Review from a new player
GAMEPLAY
Basic gameplay is like the old Diablo games. Point and click, skill bars, potions, etc. But the other aspects of the gameplay just hooks you up and sucks you in:
-Monster Level: Did you think the game was too easy? Try increasing the monster levels up to 10 to 400% extra damage and hp. Each monster level it becomes harder and harder, boss fights became from easy to challenging to nearly impossible.
-Campaign Modes: You can start with Normal mode and level up by playing Nightmare and Hell and finally at max level you can play Inferno with other players for great dungeon experience. And each difficulty level, you can get different rare elite and champion mobs, new events and etc. These little surprises make you want to play the game.
-Hardcore Mode: Even the normal gameplay was easy? Try hardcore. The dificulties, the mobs, everything is the same except there are better loots. But there is one difference: Once you died, you're dead. No item, money or Auction House recovery for that character. You gotta have steel nerves, and it gives one hell of an experience and great assistance and helps between players. They give you your class of items, help you when you got attacked and do everything to save you, wait for you and plan together with you. All the lone wolf acts of players don't happen in hardcore mode, since you'll always need someone to rely on.
-Game Modes: PvP mode and Keywarden, which is a quest with boss difficulty keywardens, when you get three keys, you do a final fight, you fight 2 bosses at the same time, individually as Blizzard claims, Diablo Inferno difficulty. Then you make yourself a legendary level 60 stat ring you can use in all of your characters with no level restrictions.
GRAPHICS
Graphics and animations look a bit outdated, however the game design is visually beautiful. There are few graphic settings options as a negative point. You can only tick the box for AA for instance, you can't increase its level. There are only main low, normal, high texture and shadow options, no advanced options to enhance it further.
Smooth shadows and normal shadows look pretty much the same, while smooth shadows can lower your fps a lot. So technically, the graphics are not so good, but the game is fast fortunately.
SOUND
Sounds, voice acting are pretty great, reflecting the epicness of the story.
STORY
Story feels a bit short. But it did not bother me much, since gameplay is fun and you can even skip the smallest conversations, you can hack and slash and level up without even bothering for the story after you do it once.
The story itself is short but decent. It has really good twists you do not expect. Really interesting characters and their back stories. Cutscenes are pretty amazing, but even in their worst game, Blizzard has always been good in the cutscenes and story.
CONNECTION
Not perfect. When people first connects to your server, you can experience freezes, a bit lag and etc. But after 5 mins usually, the problem is fixed for me. And connecting to a server to play does not take more than 10 secs, usually instant. You can see how many players play the game you want to play and choose according to that.
Even in singleplayer, the fact you have to be online is a bit annoying; since when you are somewhere with no internet or your modem is broken or you have no electricity or if you forgot to pay the bills, no Diablo for you. It also breaks the hardcore mode experience, since it won't be an option for people with connection problems, or little internet error can cause you a level 60 hardcore character you worked hard on.
CONCLUSION
Postive points: Great Story. You want to play more and more. Enjoying multiplayer experience. Visually stunning and great gameplay. Large variety of game modes help you to find a game suitable for your own experience, preferences and fun.
Negative points: Connection requirement. Story feels a bit short. Auction house can cause players to buy reduced level items and high-end gems that they can apply to their low level weapons and armor, which results in an unintended easy and bad gaming experience and destroys the balance for low level PvP causing low level people to avoid it.