I know I’m a little late to the party on this one, but so be it! Two weekends ago, my husband Chris and I were at our local Best Buy. He was searching for a pair of headphones and a keyboard for his computer. I was along for the ride (and secretly scouting the price of Xbox games). I was eyeing Resident Evil Revelations, deciding whether or not to purchase it at the buyer-friendly price of $59.99, when my husband handed a game to me. It was a Blizzard offering – Diablo III – that I had glimpsed on Chris’ computer. I hadn’t ever played a Diablo game, but had spent many an hour yoked to World of Warcraft, and I knew the quality of the game in my hand.
Flipping it over, I read the back of the game. You know what word got me? Witch doctor. Hell yes, witch doctor! The words “masses of loot” didn’t exactly damage
my thoughts on the game either. (The other classes mentioned on the back of the case were barbarian, monk, demon hunter, and wizard, if you’re wondering.) Five minutes later, and I was in the checkout line holding the video game, game guide, and Resident Evil Revelations. Chris was smiling as though it were Christmas morning – I was just happy to have a colorful game that saw me tearing through demons with my husband at my side.
Now fast forward two weeks. Chris and I are sitting in the basement on a Friday night in front of the TV set, our surround sound at near-full blast, pumpkin spice coffee at our side. The opening cinematic was the typical lush style long associated with Blizzard games, and immediately drew me into the storyline, after which we were tasked with choosing our classes. As mentioned above, I chose the witch doctor. I have to admit it was tough, I was drawn to the wizard, but also to the monk. In World of Warcraft, which I played for just over five years, I had always played a healer and paired with some muscle, or I was a DPS class. I let Chris choose first, because he had played the PC version of the game. His choice was easy – barbarian. A simple hack-and-slash character, but bound to be fun, who he named TkOut (technical knock-out). I finished flipping through the game guide and chose a witch doctor, whom I named Erzulee. For quick class comparison – take a look at the chart below.
After choosing our classes, we are shown another cinematic – this time the history of New Tristram. New Tristram is the cursed town from which most of the Act 1 action originates. When the cinematic ends, you and any companions playing with you begin on Overlook road with one ability. You take the road into New Tristram and from there you’re off!
It’s pretty difficult not to get sucked into the easy gameplay, which lends itself more to Xbox gaming than to PC if you’re wondering. There is no need to conserve on ammo, which allows you to freely destroy any monsters you come across, as well as most of the free-standing structures. This feature comes in handy especially when you’re in graveyards and tombs. Don’t worry – the first several quests have you romping and stomping your way through graveyards, cathedrals, and tombs a plenty. You face all manner of uglies – worms, crawling zombies, and these fat monsters that run around with their arms in the air. To the left, you’ll find a monster called, aptly enough, a grotestque. When they are put down, their body explodes and you’re stuck fighting various trios of ugly over-sized grave worms.
The actual narrative that drives the story is very interesting, and interspersed well between fighting. When you encounter various NPCs, you can choose the parts of the story you want to hear. This is an added bonus, because if you’re a hack-slash-ignore-the-story type, you can blow past that. Also, you can replay the game without the story scenes that can make other games tedious. However, if you’re like Chris and I, and you prefer a bit of story to go with your zombie meat, there’s more than enough. The music is great too – it’s never too loud or invasive, and it doesn’t have annoying recurring themes that pop up and make the game predictable.
There is no reason you can give me that is good enough for not playing this game. It’s fun, colorful, and well-made. Every quest is new and exciting, you accrue gold and gear quickly, and the dialog is fast-paced. The monsters are appropriately scaled so that they don’t whale on you or drop dead too easily. Loot is duplicated for each player, and it’s easy to swap gear with others. In short – it’s an awesome game! If you don’t have this game – go buy it NOW!
