Diablo is a game with serious heritage; and not the sort that comes with releasing a new title every year. Blizzard Entertainment has a strong reputation for only releasing great games, and only when a release is warranted.
Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo, World of Warcraft, the lost Vikings. All Blizzard series, all ranging from 1994 to 2014, all hugely successful… and Diablo is the second of them to reach a 3rd installment. Whats my point? Well, when Blizzard is making a new game, you sit up and take notice.
Diablo 3 actually came out on the PC and Xbox 360 in 2012 and 2013 respectively. However it’s been totally overhauled and bundled with this year’s Reaper of Souls for a new package on Xbox One (and PS4). So the question is, is it any good?
Diablo has always been brilliant fun. The first game pretty much invented the loot-heavy dungeon crawler. The third iteration has moved on a lot, but still retains the same fundamentals (and title screen music!).
The game is a top down, isometric dungeon exploration game with a heavy role-playing element. The first decision you get to make is your character role. Your choices are;
-Crusader and Barbarian (tank-style, melee fighters)
-Demon Hunter and Monk (rogue-style rangers)
-Or Witch Doctor and Wizard (casters)
The initial character creation is somewhat disappointing, allowing you to pick type and gender but very little else. However, given that the viewpoint doesn’t focus on your character and given that you will likely spend most of your time with your head covered, perhaps this is just Blizzard’s way of saving you half an hour.
Much like the best Bioware games, the main plot is mostly unaffected by your initial choices, but your origin story and subplot are shaped by it. Even your interactions with the npc characters and support AI members of the party (you will be joined by a Templar, a Rogue and a Sorceress) are different depending on your character type and role.
Without giving any spoilers away that aren’t inherent in the title, the story revolves around investigating a fallen meteorite while the undead and other such malevolence gather their forces under some unseen master.
The controls have been transferred over from the PC fantastically well. This isn’t just some lazy port, clumsily substituting a joystick for mouse inputs. This is a carefully thought out re-imagining of the game, where the controls map to the xbox controller perfectly. The various powers and attacks can be fully mapped and customised to the 8 main buttons available. Although there is a default whereby each type of attack is mapped to each of the buttons.
However, there is actually the option to turn off defaults and put whichever attacks and moves you want in whichever place you want them, providing a level of customisation far closer to PC than most console games dream of.
The movement is mapped to the left stick, which controls both the direction of your character and the aiming of attacks. The right stick dodge/rolls in the direction pushed. Having played both, I would actually risk mockery by saying this style of control is superior to the ‘click to move’ mouse option.
The move sets are unique to each class, and the options are dizzying. Each character has a huge number of special moves to choose from, which are unlocked through levelling up. Each move also has 5 sub-skills to boost it. So for example, you may want your Crusader armed with a shield bash, but do you want it to have an area effect, or to knock down the nearest target? Well the decisions aren’t set in stone and you have the option to reallocate them ‘on the fly’.
You can gear your character up for mowing down hordes of peons with AoE attacks and splash damage galore, and then pause before a boss battle to totally reconfigure your move set to debuff and do focused damage over time.
Where this comes into particular focus is in the cooperative multiplayer, which is the backbone of Diablo 3. Although you can play the game through with AI characters for company, the game comes into its own when you are teamed up with up to 3 of your friends.
Not only is it a metric tonne of fun to romp around the various areas with your friends, it’s also brilliantly nuanced. The ability to reallocate your skills means that you can always ensure your team is well-balanced and complements one another. More than that, the level of customisation means that even 2 Demon Hunters or 2 Wizards can be on the same team with entirely different move-sets.
Of course, Co-op isn’t the only way to play with your friends. If you want to put your moves and arms to the test, the Brawling Arena offers simple, uncomplicated player vs player combat.
The final element of Diablo 3 is far and away the most important one, and the one that will keep you coming back long after you have completed all the missions repeatedly: Loot.
Weapons and armour (and rings, and necklaces etc…) can be obtained 3 possible ways: buying them, picking them up from fallen enemies and chests, or crafting them. The real beauty of the loot in Diablo 3 is that it’s totally randomised. Save for a few key legendary items, you are almost guaranteed to have a different set than any friend (even of the same class).
More than that, the items which can be used in the game are detailed and full of stats and boosts. The starting point for any item are the base stats: eg damage and attack speed for weapons, armour points on armour etc. However, the higher quality an item (and the higher its rarity) the more additional properties it is likely to have.
This could manifest as extra damage, attribute bonuses, bonuses to critical hit chance or elemental damage additions. It can even result in ‘sockets’ -which allow gems to be installed for various stat bonuses. Magic level items will include 1-3 random properties, rare items have 4-6, and legendary items typically have 6-8 properties. On top of that, ‘set items’ are a subtype of legendary items which provide additional, cumulative bonuses if multiple items from the same set are simultaneously equipped.
The sum total of all of the above is at once both one of the most fun, in depth, compelling RPG adventures available, and an easily accessible adventure for newcomers. If you have tried the game before, the upgrade to next gen and the inclusion of the ‘Reaper of Souls’ expansion may well be enough to persuade you to part with your coins.
…if you’ve never played it before, I would suggest picking it up straight away, and convince 3 of your friends to do the same!
^Hooksan(@HooksaN)
…and just in case that wasn’t enough to convince you, here is the trailer video for ‘Reaper of Souls’ from Blizzard:
David Hook (HooksaN) contributed 26 articles to ICXM between 2014–2015, covering game reviews, and Xbox news with a focus on hands-on impressions and verified-source reporting. Their bylines on the site span the Xbox One’s first full year of post-launch coverage, including the early days of Backwards Compatibility and Windows 10 gaming. They post on X as @Hooksan.