Well, one week has passed since the release of Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo 3. D3 will end the story that began with the original Diablo, but from what Blizzard has said, this will not be our last foray into the Diablo-verse. The story occurs twenty years after the end of Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. The world of Sanctuary prepared for an attack from Hell, but the attack never came. Deckard Cain began a journey to learn why. When the game opens, a strange star has fallen into the ruins of Tristram, and your hero character (for some unknown reason) seeks the star as an omen. How do you know the star brings an omen? Well, massive armies of undead assault the settlement of New Tristram, that's why. During the entry, we meet a young woman named Leah, whose uncle, Deckard Cain, has been trapped in the ruins of Tristram. She asks the hero to save him, and things move forward from there.
Overall, the game is really solid and really, really fun. I didn't find any glitches in the game play. I didn't experience any of the Error 37 furor on opening day, because I waited until Wednesday afternoon to play. Progression through the story went smoothly, and level progression moved equally smoothly. I liked that I can continually rearrange my powers and glyphs between battles so as to really prepare myself for any challenge. The downside to that is that I now only have a reason to create one of each heroic class instead of playing multiple variants of my favorite classes. But that's not a huge problem, because I've always found the Diablo series to have pretty high replay value.
The narrative is a traditional "Hero-Saves-the-World-from-Evil" story, and it was delivered solidly across the visual, aural, and interactive formats used in video games. I thought a certain major plot twist [event redacted due to spoiler content] was telegraphed a bit too strongly and for too long. That said, the voice acting played the event itself well, delivering enough emotional engagement to keep me playing. The art of the game kept the mood dark and serious, which really helped propel the feeling that you were playing a hero in a heroic fantasy world. Plus, there really is nothing more fun than wading into a group of thirty enemies and slaughtering them. That makes you feel really heroic.
So what are my complaints, aside from telegraphing foreshadowing? Well, the use of the left mouse button to move, to attack, and to interact with everyone gets annoying when your finger cramps during a massive multi-wave battle. Also, it feels a bit awkward and old-fashioned compared to the use of the WASD keys for movement employed by most PC games. Oh, and the Templar companion never seems to shut up. But I tolerated his incessant prattle, because he has good healing abilities.
So where does that leave us? Diablo 3 is one solid, enjoyable video game. Do I recommend it, yes. But be warned, Diablo 3 is a gateway game to World of Warcraft. And that game will suck your life from you if you're not careful.
Rating: 4.25 out of 5.
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