Diablo 3

Title: Diablo 3
Developed by: Blizzard Entertainment & Square Enix
Released: 2012 (Windows) 2013 (Xbox360 & PS3) 2014 (PS4)

Diablo III is an action role playing game which, despite its DRM, was the biggest seller of 2012.

Non-split screen multiplayer games are difficult to create well and can easily become frustrating if someone either races ahead or falls behind. The maps within Diablo 3 eliminate this quite well, leaving only a few exceptions.

On the first load: I’m impressed. The intro was amazing, though pre-rendered, and it doesn’t look like Runescape either. So far it seems a lot like Dragon’s Dogma, without the customization. You pick your character type from Witch Doctor, Barbarian, Wizard, Monk and Demon Hunter before starting your whimsical journey. In my case there were 3 other players which were nicely labelled via colours and numbers around their feet, which is surely nicer than floating tags which can be lost in perspective. However, the game did assume I knew the controls. 

Finding my way around the pause menus was frustrating every so often as I didn't want to appear “slow” as everyone else waited.

The graphics of diablo 3 are great. It’s set in a dark atmosphere but no one felt the need to close the curtains. Colours are sharp and vibrant. Areas are free of camera-blocking clutter on the most part and targets were clear. Even in multiplayer, the HUD was concise and wasn’t forced into the corners.

I did find myself confused as characters ran around me and the scenery but that’s just me. The combat system was direct and easy to handle with confirmations on ‘debuffs’. I especially liked the interactive environments and damage. Crashing chandeliers on skulls and smashing open caskets gave a nice immersion factor and the hacking and slashing a rest. Nothing beats teamwork and having two monks debuffing and charging forwards, swinging like a windmill, was a moment I haven’t felt since BC2:’Nam.

Greatly presented game with some silly snags for a game that’s been ported so many times.

With great standards brings great expectations and what I didn't like was the camera’s strict direction. The camera in multiplayer would block progression if players were behind and push you along if you happened to be that one person slacking. I felt that this destroyed the open-ness of the experience. It was nice that friendlies wouldn't stray too far but at times we found that alcoves in the map would cause players to become trapped until the others found they couldn't move onwards: A little more flexibility would have been welcome. Another issue was the collection of items and selecting them, along with enabling special abilities. Every so often all the players would scrum for items and then all pause, one by one, to access such. This broke the fluency of it all and became frustrating as people found they collected items they couldn't even use - causing another stint of collect and enable. The menu system is beautiful, fantastic during single player, but needs better co-op optimization.

The game is so well presented that the odd annoyances stick-out like a sore thumb – which is unfair on this title: If you like this genre, get it - 8.1