Within its many years of production, developers Blizzard Entertainment has finally shown concrete signs of fruition that their most anticipated action RPG, Diablo III, is close to being finished. Sadly, while no release date announcements were made (Blizzard loves being coy about this subject matter, if gaming history serves), we nonetheless braved through the demon-filled lands of the game by way of the beta up on tap at the company's Irvine, California campus. While a preview of the game is already up, this is a more in-depth look at what we've played.
In this recent version, which players will be able to try out on a later-albeit-unannounced date, they get to pick one of the five classes: the closed-ranged hard-hitting Barbarian, the companion-reliant Witch Doctor, the spell-centric Wizard, the speedy melee-focused Monk, and the ranged combat specialist Demon Hunter. Each class starts out with two active skills at level one. As players progress and earn experience via killing hordes of demons and completing quests, they can unlock up to a total of six active and three passive skills. The former are class-specific abilities that use up a class' resources while the latter are permanent skill and stat boosters that affects that particular character in the long run.
When the beta starts, players will head down to New Tristram which is under the invasion of the living dead awakened by falling stars around the vicinity. Players will eventually meet prominent main character Leah, Deckard Cain's niece who happens to also be the daughter of Adria (the magic-selling witch from the first Diablo). A short quest later, players will then be tasked to find Deckard Cain who's wandering below the abandoned cathedral ruins filled with all manners of undead beasts. Players will also get to participate in a main quest to summon past Diablo villain the Skeleton King (the former King Leoric in Diablo lore) by searching for his crown tucked away in the cemetery and defiled crypt areas , and then put him to rest once again in the royal crypts just a few stages below in the cathedral ruins. The beta's inclusion of the first chunk of what obviously represents Act One of the game not only helps set the game's narrative tone but also puts action RPG enthusiasts into the fray as the underworld genocide never lets up.
Speaking of which, the plethora of demons we faced were no slouches. The grotesque demons are obese monstrosities that explode upon death and shoot out either corpse worms or imps in its demise. The unburied undead are burly spike-filled powerhouses that take quite a bit of pounding before they fell; ideally, the wizard, demon hunter and witch doctor need to stay far away from these giants and pelt their long-ranged options. The wretched mothers not only have projectile attacks, but they can 'vomit' out minor zombies to overrun players. Armor-clad skeletons with staffs in the deeper parts of the cathedral can summon other minor skeletons and sic them on players.
The beta's star, however, was the Skeleton King. After completing the final quest in which players need to attach his crown onto his skeleton, the boss springs to life and immediately pelts them with damaging sword swings and a three-hit attack that takes a second to wind up, thus making it easy to telegraph. The king can also summon a trio of shield-bearing and melee-focused skeletons while also dash around the screen either to avoid the player temporarily or home in onto them. While not as challenging as his first Diablo counterpart, we still had to use a few potions just to survive his onslaught.
It also helped that the main classes we focused on were more than enough to handle the mob-heavy threats. The classes we enjoyed tinkering around with were the Witch Doctor and the Monk. The former was effective because he started off with one of the best skills a constitution-light spellcaster could ask for: the ability to summon three permanent zombie dogs that hit fast and serve primarily as distractions. Our Witch Doctor was content in blowing poison darts using his pipe, shooting out"haunt" bolts that can spread to other targets after killing its previous target, summoning poison frogs that bounce randomly and explode onto demon's faces, and casting a Grasp of Death area-of-effect spell that slows down an enemy's walking speed by 30 percent and damages them over time. His later moves allow him to summon an army of tiny Fetish monsters and a golem-like Gargantuan, as well as cast buffs like the attack speed-increasing Big Bad Voodoo aura. Still, we were content in letting our zombie hounds, poison frogs, and Grasp of Death skill to deal with the majority of enemies.
The latter relied more on building up spirit meter using spirit-refilling three-part attacks because unlike other classes, the Monk's spirit meter does not regenerate slowly by itself. A number of his spirit-using abilities either act as buffs or status-inflicting moves that affect the area. Other times, they're just hard-hitting area-of-effect attacks. We didn't really see much of a point as his sole spirit-using attack, a high-swing kick move, paled in comparison with his combination of the far-hitting Deadly Reach, small area-of-effect attack Electric Fist, and ranged tackle move Dashing Strike which also serves as a quick and cheap way to maneuver around the screen during fights.
Even if we didn't unlock all of his moves since the beta would be over by the time we reached close to level nine, his high-level attacks and passive skills colored us impressed. His Inner Sanctuary skill creates circular barriers that can help create choke points to funnel enemies for a player's attacks, while Tempest Rush creates an aura around the Monk that makes him run faster and knock back nearby enemies, enabling him to flee from a tough situation. While using the Monk requires a more active approach from players, anyone who wishes to see a more diverse version of a standard melee character should experiment with the potentially awesome class.
The Wizard has a lot of tricks up her sleeves. In addition to casting a slew of projectiles, she can cast buffs like diamond skin, which lets her absorb more damage than her frail defense can handle, and slow time, which projects a wide bubble that slows down opponents and enemy projectiles within it. She also has the ability to temporarily transform into an Archon, which gives her a new set of moves, a much more powerful disintegration spell, and an ice-based area-of-effect attack. The catch is that she has to consistently kill foes to sustain the ethereal form. When she reaches level 19, she has the ability to summon a three-headed hydra as a potent companion.
The Barbarian forgoes all tricks and goes straight for the jugular while also shrugging off damage. While his melee attacks and special moves that uses Fury meter are great, his best tools for us were his ancient spear and wrath of the berserker. The former attack reels a target enemy in closer ala Scorpion's harpoon attack from the Mortal Kombat series, while the latter boosts his attack and durability further for a huge amount of Fury meter. Since he gains Fury from dealing and receiving damage, it's not that hard to build up enough meter to unleash a torrent of moves onto foes. Chasing them, however, is another story for him.
Last but not least, the Demon Hunter establishes herself as the class with crossbows and arrows. Her resource meter is split into two: Hatred and Discipline. The former is for her offensive ranged attacks and recharges really fast while the latter is for defensive maneuvers and replenishes slowly. Her passive abilities sounded interesting; when Killing Spree is unlocked, it gives her a 30 percent chance to do critical damage to an opponent after previously slaughtering a demon for the duration of five seconds.
Our favorite setup for demon-slaying was using a combination of Entangling Shot, which slowed down enemies by 50 percent and also affected an extra opponent standing close to the target, and Bola Shot, which wrapped a projectile on a target and exploded within seven yards for fire and weapon damage. Late-game abilities include Strafe, which lets her auto-attack with arrows when surrounded by enemies up until her Hatred meter's empty and Rain of Arrows which lets her shoot eight waves of arrow volleys in any direction. We personally felt that among all the classes, the Demon Hunter's plethora of talents showed off more interest when she's past level 20. There also wasn't much "oomph" from the damage and attacks dealt by the Demon Hunter when compared to the Monk and Witch Hunter.
One could argue that the "streamlined" approach to skill allocation may seem "consolified" (a popular derogatory term thrown by PC elitists in this day and age). The fact that some action RPG tropes from consoles like health blobs from dead enemies and fewer hotkeys make its way for the third game could also reinforce that argument, not to mention past news involving console lead designer job applications on Blizzard's site. However, all of these changes from parts one and two are more of a refined evolution of the genre than anything else and do feel necessary in the scheme of things.
If gamers were to remove their rose-tinted glasses, they may recall some cores of the past titles (commitment-heavy skill-building, no respec options) not aging well thanks to the appearances of the aforementioned conveniences offered from previous action RPGs. The addition of an official auction house also helps lessen the "Wild West" mentality of past game's item-trading economy (stones of Jordan economy, anyone?). One of Blizzard's core philosophies has always been about doing reiterations for their titles, and the current results of the polishing really show in the beta.
For recent updates on Diablo III, head down to GameSpot's gamespace for more coverage.
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