Diablo is an iconic franchise in the gaming industry. Since 1996, players have been devoting countless hours an associated loss of wrist health by clicking away at the world of Sanctuary in hopes of ridding it from The Lord of Terror. Along came an expansion, a console version, a sequel, multiplayer elements and finally last year Diablo 3. I got launch day codes for the game and quickly learned that not everything was well with the new model. Interest dropped in record time, Blizzard employees were flamed and displaced, and the game went back to being another icon removed from my desktop. Then, the console version was announced… and I knew hope! Can the PS3 version of Diablo give me what the PC version could not? Read on to find out

The PC issues

Yes it is true, we couldn’t log in for what seemed to be the longest time. We had been waiting for 10 years! It was annoying. But the really annoying part was learning that instead of repackaging the beloved model with some fancy graphics and effects, Blizzard had decided to change core aspects of the game completely: namely, progression and reward systems. No longer did you have deep skill trees to lock you down a single but branched path, now you would instead pick and chose from sets of skills made available to you as you level, but available for exchange at any time. No longer would you chose your leveling stats, now you would simply find better gear. The simplified progression system was slightly too reminiscent of an mmo, but more worryingly it killed the impetus to re-roll and re-experience the same character on a different spec. Rewarding mechanics were altered to accommodate an Auction House and promote its utilization: players started creating “magic find” sets and farming opening chests until they received gear worthy of millions of in game gold. For the new character, this meant that the in-game drops were always a few levels behind you, did not compare to the shinies you could see in the Auction House, and were almost always not adequate for your class

Add to this a decent amount of lag in simple things such as taking a health potion, lackluster endgame crafting, and overall discontent from the community and the whole experience quickly became dull. The game was about acquiring gear that was being dangled in front of you in the Auction House and not in game, because the complete randomness of the sets made you obtain Wizard items with Strength attributes. I got to 60, I went into Inferno, and a few acts in I lost interest and moved to other games that implemented skill>reward better.

One Year Later

I hear from the PC community that the PC version has been fixed and patched and it’s now a pleasurable endeavor. I haven’t tried it out this year but since all those fixes should have rolled into the PS3 version, I purchased it to test out how well Diablo 3 had evolved and how it would feel from my couch. I set up with a downloadable PS3 digital version (that for some reason was 10 USD cheaper then the retail!) and watched with pleasant surprise that the intro had made a smooth HD transition to the TV screen. I was shortly after greeted by the familiar start screen, but there was no server or password or dread of error 37, and I felt more at home and back to my Diablo 2 dwelling days at once.

The Controls & UI

To me, the most challenging leap from a console to a PC and vice-verse is the control schemes. Most games that play well with a controller play badly with a mouse and keyboard, and UI settings that work on computers feel cluttered and clumsy on a console. I was quite pleased to discover Blizzard had done such a good job in this regard. Character creation is simple and the starting interface for game and multiplayer options is well laid-out, giving you easy at-a-glance understanding of the possibilities. The essential menus are laid “horizontally” so there are not too many branching paths – you only need a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the options and, for example, you can soon discover you can create custom parties and be selective on who can join you and at what time.

Once in game, I noticed the minimalist UI and was happy to find you are given options to customize enemy bars and damage/healing numbers, player names, etc but you do not lose appreciation for the effort put to match console layouts making the interface very clean and allowing you to almost forget it. Even the leveling process has been altered to make your control layout ease in. It is odd but somehow the game feels more at home with the controller than it did with the mouse. Moving at will with an analog stick is smoother, being able to dodge at the flick of a thumb is convenient, and the preset L2 lock on has finally given me a way to keep track of those teleporting Elites! You are also given default abilities mapped to each action button and they unlock as you level, however the possibility to freely change them will please most gamers who prefer certain layouts. Skills, Inventory and Challenges menus work as radial options, with inventory display auto-sorting equipment by slot and providing a handy star as an indication of new loot on one slot. This is very convenient and contributes to the seamless and smooth feeling of the game.

The Graphics

I am a sucker for good looking games. This does not mean I’ll buy a game based on its looks (you didn’t fool me, Azura’s Wrath!) but I do certainly appreciate beautiful artwork. Sanctuary has always been a personal favorite for artistic motivation, so the console graphics, that feature a permanently zoomed in camera, are very welcome. The style is somewhat reminiscent of cel-shading, however the world feels more detailed, descriptive and alive on the PS3. Thanks to the extra large TV screens and the zoom-in, I can see the details of the floating robes on my character as I fight. I can appreciate the piles of books and webbing and dust on old crypts. I can now see the full effect of the housing additions: the bread and cup of wine on the table, the opened book by the side of the bed, the sacks of flour near the kitchens. I can see the cracks on the furniture and benches and each brick that makes a fireplace. We could “see” all these things on the PC version, but now they are more prominent and obvious, and having you zoomed in forces you to not look down on the world but look from inside it.

The Gameplay

As I had mentioned before, the PC version suffered from a terrible ailment known as “failure to reward”. Gameplay is the component of a game that pitches the gamer against scenarios with mechanics, asks the gamer to resolve the given puzzle, and then rewards the gamer for said action. Diablo games have always been about “the loot” and as such players expect to be rewarded with gear progression. We aren’t playing to get a perfect combo or a no hit playthrough, we are playing to see what the enemy drops. A year ago, the very moment I realized that my enemies would not drop anything as good as what was available in the Auction House, I lost interest in the game. It took me a good 100 hours to get there… but after waiting for this game for 10 years, 100 hours does not feel like much.

In terms of mechanics, the game remains simple: combine gear stats and spells with a decent amount of kiting and dodging to overcome increasing amounts of regular enemies and powered-up elite versions. The elite groups have random buffs that give them special powers such as teleportation, wall-building, fearing, chaining that damages you, etc. The hardest the difficulty of the playthrough, the more buffs the elites will have at once. The maps have adjusted enemy spawn and aggro rates to account for the zoomed in camera, but overall it feels very similar to the PC version with one massive, obvious, astonishing difference: It’s REWARDING! The official notes say the drop amounts have been reduced and quality increased… but the effect of that in your playthrough is amazing. To explain it simply, there are tiers of items: white (trash), blue (some magical properties), legendary yellow (stats+more magical properties) and legendary orange (superstats+super magical properties = awesome). I played Diablo 3 for over 160 hours. I NEVER got an orange drop. not once, from any boss, even in the hardest difficulty, throughout all 5 Acts of the game. On the PS3, I got 4 orange drops during the very first Act! My naive level 16 Wizard felt Godly wielding an epic wand and sporting epic armor and gifting a staff to a fellow player. I had never had that pleasure on the PC version as the only epic loot I saw drop was not only not for me, it also had random inexplicable stats that did not apply to the armor type so it would have been trashed by any class because it was worthless. This is a game-changer and the game-saver. Diablo 3 lost its Auction House on the way to the console, and regained its soul. I want to kill more enemies, I want to see what they drop.

Also of note is the dynamic factor of the difficulty fluctuation. Back on early PC days, players ran into the “Inferno Wall”. Act 2 seemed impossible without farming Act 1 for what could feel like forever. The console version addresses this issue smartly, by presenting us with further options. The 4 core difficulties are: Normal, Nightmare, Hell and Inferno. Now each of them can be tackled in:

• Easy = Monster Power 0
• Medium = Monster Power 2
• Hard = Monster Power 4
• Master I = Monster Power 6
• Master II = Monster Power 7
• Master III = Monster Power 8
• Master IV = Monster Power 9
• Master V = Monster Power 10

So for example you can start Inferno on “Inferno Easy” and progress your way to “Inferno Master V” to obtain the maximum gear drop bonuses.

Devil in the Details

Some other small tweaks and additions, as well as unintentional side-effects, make the game more pleasurable on the console.

• There is no lag. No connecting to server, no authentication, no responding from server that is sustaining millions of players and their auctions= no lag. I take a health potion? I heal. I move out of a puddle? I moved. My friend joined the game? They don’t teleport around.
• Loot information. Whenever you pick up an item a small, unobtrusive popup near your healthbar informs you if the item gives you more or less of damage, armor, and health. Simple yet beautiful for not having to stop and open inventory after every other mob group.
• The zoom in. I’m in Sanctuary not above it. It feels good to be part of this world
• One Health Potion to Rule Them All: 60% of your health comes back, instantly. Yay
• No more identify scrolls and town portal scrolls. Simply press right on Dpad and go back.
• Nephalem Globes. This console-only item is like a health orb turned random buff: more experience, movement/attack speed, magic and gold find!
• Playstation Freebies. I didn’t preorder the game. I still found that there were four legendary items waiting for me in my stash just for buying the PS3 version of the game! It felt delightful.
• Upgrade to PS4 + Expansion: Activision will participate in a program that upgrades your PS3 games for a small fee to PS4 where applicable (10usd), and the expansion will be coming to consoles as well giving your purchase further legs.

• Not really your build. You can’t chose your stats and are limited in the progression path before you have access to skills to customize
• No in game type chat. There is voicechat but let’s face it, PS3 players seldom use it.
• The trophies will take me way too long. What? We all know this is a very important point 😛

Final Thoughts

Whilst I reserve the right to change my mind if in three weeks from now I find something game-breaking, right now I would strongly recommend purchasing this game. Diablo has an interesting world and story, a beautiful layout sure to entice your artistic side, and an addictive gameplay+reward=give-me-more implementation. A tidier UI, improved inventory and simplified menus enhance the original version along with several graphical and mechanic tweaks. Easy drop in and drop out multiplayer with individualized loot guarantees many hours of fun with your PSN friends. The Fextraopinion is BUY~!

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