Diablo III: Preview

It's been a very long time since we've last set foot in a new Diablo game. Diablo II shipped way back in 2000, and its expansion pack Lord of Destruction followed it only a year later. In the eight years that have passed, gaming technology has come an incredibly long way, and with so much time between sequels, we couldn't help but wonder how the franchise stands up in its latest iteration? I might have the answer:Upon entering Diablo III's character selection screen, you are greeted with the scene of adventurers standing around a campfire that has come to be a trademark of the franchise. Immediately, however, you will notice a very important difference -- unlike in the previous games, each class has both male and female variations to choose from.

 

The most obvious change since Diablo II is also the first one you will forget about - the jump to a 3D rendering engine. Previous Diablo games have all stuck to two dimensional, pre-rendered sprite work for players, monsters and terrain. And while the new engine is fully three dimensional, with lavish colored lighting and high resolution textures, the hand painted style and fixed isometric camera angle immediately draw you back to the franchise's roots.

 

Make no bones about it, this is truly a Diablo game. The conversation from 2D to 3D has not hindered or broken the game play experience in any way. With the new engine, however, comes some immediately noticeable new features and the most satisfying of those are the destructible environments. Every smash of a weapon or blast of a spell seems to send chunks of stonework crumbling or wooden planks splintering in every direction. Most doors you come across yield to a few quick blows, and there are often opportunities to drop large sections of scenery on throngs of unsuspecting foes.

 

 

 

While Diablo II's monsters all seemed to congregate aimlessly, standing around waiting for the next adventurer to come along and free them of all the phat lewt they were burdened with, the monsters in Diablo III actually swarm in from various places, climbing up architecture or dropped down from higher passageways to get at the player. This helps tie the experience together and actually gives a feeling of... dare I say, terror? Or perhaps a panic-tainted tension, at the very least.

 

Fortunately, each class is more than equipped to deal with a few pesky monsters.Combat in Diablo III is purposely designed to make the player feel powerful, and even the lowest level spells had some impressive graphical effects.The control scheme is similar to the old Diablo games, with the left click and right click each bound to a different kind of attack, but in addition there is now an action bar (reminiscent of World of Warcraft) where you can set other attack abilities, plus hitting the Tab key provides a quick switch secondary right click ability.

 

Marco Cecilio, NoobFeed