The last Blizzard game I played was Warcraft III, and yes, that was quite a long time ago. I haven’t really gotten back into playing PC games ever since, so I’ve missed the Diablo craze. I picked up Diablo III when it released for the consoles purely to review the strategy guide and no other reason. I was not prepared for how much fun the game would be.
I have no idea how the controls work on PC, but for consoles, it’s a nice little hack-n-slash button masher. Well, button masher isn’t that accurate, because while I did hit the A button quite a bit for the basic attack, I had a method to my madness with my other attack buttons. The game ended up being akin to Gauntlet for me, albeit it had more fun attacks and a slightly better story. Like Gauntlet, you really don’t play this game for the story, but at least there’s some semblance of one that holds everything together a bit better than the attempted stories in Gauntlet.
Diablo III hit my hack-n-slash fix where I really needed it. I loved crawling through each and every dungeon thoroughly. I loved switching up my attacks to fit more of my style, and I laughed when the Templar asked if I was crazy. I kept thinking that my Diablo III friends would laugh at the way I was playing, because I had outfitted my Barbarian with armor, gems, and weapons that would heal my character with every hit and every kill. It became nearly impossible to kill me, so yes, I ran into the middle of lots and lots of enemies. Then I would ground stomp to stun them all, and then I would activate one of my larger attacks that would cause everyone to bleed out. It was so very delightful.
I was a little disappointed that when you finished the game, it basically did a call back to old school and asked if you wanted to play again on a harder difficulty. Really? That’s it? There isn’t some grand 45 minute end scene? Well, okay then. However, I found myself playing the Nightmare difficulty anyway and having even more fun.
I have a lot on my plate to play right now, especially with the new consoles releasing in just a few weeks. However, if I ever need a hack-n-slash fix, and I really do on occasion, I’m definitely playing through Diablo III again, maybe even through the Inferno difficulty. Maybe I’ll try a different character another time.
I hope Blizzard ports future games like this over as well. I had far more fun than I thought I would!
Is Diablo III scary as they say it is?
Uh, definitely not. I’m a big pansy, and I was never close to being scared.