After nearly a decade of development, and Error 37, the next installment in the Diablo franchise has finally been released!….and well, it definitely is a Diablo game. When I start a game, I will usually try out something new rather than Mr. Magic McMissile or Big McLarge Huge (Thanks MST3K) for the hundredth time. Because of this, I chose to start the game with a class I have not seen in other RPG’s, the Witch Doctor.
Well, it was either that or the Demon Hunter but my friend wanted to try Demon Hunter which is bull crap as he has never read anything about Van Helsing or seen any Dracula films. Ugh…
Anyway, turns out that the Witch Doctor is basically a Necromancer, but I am having fun with him anyway and all of his CC/turning people into chickens and sheep. Here is a screenshot I took from act 3 while dealing with a bunch of punk-ass demons:
That’s right. Where are your Arcane Sentry powers now??
Also, I was pretty excited that I got to see my old friend Deckard Cain, not too long after starting the game. I was kinda hoping he’d be dropping sick rhymes to a phat beat though..
The gameplay is what you would expect from Diablo, with a few changes made since the last installment. Rather than being able to choose your own stat progression, Blizzard assumes that we are all idiots and takes control of that for us. Instead of being able to carefully select certain abilities for our classes, leveling them up and having to live with our awful decisions, they just go ahead and give us every ability and allow us to swap any of them in and out. Basically, every single wizard that hits level 60 is going to be exactly the same except for the equipment they are wearing. I guess it makes fighting more fair in PvP (when they do release it) but it severely limits the potential of character building.
Something very innovative about this game is the inclusion of the in-game auction house. This is a place where people can sell their items to other players for gold. It’s a pretty good system, I think, and helps keep people away from selling virtual property for real money, although I doubt that will truly stop. Unfortunately, I accidentally clicked on the sell button that put my entire collected inventory of Essences, almost 800, on auction for way below standard price and they all sold immediately, even though the game told me I had 5 minutes to cancel…
I have to mention how good the graphics look this time around. The environments are extremely well polished and when they are falling apart around you, it add to the intensity. I also like that with every time you visit an area, different layouts and caves spawn so it kind of adds to the replayability if you are a completionist. It’s kind of gratifying just running around and breakin’ shit for loots as well. The in-game cinematics are truly amazing, including some of the most realistic looking characters animations I have ever seen in a game.
Something that is very noticeable upon playing through the game on Normal and now starting my playthrough on Nightmare is that I can no longer easily take enemies and bosses by myself. However, I am not built to be that strong right now but I feel like there is a huge jump between the two difficulties. I do like is, don’t get me wrong, because I feel like I now need to team up with other people to win fights. I feel like more of a support with the Witch Doctor, slowing enemies and summoning things to take hits while another class seemingly just one-hit KO’s everything.
I should probably also mention the recent hacks that have happened. Apparently, if you have even once opened your game up to the public, you could be the subject of invasion by hackers where they take your stuff. A lot of people are getting banned because of this, even the accounts of people who were hacked, not just the hackers. I have an acquaintance who warned another player about the hacks and he got banned just for doing that. So, if you still can, I’d recommend keeping away from the public games until Blizzard fixes this.
Now, I hear of this magical level filled with ponies and Care Bear looking creatures that you get to murder known as “Whimseyshire” so it has become my new goal to find this place.
I’ve got all but two of the items and I am pretty excited to enter, however, I seriously don’t know whether or not I will want to continue playing after I get through this area. It is kind of starting to feel like a grind getting through everything again and if I even get through Nightmare, I’ll be surprised. That being said, I do enjoy playing the game quite a bit while it lasts and I will probably come back to it here and there in the future and for that, I will give it..
4/5 Devils Going Down to Georgia.
