Diablo III

By Sam Collins

After a week of teasing via splash images on the company’s website in the lead-up to their World Wide Invitational event in Paris, Blizzard Entertainment officially announced Diablo III. In addition to the announcement, fans were treated to a 20 minute gameplay video and a developer Q&A panel was held discussing the game’s direction and some changes over previous Diablo titles. Stay a while and listen or, in this case, read as we go over the gameplay video and some snippets from the Q&A panel.

The gameplay video kicks off by re-introducing the Barbarian, a powerful melee-orientated character class. Looking old and somewhat worn, the Barbarian's appearance raised a few questions in regards to his past and it was confirmed that this will be the same Barbarian that appeared in Diablo II. Ripping through swathes of enemies is something of a Diablo mainstay and several of the Barbarian's combat abilities were on display. Showing old favourites like Whirlwind as well as some new additions like the ground stomp which, as displayed by the gameplay video, can be used tactically by the Barbarian to make shield-bearing foes drop their shields and become more vulnerable to getting hit in the face with axes.

Also on display was a new character class, the Witch Doctor. Hailing from the Torajan jungles, the Witch Doctor is looking, thus far, like a mix of the Necromancer and Druid classes from Diablo II. Using various disease and fire-based attacks as well as summoning a small army of skeletal mongrels to do his bidding, the Witch Doctor will fight his battles from afar. A few Witch Doctor skills were on display which included Locust Swarm, a disease-based skill which sends out a swarm of locusts that spreads from target to target, devouring them. Then there’s the Zombie Wall which, quite literally, is a wall comprised entirely of zombies. Not only will the Zombie Wall block attackers off from the Witch Doctor, the zombies themselves will attack anything that comes within reach.

Building on the randomly generated dungeons and zones in previous Diablo games, Diablo III will include randomly generated scripted events and, new to the Diablo franchise, environmental destruction powered by the Havok physics engine. A specific example of this was given when the Barbarian toppled a wall, sending slabs of concrete down to crush some zombies that were milling about. However, for most of the demonstration as the two player characters were fighting through the cathedral, it was possible to witness different pieces of the environment breaking, crumbling off or cracking under the weight of an attack directed at nearby enemies.

Another step away from the Diablos of old is potion chugging - or lack thereof. In order to keep the combat as intense as possible and breaks to a minimum, potions in the traditional sense have been removed. Instead, enemies will drop red orbs that will replenish your character's health once activated. Potions are still in the game but will no longer require excessive mashing of keys one through four – a role likely to be filled by replacing the potion slots with skill hotkeys. Also still present in the game is co-op; Diablo III will use Blizzard's free online service, Battle.net, for online play, and while no numbers have been specified as to how many people can play at once, a developer was quoted as saying around four to five players is the current sweet spot as far as game balance is confirmed.

No release date has been given aside from the 12 to 18 month timeline, but take that with a grain of salt however as Blizzard are notorious for pushing back release dates to allow for extra polish with their titles. Stay tuned to NZGamer.com so we can keep you up to date with the release date and any other Diablo III news.

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Posted by DrEnzyme on 15 July 2008, 08:27PM

It's about time NZGamer had an article on Diablo III, the news has been out for quite a while now. Better late than never I suppose :D

An interesting tidbit about D3 is that it might appear on consoles. Rob, Pardo, Diablo III's VP of game design, said that it's "theoretically possible"

Posted by MatEPoon on 15 July 2008, 10:36PM

Blizz would be mental not to bring it to consoles.
Money will talk for sure.
No doubt they'll wait for the right bid. A bid to ensure timed exclusivity or something else.

Posted by paddy01 on 18 July 2008, 11:50AM

Nah I don't think Blizzard will bring it to a console. they may be mental for not doing it but they have stayed true to their roots and haven't deviated at all.

Posted by ojanzi on 19 July 2008, 05:54PM

The biggest issue i remeber with D1& 2 was the fact that you could only get so far(lvl 30) before needing a few higher level players(lvl 80+) to "rush you" or help you level up quicker, has blizzard done anything around that or is there a reason for it.
I also remember the day i put down Diablo2 & picked up a copy of neverwinter nights, a deeper more emersive RPG more in tune with d&d.
I will never forget my many nights of Diablo though

Posted by Antony on 21 July 2008, 04:47PM

I so incredibly can't wait for this!

...I'm guessing Christmas next year?

Posted by supermario on 24 July 2008, 09:12PM

ojanzi: you're a noob if you needed help over 30. before the latest round of patches you could get to level 75 in about two hours by rushing, retarded if you played to 30 solo. even if you did you didn't need help to get from say 30-70 anyway.

Posted by FATAL_7 on 27 July 2008, 12:52PM

Cant wait til it comes out,

Posted by thedrunkasian on 31 July 2008, 08:50PM

I LOVE DIABLO