Game Reviews: Diablo III

July 23, 2012
Category: Screen It

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment

Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment

Release Date: May 15^th 2012, Price: €59,99

Ratings: BBFC: 15, ESRB: M, GRB: 18+ (Real Money Auction House removed), USK: 16

Blizzard is known for making their fans wait. It took twelve years between StarCraft: BroodWar and StarCraft II, just as it took another twelve between Diablo II and Diablo III. Often, people wonder if Blizzard’s games are worth the wait. StarCraft II was well worth it, but was Diablo III?

The answer is yes. Definitely.

Please note that this review will not consider the server problems at launch which ruined the experience for many players. It will also consider a fully-functioning Action House which is, in my opinion, a great addition. But we’ll get to that later.

Diablo III is set twenty years after Diablo II’s expansion, Lord of the Destruction. To recap the story (with some spoilers for Diablo II): the three Prime Evils—Diablo, Mephisto and Baal—and two of the Lesser Evils—Duriel and Andariel—have been slain by heroes. However, as of late, the dead have been rising and your character follows a fallen star into New Tristram.

In Diablo III, you get to choose between five classes: Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, Monk and Wizard; and, in each class, you select your character’s gender. So far, I’ve completed the game with a female Demon Hunter, have a fledgling level-6 female Wizard and just tried the other remaining classes for a bit. The player characters have more distinct personalities this time around and they speak far more than their predecessors.

The voice acting, save for Leah’s actress, is nothing special. Same for the characters. Even though they have more defined temperaments than they ever did in the Diablo games, but the only well-made character is Leah, who is sweet and a key element to the game’s plot. Yes, I did appreciate the banter between my Demon Hunter and the Templar, the Enchantress and the Scoundrel, but outside of that, you don’t really care what happens to them; they’re just entertaining.

The story is fitting at best. It’s your run-of-the-mill dungeon crawler story with a “oh there’s a big Evil and only you can stop it” focus, but it gets the job done. Also, the game is so much fun that you won’t really want a complex plot to interfere with it. I give storytelling in games great importance, but sometimes it’s not needed for a game to shine and this is the case with Diablo.

Yes, the story is nothing special, but it never was, and never will be. The main focus of the Diablo franchise is gameplay and when it comes down to it, Diablo III is very different from its predecessors.

In the second installment of the franchise, you placed skill points in your favorite abilities of each tree. You had to choose carefully where you placed your points, because squandering them all on lower-level abilities kept you from strengthening your high-level attacks later on. Also, you couldn’t go back once you decided.

Diablo III’s mechanics are wildly different. You have two primary attacks on your right and left mouse button and four skills assigned from keys one to four, and you unlock skills, attacks and runes as you go. The thing is, each slot is for one type of ability and one alone. You can’t have arrows and grenades at the same time because they belong to the same tree. This is limiting strategy-wise, but allows you to change your gameplay style much more quickly and efficiently than Diablo II. Where Diablo II’s system was more foreshadowing and definite, Diablo III’s is flexible and ever-changing. Both have their qualities and flaws and while I preferred Diablo II’s system, I can see the value of the changes. If your gameplay style isn’t working, it’s easy to change it with a few clicks—just as it’s easier to try new things.

The looting system is a bit worse than Diablo II’s (with Lord of Destruction) was. For instance, rare items are not very hard to find. Neither are legendary ones, for the matter. Within twelve hours of gameplay, I already had some legendary pants, something which took me a lot to get in Diablo II. This is perhaps due to the introduction of the crafting system, which renders looting almost obsolete. You can make much better items by crafting than by finding them and, considering the materials you need for crafting are easy to get, I felt that making my own gear was the way to go.

Of course, if you don’t feel like going through the trouble of looting and crafting, you can always go to the auction house. Using either in-game gold or real money, you can get almost any item via bidding or buyout. In my case, when I was near the end and my Demon Hunter’s crossbow was mediocre, at best, going to the auction house saved me a lot of trouble.

And the multiplayer! Granted, I only played with friends once, but it was so much more enjoyable than playing alone! The game’s difficulty increases according to the amount of people in your party, never making it too easy on you and I confess that having a Barbarian, a Demon Hunter, a Witch Doctor and a Wizard all in the same screen makes for all kinds of mad chaos, something the Diablo franchise is renown for.

Finally, to the aspects that disappointed me the most: the mapping system and the music. Don’t get me wrong, Diablo III’s music is, like a great deal of the game, fitting and competent. It’s just … nothing spectacular. As for the mapping system, Diablo II’s maps were truly randomly generated and through my various runs through the game, I never got two similar environments. I did get repeated areas in Diablo III and it was a letdown.

Summing it all up: even though it doesn’t have groundbreaking storytelling or amazing visuals, Diablo III is a competently designed game. More importantly, it’s an extremely fun game. Gameplay is where Diablo III shines and it’s sometimes so difficult and chaotic that you will almost invariably die—but dying in Diablo III doesn’t make you want to give up (I should know this. At one point, I was screaming and swearing but I still refused to give up!). It makes you want to play more and kill everything in your computer screen.

A mindless, challenging game that’s just a joy to play, Diablo III is a worthy successor of the franchise.

Score: 8.5/10

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Tags: Diablo 11, Diablo 111, Diana Pinguicha, game, review

Game Reviews: Mass Effect 3

March 21, 2012
Category: Screen It

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: BioWare

Genre: Role-Playing

Price: €50

Rating: M

Platforms: PC/Xbox 360/PlayStation 3

Earth is burning. The Reapers, a race of synthetics, are determined to rid the galaxy of organics and only one person stands in their way: Commander Shepard.

In Mass Effect, you were sent to stop Saren and his Geth army. In Mass Effect 2, you have to stop the Collectors, who have been abducting human colonies, and go into a suicide mission where the odds of coming back are next to none. Finally, in Mass Effect 3, you have to stop the Reaper invasion from destroying the universe.

Mass Effect was good, but the gameplay was lacking. I loved Mass Effect 2, with its better gameplay, and the weaker story didn’t stop me from enjoying it – it was more focused on characters, which, considering the premise, fitted the game. I went into Mass Effect 3 with my expectations set high – and they were blown out of the water.

Like the original Mass Effect, the third instalment of the series focuses more on story and Shepard’s hell-bent resolve to stop the Reapers. Some game-play elements such as weapon customization, which were sadly absent from Mass Effect 2, made a welcome comeback and brought Mass Effect 3 closer to the role-playing experience of the original game. Gameplay is still fun, as it was in the second game, but it’s more difficult – which, considering the situation Shepard is in, makes a lot of sense.

Another aspect that has changed from the previous games is how you can “persuade” or “intimidate”. In Mass Effect, you just had to spend points in Charm or Intimidate options; in Mass Effect 2, those options were unlocked according to your Paragon/Renegade score. In Mass Effect 3, it’s your Reputation score that handles that – a score which you can increase by doing several side-missions, talking to party members and so on.

I had a lot of fun during combat sequences, but what really makes Mass Effect 3 so endearing is the story and the tie-ins with previous games. Decisions made previously matter and their consequences are important. You may find yourself at odds with old friends due to the choices you made previously. All major characters, so as long as they made it through Mass Effect 2, make a comeback and when you meet them again, they incite emotions that range from happy to sad – and when you have to say goodbye, it tears at your heart.

The story is filled with tension and there’s a sense of urgency about it. You need all the help you can get to deal with the Reapers and you’re desperate to get it. You can unify old enemies, make peace between organics and synthetics, give a friend their homeworld back… I found certain elements of the plot to be beautiful, really, and very well-written.

Romances were also particularly well taken care off. I didn’t try out all of them (there are just too many options), but the ones I did (Kaidan and Garrus) were spot-on, sweet and heart-wrenching. The way the lines are delivered by the actors, the animations, everything is so… well done. There isn’t a thing I would have changed in the way those romances played out and that’s saying something.

The voice acting is stellar. Although I still find the male Shepard – played by Mark Meer, – lacking, he’s improved. Jennifer Hale, who voices the female Commander Shepard, is brilliant as she was in previous games. All other characters – from the supporting cast to the main cast – are terrific.

The music is nearly flawless. The composers made an OST that fits the game in every aspect, ranging from bittersweet to desperate to downright epic. I believe it is the best soundtrack of all Mass Effect games.

Finally, there’s the matter of the ending. You have three to choose from and the one I chose was so powerfully sad it brought tears to my eyes. It was a definite ending, one that played out beautifully and one that was filled with hope. I wish certain parts of the ending could have gone differently, but when I think about it… The ending was a perfect conclusion to Shepard’s story. It was sad, yes, but it was fitting.

With a gripping plot, amazing characters, great voice-acting and a beautiful soundtrack, Mass Effect 3 is a great ending to a great series. As a journey, the trilogy is among one of my favourite pieces of gaming in history and it proves that video games, when well-written and well-acted, can make you feel all sorts of emotions. You go from a marine to a Spectre, you die and come back to life, you survive a suicide mission and become the strongest force against a threat whose likes the galaxy has never seen. It’s an epic journey and whether you’re a veteran gamer or a novice, I cannot recommend this series enough.

The Good:

Terrific voice acting brings life to the characters

Gripping story

Choices carried from earlier Mass Effect games matter

The Bad:

Fewer dialogue options than previous installments

Final Score: 10/10

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Tags: Diana Pinguicha, game review, Mass Effect 3

Game Reviews: Sequence

February 20, 2012
Category: Screen It

Title: Sequence
Genre: RPG, Indie
Developer: Iridium Studios
Release Date: 20 Oct 2011
Languages: English

Price: €3,99

In this DDR and RPG hybrid, you are Ky, a young man who finds himself trapped in a tower. With the guidance of Naia, you seek to reach the top level of the tower so you can finally be free. All you have to do is battle your way to the top. The start and basic setting are quite standard, but seeing that this is a rhythm game, one can understand the story isn’t the main focus: gameplay is. So even though the story is somewhat boring, you’ll find yourself playing the game just because it is fun.

Battle works like this: you have three different fields – one for mana, other for defense and other for spells – and you alternate between the three to play. Save for the spell field, which is only active when you cast a spell, arrows are always coming down. So in order to keep your health from decreasing, you have to hit the arrows in the health field and if you want to regain mana, you switch to the mana field and hit the arrows there. Like it was said before, the spell field is only active when you cast a spell and in battle, it’s sometimes impossible to avoid getting hit because you’re in the middle of a spell and you don’t want to break it.

Spells have a cool down and a mana cost, which keeps you from hitting the spell button repeatedly. You have to keep on switching between fields if you want to see the battle through. The duration of the battle is the same as the music you have to play to, and if you don’t bring down your opponent in that given time, you lose the battle.

I found the gameplay to be fun and different from other rhythm games. You have to go back and forth between fields and pay constant attention as a derail could mean a decrease in hit points or a failed spellcast attempt. But what makes the gameplay really work is how well synched the arrows are with the music. In some other rhythm games, listening to the music doesn’t necessarily help, whereas in Sequence, it does. The difficulty is not overwhelming either – and if you find yourself having an easier time, pumping the difficulty up will satisfy you.

Then, for the RPG elements, you have items you can equip and create. Item creation in Sequence is somewhat frustrating. First, you have to get the ingredients which are obtained by battling monsters – and when you do get everything, you have to sacrifice experience points in order to increase the odds your craftsmanship has to succeed. The more experience you sacrifice, the better your odds. I found this annoying, as sometimes I would sacrifice a ton of experience and, as luck would have it, I got nothing and the experience was lost. This is, however, evened out by the fact that gain experience from desynthing items you already have and no longer use.

One other gripe I have with Sequence is that, to learn a spell, you have to sacrifice a certain amount of experience and then go through a song with certain requirements. If you fail, you lose the experience points and to get them back, you either have to desynth items or battle more enemies – which, as the game progresses, ends up being quite repetitive.

Another big problem was the voice acting. It was mostly wooden, trying to be funny and failing miserably. At first, the character of Naia struck me as a poor attempt at a snarky GLaDOS. It didn’t work, especially because the main character could retort to her obvious sarcasm. It also didn’t help that the aforementioned voice acting wasn’t up to par. Also, certain referenced to the real world – 4chan, memes, – seemed to have been put there in a sore attempt to make the game funnier… which they didn’t.

The story, like I said before, is simple, but surprisingly lengthy for a game of this genre. The conflict, introduced halfway around the game, didn’t really stir me. I do have to give the developers credit for indeed introducing some dissent. The ending is also commendable, as it introduces some mystery while leaving the main events of the game explained. It’s a somewhat weak explanation, but it’s there and I had to accept that even though I did not find it very satisfying, it’s there – however much of a deus ex machina it might have been.

The artwork that accompanies the game is quite nice, however. It’s not super realistic and overcomplicated, but it fits the spirit of Sequence quite well. The design of some monsters disappointed me though, as they were nothing but other monsters with a different color palette.

Overall, Sequence is a fun, fast-paced rhythm game with a twist. Fans of the genre will be satisfied with it, while newcomers will have a fun experience as well. It’s a finely developed indie game and it most certainly deserves a try.

The Good:

Tapping the key really matches the rhythm of the music.

Gameplay is quite fun.

Original music brings it a little life.

The Bad:

Crafting items is quite frustrating.

The voice acting is not stellar.

Final Score: 8.0/10