After 9 years of development, Blizzard has finally released their sequel to Diablo 2, and WOW what a disappointment. So lets cut to the chase, its a good game, its Diablo, more or less, its the less thats part of the problem and some absolutely terrible design decisions.

Lets get strainght to the point, why do I have network lag on a single player game?, WHY, Im not playing with anyone else, just me myself, on my own, I really dont  mind that I have to be online to play for copy protection purposes I suppose,  but I would have thought that it just syncs my inventory or progress online every now and again or whatever.

If I was playing with a team mate online then OK, I get some lag, but currently Im experiencing a constant half a second lag on everything, it just plays like shit IN SINGLE PLAYER mode WTF!.

I dont even mind the the DRM so much, or the fact that the skills system is watered down so I can no longer assign skill points when I level up, I can only chose new skills.

Graphics

The Graphics range from really quite good to just meh, but have surprisingly high system requirements, some of the spell effects are good with nice animation when they are not being ruined by rubber banding and clipping from lag (in single player games).

Story

I finished up to Act 4, and I found the story lazy, what happened over the nine years of development?, oh and the cut scenes that tell the story are rubbish, non animated hand drawn filler with a voice over, like a budget title  (except for the intro which is good)

Game play

This is the good point, its more or less Diablo, with interesting varied classes to play in random dungeons, all the loot collecting is still here which is good (otherwise it would not be Diablo). However what many times totally runs the experience is the intermittent rubber banding (in single player games, this is acceptable in multi-player game of course but in Single player games ? WTF?), and lag which effects the animations and screen updates, again in single player mode.

This ruins the experience for me, its unnecessary and is the result of poor design decisions, and a total lack of regard from Blizzard for its loyal customers.

Music

Quite good, nothing to complain about here, the Spanish guitar makes an appearance from D1 which is great.

Summary and conclusion

Good

• The graphic style is good, not amazing but good
• Good sound
• When there is no lag issues its very fun
• Classes are interesting and varied
• Jumping into co-op game is well done and in this case I dont mind some lag because its multiplayer

Bad

• I miss some kind of character customization, seems lazy to leave it out
• Single player Lag, totally unacceptable, also frequent rubber banding
• lazy uninteresting plot, some of it does not make sense, how do I know to find xyz item?, it does not related to the plot or any recent conversations.
• Cant assign stats on level up, very disappointing
• level skill tree could be alot better, is this the result of 9 years?

Meh (does not bother me)

• Real money Auction house, I dont mind this but I understand why other people care

Without the single player lag D3 is a solid Diablo sequel a little watered down, but fun, its a solid 4/5, but in its current state its a 2/5.

Diablo 3 is a watered down cynical game which in its current state its single player mode is broken.

Rating:

Diablo 3 Review, 6.0 out of 10 based on 11 ratings

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 Founder of GamertechTV, and EIC, executive editor of GamertechTV Read more from this author

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