Diablo III Review (PS3)

Story

Embark on a journey to defeat the Lesser Evils, Belial and Azmodan, and exterminate evil itself.

Your character started with your chosen class and gender. You are on a journey to investigate a fallen star near New Tristam. During your journey, you have to fight various demons and monsters, as well as fighting two Lesser Evils, Belial and Azmodan.

Although the mythology surrounding Diablo series is interesting, I do not find this game's story to be extremely good or bad. The story is fine, but lacks of good plot twists and good story exposition. The characters are pretty much static, where some of them may be likable and some might not. I do not have specific liking on any characters, except my own playable male Barbarian and male Demon Hunter as their own background stories are more intriguing than the main the story.

Gameplay

i) Introduction

A great port from the PC version.

The consoles version is a direct port from the PC version. Many changes included the new user interface, new controls, absence of Auction House, and other changes. Most of all, this version does not require constant online Internet connection to play compared to the PC version. This game can be played both offline and online co-op mode. However, a new patch was released for the PC version that allows the game to be offline as well.

ii) Exploration and Progression Section

Travel to random-generated dungeons and fields.

The progression in this game is quite simple, but not extremely linear. Mission objectives are fairly simplistic, requiring you to travel from one point to another. You also have to fight a number of bosses in this game as well.

Although there is lack of game progression methods like puzzle, one thing that sets this game apart than other games is the random generated fields and dungeons. Everytime you reload your save and continue the game, you will find that the dungeons's layouts will be different, with different exit points, different enemy spawn spots and different treasure chests locations. Open fields may have the same layouts as always, but enemies and extra dungeons are also random generated. Also, random side-events may be encountered when exploring the optional dungeons or when traversing open fields.

This game also allows you to teleport back to main towns in different Acts quickly, either to store your items in Stash or for repairs. Otherwise, you need to run towards your destinations.

iii) Upgrade and Customisation Section

Customise your character intensively.

Before you start the game, you need to choose the class and gender of your character. Each class have different sets of skills and abilities, such as Barbarians are primarily focused on melee attacks, whereas Demon Hunters are focused on ranged attacks. Depending on your preferences, choosing a class is important as it may suit your playstyle well. Each class also has their own unique preferences of weapons and armours, such as Demon Hunters can only use crossbows or bow and arrow as weapons.

Experience points are obtained by defeating enemies and completing Main Quests or Side Quests. As your character levels up, he or she will learn new skills. Also, he or she will gain stats boost, such as Strength and Vitality.

Some skills may have additional Rune abilities, which further enhances different skills' potency. For example, Barbarian's Seismic Slam has the Rune called Rumble, allowing the skill to deal extra damage with extended period of time. Experimenting different Runes with different Skills will benefit your character in a long run.

Items can be bought from merchants, such as healing potions and armour equipment. Defeated enemies may drop loot such as armour pieces, gold or weapons. Armour pieces have their own unique parts, like helmets, chestpiece, and gloves. Each weapon or armour pieces have their own rarity. For example, weapons with yellow glow are Rare, whereas weapons with blue glow are Unique. The rarer the item is, the more powerful it is and it has more extra stats boost or extra passive abilities. Like the dungeons, open field and enemies, items like shields, swords, and others are randomly dropped by enemies or sold by merchants.

As you progress in the game, you may choose to forge new equipment by spending some gold and materials. Also, you may choose to embed a gem on an armour piece or weapon for extra stat boost. However, you can only do this on equipment that has sockets.

You may also bring along a follower during your journey in the game. A follower also levels up when fighting enemies, as well as can be equipped with weapons and certain accessories. The follower also learn unique Skills, which can be chosen after they reached certain levels.

iv) Combat Section

Unleash each class's special abilities on enemies.

Each button on the controller (except the Directional buttons and L1 button) are mapped with it's own category of Skills. You can make your own customise shortcuts of skills if you want to. During combat, you may choose to attack the enemies with your basic attacks to attack enemies, or use your special secondary abilities to kill multiple enemies at the same time. You can also dodge attacks by using the Right Analog Stick.

Resource is a form of 'magic points' for every class in order for them to use their special attacks. For most of the classes, Resource is generated by attacking enemies, whereas some Resources are generated over time. For example, Barbarian's Hammer of the Ancient consumes Fury in order to be used. As each class have their own unique Resources, it is important to understand how to generate or use their Resource(s) effectively in combat. Some Skills in this game may not consume Resource at all, but may have it's own cooldown period before being used again.

Enemies have their own types and categories. Standard enemies are commonly found while fighting in the game, whereas some enemies like Unique enemies and Rare enemies are found occassionally in the game. In this case, these enemies may have special abilities and genrally are tougher than their standard counterparts. Unique enemies are also in the game, such as bosses or very rare Unique enemies found randomly in the game.

Bosses are pretty much tougher than regular enemies, as they have their own sets of abilities that can kill you easily in the game. Since you cannot manually block attacks in this game, strategic placement or dodging are required to survive in these boss fights, as well as attacking them relentlessly if you have the chance. You may also play this game in co-operative mode with your friends if you want to play online.

v) Gameplay Conclusion

Satisfying gameplay.

The gameplay is great, with random generated monsters, dungeons, events, items, as well as great combat and sense of progression. Only few issues with the game's progression methods, but the game is too fun to play with that any problems that I had with the game are immediately dispelled.

Graphics

Pretty visuals and animations.

The graphics are good, with colourful and pretty visuals as well as great animations. It is very difficult to describe whether the NPCs, monsters, and bosses have great details in design as the game was designed with top-to-down view like strategy games, limiting your view on the characters and monsters. However, you can look how detailed your playable character is on your Start menu. You can see that your character is created with details, and armour pieces and weapon will affect his appearance greatly in real-time.

The game also has high-quality CG cutscenes, such as the opening scene, the Tyrael vs. Imperius scene, and others. It is rather life-like cutscenes, and I must commend the amount of work done in these high quality CG cutscenes.

There are few technical issues in the game, such as minor stuttering and framerate issues which I noticed when playign during Acts where there is high activity ons creen. However, the game still manages a solid performance throughout the whole game.

Sound

Good sound design, and good voice acting.

The game has pretty good orchestral soundtrack. Some of the pieces are ambient, but most of the tracks fit in the game most of the time. Unfortunately, not many of the pieces are memorable enough for me to like.

The voice acting is suitable, fitting each characters well enough to not make the characters downright bad or boring.

Replay Value

High replay value.

This game has high replay value. You may play the game again in multiple difficulty modes such as Nightmare, Hell, or Inferno mode for increased challenge and better rewards. You may also try out different classes in a new playthrough to experience other class's abilities. You may also try to obtain the Trophies, but some of them can be tedious to obtain.

Conclusion

One of my favourite Western RPG games.

Regardless of story issues, technical performances and possibility of repetitive gameplay occuring, I find that this game is a great RPG game, with unique random generator of dungeons, maps, enemy placements, and items. Not only that, the gameplay is fairly exceptional with good Skills system and character progression. I highly recommend this game to any RPG fans who like deep customisation and great gameplay.

Score

Story: 7/10

Gameplay: 10/10

Graphic: 9/10

Sound: 9/10

Final Score: 8.75/10.0 or 35/40

Pros and Cons

Pros

- Great port from the PC version.

- Interesting mythology.

- Excellent controls.

- Addicting yet satisfying gameplay.

- Intense combat.

- Multiple difficulty modes for varying levels of skill.

- Different class give great unique taste of abilities and armaments.

- Great progression of skills and abilities throughout the game.

- Dynamic and random generated dungeons, fields and items.

- In-depth customisation.

- Good graphics.

- Good sound design.

- High replay value.

Cons

- Story feels too simplistic.

- Story lacks good plot twists and good story expositions.

- No puzzles or other types of progression methods.

- Moderate possibility of repetitiveness after playing more than one playthrough.

- Few technical issues.

**Images are from IGN and Battle.net/d3.