Diablo III

It could be very easy to see how Diablo III could be described as monotonous.

Click click click click click click.

Hours are spent roaming maze-like dungeons with your sole purpose being to massacre anything you find down there.

Click click click click click click.

With only a limited set of powers, fights begin to form into a series of well-rehearsed and predictable phases.

Click click click click click click.

The backdrops may change, but over the many hours your actions remain the same. Namely…

Click click click click click click.

And yet all I want to do is to keep on clicking. The design wizards at Blizzard have once again taken what the world expects to be a well-worn and predictable formula and put their twist on it to make it shine. Not content with setting the standard in MMOs, or recapturing the RTS market, they have resurrected an almost decade-old franchise and breathed fresh life into it.

At its heart it’s still the same third-person dungeon crawler that almost personifies adventure games. The difference here though is that large portions of the once action-RPG are now more focused on the action rather than RPG. Formerly rigid talent trees whereby you pick certain skills at the expense of others as you level up are forgotten and instead level progression is greeted by a series of unlocks that ever expand the possibilities but never restrict.

Purists have already cried on the forums at this perceived dumbing down, but for the more silent majority this is a wondrous thing. As you progress, powers are slowly opened up to you, sitting in one of six possible slots. Each level brings a new trinket, be it the ability to summon zombie dogs to fight alongside you, or the skill to rain acid down upon your foes. Compared to more traditional RPGs where levelling may mean the excitement of a new stat point to spend in this area of self-improvement or that, the guarantee of a new talent or power is far more rewarding. Almost without fail, just like a child on Christmas day, you’ll be rejigging your loadout to try the new toy.

As is life, not all these gifts are Transformers; some turn out to be Gobots. Although even then that’s not to say you won’t revisit it later on as these powers are modified by a further series of unlockables known as Runes. All will keep the same core ability but, returning to our zombie dogs, they could become poisonous, or highly explosive, even leave life orbs behind as they die. They have the potential to turn a previously considered useless ability and tweak it oh so slightly so it fits perfectly with your character’s build.

Indeed, though a certain flavour has run consistently through my Witch Doctor throughout our time together, the ability to wholescale switch play style, knowing that I’ve not committed myself to anything, has allowed me to experiment and come up with setups that have ranged from the disastrous to variations that have made with cackle with the sheer stupidity of the power at my disposal. My most favourite of which being when I summon a field of undead hands from the earth to tie them in place, send a Frankenstein-esque Gollum to show them what for, before finally summoning a familiar that would turn them into a chicken. Now you tell me seeing an eight-foot, undead servant wailing on a piece of confused looking poultry isn’t delightful.

Diablo however is more than just how you kill things; it’s about the loot they drop. And as ever they drop it in spades. Following a skirmish, the floor can be covered in weapons and armour, most of which can be ignored. Even on normal difficulty all but magic blues and rare yellows can be ignored, the abundance of low value items simply not worth your time ferrying them back to town to sell. Yet still they are critical to proceedings if just to show the value of the rarer items.

Most players will be able to adequately equip themselves with just what they find on the bodies of their victims. Slowly you’ll build up a set of armour and weapons that will mean you have no need of the vendors in town, and indeed money proves irrelevant for the most part except to dabble on the auction house or to level your blacksmith and jeweller. Each is probably the most important person in the village, being able to breakdown unwanted items and craft specifically to your needs, and probably at far a cheaper price than through Diablo’s own eBay.

Given the sheer quantity of items available, it’s unsurprising to see that visually they tend to fall into certain camps, though all are impressive. Indeed, the latest in the series is wonderfully rendered, with an eye for detail and the grand. Most levels will see you trawl the underground lairs of one area of the world or another, but the hard work placed into making each varied is plain to see. Gloomy tombs under the desert that see sand building up in corners are worlds away from the sewers under a royal palace. Gritty, peasants’ basements give way to castle barracks, and all see their own flavour of bad guy, too. In a game so long, it would have been easy to give in to temptation and recycle characters and models but with each passing portion of the narrative comes its own unique set of impressive monsters to squash.

Visually they range from skeletons to large, elephant-sized demons wielding equally large clubs, but disappointingly most of them offer no real intelligence or challenge. Some may show obvious signs of an attack that you can then dodge, but overall some of my perceived monotony stems from the onrushing charge that varies little. Only when it comes to the infrequent boss battles or higher difficulty settings does it actually feel as though you are being offered a challenge, be it in attack patterns or actual resistance.

Almost knowingly, Blizzard seem to realise this to and have built in rewards to toast the warrior that crushes these waves under foot. Bonus XP is awarded for chaining kills, massacring large numbers, and taking out multiple demons in a single attack. It’s a pleasant carrot to draw you forward into the heat of battle as you aim to beat your previous best.

With touches like that it’s easy to see how Diablo has taken over so many lives in the past fortnight. Based upon an addictive formula whereby you wield unyielding strength through blade or magic, you are then rewarded heavily; large quantities of treasure, further strange powers, and a strong storyline that ticks over readily whisking you from plague-ridden streets to royal houses. It is simple and yet packed with variety through five character classes and a staggering number of combinations of talents.

Reservation over its repetitiveness remains, but so does something else: click click click click click click.