XXL’s Game Corner: Diablo III Review: Click, Click

Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Platforms: PC, Mac
Release date: Out Now

When Diablo II dropped Blizzard delivered an RPG on the PC that was a booming success. Since then pretty much every dungeon crawler to date has jacked elements from Diablo II. Now, here we are 13 years later and the developer has offered up a worthy successor to the Diablo throne with Diablo III.

At its core, Diablo III is a game about clicking on stuff until it dies, stealing its loot, and leveling up. It’s been dolled up with requisite graphics, complete with stellar physics, and turned into a game that is online, but these are window dressing to a largely unchanged formula. But why change it when it has worked so well in the past, thankfully Blizzard recognized that and enhanced upon the foundation they created. Great strides were made to assure that the mechanics were updated to 2014 standards without sacrificing Diablo’s essence. But it's still a game where you click on the ground to move your character to that point, you click on items to pick them up, you click on enemies to make them die. Enemies yield randomly generated loot. Stacking your loot, is more or less what Diablo III is about. While everything is familiar there are some differences that stick out from its predecessor – for one skill points and attributes have been done away with. Instead, each class's attributes increase automatically when a new level is gained, and new skills unlock over time at specific levels. I found that the new system is extremely accommodating to non-hardcore players which was a strategic move on Blizzard’s part to attract more players. What this system does is allow people of all skill levels to experiment as much as they want. If you want to test out a brand new ability, you’re free to do so with the freedom to change it upon a whim if you don’t like it. You’re free to change all of your abilities even during combat with no penalty. There are no skill points to invest, or any stat-lines to modify. It’s crazy how addicting and fun Diablo III is because normally a RPG where you spend most of your time killing stuff would get old pretty fast but the fast paced combat keeps things fresh. Diablo III‘s playable classes include the Demon Hunter (ranged), the Barbarian (melee/tank), the Monk (melee/support), the Witch Doctor (ranged), and the Wizard (ranged). Each class feels fairly unique, and has a ton of special abilities that set them apart from the rest. Fighting enemies in this game never gets old because they’ll change up their tactics, forcing you to change up yours. About the only blemish the game has is a story that is pretty dull and some bad voice acting. It’s pretty obvious those elements weren’t the main focus and I was soon skipping past every single movie, conversation, and story segment with the spacebar and escape keys. The lack of story won’t bother most fans, because like any fighting game, the bulk of the game is spent in combat and Diablo III shines like a beacon in that department.

The XXL Endgame

With, Diablo III Blizzard has taken the fundamentals of the franchise, broken them apart and rebuilt them into an action RPG so refined and addictive that it will erode hours of your day away. While it doesn't do anything especially new with the action-RPG genre, it does all the old things so great that it rules the arena.—written by DJRhude (@DJRhude)

XXL Rating: XL (Excellent)

This review was based on a digital copy of Diablo III for the PC.