Having played Diablo III at PAX East earlier this year I was eager to get my hands on the game once again to see how the game has come along in the last few months. As a veteran Diablo player I was more than ready to expose any flaws that may have emerged during the process of bringing the game to the console. Thankfully it appears the good outweighs the bad in this scenario.

Mike Bendel and I were given the opportunity to not only play Diablo III on the PS3, but also ask senior producer Julia Humphreys any questions we had lingering or forming because of the demo. The demo took us through the later portion of Act I, traveling through the Northern Highlands where we encountered a number of elite packs on our way.

Same Density, New Pacing

In my earlier hands-on impression I was concerned with the modified monster density that seemed to have taken a lot of the chaotic battles out of the equation. I asked Humphreys if they changed the density at all from the PC version and she confirmed to me that there was no change in terms of monster density but there was a change in what she was calling “pacing.”

Less Whites, More Gold

One thing that has consistently plagued the PC version is the lack of quality drops. The majority of monster drops are common, white items. In Diablo II some of these common items served a purpose, but in Diablo III their only use is salvaging for gold. Since UI has also been overhauled for the console, the console team has decided to reduce the amount of whites that drop – instead dropping more gold in place.

There’s also something Humphreys was calling scaling legendries. When I asked if it was similar to the new “Item 2.0” PC patch they were unable to confirm it as the two teams operate separate from each other.

No Ground Item Highlight

One thing that was conspicuously missing from the console version was the ground item highlights, the little box that shows an items name and rarity on the ground. The only way you can see what has dropped is to actually run over the actual item on the ground, showing the item highlight and the pick-up option. When asked if there would be an option for it Humphreys simply stated that they had run out of buttons on the controller to use.

Local Multi-Player Issues

The best way to experience Diablo III with your friends is…not being on the same screen. While it is convenient to be able to all play on the big screen with each other, the trade-offs just aren’t worth it if you have other options.

Firstly, when you are sharing a screen locally you share the same loot. There will most likely be even more sibling rivalries and fights over who gets what loot from the drops. You will also be bound to the same frame, meaning no split-screen and when one player gets too far to the edge, the other player will be dragged along too. Want to open your inventory to check out a new item? That’s going to take up the entire screen as well.

One of the more frustrating aspects of local multiplayer is your freedom of movement within the frame. Since when is freedom of movement a bad thing? Well in Diablo III it is. When you play the PC version of the game your character is always in the center of your computer monitor. That means you never have to hunt down where your character is on the screen. With local multi-player on the console your character can move throughout the entire frame, often getting lost in the chaos of enemies on the screen.

The console team has already addressed this issue somewhat with the R3 button on the PS3. When you press in the right analog stick on your controller a beam of light will shoot up from your character which identifies your current character’s location.

Controls

Moving from a mouse to a controller was actually an enjoyable experience as I described in my previous game impression. Mike, who was also playing the game with me, explained that he too found the controller to be better than he imagined. The controls aren’t a limiting factor in the console iteration. There have been a number of action-RPG games in the past that have used a gamepad and it just works. I can’t think of one limiting factor of the controller’s setup for Diablo III, it just works.

The Future of Diablo III

Having logged close to over 200+ hours in Diablo III I have a fairly good idea of how the game is on the PC and the associated community. With the move to the consoles, and the removal of the auction house, the console version may very well offer the best Diablo III experience even with all the potential adverse console modifications I’ve brought up above.

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