Diablo III is a funny game; people hate it and yet they play it, they whine and then they buy. Despite the controversial nature of the original game, its expansion, Reaper of Souls (RoS), was a commercial success, selling 2.7 million copies in its release week. Critics point out that RoS rights many of the confusingly poor design choices of the original game and builds on the forward momentum generated by some rather desperate patching since, but has it really?
Superaster, blog extension to VG300 here at WordPress, reckons that Reaper of Souls is a solid expansion but a deviation from the Diablo ideal. The expansion does incredibly well at lengthening the narrative whilst pushing out enough fresh content in the form of additional game modes, monsters, playable classes and skills to prevent it from being labeled a shameless cash grab. Its success here means that faith in the developer’s ability to create something new, fun, and exciting, has been restored, but this unfortunately comes at the expense of the distinctively “hardcore” Diablo ethos. This doesn’t mean that Diablo III has lost its way as a Diablo game; it just means Diablo III is a different beast to what Diablo and Diablo II were.
Can we appreciate a Diablo game that is thematically loyal to its roots but operationally deviant? For the full article head on over to Superaster@Medium.
videogamer300 