by Angelo Baute
Full disclosure: I have never played the first two Diablo games. I know; it’s borderline, if not downright, blasphemy. Twelve years ago, I wasn’t really into RPGs at all. By the time I was, it had been almost several years since Diablo II’s release, and I didn’t feel like visiting an old game when all these shiny and brand new games were near the horizon.
That being said, I was still hesitant to try this game out. I was concerned I would be lost or confused with a game that has already two games worth of lore behind it. But after some rather persistent insistence from my friend, via Gchat, Twitter, and any media which he could find his hands on, I decided to try out the open beta.
As I usually do with RPGs, I spent an inordinate amount of time picking my character’s class. I looked up what sort of powers each one possessed, what armor they can wear, what weapons they can use. It was all in an effort to pick the perfect one, the one that suited me just right. In retrospect, I’m not sure what I expected to uncover. Taking one simple look at the classes’ names, it’s easy to conclude you have your standard melee, range, spellcaster, healer classes that’s a staple of all RPGs. Each time, I always pick a ranged or spellcasting class.
Once I got to the character creation screen, I poked around some more and I decided to see what each class would look like as women. Ironically, this was the point when all of that diligent research I had spent into making an informed decision went out the window. Once I took one look at the female Barbarian, I was smitten. Those hulking biceps. Those monstrous thighs. The furrowed brow, a tall tall sign of limited intelligence. She reminded me of the Amazon women of Futurama, who were constantly craving “snu-snu.” Once I got the game started, I was hoping she would posses a voice of someone who took one too many shots of steroids. Alas, I was not disappointed! I spent a few minutes more than I should have looking for a conversation that would have my Barbarian say, “We no can dunk, but good fundamentals.” While my search was in vain, I don’t regret my decision to place hilarity over gameplay style since I was basically laughing to myself the entire time I was playing.
Once I started playing the game in earnest, I had a great time. The game involves a lot of clicking, but overall the game has all the RPG elements that make the genre so enjoyable, like leveling up, rare loot, crafting, and exploration. Once all those elements are in play, it’s an almost Pavlovian response the way I get sucked into these types of games. Also, with a little bit of tweaking in the options, you can have the damage numbers pop up in the middle of combat. It can get a bit overwhelming with all the numbers and effects popping up on the screen, but that’s how I prefer it. I like poking at enemies and seeing that I did 45 damage instead of 21; it’s a very satisfying experience.
One aspect of the game I was really impressed about was the randomization of the dungeons. Apparently, this has been a key feature of the Diablo series, and it made me wish I had started playing the games back then. The 2-3 times I played through the beta, each run was a different experience. It provides a simple, yet effective method to encourage replayability and I can easily see myself going through multiple playthroughs of the entire game.
I would be lying if I said I didn’t care for the achievements. Personally, the achievements added another layer of enjoyment for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to visit any of the other classes, and thus I couldn’t earn the achievements for beating the Skeleton King with them. I did manage to earn all the co-op achievements when I teamed up with my friend. All in all, I earned a good portion of them during my brief time with the beta and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I’m looking forward to playing the full game and earning the rest of the achievements when the game comes out.
Diablo III will arrive on Battle.net and in stores on May 15, 2012.
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