And how much fun he is! Omg, I am having a blast running around Sanctuary zapping the hell out of enemies as my adorable, huggable bear. Are you all having the same experience as me?
Firstly, character creation. I was so delighted to see a wide swath of character types, body builds, and customization options for each. The fact that each hero isn’t just a copy/paste of the same few body types is refreshing and I like that they all have different skeletal structures and builds so you can differentiate between them at a glance. Druid is my favorite, I love the way he looks and I feel like he’s at the same time and archetype that represents a wild outdoorsman as well as a shape shifting shaman. Perfect, no notes.
Secondly… The combat. Summoning lightning storms was fun at first but once I got to Kyo I respecc’d my talent points and made him more of an all rounding naturalist, with rocks, wind and lightning. It was fun for a little bit just wandering the wilds and shocking things but it really clicked when I walked into the bandit camp outside Kyo and found a treasure goblin. Suddenly my focus shifted, I needed to kill that little fella and see what flew out of him. I threw caution to the wind (literally) and ran into the full camp to give chase. The whole camp was after me and trying to murder my handsome bear-man! I had to break out all my abilities and use almost every potion I had to stay alive but I did it. Before long summoning the lightning storm and wielding my rock armor had whittled away the camp and left only me and my prey, I chased him around a little more and whipped some gales at him and he fell, out popped a fat stack of rare and magic loot. I felt so accomplished and the new looks on my druid buddy are awesome, I get a little bit of an orc shaman vibe from him with his new headdress and I love it.
Thirdly, the world. D3 felt like a departure from the grimdark setting of Diablo, this feels like such a coming home, especially as someone who recently replayed D2R on Xbox. Everything is dark and gritty, and brutal, this is the setting I love. Shadows and corners seem designed to sap the hope out of our characters, all the better when my burly druid wanders in and adds a few flashes of lightning for dramatic effect. Everything from the colors to the stark scenery is a delight to my eyes.
The few places I have worry or criticism are mostly tech related. Queues are a bit long ATM, 30 mins, I don’t mind going to do something while I wait but any time I need to log out or disconnect I worry a little. The rubber banding can be a bit annoying, sometimes it stops me from getting where I need to go. Connecting with friends has been a bit unreliable but I assume that also has to do with queues and server load.
Altogether, I’m excited for the full release and can’t wait to tell the story of my handsome druid saving Sanctuary, or dooming it to fall to Lilith’s machinations. Thanks for this glimpse back into the world of Diablo, and thank you for reading 