I had spent quite a lot of time on Diablo 3 when it released on PS4 some years back, and while at first I enjoyed it, I eventually began to grow to dislike it quite a bit. Now that it was on a system that is technically portable, I thought that the portability would lend to the experience. After all, Diablo is a game that is ideally experienced in short bursts in my opinion. However, not even the game’s newfound portability could make me overlook the game’s biggest problems.
I could talk about how the story left no impact and was delivered in such an archaic fashion that I barely remember any of the characters but two. I could talk about how the game’s graphics are somehow fairly taxing on the systems it runs on despite the fact that the game’s perspective is so zoomed out that you wouldn’t notice the detail anyway. I could talk about how making the enemies scale in power alongside the players makes any loot gained and levels achieved feel completely pointless.
But instead I’d rather talk about the game’s biggest flaw which is that the game is oppressively addicting and relentlessly boring all at the same time. Battles will see enemies drop loot to use very often and the levels gained will make you want to play just to see what else you can get, but the monotony and tedium of combat itself will kill any joy you get from those gains as you watch your character repeat the same attacks over and over and over.
Combat is what you do in this game almost 97% of the time, which sounds action-packed until you realize what this game’s idea of combat boils down to. No matter what moves you use, no matter what skills you equip or buffs you apply, combat boils down to running into an enemy horde, holding down a button or two, pressing a skill button every once in a while, and relying on equipment skills to replenish your health before the enemies can kill you. Despite all the unique enemy behaviors and the ridiculous amount of enemy types and environments, combat, aside from boss battles, plays out the exact same way nearly each time.
I thought having friends to play with me would make it more fun, but we ended up just talking about other things while we mindlessly stood in place and mauled down monsters into paste while choking in utter boredom. I’ve been told that the game becomes much better once you’ve soaked hundreds of hours into it, but I feel I paid enough money for it to be good now. Maybe this just isn’t my kind of game, or maybe this is a game formula that hasn’t aged very well.
I give this game 5 out of 10.
