Diablo III for consoles isn’t just yet another repackaged PC game shoved onto a different system with missing features and dodgy controls. No, Blizzard have made their triumphant return to the console realm after nearly 16 years with a wonderfully crafted, complete version of Diablo III for all of the action RPG fans to lavish over.
"Diablo III is a truly satisfying gaming experience in which the player really gets a sense of progression with their character which after hours of play transforms into a deadly weapon of mass destruction."
Diablo III for consoles is still the exact same divisive installment of the series that it’s proven to be on the PC bar a few unwanted features such as the Auction House left out for good measure. Every piece of content in the PC version is complete on consoles including all major updates since the original version’s release. What we’re getting here is the pure essence and experience of Diablo III.
Diablo III is a truly satisfying gaming experience in which the player really gets a sense of progression with their character which after hours of play transforms into a deadly weapon of mass destruction. Starting off as either one of the 5 classes available; Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Wizard, Monk or Demon Hunter you’re immediately tasked with the effort of fending off the evil hordes of hell that have besieged the familiar town of New Tristram.
"Combat wise, Diablo III has made the leap over to consoles with aplomb. The intense battles and quick-thinking tactical decisions that need to be made on the fly in order to triumph over your enemies work extremely well with a gamepad."
The key gameplay element with Diablo is a the plethora of Loot that is dropped with the inevitable slaughter of the endless enemies this world has to offer. Loot can be anything from a new piece of armour, money, magical items and weapons. All of these build and continue to develop your character into a walking arsenal. There are no skill trees to navigate through in Diablo III, all progression feels natural and controllable as the player ultimately has the decisions of which loot to use and how to craft their character through their journey.
The decision to bring an offline mode to consoles cuts out all those nasty DRM issues Diablo suffered on the PC and ushers in welcome additions of LAN capability and up to four players offline. This truly harkens back to the days of old where we’d once sit on a couch surrounded by pizza boxes slogging through dungeons with our friends in multiplayer.
Combat wise, Diablo III has made the leap over to consoles with aplomb. The intense battles and quick-thinking tactical decisions that need to be made on the fly in order to triumph over your enemies work extremely well with a gamepad. The six abilities for your character are mapped to the face buttons with the analogue stick controlling the direction of the attack. Diablo has a generous auto-aim feature, which does come in handy when you find yourself quickly outnumbered and needing to pick of a few enemies to make an escape.
While graphically the game won’t leave any jaws dropped the art design and sheer beauty of the environments you will find yourself in certainly will. There is no doubt that despite the rough animations and the odd dodgy texture or two Diablo III is still a great looking game.
Diablo III has made the perfect jump to consoles and whilst lacking the ability to create or access any mods it is certainly the best and more distilled version of a fantastically epic game.
This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.
THE GOOD
A leaner and less junk filled version of Diablo III, Using a controller works far better than expected, A tangible sense of character progression, Better Loot system resulting in less rubbish being dropped, Old school multiplayer.
THE BAD
Some dodgy character models and textures.
Final Verdict
A perfect port of an already excellent game minus a few unsavoury features. What’s not to like?