Given the nature of Diablo III, there were no reviews appearing prior to the game’s release. Diablo III requires hours upon hours of playtime before determining a verdict on Blizzard’s long-awaited RPG. Not to mention that critics weren’t able to access the game until it became available to everyone at the same time.
Well, almost a week has passed since the gates of Hell have reopened, and reviewers around the world have crawled Diablo III’s dungeons, looted their inhabitants and assessed if the 12-year wait has been worth it.
Diablo III currently holds a Metascore of 88, while maintaing an 87.56 rating on GameRankings; although these aggregated numbers mean very little in the greater scheme of things, as what we really want to know is what the critics think.
The highs
Gameblog.fr – 5/5
RPGamer – 5/5
Inside Gaming Daily (Machinima) – 9.5/10
Edge – 9/10
“You may think you know Diablo, but you don’t know it with this level of polish, from the clean brilliance of interlocking skills and classes to the sheer amount of chaos the game’s comfortable with conjuring in its later dungeons. It’s a testament to what money and confidence (Blizzard’s own equivalent of mana and health) can do. ” Read the full review.
VideoGamer – 9/10
“This is not the most adventurous action RPG on the market, then, but its razor-sharp and uncompromising focus on structure and mechanics ensures it’s one of the most playable. Diablo III quite simply revels in being a video game, and when a game is this well-executed it’s impossible to resist those charms.” Read the full review.
The lows
On the “low” end of things, Guardian (despite their good score) slated the game for its short and linear nature, while GameArena couldn’t ignore the connectivity issues associated with the gameplay experience.
Guardian – 4/5
“For single players, it’s an entertaining and gorgeous-looking dungeon hack but it’s a bit short, extremely linear and hardly pushing any boundaries. Playing online (and Blizzard isn’t really giving us a choice) makes it a better balanced and more compelling challenge, with all the potential to be the kind of lifestyle substitute that Diablo’s legion of hunter-gatherer fans should relish.” Read the full review.
GameArena – 6.5/10
“I’ve played 28 hours of Diablo 3 (according to the in-game measurement) – but this isn’t the whole story. I’ve spent six hours not playing it – nearly a quarter of my time total. With no competitive multiplayer (except for the facile concept of a ‘race to the finish line’), constant network related issues and what I feel is negative movement in terms of the ‘loot’ metagame, Diablo 3 in its current state isn’t something I see myself playing any more.” Read full review.
So, while Diablo III had a rocky start at launch, the game has generally been very well-received from game critics around the world, barring a small handful of complaints. What do you think of Diablo III? Has it lived up to your expectations?
If you haven’t got your hands on Diablo III, try your hand at winning a Collector’s Edition from MyGaming, and don’t forget to check out all of our Diablo III coverage.
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Blizzard and Diablo III are the perfect example of everything wrong with the gaming industry today. They sell the game for a small fortune, force online connectivity for offline functionality, don’t offer basic functionality found in all older games, don’t provide adequate technical support and infrastructure, don’t implement proper security (and when it fails they try and blame gamers for not using their authenticators, which shouldn’t be necessary in the first place, which don’t prevent the latest hacks in any case).
I was really looking forward to Heart of the Swarm but at this rate it’s probably best to forget about it and focus on something else entirely.