• PC ››
• Action ››
• Diablo III

Diablo III: Monk Supernova Preview

• By Scott Pytlik
• September 02, 2009 16:01 PM PST
• Print
• Email this!
• Share
  • Digg
  • Yahoo Buzz!
  • FaceBook
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us

More grisly and grotesque than it's predecessor, Diablo III has more in store than just destructible environments.

It's early morning in Sanctuary, the birds are chirping and the pitter-patter of locals pumping water from the village well outside sounds like an elephant is stampeding through your head. The rising sun illuminates your quaint village on the edge of Tristram but all you can think about is how your mouth is dryer then that witch doctor you came home with last night.

You don't remember the moments that pass between when you got out of bed and when the coffee hit your palate, but you're thankful it's black with two sugars. As you sit at your sad excuse for a kitchen table, trying to piece together the blotchy events of the previous night, you're forced to take notice of a scuffle taking place just outside your crib.

The plywood board that you call your door swings open as each step you take is arduous and methodical. Before you can lift your axe above your head, the action is over. Nearly ten Fallen Imps lay mangled on the ground and all you saw was a cloud of dust and a few bright flashes. Out of that cloud emerges this rather tall, bald dude with a long scraggly beard who says, "just another day in the life of a Monk in Diablo III."

OK, so maybe that isn't exactly the story Blizzard told in their cinematic announcement at BlizzCon '09, but it has a similar theme: the Monk is bad ass. I had a chance to get my hands on Diablo III while I was out in Anaheim, and after the jump I'll share the juicy details with you.

We're just getting started with the blood.

More violence, more gore, more fun

So far, Diablo III is shaping up to be a classic action RPG, primarily because the point and click, hack and slash style of the original games is still intact. With 21st century graphics, destructible environments, and an entirely new cast of characters, including the newly announced Monk, Diablo fans - old and new - have a lot to look forward to.

Beyond the Monk, which I'll get into in a bit, the biggest difference between this year's build of Diablo III and last year's is artwork. While the subtle changes may have gone unnoticed by most, the die-hard Diablo fans in attendance detected a much more grisly and grotesque feeling to the game - a feeling that, according to Blizzard's Julian Love, is there by design.

"At the announcement in Paris, we showed early (lighter) parts of the game. At last year's BlizzCon you saw darker stuff, and this year you're seeing really dark and gritty stuff," said Love, the game's lead technical artist. "That's the whole idea is to have a progression in the game from light to dark so that the whole game doesn't feel like one monotonous world. It creates a big contrast, it makes those areas different, and it makes the game much more repayable as a result."

• Previous Page Prev
• Next Page Next
• 1
• 2
• 3

• Print
• Email this!
• Share
  • Digg
  • Yahoo Buzz!
  • FaceBook
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us