Graphically, Diablo 3 has polarized some fans. Over ten years ago Diablo 2 was released as a sprite based game, it wasn’t true 3D and the switch, just as it was with the Warcraft and StarCraft series – has left some grumpy. But all things must change and I am more than sated with the look of Diablo 3. The environments are extremely detailed and allow for true 3D gameplay like its predecessors could not.

Beautiful physics are not just eye candy but affect gameplay in a subtle manner and I am grateful. I can’t decide whether the character animation or the environmental effects wow me more. Diablo 3 is a beautiful and varied game. It’s akin to a fantastical painting in motion.

Photo courtesy of Blizzard

Stylistically Diablo 3 does take a turn from series tradition. The original Diablo’s featured an extreme level of gore as well as a definitive gothic look. While Diablo 3 does retain most of the gothic elements of the past games it is much lighter on the gore and adds a heavy brush of color to the world of sanctuary.

Some people are going to hate the use of effects like bloom lighting and the missing entrails but I rather liked the use of color in the game. Blizzard has not made Diablo 3 a care bear game, while it retains multiple levels of difficulty ranging from easy to nail biting difficult it is on the whole more accessible.

Photo courtesy of Blizzard

Gameplay

Like many, I was dismayed when I saw that Diablo 3 does not give you the ability to directly manipulate character statistics and that the skill system completely dropped the “tree” and the points that empower the skills. While this does remove the character stat and tree build from the game it allows for players to experiment with all of the available skills and change their strategy on the fly. It also means that your character won’t become completely useless when Blizzard changes the weight of a stat through a patch.

Many Diablo 2 players would grow restless with their character builds and after using the same abilities for every encounter, who could blame them? With Diablo 3 you can change the way your class plays at any time, switching out your six skills for the dozens in your repertoire. In addition to new skills you unlock through leveling you also unlock new skill runes and passive abilities.