Thankfully, they make up for their lack of character with sheer functionality. It might seem petty to knock a game for using a plain-looking font for the sake of readability, or revising the iconic inventory screen into something more console-friendly than the traditional paper doll, but all those little differences add up to drain just a bit of that gothic Diablo flavor I’ve grown to love over the last 17 years. Less impressive, at least in terms of their looks, are the new gamepad-friendly menus and interface. Even those concessions don’t keep the framerate from dipping a bit when the action crescendos, but overall, Diablo III’s performance is impressive given how joyously chaotic the battles can get.
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As strong as the art direction is, there's just no ignoring the fuzziness of the textures, or (relative to the PC version) some toned-down spell effects. While this version of Diablo III isn't ugly by any means, it largely gets by on the strength of Blizzard's art department, whose skill is evident in every loose cathedral stone and gnarled tree branch. Getting it all to happen while mostly maintaining 60 frames per second comes at a price in terms of graphical fidelity. Of course, all that spectacular carnage is a lot to handle, especially when the screen is filled from top to bottom with the teeming hordes of Hell. It's all incredibly well-animated, instilling the combat with an irresistible sense of raw, kinetic force. Skeleton parts litter the air as I detonate my zombie dogs, eviscerated corpses reel from my Monk's lashing tail kick, and defeated demons rear back and scream to the heavens as they disintegrate from the ground up.
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And boy, do Diablo's cronies know how to sell a hit. Barbarians hit with a palpable, limb-severing violence that’s instantly gratifying, while the Witch Doctor’s more artful setups made me feel both crafty and explosively destructive all at once. No matter which of the five classes you play, you’ll have a vast array of skills to choose from as you level up, each more fun to use than the last. And it certainly didn’t make decimating the denizens of the Burning Hells any less satisfying.īut then, I don't know that anything could. Ranged characters may have minor issues picking a specific target out of a tightly packed mob, but it never got me killed or led to frustration. It sounds like playing on autopilot, but for the most part it's a surprisingly elegant solution.
Targeting is handled by simply facing in your foe's direction and letting the auto-aim figure out the rest. This goes double for the many great boss battles, where rolling to evade their massive onslaughts feels so useful it's hard to imagine playing without it. The new dodge mechanic on the right stick adds a level of mobility that really jives with the way enemy encounters are designed. Moving about with the left analog stick feels very direct, creating a sense of connection with my avatars as they bob, weave, and generally wreck shop. With so much constant action, the transition from mouse and keyboard to gamepad could easily have been a disaster, but instead, it feels natural and – in some ways – even better. After all, whether in single-player or co-op with up to three other adventurers, you spend most of your time wading through hordes of skeletons, zombies, succubi, and all manner of other awesome-looking hellspawn, usually with little respite between scraps. It calls itself an action-RPG, but Diablo III is an action game first and foremost. The action is every bit as beefy and bombastic as ever, but the loot game has changed dramatically, and for the better. But, far more important are the tweaks that Blizzard has implemented to make Diablo III the game it always should have been, one that hits most of the notes my inner Diablo fan craves while welcoming newcomers with open arms. The weak story and corny writing? Okay, that’s still here. Gripes about the always-on internet connection requirement? Gone. Not only is it flush with all the PC version’s content, but it comes with few of the drawbacks.
Oftentimes, games that make the transition from PC to consoles flop around awkwardly like a fish out of water, but Diablo III navigates the stream confidently.