Diablo III First Look

Most of us still remember first catching sight of the humble town of Tristram and all its inhabitants. It was a peaceful little place, until the forces of hell paid it a visit. In the end, you were the hero of the day, of course. Whether you went into battle as a sorcerer, warrior or rogue, it was a gaming experience to remember. Diablo's success prompted Blizzard North and Blizzard Entertainment to create a full-blown sequel, which turned the franchise into a huge success. More than ten years after the original, we come full circle back to Tristram, where evil stirs once again.

The official confirmation of Blizzard Entertainment's action role-playing game Diablo III can easily be described as one of the most highly anticipated events in gaming history. The long-awaited third installment in the internationally acclaimed hack'n'slash series was rumored many months before the announcement. The devs. kept a tight lid on the project as long as they could, until things were finally made public during the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris. Although it achieved worldwide fame, Diablo wasn't a stranger to criticism. Hardcore gamers badmouthed the original for its overly simplistic storytelling, while others claimed that the single-player portion was too short. Critics, however, mostly praised it and Blizzard went on to sell millions of copies. Diablo II was marked as an effort to improve on many aspects of the game, including the multiplayer, character development and overall design. It was an even bigger hit. Diablo III appears to be a similar effort, as it attempts to bring a variety of new elements to the core gameplay.

The first thing Blizzard wished to bring into the spotlight was the inclusion of two characters classes - the Barbarian and the Witch Doctor. Fans will no doubt recognize the Barbarian; an extremely resilient robust warrior, primed for close-combat. While the class did make an appearance in Diablo II, it's obvious that it went through some major revisions this time around. Most of the Barbarian's skills are far more powerful and destructive. With every wave of his powerful melee weapons, the Barbarian hacks through his opponents with grace and ease, while being able to demolish nearby objects and use most of them to his advantage. In fact, a particularly intriguing example was given when the Barbarian used one of his skills to knock down wooden pillars that were supporting a deteriorating wall. The wall collapsed onto a nearby group of ill-fated enemies, crushing them into oblivion. That was but a mere sample of environmental interactivity Blizzard promised to offer players in Diablo III. This particular class wields an extensive number of devastating attacks, such as Ground Stomp, Seismic Slam, Cleave, Leap and, of course, the ever-popular and all-too familiar Whirlwind. We've already seen most of these in action (check out the D3 videos posted with this feature). What's more, he has the advantage of being able to take position in the frontlines and heal other players who are in the back - he does this by grabbing health loot.

Regenerating your characters, incidentally, is a bit different from previous games. Instead of clogging the inventory with heaps of vitality potions, characters may collect healing orbs that will recover health instantly. As Blizzard explains, this facet was designed to emphasize positional gameplay. It basically encourages players to stick together during cooperative play. Yes, Diablo III is going to feature a multiplayer mode and co-op is evidently a big part of the overall experience. The exact number of players that will be able to play simultaneously hasn't been finalizes yet. Blizzard did hint it might be lower than 8 players, which is the theoretical maximum.

Apart from the Barbarian, the Witch Doctor is the only character class the developers were prepared to discuss. Unlike the Barbarian, the Witch Doctor is more subtle in combat and lets other creatures do all the dirty work for him. Besides summoning diverse monsters, the Witch Doctor exterminates enemies with debilitating special abilities such as the deadly Locust Swarm, which when released devours its prey swiftly and then spreads onto the next victim. So, instead of brute force, he prefers utilizing tactics in battle. To increase damage, the Witch Doctor is able cast Locust Swarm on his minions so they can further spread the disease on enemies. Once done with his pets, he can destroy them, thereby causing massive damage to foes nearby. His other skills include Soul Harvest, Mass Confusion, Horrify and so on. Again, each of these are used to gain tactical advantage over enemies.

Behind the enhanced gameplay mechanics are the newly incorporated Havok physics. In-game physics seem to have worked almost flawlessly in the footage shown so far. We hope Blizzard will continue in the same spirit until they've finalized the product. As for the visuals in general, I think the gameplay footage speaks for itself. Diablo III features the traditional isometric view, similar to both of the previous games. Well, that's certainly going to keep plenty of fans pleased at least.

Loot is the crucial ingredient in Diablo III. Characters get to pack their inventories with an assortment of items, weapons and armor. Similarly to Diablo 2, the info on each weapon is displayed when you browse through the inventory - weapons have their own characteristics, as well as unique aspects that increase damage (frost damage, lighting damage, fire damage... you know the drill).

From what we've seen and heard, Blizzard aims to improve the gameplay as much as possible. Control improvements denote the use of a hotbar to easily accessing skills. The handy new quickswap feature gives you a chance to quickly browse through your skills using the mouse or tab key. This also means you can play the entire game just by using the mouse, without having to press the 'F' key to bring up particular skills (like before).