Diablo III Previews

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Written by BuckGB on September 30th, 2011

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Despite having the same level design (albeit modernised), and despite throwing us a very familiar looking locale, the great thing about this game is that - thanks to the new engine - the world is so much more alive. Enemies crawl out of the ground, jump out of pushes, emerge from old crypts and coffins. Further to that, you can drop chandeliers, knock over old walls, and use the environment itself to help defeat your enemies. There's so much more immersion and interaction, far more than any of the last games had. The trade-mark randomisation is back as well, to help keep things interesting - mini-dungeons are randomised, there are special 'events' that you can trigger too.

This applies to the combat as well. Sure, it's still all click based, but everything looks more engaging, more 'visceral' to use a favourite buzz-word. When you use the Barbarian's hammer, things go flying, things break. Speaking of combat - The new way the game is handling skills is interesting: as you go through the game and level up, you'll end up acquiring more skills than you can actually use at any one time. Skills are divided up into groups, depending on their purpose. For example, The Barbarian as Fury generating skills, Fury spending skills, and then Situational skills. Tactics start to emerge in terms of 'load-outs' and sets, and the further along you get the more skills you can have access to at once.

Now to the bad parts: First off, we'd just like to say that we are against the DRM measures in place for this game. Granted, unlike other forms of 'always on' DRM, this game's always-onness actually provides tangible benefits to the player in terms of online functionality. However - when you have a situation where it's impossible to play a single-player game offline, then something is very, very wrong. We're also not really a fan of the how this has caused the game to be set up either - log-in is very MMO like, you can't save or even pause the game... it's all checkpoint based. 'Weak', I think is the technical term here.

Each class has six active skill slots and three passive abilities, the former of which you can customise with special Runestones - although this wasn't available in the beta. But even without the Runestones, Blizzard has a very flexible approach to letting users can develop their character's combat style.

Skill-based special abilities are combined with spammable attacks, adding further possibilities for defensive and crowd-control strategies to the Diablo's typical hacking and slashing. These will unlock as you level, starting off with two and growing to six by level 24, however at no point are users locked in to the abilities they have already chosen. You can experiment with all available abilities at any point in the game, swapping them in and out of slots at will. A Witch Doctor might spend his first eight levels relying only on an ability that releases plagues of toads on victims, for example, before deciding to change his tactic entirely by summoning a Gargantuan, a giant zombie, to fight for him instead. With no cost to changing your skill set, it's possible to try a different configuration for literally every fight, and even develop different tactical styles on the fly depending on the enemy-type, if you're so inclined.

A relatively destructible environment gives way to a new manner of using the 3D environment, too. Enemies will use the full space available, crawling up the sides of walls from a lower depth to enter the combat area, for example. But the destructible elements offer another way to fight foes. Chandeliers can be broken down and used as weapons to crush enemies loitering directly underneath. The same can be said for certain sections of wall which you can use as crushing devices with one hit, causing it to collapse forward . When timed, right it's wonderfully effective.

I can only speak for the barbarian at this point as he is the only character I have played though at this point - But he plays well, use abilities to generate rage and then use finisher / AoE abilities to spend your generated rage. Its a simple system but it works quite well. Especially one you unlock the Cleave ability which lets you attack anything withing a 160degree arc in front of you.

Couple this with holding down the shift key and pointing your mouse in whatever direction Diablo's horde is approaching you and you will become an unstoppable meat grinder.

Other new features to D3 can help extend your time adventuring without needing to run back to town with a backpack laden full of vendor crap. You can either convert the tiem to gold, or (for lack of a better term) Disenchant the item. Disenchanting the item will break it down into raw materials, which is what you use for crafting.

The first ability you unlock as the Demon Hunter is Hungering Arrow, which by default is bound to the right mouse button. Hungering Arrow does 140% of regular damage and can pass through enemies onto addtional enemies, effectively doing chain damage.

This ability formed the foundation of the Demon Hunter's abilities during my beta experience, and turned out to be a devastating tool which, in all honesty, could probably be toned down a bit in the interest of balance.

Also available was Evasive Fire - an ability which when triggered does 135% weapon damage to a single enemy and vaults the Demon Hunter away from the enemy if they are within melee range, making it a fantastic aggressive-evasive manoeuvre. Other abilities include Entangling Shot (which does extra damage as well as slows up to two enemies), grenades, and my personal favourite, the Chakram - a big ninja star that flies around in circles doing damage to a number of enemies.

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