Loot 1.0 Was So Last Year - Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls Reviewed

Post by Eorl @ 04:14pm 28/03/14 | 37 Comments

With the launch of Diablo 3's first expansion now a few days behind us, we have finally surfaced from the numerous clicking of mouse buttons to bring you our take on the newest content to grace Blizzard's action RPG.

Reaper of Souls adds a whole slew of content to the original Diablo 3 title, including a number of free additions that don't necessarily require an expansion purchase to experience - a notion that Blizzard has brought over from the World of Wacraft fence line.

Our very own Kosta "Toadovsky" Andreadis has braved the depths of hell once more to face Death himself, and his tales of success are nothing short of bravery with the hellish creatures that still await.

Everything has been changed for the better, and when you factor in all the new content and the fantastic new Crusader class, you have what is arguably the best entry in the series. Or at the very least a worthy sequel to Diablo II, which after all, is what a lot fans wanted the first time around.

Read on for his full review of Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls.

diablo 3: reaper of souls blizzard ausgamers review

Buy now from Green Man Gaming Only GBP£27.99!

(compare all prices)

Latest Comments

Link

Hogfather
Posted 04:46pm 28/3/14

Good review, and on the money imo. Why oh why couldn't we get Adventure Mode instead of a couple years of the lame Auction House?! At least they eventually fixed the game I guess :(

Also, Alex seems like a jerk. Come play with us instead Kosta, we only laugh at you when you die :)

Link

paveway
Posted 04:54pm 28/3/14

For an action RPG this is the stuff that keeps people coming back hour after hour, and was a big part of the longevity with Diablo III.

was he referring to the longevity of diablo II ?

Link

WirlWind
Posted 05:27pm 28/3/14

I'd hope so, because I wouldn't call what D3 had "longevity", but rather "lingering until it was fixed and worth playing again".

Link

Eorl
Posted 05:35pm 28/3/14

Nah I believe its Diablo 3. I think his point is that number gaming was the only reason people kept playing original D3, as that was the only fun thing to do in seeing your character spew forth stupid amounts of damage.

Link

tvcars
Posted 05:36pm 28/3/14

Every improvement that has taken this game back to its roots has been hooray'd. Every 'improvement that has been hooray'd has come after 'f*** that loser' left the group. And every improvement that has come after 'f*** that loser' left has been a huge effort to undo every stupid idea like the real money auction house and more. It's pretty obvious now in retrospect why D3 was so hated - FTL!

Link

paveway
Posted 06:11pm 28/3/14

Diablo 3 the original version had no longevity it lost player numbers pretty heavily pretty quickly i think

i'm surprised as many people came back as they have, if it were any other game developer i don't think a second chance would have been granted (ie. sim city)

but geez did they do a good job of repaying that faith

Link

Enska
Posted 06:22pm 28/3/14

It always had pretty decent numbers playing it, it's just on the flipside there were so many people that hated what it was and weren't playing were quite vocal about it.
I enjoyed vanilla for the most part, but there's no denying this is where the game should have been all along.

Link

Python
Posted 06:24pm 28/3/14

Dunno if i want to touch this after what happened with D3 :I

Link

KostaAndreadis
Posted 11:11pm 28/3/14

Thanks Hog, yeah unfortunately he's my brother so I have no choice. :)

But feel free to add me, toadovsky#1791

Link

Hogfather
Posted 02:34am 29/3/14

Sent you a req.

Oh and as an AU review I reckon the inclusion of local servers for RoS (first for any Bliz game) shoulda maybe got a mention? :)

Link

Ice9ine
Posted 07:48pm 29/3/14

Absolutely phenomenal expac. It is a double edged sword for me listening to people now. Before the ROS the amount of hate towards Blizzard was astounding. Now, so many crawling back. Awesome to have people return no denying that, its a shame people didn't have a bit more faith in the best developer of this genre in the first place.

Trying to get some DS2 in with ROS now out is proving extremely hard for me!

Link

Viper119
Posted 07:50pm 29/3/14

I'm giving it another chance coz I really loved D1 and D2, I was never a big farmer/numbers type player so it looks like it'll be much more fun for me now.

I started a new Crusader character last night, loving it so far.

Who's the dude that tvcars is referring to?

Link

Eorl
Posted 08:37pm 29/3/14

He's referring to Jay Wilson, who posted on Facebook "f*** that loser" in regards to David Brevik calling out Diablo 3's quality. Brevik was one of the co-creators of Diablo 1 and 2, and the rather out there comment caused Wilson to step down from Diablo 3 development.

I'm really liking this expansion even though I have yet to actually touch Act V. The changes to skills, items and just the general feel of things really makes the game play like it should have been on launch. Glad to have the "old" Blizzard back again.

Link

dais
Posted 11:07pm 29/3/14

I haven't bought RoS yet but I started a new character today.

As someone who hasn't played for about a year it is very refreshing to see all the changes they've made. The game world all seems randomly generated now and the mobs are much more interesting, with magical and elite enemies in surprising places. I'm playing on hard and I really like the way the difficulty changes suddenly as the game progresses, it keeps me on my toes.
With much better item drops and no auction house it actually feels like I'm working for something while playing, instead of just killing everything and picking up gold.

Artistically the game always did it for me, so it's great that the gameplay is up to scratch now and we have a finished product.

Link

Kraw
Posted 04:51pm 30/3/14

I think perhaps that those celebrating the return to the glory days of D2 are remembering the final product rather than the initial release that was D2. Can anyone recall what D2 was like before patch 1.10? Or the expansion?

I would argue that history is repeating itself in this regard. Loot 2.0 much like patch 1.10 fixed their respective games.

Enjoying loot 2.0 and RoS, and I thank you for the review as it covers almost everything that could bring some folk back to Diablo 3.

Link

Zapo
Posted 05:06pm 30/3/14

The game is fantastic, the big patch before ROS, and ROS have changed the game drastically and its' actually fun! It's a game I'll probably jump into for a bit here and there.

I'm at the stage though where the game is basically an item grind now, and well, yeah, I kinda got over D2 for the same reason. It certainly is the best item grind around though! Single player / co-op 'friendly' games just don't have the longevity (for me) that competitive games do, and the whole "I'm doing more damage thing isn't really doing it for me".

Link

Dodgymon
Posted 01:30am 31/3/14

I would argue that history is repeating itself in this regard. Loot 2.0 much like patch 1.10 fixed their respective games.

1.10 didn't take 2 years to come out.

Link

Hogfather
Posted 10:59am 31/3/14

1.10 didn't take 2 years to come out.

Diablo II is an action role-playing hack and slash video game developed by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment in [June 29] 2000 for Windows and Mac OS computers.
Wikipedia

Patch 1.10, released October 28, 2003
Diablo Wiki

Link

Khel
Posted 11:21am 31/3/14

Diablo 2 still had the fundamentals of what made the game great though, even before 1.10, which just polished off the rough bits. The fundamental core of a diablo game is smashing through randomised dungeons on a hunt for epic loot, and that thrill of seeing an awesome new piece drop. Diablo 3 failed in that regard about as hard as its possible to fail imo. Seeing crap drop after crap drop and buying all my upgrades from the AH was just not a fun Diablo experience.

2.0 and RoS makes it the game I wanted it to be a few years ago

Link

Hogfather
Posted 11:40am 31/3/14

2.0 and RoS makes it the game I wanted it to be a few years ago

Umm D3 was released in June 2012, loot 2.0 in Feb 2014. "A few years" is a stretch dude, its like 1 year 8 months?

Loot 2.0 was announced in March 2013, not even a year after the game was released. Was a pretty big retooling and took a number of patches to implement (MP etc set the stage for scaling etc).

To me they realised pretty early that the AH and loot system was flawed, and to me its OK to f*** up as long as you own it and move on.

Link

ph33x
Posted 12:02pm 31/3/14

(And don't do it again)

Link

Khel
Posted 12:37pm 31/3/14

Well I only just fired it up again on the weekend and hadn't played since about a month after it came out, so close enough to 2 years for me :p Easier and neater to just round up. Tbh I couldn't remember when it came out, thought it was march 2012. I'm not doing it to bust their balls or anything, I'm the biggest Blizzard fanboy you'll find, just saying this is what I wanted originally. Mad respect for them owning their mistakes though and stepping up to fix it

Link

Jim
Posted 03:48pm 31/3/14

I checked the rules, and it's ok to want a game to be something even before it comes out which means a few years works fine

Link

Hogfather
Posted 04:01pm 31/3/14

I checked the rules, and it's ok to want a game to be something even before it comes out which means a few years works fine

I just checked the rules and this is a lame snarky comment that adds nothing to the discussion.

Classic Jim.

Link

qmass
Posted 04:07pm 31/3/14

So much good stuff but the thing I am most excited about is that once again, there are items that create whole new builds which makes experimenting with all kinds of crazy s*** rewarding.

Crusader seems so bad when you hit 70 but there are some items that make some super crazy builds with very high damage possible.

Link

Jim
Posted 04:33pm 31/3/14

your previous comment added nothing hogfather, in spite of you using extra words around what was nothing more than quabbling over khel's use of 'a few years'
get over yourself

Link

Hogfather
Posted 04:40pm 31/3/14

your previous comment added nothing hogfather, in spite of you using extra words around what was nothing more than quabbling over khel's use of 'a few years'
get over yourself

I correctly interpreted Khel as thinking that the game had been like it for a few years and discussed the dev timeline to loot 2.0. Hardly 'quabbling'. Was not having a go just presenting information and chatting ... I thought it was a perfectly rational and friendly discussion until you stuck ya big beak in white knighting Khel for no good reason.

How 'bout you go f*** yourself?

Link

Jim
Posted 05:12pm 31/3/14

all of your hypocritical tirade aside, this game is definitely now the game I wanted it to be a few years ago

you can hop in for a reasonable frame of time and see regular upgrades without needing to d*** around with the AH, they seem to have hit the sweetspot that d2 had. adventure mode just ices the cake

Link

paveway
Posted 05:19pm 31/3/14

this game was so last decade

Link

ph33x
Posted 05:32pm 31/3/14

Protip: Don't read the D3 General/Tech/AllRounder forums. - You'll notice things you didn't notice before and.. yeah.. don't read. Ever.

Link

Hogfather
Posted 05:47pm 31/3/14

Forums in general can be lame as s***.

Link

paveway
Posted 05:52pm 31/3/14

you're not kidding ph33x i was having a look around it yesterday and they still complain about the game as if it still day 1 release standard

then i came across this thread posted 1 day ago:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/12330573107

original?v=mpbl-1&px=-1

Link

Enska
Posted 10:25pm 31/3/14

lol, punch on jim & hoggy.

Link

Justaguy
Posted 03:56am 02/4/14

The changes and loot 2.0 system basically put the game at where it should have been upon release. If Blizzard had noted that they screwed up (instead of telling their fan/player base that they were idiots for pointing out WHERE Blizzard screwed up), then we probably wouldn't have abandoned the game in droves in the first place. The game as it stands now is what it SHOULD have looked like on release and so if you do your best to block out he traumatic memories of earlier (Sort of like we do with Highlander 2), then, provided you enjoy the ARPG genre, you should enjoy the game as it now stands. For awhile at least.

Link

ph33x
Posted 10:24am 02/4/14

They need to add more disparity between rare and legendary, especially sets. (Kinda like wow how you won't find a blue item beating an epic item.

It's annoying picking up yellows that are 0.1% worse than your awesome legendary/set item.

Link

Khel
Posted 12:16pm 02/4/14

(Sort of like we do with Highlander 2)

Haha, so true

Link

Phooks
Posted 12:59pm 02/4/14

They would not have removed the auction house if it was more profitable.

Commenting has been locked for this item.

37 Comments

Show

Features

Reviews

ASUS ROG Rapture GT6 WiFi 6 Mesh System

User:
Pass: