For this week’s WeView we have the console edition of Diablo III. You may remember that the PC version of the game has already featured in WeView, albeit quite some time ago, and managed to score a Buy It rating amongst the community, however, this week we strictly want your views about the console edition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ew6cwerafyQ
I’ve never played Diablo III, or any other games of the series, and if I’m honest I don’t exactly know what the game entails. Understandably I’m rather intrigued to hear what people have to say for the game.
Dan Lee reviewed the game for TSA, scoring it a 9/10. He was rather excited to finally be able to play Diablo III after admitting he tried to save up for a PC after he saw his friend with the game.
With the mix of legendary weapons, character skills and Rune Skills on offer Dan said “you’ll never get bored of combat in this game”. The investory menu is also “easy enough to get to grips with”, which “could have been a real nightmare to keep track of”.
Diablo III has a lot of content to twiddle your thumbs through too. “There’s so much replay value once Diablo has been defeated, and you can’t even fully level up your character in one playthrough”. Dan could easily see himself spending “100 hours or more wading through hoards of monsters”.
He concluded:
The console port of Diablo III could have been a disaster. From the control scheme, to the online play; there were so many things that could have gone wrong. Blizzard really has put the effort in though, and it shows with an absolutely fantastic port that plays brilliantly, looks good, and will keep you interested for hours on end. No, it won’t convert those who aren’t particularly interested in the genre, but if you’re after some dungeon based brawling it doesn’t get better than Diablo III.
Now it’s over to you. Post your thoughts for Diablo III (console version) Â in the comments below, giving the game either a Buy It, Bargain Bin It, Rent It or Avoid It Rating. Make sure to get your comments in before Sunday evening, or your thoughts may not feature in Monday’s verdict article.
Germanos
Looking forward to the result of this one as I have the game on my ‘to buy list’ and I would like to know if it is really that good. Well I red the review, but I would like to know if the game is still good, even after time passed.
parryman
Exactly this for me too.
Starman
Really enjoyed this, controls worked perfectly and it never got boring however long I played. Only criticism is its quite linear and could’ve done with some side missions to extend the campaign.
Buy it.
Amphlett
Roll on the PS4 port. I’m really excited for this.
Amphlett
Made my Diablo 3 PS4 order this afternoon. You lot made me too excited!
matthangzhou
Any news on a date? Seen it cheap on ps3 but waiting for ps4 update
double-o-dave
This isn’t my normal kind of game I play but I think I might get it on the PS4 as I didn’t mind battling through a bit of the PS3 demo.
yd
If you want to get completely obsessed with a game for a few weeks, it’s an obvious “buy it”.
It looks good, plays well, the controls work perfectly, and it’s lots of fun. It isn’t, however, that long and it’s very linear.
But that’s probably not the point.
Play through the whole thing many times. 4 different difficulty levels to beat, plus a very cautious run to level 30 on hardcore mode, are needed to get all the trophies. Then if you want to get the platinum trophy (which isn’t hard), you’ll want to do some grinding. In this case, it’s actually lots of fun. Even when you’re running through the same levels again and again, pushing the other difficulty setting up higher, trying to get better equipment. Trying to get the ridiculous amount of gold you need to earn for that last trophy (and killing stupid numbers of the rare treasure goblins).
Then there’s key farming to make infernal machines leading to some of the most challenging battles in the game and hopefully get the bits you need to make the hellfire ring. That stuff would normally get annoying and tedious very quickly, but somehow you can get quite determined to do it.
It doesn’t contain a secret cow level though. Another few hours spent grinding certain areas for items (or, quite possibly, some luck before then) leads to the Staff of Herding, which makes up for it. Whimsyshire. It’s a magical place.
And if that’s not enough, you can (and will) end up doing it all again with a different class. Or all the classes. In some ways, it’s a game that keeps getting better the more you play it.
On the other hand, if you don’t want to get obsessed with something, don’t want a nice easy platinum trophy, or can’t be arsed doing the same thing over and over again, you might want to avoid it.
So it’s really a “buy it, as long as you know exactly what you’re getting into”.
Amphlett
Gahhhhh, you’ve made me even more excited about Diablo 3 on PS4 now.
Thank you for the great thoughts on the game, especially about the need to grind but it not becoming tiresome which was a concern of mine.
yd
It’s grinding done properly. It’s quite addictive destroying thousands of enemies and getting a bit more powerful and finding new equipment. Even after the level 60 cap, you get the paragon levels.
Even the key farming isn’t annoying. Fight some stuff to get the bonus you need if you want any chance of the key parts dropping, fight the monster that might drop a key, repeat for all the keys, make the machine, have big fun fight, possibly get a part you need, and then repeat until you can make the ring you want to make.
If the controls weren’t as perfect, and the fights weren’t as fun, it’d get tedious very quickly. As it is, it remains fun, and you actually feel like you’re achieving something. Not like some RPGs where it’s suddenly a case of having to spend hours grinding if you want any chance of progress. That feeling of just wasting time killing the same stuff over and over because they wanted to pad out the game at that point doesn’t happen here.
Even the other common situation where you’re grinding for hours just to beat some ridiculously overpowered optional bonus boss doesn’t happen. All the grinding feels like it’s actually getting you somewhere.
Once you do all the grinding necessary to get everything done in the game and get the platinum trophy, you’re still looking at at lot less time than some games. Some of the more Japanese ones in particular. Just checked some trophy guides, and an estimate of 80+ hours to platinum seems kind of reasonable. A guide for Disgaea D2 suggests it could take 100+ hours. Although in that case, it’d be heavily dependent on knowing what you’re doing and how all the game mechanics work. And you’d have a stupid amount of grinding to do as well. But actually lots of fun in the Disgaea games. I just picked that because it was released around the same time and was on the same page on the list of trophy guides ;)
Tuffcub
Tried the PS3 demo, really liked it, waiting for PS4 version.
XisTG
exactly this :)
Amphlett
Tried the PS3 demo last night. I started it at at around 10:30pm and looked at my watch at around 1:50am – agh! This game is going to suck up so much of my time.
ArrebatoTarugo
I also have played the PS3 demo and I enjoyed it. I decided to wait for PS4 port and because PS3 game never got really cheap I am still waiting.
I am looking forward to the PS4 version, I will buy if the port is well done.
psychobudgie
Utterly fantastic game. Having played both the PC and PS3 versions I would actually state a preference for the PS3 version which sounds wrong but then again the game is so right. Buy it incase you were unsure.
blackredyellow
As with plenty of others, I’m waiting for the PS4 version. Waiting eagerly!
Lieutenant Fatman
Same, bring it on already! And the split screen local co-op mixed with online co-op is a really nice touch, more games should do that. Has to be a day one buy.
Moshbag
Buy It. A brilliant game, perfect for co-op and packed to the rafters with quality combat, loot and monsters. If I had one criticism, it’s that there is not quite enough quest content to support the amount of play required to get legendary weapons and special items you want, but you are so far into the game at this point that you’ve got your money’s worth twenty times over already. Also as something very rarely seen on PS3, it’s worth mentioning that if you play co-op locally you can log in separately as player 2, then take your save file away with you and carry on with your own account.
Lieutenant Fatman
That’s interesting, thanks for pointing that out, tempted to pick it up for PS3 now as well.