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Diablo 3: Our Official Diablo III Review
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Diablo III burst on the scene a few weeks ago to instantly become the best-selling computer game in history. Since that time, we've been putting it through its paces to see how it succeeds. See how Diablo III fares in our latest review.
Let’s face it, on a technical level, Diablo III already looks a bit dated. We’ve seen the game at BlizzCon for a number of years now and it really doesn’t look much different now than it did then. However, like Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, where Diablo III is deficient in the latest technical whiz bangs and DirectX technology, it makes up for it in art style. Sure, it’s not as gloomy and gothic as the original Diablo games, but it’s dark and gritty all its own. Over the course of the game’s four acts, I traversed through all manner of environments, from the muddy outskirts of Tristram, to the desert, and heck, even Heaven itself. Each area features its own distinct art style and the ambience comes off distinctively well.
Read more of Mike Bitton's Diablo III: Our Official Review.
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Comments
I agree with most of this, especially the difficulty level. The first two modes were cake ... hell was a little bit tricky, but with the AH I was able to easily gear up and blaze through act 4. Inferno ... yeah, well? On my barb it's hilarious to watch. When I see a pack of elites or champions - cue Benny Hill theme song - and watch me run and kite.
The biggest frustration for me is the way they chose to do item drops. There is no "ooh, a yellow' drop. There are tons of drops, yes, but when most of it is useless garbage, it kills the excitement. Why would I ever spend hours grinding for gear anyway, when all I really need is coin and I can just buy my way to victory?
In a nutshell, this isn't much of a skill game at all and never was. It's all about the coin and the gear. It's fun during the first couple playthroughs, but sadly, it's quickly losing it's long term appeal for me.
I would give the game 7.8 overall.
For me this game will end up on the shelf gathering dust, if diablo2 was not so full of hacked items and exploits i would return to that instead of playing d3.
If only Bill Roper and Flagship had made a Diablo3 clone instead of Hellgate London, i am sure they would have done alot better than what Blizzard has done and made then a few quid aswell, anyway we will see what some of that team can do with TL2.
I will wait for TL2 and PoE i am sure that they will be alot better than what Blizzard as achieved.
One last point: Micheal you can call a game easy when you play it on it's hardest mode.
Did you really give an official Diablo 3 review based on the first 30 levels?
Shouldn't a "official review" be based on the entire game instead 5% of it?
GW2 the future of MMO gaming
lol 10/10 value, 9/10 longevity.
I think these scores were given because everyone on the planet knows that Diablo 3 will get better over time and be expanded upon a great deal, just like every Blizzard game ever.
Every single Blizzard game made deserves a 10/10 in value and 9/10 in longevity when it is released because you know that product is going to be "the defining game" of that genre.
Action RPG - Diablo
RTS - Starcraft/Warcraft
MMO - WoW
You may not like it, but it is 100% true. Blizzard games define the genre they are in.
Just like Apple and iStuff, it may not be the "best" product on that market, but everyone knows it and it defines the market.
Lol ! Who did that review ? someone who played the game to level 10 ?
Doesn't set itself apart? From what? It is one of the very few ARPG's on the market AND it's made by Blizzard. What exactly do you want?
Spotty B.net service? Really? I haven't had any lag or any disconnects since the day after launch. Either you are lying or you have had some pretty horrendous luck.
Too Easy outside of Hell/Inferno. This is a valid point. Except that it is a single player game with four difficulties. Try playing a game like Halo on the first two difficulties. Are they very challenging? No, they aren't. How is this game any different.
I disagree with a vast portion of this article as well. You give ratings and make points that aren't valid or you don't even explain your rating and talk around it. This reeks of someone who tested the game for a few hours and then decided to write a review. Either that, or you read up on the forum hared and then decided to write a review.
On what planet have you been on holiday since launch? I would like to know, so we all can travel there too!
The only one that is lying through his teeth and sure as hell hasn't bought the game nor played it, is you!
As all the Error 37 and Error 73 jokes, constant server downtimes and maintenance (especially here in Europe!!) , endless complain threads about it (both on official forums and these and other forums), videos about it, etc.... that is all fake??
I know blind fanboism can go far these days.... but you take it to a whole new level. /shrug
To the guy above(DAS), Halo has only 1 character class and you don't have to play through every difficulty to unlock the harder ones, at worst you have to play through the second hardest to unlock the hardest. You select the hardest difficulty and you beat it, you don't suffer through a drawn out story mode 3 times just to get a challenge.
I am in act1 of inferno and up until act 2 of hell the game is a cake walk. I was all geared up to finish normal and expect it to get harder but it wasn't at all. It is not even hard in Hell either though because all that causes you problems are champion packs with random affixes like plagued, frozen, jailer as a melee class.
Normal and Nightmare are way too easy, infact I have no desire to start an alt now because I don't want to play through the game twice on difficulties where it's almost impossible to die unless you are afk.
I thought it was a good review and I agree with most of it. I also agree with BadSpock. I wasn't a big fan of Diablo 1 or 2, but 3 is becoming an entry point for me to enjoy the rest of the genre after many years of avoiding it. I'm finding that D3 lacks any entertainment value beyond the first class I played for whatever reason. I love playing my monk but can't stand 5 minutes of any other class, so the value of the game will be found in what content is available for just my monk in future updates and expansions. That's just a guarantee that Blizzard doesn't need to sell to me because they have that reputation.
I also know will continue to find entertainment in other games of the genre that I like because of elements that were fun for me in D3. So I can't say D3 will be the best of this genre in the years ahead, but it has introduced me to other games in the genre that I look forward to playing and might even enjoy more, like Torchlight 2, Path of Exile, Grim Dawn, and maybe even Heroes of Ruin (3DS).
Diablo III burst on the scene a few weeks ago to instantly become the best-selling computer game in history ....
Really?
The Sims (16 million shipped)[186]
Lemmings (15 million, including all platforms)[187]
Tetris (100 million)[196]
Ape Escape (80 million)[197]
Pac-Man (30 million in the US)[198]
Angry Birds (12 million)[199]
Lie to me in your opening quote and ill assume everything you have to say from then on is to reinforce the validity of your lie.
lol My thoughts exactly. I haven't had much of a problem with it either, but I would have to totally be disconnected to the entire community to ignore how many problems happened at launch. Spotty B.net service is an understatement. I'm glad they seemed to have resolved it now though.
It's hard to justify the scores given but D3 is an awesome game, however they seem to have neglected or glossed over the key problems of which there are many.
Itemisation....it's bad, almost all the drops are utter trash.
B-Net...while they had a very shakey week, they seem to have gotten it working properly now, i for one have been impressed with the improvement and fixes.
RMAH...it's a bad idea and it's the main reason so many accounts have been hacked and stripped already, couple this with a bunch of KNOWN exploits which gold farmers have been abusing 24/7 and it's all a bit of a mess.
Normal is a main gripe, but it's really a training/practice run through more than anything else. Nightmare is easy so is Hell....but inferno is another world.
For Slickshoes above, there is a Hardcore permadeath mode, enjoy ....i am
Bottom line, they got the main point right, it IS a Diablo game, definitely and as such it has a great launchpad and the game itself is really solid and polished.
Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy
While I havent Played Diablo 3. I will just say that D1 and D2 are two of my all time favourite games (though i prefered the randomness of d1 best) and as an active participant in the family & friends beta for TL2 I am really looking forward to the finished product, after you play it for an hour you can really tell that those guys were the ones who put the magic in D1 and D2.
I'm a HUGE Diablo fan. I played D1 for years after D2 released. I've played D2 since release. I was one of those guys complaining about the changes between D1 and D2 and how messed up D2 was because of them (kinda like everyone is doing now with D3).
D3 is a good game. Maybe someday it'll be great. I've not beaten Act4 of Normal yet and I have no desire to log in atm to do so. Current longevity for me? Not a 9.5 right now.
Other than that, most of the review was quite good.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
well that is interesting...as soon as I saw that official diablo 3 review was up, i was thinking "hmm..im thinking they will give it an 8.5".
Who could have guessed?
Looking forward to EQL and EQN.
He wasn't the first person to say that... It was all over the news. I believe it is misquoted though. If I remember correctly, it was either the best selling game on day one of all time, or highest preorders, or something like that. I just remember seeing a lot of publicity that it sold the most of all time under specific criteria.
I have had 3 deaths in the non hardcore version of the game that were the result of lag, there is no way I am trying the permadeath mode just now, maybe in a little while once the population has died down a bit and the servers seem more stable, I don't mind dying to me being a tool but to die to lag is infuriating.
Both, actually. It was Amazons most pre-ordered game ever, and it sold the most units in the first 24 hours (beating Cataclysm for that honor, btw).
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
You know I was thinking the same...... along with it's an Action RPG not an MMO so why even bother reviewing it on MMOrpg.com
You, apparently!
normal/nightmare is supposed to be "easy". it's for all the people that just started gaming at this very moment. what should have been done is option to start at higher difficulty, at least once player already has character on higher level.
while true and impressive - it should also be mentioned:
D3 24hr sales included 2 months of preorders (but did not include WOW annual pass)
WOW Cata 24 hr sales included a month of preorders from Blizzard
EQ2 fan sites
Right, because wikipedia is solid reliable information....not.
Also the number of copies sold is irrelevant, the statement, while probably not true, doesn't detract from the review, had they said "D3 is the best game ever made and heres why..." then fine, but they didn't.
Haters gonna hate.
Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy
Everything sounded pretty accurate to me. All I'm seeing is a bunch of bullshit from paranoid anti-fanboys that don't check their facts and popular opinion by the community before accusing the reviewer of lies and fanboism.