Diablo 3 Expansion Revealed at Gamescom
Malthael is making a return after appearing in the Diablo 2 expansion pack. What a pest. **Updated with the opening cinematic trailer and gameplay footage.
On Wednesday during Gamescom, Activision Blizzard made a surprising move by announcing the first Diablo III expansion pack rather than wait until its own BlizzCon convention this November 8. Called Reaper of Souls, the add-on will increase the level cap to 70, add a fifth Act to the game's storyline, and add a new Crusader class. The game's current classes will also receive new spells and abilities.
"From the beginning, Diablo has always been about the struggle between good and evil, and Reaper of Souls explores the darker notes of that conflict," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "This expansion also represents a big milestone in the ongoing evolution of Diablo III, with key enhancements to the core gameplay, along with a new act to experience, a powerful new character class, tons of new loot, and even more end-game options. We think players will love playing Reaper of Souls, and we can’t wait to get it into their hands."
Malthael, the fallen Archangel of Wisdom, returns as the Angel of Death after disappearing following the events taking place at the end of Diablo II's expansion pack, Lord of Destruction. He takes control of the Black Soulstone, the artifact containing the essence of Prime Evil. Last we saw the stone, it trailed behind Diablo after he was defeated and fell from the high Heavens, dissipating into the wind.
Blizzard describes the new Crusader class as a warrior of righteousness who has been hardened by relentless, brutal combat with the evil that lurks eastern Sanctuary. The Crusader wears immensely heavy armor, wields a wide variety of "cruel and punishing" weapons, and uses battle magic to strengthen allies and weaken foes. He's a natural walking tank, driven by a centuries-long quest to cleanse the land.
The expansion pack will take players from the city of Westmarch to the unhallowed halls of the Pandemonium Fortress. That means more randomized environments to explore, new epic quests, and new monsters to defeat. The expansion also provides a substantial update to the loot experience so that players can further customize their character with new and improved multilevel Legendary items, new Blacksmith and Jeweler item-crafting options, and more.
"Diablo III’s Paragon progression system is also being majorly upgraded for the expansion, adding even more end-game character advancement and replayability," the company said. "Two new game modes—Loot Runs and Nephalem Trials—are being added as well, providing fun and rewarding challenges for players to tackle when they’re not busy saving the world."
Reports surfacing after E3 2013 indicated that the expansion pack launch was pushed back into 2014, and that former Titan developers were brought into the Reaper of Souls team to accelerate the expansion's progress. However Blizzard said there has been no delay because there is no official launch date. Now the company is stating that additional details will be revealed this November during BlizzCon "and beyond" as development progresses, meaning there's a good chance players won't see this expansion pack under the Christmas tree this holiday season.
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Kevin Parrish has more than a decade of experience working as a writer, editor, and product tester. He began writing about computer hardware and soon branched out to other devices and services such as networking equipment, phones and tablets, game consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom’s Hardware, Tom’s Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others. At HighSpeedInternet.com, he focuses on network equipment testing and review.
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nevilence Played D3 for the story as I was a huge fan of the first two, liked D3 until I completed it, replayability died really fast, dunno if this sounds like enough for me to return yet again...pityReply -
maxiim Who cares, this isnt even worth the time for the article, who really wants to go back to D3 to farm items the way Blizzard tells you to.....uslessReply -
saymi I can not deny I liked it but it did not give me the blizzard epic game experience like I had before. Maybe I expected too much thats why I am not excited about this expansion.Reply -
imkvn I really liked D3 the first month playing it. It was a very polished game and very fun to play. Unfortunately, Blizzard made radical changes to the game that made it not even fun to play. Moreover, the auction house destroyed the game's economy and made it a pay to win.Reply
The game overall is short and be completed within a day. I wished they would add more optional quests, fix drops rates, add content that will effect the look of the character and skills. It's a shame that they tired to make the game similar to WoW and not Diablo because it had a very strong launch.
Free to play is the future for MMO's. Never Winter, Path of exile, and Tera are really changing how big publishers do business. Blizzard needs to adapt to the change, and implement mechanics that work. This expansion is most likely a gimmick until Titan is released. -
Rogue77777 The expansion also provides a substantial update to the loot experience so that players can further customize their character with new and improved multilevel Legendary itemsReply
LOL - Only through the AH, so thy can make even more money.
D3 by no means is better then D1 or2. In thoses, you could actually find good legendary items by spending hours crawling your way through dungeons. In D3 the only way to truely get a good item, is to buy it.
Now try to sell it and get half your money back, good luck. -
cburke82 I would like to know the price point I like the game enough to pay 10-20 maybe if the reviews are good if they ask more then no wayReply -
nevilence I dont agree with anyone who has anything negative to say on the story line of d3, it fit well with d1 and d2 and wasnt bad, in fact it was the main reason i played the game at all. gameplay however was shit after you had completed the game, there was little reason to play on further. I think gaming has come to far since d2 for the game to be as grind orientated as it is. Pay to win also nuked any point of it all.Reply
as above i would also like to know the price, anything above 20 and i am not interested -
alidan @Rogue77777Reply
not sure about 1, but 2 had drop rates severely nerfed to 1 in over a million to keep some items from becoming to plentiful, that kind of bs kills games for me. -
none12345 One new act is an utter joke. The current acts can be beaten in 30 minutes. If you scour every part of the longer acts, then thats say 4 hours.Reply
Unless the expansion is like $5-$10 max, then thats way way way too little content for a paid expansion.