In some respects, this is obviously a port. The tiny font sizes will have you squinting at anything less than a huge TV, and it takes a few minutes to learn your way around a menu system that has been designed for flexibility and blinding speed rather than approachability (a very wise choice, by the way). But there are dozens of lovely touches to smooth the transition, like the at-a-glance icons that tell you how an item will affect your damage, armour and health if you equip it. This square peg has been lathed with painstaking care to fit its round hole.
The traditionally mouse-driven gameplay has transitioned unexpectedly well. With your six skills occupying the face buttons and two right triggers, holding one of these down and pushing the left stick in a direction selects the target for your attack. There's a generous auto-target, which is fine - Diablo's more about quick thinking and tactical skill use than pinpoint timing or accuracy with your attacks. Despite some surface similarities, console players coming in expecting the involved inputs of an action game will be disorientated. Diablo 3 exists on a different plane between action and role-playing, at once mindlessly visceral and with some of the detachment of real-time strategy.
If anything, with all your skills under the fingers of one hand and direct character control, you can now play more instinctively. An evade move on the right stick, which lets you change position while attacking - never possible in the PC game - is a massive boon. The biggest beneficiaries of the move from mouse to pad are the melee classes, the Monk and Barbarian. The latter feels especially right, unleashing his mighty slams as you drum the buttons, brawling away. But the ranged Wizard and Demon Hunter also play beautifully. It's only the indirect style of the Witch Doctor, with his summons and skills that do progressive damage over time, which feels like an awkward fit.
Despite being a game of the moment, Diablo 3 is structured for the very long haul, with your first run through the game on the rather easy Normal taking you less than halfway to the level cap of 60. The perfectly pitched Nightmare mode lies beyond, and Hell and Inferno beyond that, with special Key Warden bosses and the Paragon levelling system providing an endgame for those who hit 60, beat Inferno and still can't stop playing.
It is, frankly, more than the content of the game can stand. Diablo 3's episodic storyline is pure hokum, made with an infinite budget, drawn with lurid glee by the masters of ludicrous fantasy overstatement, and delivered with scenery-chewing conviction by an entertaining voice cast. But it does bog down in its second half, the randomisation of the layouts is on the gentle side and - despite the strong pull of the other classes, of the high-level skills or of the permadeath Hardcore mode - it is questionable how many times you will want to see it through. Many were shocked that it was possible to lose interest in a game from the makers of World of Warcraft after a mere 50 or 100 hours, but accusing Diablo 3 of not offering value for money is insanity.
Diablo 3 is a big game with a complex context and a contentious history. But its appeal is profoundly simple, as was made clear to me while exploring the best feature of this console version: couch co-op.
The lion's share of playtime for this review was done with a co-op partner by my side, a console gamer with no experience of the series or of Blizzard games. She loved it, wolfing it down every bit as hungrily as I, who had played the PC version past boredom more than once. Going into this review, I'd been worried that I was too close to the game already to see it afresh. But then I realised that I was finally able to play Diablo 3 as I had always wanted to, but never had, not even online; glorying in its sensational, senseless pleasures in company.
Diablo 3 on console is one of the best co-op games money can buy. It swings smoothly from easygoing to intense, with perfectly paced pockets of downtime, and is capable of swallowing entire evenings in a single, voracious gulp. It's a Lego game for loot-hungry grown-ups and it gets better with every player you add. If you have co-op partners who would also enjoy it, this version is an essential purchase. If you don't, it's still easier to recommend than the PC game; almost as slick, even more flexible and usable and without that troublesome always online requirement.
Diablo 3 is a bold, bloody, opulent romp built around a ruthlessly simple distillation of action role-playing. It's perfectly comfortable in its new home on consoles, and so is Blizzard.
9 / 10
The traditionally mouse-driven gameplay has transitioned unexpectedly well. With your six skills occupying the face buttons and two right triggers, holding one of these down and pushing the left stick in a direction selects the target for your attack. There's a generous auto-target, which is fine - Diablo's more about quick thinking and tactical skill use than pinpoint timing or accuracy with your attacks. Despite some surface similarities, console players coming in expecting the involved inputs of an action game will be disorientated. Diablo 3 exists on a different plane between action and role-playing, at once mindlessly visceral and with some of the detachment of real-time strategy.
If anything, with all your skills under the fingers of one hand and direct character control, you can now play more instinctively. An evade move on the right stick, which lets you change position while attacking - never possible in the PC game - is a massive boon. The biggest beneficiaries of the move from mouse to pad are the melee classes, the Monk and Barbarian. The latter feels especially right, unleashing his mighty slams as you drum the buttons, brawling away. But the ranged Wizard and Demon Hunter also play beautifully. It's only the indirect style of the Witch Doctor, with his summons and skills that do progressive damage over time, which feels like an awkward fit.
Despite being a game of the moment, Diablo 3 is structured for the very long haul, with your first run through the game on the rather easy Normal taking you less than halfway to the level cap of 60. The perfectly pitched Nightmare mode lies beyond, and Hell and Inferno beyond that, with special Key Warden bosses and the Paragon levelling system providing an endgame for those who hit 60, beat Inferno and still can't stop playing.
It is, frankly, more than the content of the game can stand. Diablo 3's episodic storyline is pure hokum, made with an infinite budget, drawn with lurid glee by the masters of ludicrous fantasy overstatement, and delivered with scenery-chewing conviction by an entertaining voice cast. But it does bog down in its second half, the randomisation of the layouts is on the gentle side and - despite the strong pull of the other classes, of the high-level skills or of the permadeath Hardcore mode - it is questionable how many times you will want to see it through. Many were shocked that it was possible to lose interest in a game from the makers of World of Warcraft after a mere 50 or 100 hours, but accusing Diablo 3 of not offering value for money is insanity.
Diablo 3 is a big game with a complex context and a contentious history. But its appeal is profoundly simple, as was made clear to me while exploring the best feature of this console version: couch co-op.
The lion's share of playtime for this review was done with a co-op partner by my side, a console gamer with no experience of the series or of Blizzard games. She loved it, wolfing it down every bit as hungrily as I, who had played the PC version past boredom more than once. Going into this review, I'd been worried that I was too close to the game already to see it afresh. But then I realised that I was finally able to play Diablo 3 as I had always wanted to, but never had, not even online; glorying in its sensational, senseless pleasures in company.
Diablo 3 on console is one of the best co-op games money can buy. It swings smoothly from easygoing to intense, with perfectly paced pockets of downtime, and is capable of swallowing entire evenings in a single, voracious gulp. It's a Lego game for loot-hungry grown-ups and it gets better with every player you add. If you have co-op partners who would also enjoy it, this version is an essential purchase. If you don't, it's still easier to recommend than the PC game; almost as slick, even more flexible and usable and without that troublesome always online requirement.
Diablo 3 is a bold, bloody, opulent romp built around a ruthlessly simple distillation of action role-playing. It's perfectly comfortable in its new home on consoles, and so is Blizzard.
9 / 10
