14 DAY TRIAL // After quite a few months spent in closed beta, Blizzard finally opened Diablo III’s gates to anyone interested in the dungeon crawling RPG, as part of an open beta, over the weekend.
While the official reasoning behind it was that the studio wanted to stress test its servers ahead of the game’s release next month, it also delivered something close to a demo for those who were still on the fence about the game.
I was definitely among them, as you could tell from my Weekend Reading piece on Saturday, so I took advantage of the beta to see for myself what Blizzard has done with the long awaited title. Did the studio impress or did it fail to capture my interest? Read on for my impressions of the Diablo III open beta.
Right from the get-go, Diablo III definitely distances itself from previous games in the series, with its opening screen asking players to log into their Battle.net accounts and connect to the online service in order to access it, much like World of Warcraft.
This is where many players will find themselves out of luck, as access to the game is permanently tied to their actual internet connection, so if you aren’t online, you can’t roam its dungeons.
This also poses a problem when you’re actually playing the game, as if your connection drops even for a second, you’re disconnected and spawned back to your last checkpoint. While this isn’t that bad, checkpoints, especially throughout the more open areas of the game, are few and far in between.
After choosing your character from one of five classes, you’re thrown right into action, without any introduction, thereby reminding you that this is still a beta.
Unlike the closed test version of the game, this open one feels much more like a demo of the actual title, offering a small multi-quest adventure that allows you to explore the town of Tristram, its nearby points of interest and, as always, a variety of dungeons.
Gameplay feels as tight as ever and the array of improvements, like the name of the actual loot dropped by enemies, plus the automatic pickup of gold when you walk over it, makes the whole experience seem a bit less tedious.
Quite a few nice additions are also included in beta, like special XP bonuses when you kill lots of monsters (or objects) in close succession, as well as random events during dungeon raids where you need to prove your skills.
Like with any good dungeon crawling RPG, Diablo III definitely teases your completionist side, so you’ll end up scouring every nook and cranny for precious loot and other rewards.
As always, during your exploration, you’ll be forced to fight with all sorts of enemies, from the undead, to skeletons and other such beasts.
This is where your class choice comes into effect, as you can either go with a brutish Barbarian, with an agile Demon Hunter, a close quarters Monk, a long range Wizard, or a Witch Doctor that combines all sorts of abilities. Each of these characters has a different play style and mastering it is essential if you want to survive on any difficulty.
Overall, while this wasn’t a demo per se, the Diablo III open beta served to really highlight the array of things achieved by Blizzard with its upcoming dungeon crawler.
After playing quite a few hours during the weekend, I’m more than looking forward to spending much, much more time with it after May 15, when the game comes out on PC and Mac.
What about you? Share your impressions of the open beta by leaving a comment below.