For fans of the series that are jumping platforms now, Blizzard’s assembled a useful FAQ that highlights what’s different. There’s considerably less hand-holding here than most console games tend to offer, but, at worst, the only penalty is a little gold to spend patching up your damaged gear.Īll of these points add up to a legitimately better Diablo III on consoles that we’ve seen on PC. Diablo III‘s progression system speaks to that, with no cost attached to shuffling around the abilities and ability modifiers that you’ve already unlocked into new character builds. That said, this is a series that encourages experimentation. It’s the same as it was on PC, of course, but ready access to wikis and the like isn’t as easy to manage on a console. There’s no tutorial to give players a sense of how complex, investment-required systems like crafting work.
DIABLO III REVIEW PC
While much of Diablo III is re-tooled to be more console-friendly, there are still elements that lean too strongly toward a PC development mindset. The only really shortcoming to speak of is a somewhat schizophrenic approach to the design.
It’s especially useful with melee-centric brawlers like the Monk and the Barbarian, but everyone benefits from an easier scramble away from enemy fire. There’s also a handy new dodge maneuver mapped to the right stick. More than that, the success of auto-targeting highlights Diablo III‘s combat focus on reactive improvisation over measured strategy. It’s surprisingly reliable, even when there’s a thick crowd on screen. In place of precision mouse clicks, Diablo III on consoles uses an auto-target feature to ensure that your attacks reach their intended destination. The learning curve for using a character’s abilities is what you make of it, literally. As with the PC version, skills default into different categories, but players can turn on an “Elective Mode” to map any skill to any button. Blizzard takes all four face buttons and three of the four shoulder buttons for skill mapping (the fourth shoulder is for health potions). The real gem of Diablo III on console, however, is the gamepad-friendly control scheme. The absence of a for-cash marketplace is a tremendous boon to Diablo III’s in-game economy. It’s nonetheless a tremendous addition to Diablo III if you like to quest with friends over a couple of beers. Couch multiplayer grinds when it comes to gear shuffling, since only one player can browse the character menu at a time. All loot in local co-op is shared on a first-come, first-serve basis, unlike the online game’s individualized drops. There’s something immediately gratifying about charging into combat at your friends’ sides… or sneaking in to vulture a tasty piece of treasure out from under them. You can set out with up to four players on one screen at the same time. Monsters don’t just get stronger at higher settings, they also offer bigger XP and gold/loot rewards. In addition to Diablo III‘s Normal, Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno playthroughs – each of which unlocks after completing the preceding one – players can also set the difficulty, at Easy, Normal, Hard, and five levels of Master. There’s more treasure to be had as well thanks to the new Master difficulty settings, which mirror the PC game’s Monster Power. The satisfaction of watching a fountain of loot issue forth from a defeated boss is never dulled. You’re seeing more rare loot on the ground as you play, and spending less in-game gold to create it yourself once you reach that point. Loot drop rates, crafting prices, and a number of other moving parts have been tweaked to account for the shift in the economy. The only major feature removed for consoles is the widely criticized real money Auction House. You can’t use your PC characters here, but you can enjoy the same post-release additions that they do now.
DIABLO III REVIEW PATCH
It’s all carried over directly from the earlier release, all the way up through the most recent patch updates. The story, the cutscenes, the locations, the monsters and bosses, the multiple playthroughs… everything. What’s changed so much on the console version, then? Very little, in terms of the actual gameplay.
Diablo III doesn’t stumble onto consoles like so many sub-standard PC game ports before it.