Review: DIABLO III (Console Version) - What Couches Were Made For
When I first heard that Diablo III was being ported to consoles I, like probably many others, was skeptical. After playing it, I cannot believe how natural it feels to play with a controller in my hand, but more importantly, it is so damn fun. Not just normal fun, but hilariously fun. Fun that spawns events and parties for years to come. Fun that exemplifies what couch co-op should be.
Sitting on the couch with four of my friends wading through demonic armies elicits emotions I haven’t felt since the days of Phantasy Star Online on the Gamecube and now we have TVs big enough to actually see what is going on! After hours of playing, I realized how much I’ve missed this style of a co-op game. I've played Diablo III on the PC with friends, and countless other co-op games over the internet or even in person but there is a special feeling evoked when everyone is working together in such close quarters.
Diablo III for consoles is still Diablo III. There are the same five classes, same abilities, same glyphs, hell, even the same number of ability shortcuts. It has the same awkward story and great boss fights, but it just fits better on a console. Diablo III is simplistic, you don’t have to worry about where you spend your stat points and your skills unlock as level without any input from the player. All you have to worry about is slaying the next horde of demon-beasties.
On the PC, this can be annoying, but on the console it gets you and your friends right into the action with few interruptions. If you want to make the game slightly less simple, make sure to turn on “Advanced Tooltips” and “Elective Mode”, this gives you significantly more control over your character.
Gameplay interruptions are my biggest complaint with the console version of the game. If you are playing with multiple people, when one enter his inventory or checks his skills, it takes up the entire screen and leaves the rest of the players to twiddle their thumbs or eat snacks. This can slow down gameplay since every player wants to check their new skills when they level up and occasionally check their vast hordes of equipment.
Luckily, the developers, Blizzard, expected this issue and created a new quick equip system to counter it. Players can now cycle through the last few items they've looted and equip them based on a quick preview of the Damage, Defense and Health changes the item would bestow. This helps alleviate some of the down time. When you pick up a new weapon, it gives you the damage difference and if you are satisfied (with lots of little green triangles) you can swap it out and keep fighting. Unfortunately, items in Diablo III are far more complicated than merely Damage, Defense and Health. Tons of magic item enhancements aren't factored in at all, like Life on Hit and Magic Find, so players will still want to check their full inventory occasionally.
This is a small consequence for the vast entertainment value of local co-op. With everyone in the same room and potentially on the same TV (but they don’t have to be since you can LAN consoles together) it allows for far better cooperation and interaction between players. And that makes it so much fun. Playing with four can get pretty confusing at times. There is so much going on the screen at the same time I found myself losing my Barbarian in the chaos, but that was only during the craziest fights and I never found it annoying or unbearable.
The gameplay is similar to what you see on the PC version. Large boss fights, massive battles, loads of death. The usual ARPG formula. One new addition is a slew of new difficulty modes. Normally there is one difficulty, and once you finish the first play-through you unlock a harder difficulty to play through that same campaign. You advance from Normal to Nightmare then Hell and Inferno.
This system stands in the Console version with the addition of Easy, Normal, Hard, and Master I - V modes. These settings adjust the relative difficulty for whatever mode you are in. For example, you can be in Normal or Nightmare play-throughs, but them pick Master I since you are confident in your demon slaying ability and it will be significantly more difficult. I love these new options. It allowed my friend and me, both Diablo III veterans, to play through the Normal campaign and actually be pushed and challenged enough to keep it interesting, but when I sat down with a group that has never touched it before we could play it normally and still have fun.
The console controls work surprisingly well, after you get used to them. The auto-aiming system is relatively intelligent so you are usually attacking the person who you should be, but when things get crazy you usually just kill the thing closest to you. If you have ever played a Diablo game before, or any fast paced ARPG, you realize that this isn't that big of an issue except in the instances you want to kill a boss or summoner first. Then you might have to wrestle with the auto-aim a bit.
On the controller, specifically the PS3 controller, every button on the right side of the gamepad are your six active moves. You press the button, enemies die. Simple. Diablo III has a new dodge roll function which you control with the right stick. This gives the players some of the mobility lost by removing the accuracy of a mouse and keyboard. During my time playing, the two main uses I found for it was to either dodge boss moves or to move backwards while still firing forwards. For characters like the Wizard and Demon Hunter, this becomes an invaluable asset. All said, character control on a console feels natural. It doesn't feel like a port at all, and that is a huge compliment.
Unlike character control, menu navigation takes a little more getting used to. You can only see one screen at a time, and learning the correct button combinations to quickly compare a bunch of equipment takes a while to memorize. Considering the lack of accuracy, multiple windows and hotkeys, item and skill management is slower with a controller compared to a mouse and keyboard, but this is to be expected and the system in place works well enough after some practice.
The visuals of the game are pretty good considering how many models can be displayed on screen at the same time. In some of the harrier fights you can have fifty monsters plus your four player characters all running around and fighting and in the midst of the madness, the frame rates remain solid which is an achievement. Close up shots of the character models isn’t great, but considering the game is only running in 720p max on a much larger screen than most computer monitors, it makes the transition just fine.
A console release of Diablo III was surprising to me, but after playing it, it makes perfect sense. The gameplay, advancement and controls all transfer natively onto the console. If I was playing by myself, I would be torn between the PC and consoles versions. They are so very similar each with their own perks, but the second anyone else wants to play, console co-op it is. Diablo III for consoles is just so much fun it is hard to describe. It is a gaming experience like something I haven’t had for a long time, and I look forward to being jammed on my couch with my buddies for hours on end.
Final Verdict: 8.5/10