Diablo III First Look

Diablo III appears to be rather promising in terms of story presentation. In addition to sticking with its tradition of top-notch cinematics, Blizzard is devoting a lot more attention to the characters and the universe this time around. Character classes and NPCs are all part of a richer world. In-depth lore is another change over earlier Diablo games, where characters felt rather generic. In that respect, the added voiceovers for player-controlled characters are a vast improvement. "This will make the storytelling more engaging, it'll make it livelier, it'll move faster. It'll also allow your character to feel more like he's driving the action, more of a heroic entity in the story and less like an errand boy that tends to happen somewhat in RPGs," said Leonard Boyarsky, lead world designer, during this year's Blizzard Worldwide Invitational.

As for the story itself, it takes place 20 years after Diablo II and the demise of Diablo, Mephisto and Baal. In the world of Sanctuary, the fear of evil returning begun to spread once again. Deckard Cain returns to the ruins of Tristram's Cathedral, looking for clues to this new threat. In a startling turn of events, a comet had struck the very ground where Diablo once entered the world. Following this dark omen, heroes of Sanctuary were called upon to defend the mortal world against the forces of the Burning Hells and "even the failing luminaries of the High Heavens itself."

Now, is it possible that even Blizzard could mess things up and spoil a potentially great game? Well, I guess even the best ones make mistakes. Although having witnessed the media and info on the game, we are far from pessimistic. It already seems to be way beyond your average action RPG click fest.

Now as much as Blizzard set out to incorporate a variety of innovative elements, they also vowed to retain familiar moments from older Diablo games. They've spruced up the story, but have also made sure that the game is highly replayable, with unique character classes and huge world to explore, plenty of quests and NPC interaction, with players being able to engage large scale battles too.

Of course, if you want to split hairs...

Recently, a group of diehard Diablo fans responded to the vibrant color palette and Blizzard's art direction for Diablo III (they even initiated this petition in the hope of "getting through" to Blizzard). True enough, this could cast a shadow of doubt in the eyes of more demanding Diablo enthusiasts, but other than that we honestly cannot see how this game could disappoint.