Last week Diablo 3 officially became the 10th bestselling video game of all-time (which includes mobile games and free games, so really it should be like 5th). That being said, it surprises me that this game is so little talked about on Vizzed. It did come out many years ago, but then again so did Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Mario Bros. And unlike the latter, this game could be played for 1000 hours and the game still wouldn't feel like it's getting old and overplayed.

But who cares about how much it's talked about, right? All you need to know is how good the game is. So, let's start off the review with anoverview.

PLAYSTYLE

Diablo 3 is an Action Role-Playing Game, or ARPG for short, with an isometric view. Ever played Gauntlet, Torchlight, Baldur's Gate, or Path of Exile? Those are all the same playstyle as Diablo 3. For those who haven't played any of those, or perhaps you just want a refresher on what it is, you pick a class with unique abilities and fight monsters.

In Diablo 3, you have 6 attack buttons. A is your primary attack, Right Trigger is your secondary attack, X is your defensive ability, Y is a special ability, and B and Right Bumper are typically your class's ultimate attacks. However, each type of attack typically has about 4 specific attacks, making each class have about 24 attacks they can perform. That's a huge amount considering what type of game this is, but it doesn't stop there.

Each and every attack has 5 runes that modify the base attack. Runes can be many different things. For example, there's a rune that makes an attack where you throw out frogs completely change to a rune where frogs rain from the sky. But there's also a rune for a poison dart attack simply have a chance to stun the enemy and deal lightning elemental damage. There is also 14-16 passive abilities for each character (you can equip 4 at max level) that aren't attacks, but give you a side bonus (like +20% damage against far away enemies).

SO... That's a lot of possibilities. For example, the Wizard class, which has 25 different attacks with 5 runes each and 15 different passives can have a possible 1.259 TRILLION combinations. That's a crazy amount of possibilities, so you can play any way you want!

Usually there will be large groups of enemies that come towards you. Obviously, you'll want to use your 6 attacks to defeat them, but there is strategy in it. Most attacks use your character's "resource," such as Mana or Discipline. Some characters gain resources over time, while others gain resources from attacking with their primary attacks. So you'll first want to use your powerful attacks, then when your resource gets low you will use your primary attacks.

If you do not understand this, or maybe you want to try the game now, there are free demos for this game on PC, PS3, PS4, XB360, and XB1.

CLASSES

There are 6 classes in the game. I will go over them all and write a brief summary for each character.

Barbarian - The Barbarian class uses Strength as his primary attribute and Fury as his resource. Most, if not all, of his attacks are physical. He is based around AoE (Area of Effect), so he is incredibly good for taking down groups of enemies, but not so much for 1-on-1 like with bosses. Some of his moves include: Earthquake (massive area damage over time), Call of the Ancients (summons 3 other barbarians to help fight), and Whirlwind (spins around and deals continuous rapid damage)

Crusader - The Crusader was added in the Reaper of Souls expansion. He uses Strength as his primary attribute and Wrath as his resource. The Crusader always wields a shield in one hand and a weapon in the other. Because he always has a shield, lots of his builds revolve around massive HP/Armor/Block chance. Crusader is truly the ultimate class for survival, and great for beginners. He even has a passive that puts you up to 100% when you're going to die! He also has some extremely powerful 1-on-1 attacks. Some of his moves include: Smite (throw holy laser-chains at enemies that explode), Heaven's Fury (summons a beam of holy light to sear enemies around him), and Condemn (suck enemies in and explode them outward for MASSIVE area damage)

Demon Hunter - The Demon Hunter uses Dexterity as her primary attribute and is the only class to use two resources, Hatred and Discipline. The Demon Hunter can either wield a longbow and a quiver, or dual-wield two crossbows. The Demon Hunter's main draw-in is her insane attack speed and excellent range. Her attacks consist of traps that use Discipline and rapid attacks that use Hatred. On the other hand, Demon Hunter has some of the worst survivability in the game, so it's all or nothing! Some of Demon Hunter's moves are: Rapid Fire (bombard your enemy with a hailstorm of arrows), Sentry (spawn an automatic crossbow to attack at enemies), and Spike Trap (set a proximity mine that explodes 3 times before disappearing)

Monk - The Monk class uses Dexterity for its primary attribute and Spirit for its resource. Monks have all sorts of different types of attacks, making it possibility the most varying class. Like Demon Hunter, the Monk attacks very quickly, but unlike Demon Hunter, Monks have extremely short range. They are also the "healing class" and go excellent in groups of 3 or 4 players. Monk has many attacks that heal the party or create shields to reduce damage. Some of its moves are: Seven-Sided Strike (strongest attack in the game, teleports and attacks 7 times for insane damage), Sanctuary (creates a field of energy that rapidly heals any allies inside), and Exploding Palm (karate chop an enemy to deal large damage over time, then when they die they explode for massive area damage)

Witch Doctor - The Witch Doctor, in my opinion, is a very unique class. He uses Intelligence as his primary attribute and Mana as his resource. Witch Doctors rely on summoning zombie allies and other pets to assist them in battle. Witch Doctors have many ranged attacks, and many other attacks that deal damage over time. A popular build is to summon 3 zombie dogs, ~10 fetish zombies, and 1 giant zombie to take the damage and deal the damage, then to run away and use ranged attacks on the enemies. Very strange class. Some of his moves are: Corpse Spiders (throw a jar filled with spiders that seek out and bite enemies), Haunt (send an evil spirit out to attack enemies over time), and Piranhas (conjure a pool of piranhas to eat away enemies standing nearby)

Wizard - The Wizard is probably my least played class, but I know a little about her. The Wizard uses Intelligence as her primary attribute and Arcane Power as her resource. Wizards are similar to Demon Hunters in that they both deal lots of damage, die quickly, and are ranged. But the Wizard can be played many different ways. She is equipped with some excellent 1-on-1 constant damage attacks, but also some great AoE attacks. Some of her attacks include: Hydra (spawn a 3-headed dragon to use elemental attacks on enemies), Disintegration Ray (constantly deal large damage at a single enemy), and Archon. Archon is the only move in the game that literally temporarily changes the character's attacks, stats, and abilities. Archon turns the Wizard into a being of pure Arcane Energy, allowing for some absolutely ridiculous damage. Each rune adds an extra ability.

And now, without further ado, the actual review.

The Actual Review

Graphics - 7

As I mentioned early, this game has an isometric view (meaning top-down, but angled a little so you can see all 3 dimensions). This works amazingly well for what type of game it is, since it can be very chaotic and you want to see everything. However, the game has many effects and particles, and would normally be extremely resource-demanding. So, in order for the game to perform at 60 fps with no spikes across all platforms, the texture resolution has to be low. Graphics are mildly pixely and not super detailed, but you can still understand what everything is supposed to be. So the graphics aren't amazing nor are they impressive, but Blizzard did what had to be done. And I love the art style!

Sound - 7

This game has a ton of voice clips and sounds from different voice actors. The music is more atmospheric than entertaining, which is great for a game like this. And every different attack each class has makes a different sound, same with every enemy. So the sound effects are excellent but the music is boring (though honestly I'd rather that than excellent music that gets me lost).

Addictiveness - 10

I legitimately don't think I've ever played a game as addicting as Diablo 3 is. The game is extremely fun, especially in multiplayer, but the game has such a... clingy and satisfactory feel to it. Like the game itself begs to to keep playing. Everything you do in the game has satisfaction (unless you beat a boss and get crappy loot). Killing enemies is satisfying, finding and opening treasure chests is satisfying, leveling up is extremely satisfying the first time around when you're unlocking abilities for the first time. Getting good loot and items is also very satisfying.

Everything you do in the game, you're rewarded for it in some way or another. Unless you die, I guess. So when you're ready to stop playing the game, it's like you can't because you don't want to stop feeling that amazing feeling.

Also, after you complete the story mode, you unlock Adventure Mode. Adventure Mode allows you to explore all the areas in Story Mode, and also some areas that can't be accessed in Story Mode. There are many new mechanics in this mode that allow the game to be even more addictive and endless.

Story - 9

I'm not too big on stories in video games. It's good to know the basic outline, but I don't ever care about the details. Of all the hundreds and hundreds of video games I've played, I can honestly say I'm probably cared about the full story for 2 or 3 games. I guess I just like to focus on the actual game and not think too much about things. But I did like the story in Diablo 3.

The Diablo franchise as a whole has very deep lore. Very basically there's the Prime Evils, the Great Evils, and the Lesser Evils. The Prime Evils are Baal (Lord of Destruction), Mephisto (Lord of Hatred), and of course Diablo (Lord of Terror). In the first two Diablo games, Baal and Mephisto were defeated. In Diablo 3, you must defeat what remains of all the Great and Lesser Evils and eventually Diablo himself. With the help of an Angel (basically a lesser god), you (the chosen one, the Nephalem), and some 22-year-old girl or something go across a big journey to defeat Him. Seems cliche-ish at first (chosen heroes defeating evil itself), but the story in this game is actually very deep.

Leah, the 22-year-old, has these magical powers that sometimes erupt from her. You find her mother, Adria, presumed to be dead. Leah has no idea, but Adria was Diablo's main servant. You continue on your journey and kill more demons. Every time a Prime/Great/Lesser evil gets killed, their soul gets absorbed in The Black Soulstone. You want to make sure, no matter what happens, that Diablo does not get The Black Soulstone and absorb the souls of them. Pretty cool, right? I can't say any more without spoiling everything, so you should totally play the game for yourself and see!

When the Reaper of Souls expansion was released, in addition to adding Adventure Mode, the Crusader class, and various balance changes, there was one last big update. The original game was split up into 4 acts, but RoS added Act V. Act V has its own story and isn't totally related to the base game, but I'll spoiler tag it anyways. So don't read if you don't want spoilers.

Depth - 10

In Diablo 3 - Reaper of Souls, the main story is separated into 5 acts. Act I should take like 10 hours for a more casual player to complete, Act II usually takes about 7 hours, Act III takes another 7-ish, and Act IV is only like 2-3 hours. Act V has a ton of optional stuff, so can vary from 5-10 hours. Overall, that's like 35 hours for the main story alone. And every time you play you should pick a different class for a totally different experience. Also, most of the world is randomly generated so each time you play it's different.

Of course, we wouldn't want to play the Story 6 times over again, would we? That's why they made Adventure Mode. Adventure Mode is the game without the story. You can do whatever you want, kill any bosses in any order, and also fight some Adventure Mode-exclusive bosses.

And also there's extra dungeons in Adventure Mode like Nephalem Rifts, then when you get super into the game there's Greater Rifts and Infernal Machines. I'd say, with Reaper of Souls, it would take you like 500 hours playtime to just start the Greater Rifts. This game ishuge and has a ton of replayability (the entire endgame revolves around that fact).

Difficulty - 6

On the console versions, Diablo 3 - Reaper of Souls has 10 difficulties, and on PC it has 14. Oddly enough, Normal is the easiest and Expert is only difficulty number 3/10. Each difficulty level basically doubles the hardness of the game, but in return rewards much more experience/item find chance than previous difficulties. Since there's 10 strongly varying difficulty levels, the game's difficulty begins on the player. When you load up a profile and start playing, you can move the difficulty either up 1 difficulty or down 1 difficulty mid-game, but choose any unlocked difficulty in the main menu.

After beating Act IV you unlock the Master difficulty (4/10), and after reaching the max level of 70 you unlock the Torment difficulties. There is Torment I, T2, T3, etc. up until T6 on consoles and T10 on PC. On Normal difficulty, even at level 1, you basically just kill everything in one hit, so even for beginners, Expert can be too easy until the higher difficulties are unlocked. For me, Torment 3 is fit for a max level character and Torment I for a lower level character.

However, this game is not for casual gamers. Your mom probably wouldn't play it, and its complicated playstyle is definitely fit more for experienced gamers.

Here is a chart depicting the differences between difficulty levels.

Overall - 9.5

To wrap things up, Diablo 3 is an excellent game. The gameplay is superb and extremely addictive, the sound effects are great, and it has a very deep and interesting story once you get into it. The game can be played any way and any difficulty you want it to be. It's also a very long game and has almost infinite replayability. The Reaper of Souls expansion (you can't get basic Diablo 3 anymore without RoS) adds onto the game by a huge amount. Overall, I give Diablo 3 - Reaper of Souls a near-perfect 9.5 out of 10.



Thank you for reading my review! I put a lot of effort into this so I am proud of myself for doing so. But don't hold any criticism! I cannot improve at all unless you point out flaws in my review.

And, just so you know, skimming then criticizing does nothing good for me. You shouldn't even be posting in this forum if you're going to spend 1 minute reading a post of this size.

Cheers!

To be honest I have always wanted to play this game. This is a great review faded. And thank you for doing it. I have seen streamers play it and it looks a whole lot of fun. Maybe I'll get to play this one day.