On its release on May 15, 2012, Diablo III revived PC gaming for many who had stopped buying games for their computers many years ago. I, along with thousands of other gamers worldwide, have been waiting 12 years for this glorious sequel to Diablo II. While I can’t say Diablo III is the best game I’ve ever played, it comes in at second place. (Right behind The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)
The game features astonishing graphics, beautiful music, and responsive controls.
These are three main things I look for in every video game I play, as these three things leave the biggest impression.
The visuals in Diablo III are beautiful. The enhanced graphics really bring different areas within the game to life. The colors are vivid, and the character looks more realistic than just a computer animation.
The cinematics in Diablo are unbelievable. Everything from the animation of the characters to just the shading are all miniscule details that make this game come alive.
One of my personal favorite things about Diablo are the new character classes, which are different types of characters who specialize in certain combat techniques. The new classes include the Witch Doctor, reminiscent of the Diablo II Necromancer, The Wizard, a version of the Diablo II sorcerer, and the Demon Hunter, which combines Diablo II’s amazon and assassin classes.
The different songs in areas of Diablo III fit their respective settings perfectly. When playing a video game, whether you’re conscious of it or not, music does affect how you play. There won’t be a One Direction song playing in the background while you’re facing the Skeleton King. The music is eerie, medieval-sounding,and very fitting to the style of the game. Diablo 3 Music composer Russell Brower did a fantastic job.
When it comes to controls, there’s really nothing you need to worry about. It’s a hack and slash game. Left click your mouse on the enemy a few times and you win.
As you kill enemies, your power source gauge fills. Each character has different sources of power. For example, the Barbarian uses “fury” as a power source. As the barbarian is attacking and being attacked, his fury gauge fills. When full, you can right click on enemies to use more powerful special moves. When you use these special attacks, your fury level goes down, but you can refill by killing more enemies.
Those are the positives of Diablo III. A huge negative with Diablo III is its very demanding system requirements. Many people cannot play Diablo because their computers aren’t good enough to run the game. Diablo III requires a powerful graphics card, fast processor, and lots of RAM– A top-notch computer is essentially what you’ll need to play this game.
Also there’s the real money auction house which many players don’t like. It’s the equivalent of drug legalization in the mass multiplayer online market. For years, illegal black market sellers have been selling virtual gear for real life money. Very little could be done, so Blizzard (company that made Diablo) implemented a legal auction house in which real money could be used to purchase virtual items.
The prices of the items in the Real Money Auction House are sky high. A useful item for my barbarian goes anywhere from $30-$100; a price me and many others aren’t willing to pay. The same $80 item goes for a few million in in-game gold. Much more reasonable in comparison. However, the RMAH can be completely ignored by players; there’s no requirement to buy items. But it is a great way to rip off newcomers to the Diablo series.
All in all, the positives heavily outweigh the negatives, and Diablo III is an overall excellent game which every PC gamer (with a good enough computer) needs to play. Diablo III gets a score of 9.2/10.