Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls - Blizzard - PC (2014)

“HOLY ONSLAUGHT” It’s back again, meaner, darker and more loot filled than ever. Reaper of Souls is the expansion pack for the well received, yet flawed Diablo 3. The real question is this, has it brought Diablo back to its roots of monster slaying with monster rewards or does it fall short of the mark?

Reaper of Souls’ returns to the world of Sanctuary and adds Act 5 to Diablo 3’s story arc, it melts into the lore well and follows a different style to Diablo 3’s ways of storytelling. There’s a bit more of a focus on side missions as opposed to blasting your way through the main line, I do feel though that Blizzard could have focused on more heavily than they have, granted multiplayer focused RPGs stretch with several side missions. Other than that, it’s what you would expect if you’ve played the previous titles. Few mini-bosses, randomly generated dungeons and an end boss. It’s a tried and tested formula from the last games and in all honesty, did not need messing with.

At max level (70), the Paragon system takes over this will give you points to customise your character and helps with the customisation of builds. Points can be allocated to Critical hit %, standard stats and area damage. There’s no level max to the Paragon system now, it was previously 100, and this level is now shared between all your level 70 characters. It might not feel as powerful as levelling to 70 does, but the Paragon system gives the feeling of constant improvement, somewhat missing from its vanilla form.

The majority of the changes to Diablo were implemented in patch 2.0 released prior to the launch of Reaper of Souls. A smarter loot system was brought in and means that playing the game at max level can finally give you the feeling of your own personal development. Prior to this patch, I felt that when I was playing the end game I’d be grinding for gold to buy items on the Auction House from players who had progressed through the difficulty of “Monster Power Levels” Diablo’s old endgame. For those who are not familiar with Diablo, Monster Power was the end game difficulty slider. MP1 was the easiest, MP10 the most difficult. In my own experience, MP5 would say drop MP3 level gear and as such, your progression was halted by being starved of decent loot. Not anymore!

I’ve had numerous upgrades drop for my main character since the launch of patch 2.0 and it finally feels like a game that will let you increase your power through items you find. There’s a plethora of legendary, unique items and the addition of craftable legendary gear is a treat.  

Loot system aside, there’s 3 brand new additions added with the expansion: The Mystic Artisan, Bounties and the Crusader Class.

The Mystic joins the Blacksmith and Jeweller to provide an enchanting and transmogrification service for players. Enchanting differs from Warcraft in that you select a property that you wish to change on an item, you will see what variations that this might roll for you. For example, Enchanting over Vitality may give you Strength or Dexterity. This isn’t your choice, it’s down to chance, like most things in Diablo. I haven’t been frustrated with the Enchanting system, ultimately its pretty exciting hoping that the armour stat turns into more intelligence for my wizard. At the end of the day who doesn’t want more power! You will only be able to change one stat on any item, which I feel is a nice little limitation of the system, it would be easy to perfectly enchant an item and not need another drop for months! Transmogrification works in the same way WoWs does. You find the item, pay a fee and it you can customise its look to another item from the world. For any legendary that is visible on your character you’ll receive the look of this item to use for Transmogrification forever, even if you sell or destroy it, a nice touch for Diablo’s huge arrangement of items. Please do this for Wow! I digress.

Bounties are a different way to experience the content in a less linear fashion. On the commencement of a Bounty you will be given several objectives. These can range from clearing an area of enemies, fighting an elite monster or killing a boss. If you’re sick to the teeth after countless hours of running the same content in the same order then this mode is for you! They provide a good few hours solid gameplay and come with their own rewards. For example, on completion of 5 bounties you’ll be given a chest containing items, gold and gems. On top of that, for every objective completed you gain Blood Shards. The Shards can be used to purchase randomised items for your character, and at the end of a Bounty run you can have a decent amount. Need a new ring? Might as well roll your luck. Completion of bounties can also open Nephalim Rifts, wide areas filled with challenging and unusual encounters. For example, you may find the Skeletons from Act 1 tag teaming with the demons of Act 4. It’s a mode that will extend the amount of content able to be experienced and it’s a hell of a lot of fun to play co-operatively. It’s all I’ve been playing since completing the main story line. The appeal of finding items whilst killing enemies and knowing that there’s more gear to come is strong and keeps the content as fresh as it can be.

The Crusader is Diablo’s newest class and plays like a Paladin on steroids. Blizzard have described the Crusader as a Tank, not like a tank in conventional RPG sense – which his usually a character who will take a hefty beating for the good of the group without inflicting much pain himself. No, Blizzard described the Crusader as a Sherman. Strong and powerful, and I agree wholeheartedly. The Crusader feels pretty much unstoppable, he has the utility to be a group player and be that tank but when played solo he is a wrecking machine. The Crusader is a mainly melee fighter but has some mid-range abilities and is able to close gaps on the faster ranged enemies inhabiting Diablo 3.

It’s a great gameplay experience that you’d come to expect from the behemoth that is Blizzard but it has its flaws. The story. Blink and you’ll miss it, it’s short. Depending on your playstyle, level of difficulty and experience this can be done in maybe 5 hours for a first playthrough. That’s being generous. Diablo’s strength is in its recurrence of content as you strive for better items, but for a full priced expansion, this is disappointing. The new additions work well in the game and they really do add value to the title, coupled with the revamped loot system, Diablo is a much improved game now. I have been hooked for several hours and really enjoyed the experience, but I can’t help but think that “Reaper of Souls” should have more content than it does for a full priced expansion. It feels like an expansion release to hide a game overhaul, it’s worked, but I think if they got it right in the first place then “Reaper of Souls” would have a larger impact than it does in this form.

“I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread”

Review written and published on CalmDownTom