Diablo III: Beta Preview
With Diablo III not to far from appearing in our store shelves, I manage to get some hands-on time with the Diablo III Beta. It’s been a long time since I have played Diablo II and jumping straight into Diablo III completely forgetting that Diablo relies strongly on the mouse movement instead of keys. A rookie mistake on my behalf. After I realised it isn’t Wow (Even though the macro bar looks similar) I headed into the depths of Diablo III and really didn’t know what to expect.
First thing I noticed was the graphical update that Diablo III has had over Diablo 2. Again I am not saying Diablo 2 looks terrible but to modern day consumers standards graphics sell a lot of the titles ignoring gameplay elements completely. As soon as I started moving and attacking I noticed they have upgraded a lot to what you can do in the realm of Diablo 3. It still remains as an exciting RPG with still many lurking enemies and dungeons awaiting for you to enter, but have been altered to the point that you would go “Wow, they really have focused on making this better” it’s like that for everything I noticed in playing the Beta.
Some fans however may feel a bit left out as Blizzard has basically removed all of Diablo’s previous appealing features and has adjusted or just completely replaced them. It isn’t bad in my opinion but some may miss it more than others. One of the noticeable features that have became a distant but lovable memory is the fact you are no longer placed on the spot to choose how to spend your skill points. They are no longer present and heroes have class based incentives. Players will be spending hours on end trying to unlock the dozen of class based features for there characters. Even in the Beta I wanted more.
Every time you level up you will unlock a new skill for your class. But you can’t have them all equipped at once so tactically choosing which ones to place in your two skill slots can change the way how you E.G Approach a group of enemies. However once you reach level 24 there will be 6 slots present which will alow you to have 6 skills at your disposal.
Another change is the fact you no longer upgrade skills by putting extra points into them. This has now be replaced with skills and each skill can be fitted with a Runestone, Runestones have different types and react differently with each skill. Ien you put one into a skill, it will become ‘attuned’ to that skill. You can still remove it freely at any time, but the Runestone won’t work in any other skills.
The beta takes place from the start and lets you go up until level 9, which leads you from a rebuilt town known as Tristram. Previous Diablo II fans will notice the change Tristram has had. As soon as you get to Tristram a meteor hits it immdiatley, which brings the dead back to life. Expect much more undead slaying.
From what I have played so far of the beta, it has made me want the game even more. I guess I will have to wait until the game launch’s to experience what Diablo III can offer as a full package, but from this small but exciting preview I can already tell it is one of the best, and possibly the best in the series.