Difficulty:

Very Easy

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Disappointing"

Does anybody remember the first Diablo when you didn't have a clue where to go in the Catacombs? You found Arkaine's Valor and that dark electric guitar rift would cut in, The terrible feeling you got when you died 3 floors away from the nearest exit? The first set of **** you ever saw in your life from the succubi in Hell? Yes Blizzard used to be the underdog.
They were in a wonderful position to create raw, interesting and lucrative games.
Since then so much has changed.

Diablo 2 when released though geared for a larger audience still maintained that raw creative energy. It was not geared toward making a quick buck, or cutting in on a successful franchise, it was meant to finish a story that was not yet told.

Diablo 3 was released in 2011, and that is ten years after Diablo 2.
What we got wasn't Diablo 3, no.
We got World of Diablo. I bought the collectors edition, which ended up being useful (I still use the flash drive) I was very much in denial and yet everybody kept saying, "hey man its pretty much just world of warcraft."
"NO YOUR WRONG!" was my reply.

But I was wrong. For one reason or another Blizzard rolled back on all the progress that was made in Diablo 2 LOD and totally chucked it out.
Uhhh hello? If you have a good thing going, why change it?

So instead we got a completely different system that restricts players to specific builds. We have no spell synergies between different skills.
No hotkeys to switch skills. Really 4 skills to a character? 6 if you count your mouse buttons.
Every "patch" limited the game further and a casual player like myself would always get the short end of the stick knowing, "Gee if I spent another 23 hours playing today I could have used that glitch too!" No Runewords.
Remote classes that aren't all that interesting or inventive.

The RMAH became their proverbial cash cow. Bringing Blizzard more than its fare share of profit through fee transactions.
Blizzard tech support for Diablo 3 is both obnoxious and ignorant.
How many times have I posted a ticket about Diablo 3 and got a reply about my World of Warcraft problem? How many times have I received a none answer in the form of a reply?

Blizzard also seemed to style the plot and story according to political correctness. We have a Black Tyrael and a Trans-gender Diablo.
The depth of the characters is so shallow you could wrap a halo around their heads.
What happened to interesting characters like Ormus? "And that is the strange dichotomy between all would be heroes." Theres no moral ambiguity for any of them, no deep internal discussion if what they are doing is right or wrong.

I gave it a 5 across the board.
The graphics are pretty, too pretty.
The soundtrack is unremarkable and repetitive.
The gameplay is infinitely replayable so much so that you will swear your experiencing deja vu.
The multiplayer experience is more penalizing then it is fun. The DRM intended to ensure security and prevent duping failed.

Maybe I'm being too critical.
Torchlight 2 has its flaws too but perhaps that is a sign this genre is on its way out.