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Earlier this year in Paris, Blizzard revealed its next installment in America's favorite action-RPG clickfest, Diablo III. Set twenty years after the events in Diablo II, Diablo III will let players return to fight hellish monsters in search of endless amounts of loot all within an all new custom 3D game engine. The tech demo displayed new gameplay elements like destructible environments and quests inside dungeons, as well as showing off two new character classes: the Barbarian and the Witch Doctor. Blizzard showcased the Wizard class, along with a playable demo of Diablo III at Blizzcon '08 in Anaheim, California.
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"It was bloody, crazy, simple, and hectic, but it was exactly what we all envisioned the game to be."
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There were three playable classes in the demo of Diablo III: the Barbarian, the Witchdoctor, and Blizzard's latest addition, the Wizard. Unlike the Barbarian who relies on an action-based "rage" system, the Witchdoctor and Wizard classes use mainly mana-based spells with their own defining twists. The Witchdoctor, for example, is rather weak, but summons powerful familiars such as plague toads and flammable zombie dogs to do the dirty work for him and keep enemies at bay. In contrast, the Wizard is a bit more well-rounded, with passable fighting skills and powerful offensive and defensive spells that suck up a bit more mana. While simple, the multiple classes look to offer lots of replay value and allow for a more strategic approach to the game, instead of just burning right through the dungeons.
We had the luck of playing through the sample dungeon with each of the three characters, and while the overall premise of the demo stayed the same (explore the catacombs and fell the Skeleton King), each of our three excursions were vastly different. One trek saw us taking on legions of skeletons numbering somewhere in the hundreds, while another jaunt exposed us to bloated amphibians that exploded into mountains of lamprey eels when killed. The random dungeon/loot generator also seemed to be in full effect, as each excursion landed us loot with all new stats and names that made our characters all the more badass.
Each class controlled a little differently, and allowed you to take on challenges in new ways as well. As the Barbarian, we had little problem running head-first into the undead legions and tearing them apart with our bare hands, while the Witchdoctor could hardly stab a skeleton to save its life. The Wizard seemed to have the "best of both worlds" since it could both melee and cast spells, but every class was still a blast to play. The interface was as simple as clicking nearby enemies and watching them die in a bloody mess, which let us enjoy the game without really worrying about what exactly was going on. We didn't get to tinker around much with the skill tree system that allows you to power up your characters and learn new spells, but we did notice that you could add runes to certain abilities to increase their power and number, allowing for some pretty awesome spells.
Even though its release date is approximately "whenever Blizzard decides it's ready," Diablo III doesn't look to disappoint anyone waiting for another proper installment in the series. Even though some of us had never played the series before, within a few minutes we were all murdering hordes of monsters as passably as 15 year old veterans. It was bloody, crazy, simple, and hectic, but it was exactly what we all envisioned the game to be. Be sure to keep your ears open for more news as we get it, and check out our screenshots to tide you over until a proper demo surfaces.
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