Diablo III: Reaper of Souls PS4 Review: "A well-crafted, addictive game with only a few aspects that could do with improving."

Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls PS4 Review

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Patch Version:  -- 1.26

There's something intrinsically appealing about jumping into a game having never played any of the instalments before it. There are no expectations for a start, but more importantly, I think, is being able to judge it through fresh eyes on what it does and not on what the previous did before it.

Saying this, don't think me a virgin when it comes to Blizzard games, oh no, I've served my time inside a few of their incarnations over the years.  So, having booted it up and watched the game’s opening cinematic, which, for those of you who don't know, blizzard normally excel at, and unsurprisingly, Diablo 3 is no different.

However, it is the next step that I expected to be difficult:  Which class should I choose?

Having purchased the Reaper of Souls addition, which is Diablo III with the Reaper of Souls expansion, the menu tasks me with choosing which mode I wish to create my character in first:

Normal –  Play the traditional campaign experience

Hardcore –  Same as above, but death will end your game and delete your character

Seasonal – Allows you to play the game and reap special awards but only for that particular season

Hardcore Seasonal – Same as above, but again death will end your game and delete your character

Having chosen the traditional version of the campaign, the moment I was dreading was upon me, because it sometimes is very hard to decide what class I want to play as in games like this, and no surprise, Diablo III presents me with seven archetypes to choose from:  Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Necromancer, Witch Doctor and Wizard.

(If you are wondering what the limit is, you have fourteen character creations slots available.)

Once you've made your selection and chosen a gender, now comes the next difficult part. Choosing a name.  Luckily, though the game can be played with three other people, it doesn't restrict your naming choice.  So if you have a favourite, you'll still be able to use it.

Once done, as with most Blizzard games, before loading in you will witness a short introduction about your character. I tried a couple of classes first before getting stuck in, and each introduction was a different take and perspective following on from the aftermath of the opening cutscene.

I have no idea how this handled on the PC, but upon gaining control of my character it instantly felt comfortable and straightforward.

I don't have much in the sense of abilities right now: R1 allowing me to consume a healing potion that seems infinite but has a lengthy cool down.  Pressing or holding X performs an attack. Rolling can be done using the right analog stick and the left controls my movement.

A quick check of the in game menus shows a rather intricate array of passive and activated skills and abilities, and before long a level up unlocks and auto assigns one to a new button, suggesting they are drip fed rather than giving you the choice.  This being said, there are far too many skills and abilities than slots to assign.  So at some point you must gain the ability to pick and choose.

Being an RPG, there's the obligatory character menu where you can equip numerous types of armour and accessories.  And as I chose a barbarian, I can also duel wield or single wield with a shield.  The drop rate of loot is also wonderful.  More than I imagined it would be.  As to if this is normal I do not know, but it has encouraged me to explore more whilst I traverse the levels than I perhaps would have otherwise.

Combat is simple so far, but I imagine as I unlock new skills and abilities this will become more fleshed out.  The few types of enemies I’ve encountered so far, though diversely different artistically, have also been simple to contend with.  Again, I imagine this will change as I play on and level up.

What I also find interesting is the difficulty options.  There are seventeen in total with room to grow if the menu is any indicator, and you can adjust it in game by pressing the options button at any time.

However, you can only do this once in game. To alter it freely, for some reason, requires you to quit out to the front end, adjust it and then load back in.  At the moment though, all but the first two are locked off anyway, and it isn't clear as to what the requirements are to unlock higher tiers.

Speaking of loading screens, they are barely notable. They last seconds from what I've seen so far, once you have loaded into the game initially that is, this includes transitioning within an area or fast travelling to another.  It’s really made my experience feel fluid.

The gameplay isn't anything special though. Saying that, it's still fun.  What’s more, it is oddly relaxing, and the allure of exploring every nook for the promise of better loot is holding my attention.  As to if there is more depth to the game we will see. 

Initial Score after 2 hrs of play

Full Playthrough Score after 28 hrs of play

Overall Impression

Having now completed Diablo III and its expansion Reaper of Souls, it's clear that the main campaign is not the meat and potatoes of the game.  It is short for starters, consisting of 5 Acts in total, which includes the expansion, and took me just over 10 hours to complete.  However, I was fully exploring each location.  I estimate that if you didn't do this you could shave around 2 hours off that time. 

In regards to the story though, it's interesting and well told. Not a shock considering it's a game made and published by Blizzard.  However, I was disappointed a little by the expansion.  Don't get me wrong, the gameplay, environments and creatures are all on par with the original campaign, it's just the intermission cutscenes between segments of the expansion were not as well-crafted as they are at the start of each act in the main campaign.  The expansion favouring a more still image style with a voice over opposed to the fully animated cinematics that I had previously enjoyed.  There was, however, a full blown cinematic introducing the expansion, which though impressive, only highlighted the lack of cutscenes between the segments that came after it.  This was a real shame, but didn’t overall taint my experience.

Additionally, depending on the difficulty you choose, you don’t have to play through the campaign with other players because Diablo III also has a companion system.  One companion at a time can be assigned, and as you play through the campaign you will meet three different types.

These companions are not as fleshed out as your own character mind, but you do get a slim downed choice of skills to assign them, as well as what weapons, jewellery and what they call a follower item to equip to boost their stats.  In the beginning they are very useful and serve as the primary fighter, but as you level up and attain better gear you will quickly out damage them but nevertheless they are still very useful.

Once you do complete the game though, that's where things get even more interesting. For starters, not only can you replay through any part of the game again with your character maintaining their gear, level and skills, allowing you to further level them up, but there are also two other modes to enjoy.

The first is called advanced mode.  It is exactly the same as the main campaign but instead of playing through it, you can pick and choose which part of an act to load into.  Each act hosting five bounties to complete.   Completing a bounty in itself has a worth wild reward, but if you complete all 5 in an act you'll be gifted with an ungodly amount of money and XP along with a plethora of loot to increase your characters effectiveness.

There's no new story per say in this advanced mode, but the challenge comes from increasing the difficulty and grinding your way up it. It's addictive. Very!

As well as bounties, visiting the town in any act allows access to a new type of event called rifts.  These are a more difficult challenge for you to contend with.  (All of this content being doable solo if you don’t set the difficulty to high.)  Having opened the rift by interacting with the obelisk in the main town in whatever act you are in, you will then be portalled to a new area to kill enough rift minions to spawn a boss.

Though rewarding by themselves, completing rifts will drop a keystone, which is actually what you really want.  These stones can be used to open special rifts that are not only tougher, but will task you with killing and collecting tokens in a set time frame. Doing so will not only spawn a boss, but will grant greater rewards if you complete it within the allotted time.

Two to mention, as well as all the loot, are blood gems which can be used to purchase special items from a new vendor in the town, but you'll also gain a special gem and have three chances to upgrade it.  These gems are truly powerful and can only be slotted into jewellery, like rings.  However, it's beyond worth it, so spending time in rifts is a worthwhile use of your time.  What’s more, they can normally be done within fifteen minutes.  So if you are limited on time and want to do something quickly, then these are for you if you don’t fancy sinking your teeth into anything more time consuming.

In regards to gameplay, it's addictive and fun. It would be more than fair, however, to say you don't really have to think much, which, to be honest, every now and then makes a refreshing change in a computer game.  There's something terribly relaxing about smashing my way through 100's of enemies and racking up bonuses.   This is where Diablo III is rather smart, because every time you kill more 10 enemies in quick succession a little indicator on the HUD will pop up and count the subsequent kills.  Every hit will reset the timer before the bonus ends, and it's rather exciting trying to see how many kills you can make before that happens.  Upon which, you receive a multiplier bonus to your XP earned.  I really liked this feature.

Another aspect I thought was really well done, was the loot system.  Firstly, damn do you get a lot!  Sometimes a particular chest or boss will drop so many you'll be drooling.  however, you are limited to how much you can carry.  Don't worry though, your carry limit is actually rather substantial, but do not fear, Diablo III has special feature to alleviate your gluttony.  Pressing right on the d-pad will open a portal to your home town.  From here you can sell, dismantle or store your loot and free up space again.   Whatsmore, the portal remains in place, allowing you to portal right back to where you were to carry on.  And yes, the loot that was left behind will still be there for you pick up.  I loved this feature and made use of it all the time in the end game portion of the game more than I did during the main bulk of the campaign.  

Another aspect I enjoyed was the environments, diverse for sure, and the graphics do not disappoint either.  Some also appeared to be procedurally generated, this meant that subsequent visits to the same area in certain instances made it feel different as the playable area had completely changed. A good thing for a game that is meant to be a grind.

As touched upon in the early portion of the review, there are a lot of skills to learn.  You cannot equip them all as also stated, so it's about finding what works best for you.  One thing I will comment on though is the importance of keeping an eye out for any gear that may enhance your skills even further.  This is where it gets tricky.  For instance, I found a mace that increased one of my skills damage output by 600%.  This bonus increased my hits from around 100 thousand to 40 million or so, which was CRAZY FUN.   However, I then looted another weapon that according to the in game UI was better across the board stat wise, which it was, but because I lost the bonus to the skill meant the damage was a lot lower.   So paying close attention to every aspect of your gear is important.  You wouldn't want to sell or dismantle your stuff willy-nilly without first inspecting what effects it can grant you.

Regarding items, it follows the traditional colour system RPG fans will be used to. Grey for common, right up to orange which is legendary.  Set gear is different and is a more distinct green, but I didn't see these drop till I completed the game and started in advanced.

Diablo III also has a well fleshed out crafting system too. Armour, weapons, gems and enchanting can be done. The related NPC's requiring you to level them up with coin and in some cases special items you find along the way.  Certain levels will also alter and improve the work station, which I thought was a nice bit of polish if only cosmetic. 

With regards to the max level, it is 70, by which point you will have unlocked all your character's skills and assignment slots.  However, having reached this cap you'll also achieve a new bonus paragon level every time you level up giving you a new skill point to spend in one of four paragon areas:  Core, Offence, Defence, Utility.

Within these four areas you’ll also have a further four options to spend your points in.  You have total freedom too as to where you spend them and can even respect whenever you want and as many times as you want.  Interestingly, the points you earn per level are awarded in sequence.  So the first skill point you can spend in Core, and the second in Offence.…  This cycles round and round each time earning you a point, and as far as I can tell there's no limit to how high this bonus level goes.  I'm currently at 114, but if I was to make an educated guess, if you count up the points it would take to max all your skills out, you'll be able to reach level 800 at the very least.

However, it doesn't end there, because once you do complete the game you'll be able to hunt down an item known as the Kanai's Cube.  Once you attain it, it will then unlock a new vendor in your towns that can dismantle certain items and capture their special abilities.   You can then equip these special abilities to your character.  One for weapons, one for armour and one for jewellery.  These having just as much chance to proc in game as they would have if you were using the item the ability came from.   You also have the option to perform other actions within this vendor, but no matter what you do it will cost ingredients.

This is where the system falters.   For a start, it's not actually clear how this system works.  Also, it's not actually clear how you attain the different types of ingredients.  They have names that I noted matched certain locations in the game, but as yet, having spent a good time in these locations I have not looted all of the ingredients I need to dismantle a weapon for a special ability.  This was frustrating as I never was able to actually dismantle an item to gain a special ability to equip.  Either I was doing something wrong, or these ingredients are very hard to come by.

There was also another aspect of the game I didn't like. And that was the lack of a manual saving system.  I was confused and scared sometimes when coming to the end of a session as to if my newly attained gear would be kept on quitting to the main menu, so much so that I felt forced to play on till I saw an autosave kick in.  This was horrible if I'm being honest, and it baffled me as to why they did it this way.

Another aspect I felt Diablo III was lacking in, relates to the difficulty settings.  At level 70 all difficulty levels will all unlock and you are free to choose any setting you wish.  Problem is, you have no idea of how well you will fair against a particular setting till you load in and try it out.  If you are torn to shreds, you can lower the setting, but as stated earlier, you can only do this once and are required to quit out as stated earlier in this review if you want to change it again.  Personally, I would have liked some sort of gauge to give me a hint as to what setting was best suited for my current level and gear, and what would be a challenge or what would be impossible.

Another aspect I wanted to touch upon, was altering the difficulty seems to only increase enemy health pools and the damage they do that I can tell, if it does more, I’ve not noticed. However, increasing the difficulty does give you some insane bonuses to the amount of XP and Cash you are rewarded.  So if you do manage to gear up or pick up a weapon that increases you damage significantly, changing the difficulty can really help you level up faster!

In regards to the enemies though, there is truly a varying array, for the most part they are cannon fodder, but they come in such numbers sometimes that even the weakest will overwhelm you if you are not careful.  However, there are few kinds you need to look out for, these are enemies that when you target them will have a Silver or Gold graphic around their health bar.  Silver represent elites that are a lot harder than normal enemies and normally have unique abilities, and then the Gold are bosses.  Both types will also have a lot more health than your average enemy too.  Unless you are playing a difficulty that you can easily handle, tackling these won't be a walk in the park.  For the most part, however, it's fair to say they are damage sponges.

Another point to note in relation to the campaign, is when progressing through the acts, though you get the choice as to if you want to advance to the next, if you do do this, you cannot go back to a previous act, till that is you’ve completed the game.

The issues I've mentioned aside, nothing I saw or experienced really turned me off Diablo III, in fact, I enjoyed my time with it immensely.  It’s a well-crafted, addictive and polished game, and though you may be disappointed by the length of the campaign, rest assured that it was just the appetiser.  The main course and desert come after you complete it, and I can honestly say I’m enjoying each and every bite.  From its multiple modes and seven different classes to play as, not forgetting all the difficulty levels, I can easily see myself playing it for months to come.

There are even in game achievements too for you to complete called Challenges, which cover the following areas:  Set Dungeons, Triumphs, Classes, Hardcore Mode, Crafting, General, Adventure, Campaign and Cooperative with a plethora of requirements for you to meet.

If you like a grind or a game where you can just relax whilst smashing, shooting or bewitching your enemies to death in the millions, then Diablo III should be a game you keep permanently installed.

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