Gamescom: Diablo 3 “Reaper Of Souls” Expansion Announced
If I’m totally honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of D3. I imagine I’m not alone on that either, it wasn’t the worst thing in recent memory *cough* SimCity *cough*, but it seemed, for many, to be a far cry from the Diablo we remembered. Personal feelings aside, one thing you can always rely on Blizz for, is superb cinematics. As you can see from the video above, they certainly haven’t lost any ground in that regard.
That brings us to D3’s first expansion, the Reaper Of Souls, over on the official site there is plenty of information to sink your teeth in to. Starting with a short blurb for the new game…
A presence more sinister than any demon hangs over Sanctuary….
It watched from the shadows as a hero of nephalem lineage struck down Diablo, the Prime Evil, and trapped the demon lord within the Black Soulstone.
It waited in silence as the mortal armies of Sanctuary crushed the leaderless remnants of the Burning Hells and scattered them into the stinging winds of Kehjistan.
Now, as hope springs anew, its long vigil has ended.
Shrouded in mystery and imbued with a power as ancient as the universe itself, it comes to the war-torn world of Sanctuary. It cannot be stopped. There is no escape.
In its wake, only death will remain.
Chilling no? Anyway, not only do we have the opening cinematic, but we also have some gameplay footage featuring the new class, “The Crusader”.
As you can see, there is plenty to be hopeful for. A raised level cap, a new area to explore in Act V of the campaign, a new and improved Paragon system and finally some new game modes including Loot Runs and Nephalem Trials. There is also a new loot system that will allow for drops that better suit your class and finally a new artisan, The Mystic. She can apparently transmogrify items, allowing you to transfer stats from one piece of armour to another.
Seeing as Diablo bit the dust at the end of D3, we have a new nasty to contend with, he goes by the name Maltheal, otherwise known as (you guessed it), the Reaper Of Souls. If you want to find out a bit more about the story, you can read the official press release. The main theme of the expansion seems to be drawing things in to a darker tone, more in keeping with the previous Diablo games. If you ask me, any step towards the previous games, is one step in the right direction.
We have no release date as of yet, but knowing Blizz, the answer will be “When it’s ready”. Let’s just hope it actually is this time?