Diablo III Previews

Previews for Blizzard’s highly anticipated Diablo III keep cropping out, courtesy of the recently started title’s closed beta, and the latest comes from the pens of ActionTrip, who offer us three information-laden pages. Here’s a sampling:

Other things have changed as well such as you no longer need to go back to town to sell items. After a few levels you are given the option in your inventory to either sell items, regardless of where you are for gold or to break them down into base components that can be used to craft other items at the blacksmith. The crafting aspect is intriguing as it seems to add an element more commonly found in a deeper MMO and not a ‘casual’ click hack and slash like Diablo. The items that I could craft were weapons and armor and cost gold in addition to the materials you gathered by breaking down items you pick up. Again, as this was the Beta, there was a limited set of crafting choices so again, we will have to wait until the game launches to see how deep the crafting component goes.

You can also find scrolls that grant you a temporary minion that will gather gold off the ground as you move around the map. The minions I have seen so far have been cute little snakes or bats that last 10 minutes or so. In talking with Vader about the minion and sell feature I pondered if Blizzard opted to include these features because they had been so successful in the Diablo clone Torchlight from a few years ago and just seemed like that had to be included. However, Vader pointed out that the creators of Torchlight were members of Blizzard North before leaving to start their own company so it’s possible those features were already part of the Diablo III development and he just beat them to the finish line when Torchlight released first. Regardless of who thought of it, it does take some of the drudgery we were used to in the previous games of having to mule a pile of loot through town portals in order to scrape up cash.

Another semi-puzzling aspect of the game so far is the appearance of very few item type restrictions for the character classes. My Wizard found axes, swords, bows and cross bows that I could equip and use if I saw fit. In fact, a restricted kind of weapon or armor was the exception and not the rule. Most class based games typically have a rigid set of rules when it comes to gear and the characters that can use it. Mages are restricted to cloth, use wands and totems and leave the melee weapons to the characters with more strength, health and heavy armor that are needed when going toe to toe in a melee confrontation. Again, since this is a Beta, I did not get to see higher level equipment drops so this is another item I have to put in the ‘need more time and experience before I can make a judgment call’ category.

And those of Just Push Start:

The Demon Hunter (class I chose) takes the best of the old assassin and amazon classes and rolls them into one über-class. They mainly use crossbows and are extremely powerful. Similar things can be said about both the Wizard and Witch Doctor who are revised versions of classic Diablo characters. The Doctor has multiple abilities and can summon monsters, harvest souls, and more.

Once you select your class you must make your way towards the location of New Tristram, a setting that is beloved by Diablo fans. From there you receive your first quest: find and eliminate the Skeleton King. To do this you must locate an individual who can help you take down the king. This man, is Deckard Cain.

Along the way you’ll encounter many enemies and this is where things get fun. Using the Demon Hunter’s special crossbow attack takes out essentially anything that comes towards you. Believe me, there is nothing more satisfying than hitting 8 monsters with 1 arrow and getting insta-kills. Throughout the quest you will be fighting plenty of Risen and even though you can take them out quickly they can still gang up on you and eat your lunch while you frantically run away trying to use a health potion.