top notch for the most part, kudos to veteran actor James Hong's hilarious turn as the enigmatic Covetous Shen along with the man behind Lyndon the Scoundrel, a performance that captures a roguish whimsy similar to Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow. Besides the final act, I was a little disappointed in the similarities to the acts of the last game, sometimes I felt like they ran out of ideas at points as exact bosses from previous games made their returns almost randomly and in almost the same chronological order they appeared in the older games, though the first act's numerous references to the first game were quite amusing. There's a particular moment near the end were you fight a fallen foe from the past while an exciting fight with an angelic adversary is only teased. All in all, Diablo 3 is a great entry in the hack n' slash genre, as its level of accessibility is above most games of any genre. Highly recommended...if you have internet, that is.
Review of Diablo III
