Diablo III. I heard it was rather controversial. Tough start, with problems with servers, some scandals, and a train of hate. Something about the market where you could buy things for real money (unreasonably high amounts, which is, for me, anything above 0 since you paid for the full game at full price) and lack of balance with lots and lots of other stuff. Also, something about DLC and other things. There was also general critics regarding dumbing down the gameplay (is it even possible with Diablo?) and something about a rather strange late-game approach. Generally – not good. Bad practice.
Fortunately for me – I didn’t see it. Only heard here and there throughout a few years. Later, I bought PS4 Pro and found Diablo III with the Necromancer and Reaper of Souls DLC on sale. Like a real sale, I don’t want to lie, but I believe it was around 5 bucks on sale or something like that. Anyway, dirt cheap in comparison to the original price. So obviously I bought it. Installed it and played it.
In fact, not just I played it, but I played it together with my wife. Thanks to PS4 we had a 2 player local multiplayer option. Turns out it is a really fun thing to do when you’re playing together. Her favorite character was a mage or witch or whatever they called in this game, and mine necromancer. We also played with all other characters (trophy required), but throughout the game, it turned out that necromancer and witch were our favorite characters to play.
So, first thing first – I didn’t see all the bad stuff they told about Diablo. By the time I played it (and I assure you I played it a lot, I lack only two achievements from platinum, and those are 500 tasks in journey mode and smash 50 objects in n-seconds), everything was already resolved. You could play all the game on your own and never need to go to some marketplace (didn’t even see one) and pay money.
Yeah, it seemed strange in some other things, like the fact you play as a melee combatant, and in 30-60 minutes, you don’t use the weapon at all, instead, you’re fighting with projectiles and magic. And we played with every character. 30-60 minutes of playing as the character you intended and later turning into a projectile-spamming walking tank-machine gun. Strange, but to be honest – lots of fun.
I also enjoyed the simplification of the leveling. Now, I know some hardcore Diablo fans would tell me I’m a disgrace to the game (and I agree, I’m not this big of a fan to know lore or care for gameplay purity), but hear me out – the game basically makes it impossible to fuck up your character. Eventually, you will open all skills, all stats, and upgrades. The late-game leveling points into character stats like strength, vitality, or intelligence (say hello to my intelligent warrior from the first game) also could be re-distributed at any given time. So basically, there are no dead-end builds. Well, there are, but the error of creating the wrong character is never fatal. You can always go on the internet, read the best build or strategy, and go on with it.
Now, I don’t do that. I hate going on the internet and looking for meta build or imba build or the best build (alright, I’ll be honest here, I don’t know all this terminology and slang, so you can throw shit at me for that). I enjoy creating my own character and playing with my own mistakes the way I love to. That’s why in Bloodborne, I aced the whole game with the starter axe (upgraded throughout the game, of course) and hunter OG suit because that was my style, and I didn’t care that there were better and more proficient builds. Yeah, I’m one of those guys who enjoyed playing games my own way (maybe that’s why I love single players and ignore anything that has multiplayer or needs interaction, I have enough of this crap at work, let me be able to do everything on my own at least somewhere).
So, yeah, basically, the game mechanic-wise, even though didn’t look like other Diablos I played, still brought a lot of fun. By the time we got to the late game, we were unstoppable. Her witch generated a focused beam of pure hatred and badassery, and my necromancer exploded corpses in cosmic proportion, sent coked up skeletons to fuck up anything in the nearest proximity while sucking the life from everything around.
We even got so invested we started to raise difficulty beyond any reasonable means just to have some challenge and fun. I think we stopped playing when basically got almost the full potential of our characters, and later progress was based on getting better items just to up the total strength of your character a little bit or gather some specific set. To be honest – a little boring stuff even for us. Well, maybe I’ll return to finish those two achievements I lack and earn the platinum trophy I deserve (I have a problem here, people, I kind of a person who can’t stop getting platinum trophies even though they are of no use whatsoever).
Plot-wise – hard to say. It’s Diablo, and it never was about the plot. Now, some people would tell me my novels were never about the plot, and they suck, and I can go fuck myself because I missed all the ingenious lore of Diablo. And I agree – Diablo has awesome lore. But let’s also be honest here – who the fuck plays Diablo for the plot? Like, you really expect something groundbreaking there? Like drama of Shakespearean proportions? Character development like Ulysses or philosophy like Nietzsche? This is the game where you’re playing as a tough hero who goes and fucks up the evil of epic proportions against all odds because those fuckers chose the wrong day to bring hell back. That’s the plot. And I love it.
And basically, Diablo III had this exact plot – ancient evil in the face of Diablo and his retarded brothers-cousins (brousins) came back to life and hurry to start messing with everyone and everything because it’s fun and also because that’s how they rolling. You’re playing as Seraphim (I think I still remember it right) – the legendary hero capable of doing legendary things in the face of absolute, complete, and total evil. And that’s what you do. Also, there are side characters who help you on your way, but mainly you’re going there and doing some stuff which usually ends in one of the brothers dead. Also, there’s a DLC about rogue Angel, who decides to end this world because of reasons. I think he had a similar mindset to the one Greta Turnberg has – people taking too much space, we need genocide and cleansing (or something like that, I know her from memes on the internet from years ago, have no real idea what she’s up to). And this Angel-boss was the only boss who killed us in permadeath mode. I think there was some killing fog or something like that which ended us in mere seconds. Had to start the game all over again and be more careful next time.
But what was the most important – the atmosphere was rather good in the game. The graphics and design of the environment at times were breathtaking. Like you really felt this heavy atmosphere of the dark medieval fantasy game where there’s danger behind every corner and only the toughest heroes would prevail.
What I didn’t like – Butcher. I don’t know why exactly, but Blizzard decided to return Butcher in this game. And he was nothing but a disappointment. Out of a rather charismatic and sinister maniac-kind of guy, they turned him into your typical big demonic enemy who can’t shut up with all the edgy-boy shit about meat and you being the next. Like, alright-alright, we got it, you’re evil and bad. But what I feel here (maybe that’s what felt disappointed fans in regard to the whole game) they misunderstood why Butcher became so big and important in the first game. I mean, you can ask anyone who played Diablo, and there’s a high chance no one would remember the mad skeleton king or some other enemies, but most likely, they would recall Butcher. He was the first real obstacle and threat player met in the first levels. He wasn’t the end-stage boss. He was just a non-obligatory (I think so) creepy dude who did his shit and wasn’t really bothering anyone (well, except those who were unlucky enough to face him). And when you found him, you shit bricks since he was everything other enemies weren’t – he was fast, he was strong, he was scary. That’s how it was, and that’s how I remember it.
All in all, this doesn’t feel like the old Diablo, but still, it was fun. Like you know, this strange alternative view of the things you liked when you were a kid. You can scream they massacred your baby (and perhaps you would be right), or you could just play it and enjoy (besides, if you really want an old-schools Diablo experience, there’s the Torchlight game series, I finished both, and they seemed fairly honest re-imagination of the Diablo, plot-wise it is basically the same game).