Blizzard looked after Diablo II with patches and expansions they’re obviously working to do the same here. It wants to offer up a new and improved sense of ownership, even in the wake of quick-swapping skills that unlock on their own.īecause Reaper of Souls is about ownership: not just for the player, but for the franchise. The new Diablo wants you to play like you want to play. Meanwhile, Reaper of Souls’ paragon points are basically a compromise between personalization and freedom level up past the cap and earn stat points to swap around willy-nilly on minor increases to things like health, mana, or critical chance. The clothes don’t always fit, but they’re obviously trying.

If the auction house was a second-hand store, loot 2.0 is a custom tailor with shaky hands and a heart of gold. No more second-hand clothing from the auction house all items are the result of slaying hordes of demons, and further bolstered by something Blizzard is content to call “loot 2.0,” which could basically be the name of a hook-up app, and is actually a system in place to get the player more suitable items. In a lot of ways, Reaper of Souls is the latest step in a return to personalization on a road of recent patches. In Diablo II, when I made choices, I became invested: my character became the sum total of something more than just hours played. Skills unlocked and grew stronger on their own, but after several difficulty levels of the same thing-the same enemies, the same environment, the same whirlwind route through Diablo’s face-why continue? What was lacking was a certain sense of progression derived from continuity: the continuity that comes from picking skills, allotting stat points, and, ultimately, making choices. When I leveled up, I didn’t choose anything. In Diablo III, nothing ever really changed. For something steeped in a battle of heaven and hell, there’s something awfully purgatorial about the franchise.

And in that time, not much has changed: select an alluringly mysterious explorer to venture forth against the dark minions of a demon lord, dress up in metal and leather, and banish him. Let’s be honest: we’ve been playing Diablo for nearly 18 years.

Diablo 3 reaper of souls ps3 review