Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Promises Mayhem, Randomness

Diablo III has been criticized rather harshly in some quarters for basically doing nothing to expand on the original design and its boring and repetitive nature. It got so bad at one point it spawned an epic online meltdown between present and former developers.

For its first expansion, "Reaper of Souls," Blizzard seems to be taking the criticism to heart in the form of a game that will be far less repetitive and far more brutal. It won't hesitate to throw 30 monsters at you at once, but you will have tricks up your sleeve as well.

A panel led by Joshua Mosqueira, game director, offered up a good look at the forthcoming expansion. A major portion of "Reaper of Souls" will be Adventure Mode, which will let players jump through any portions of the game and skip cinematics and other nonsense.

Right now you can jump to any portion of the game but you must save the game to the player menu and then select the campaign you want. Adventure Mode lets you skip all that by simply jumping to that portion of the game. You can assemble a few levels into a multi-step adventure and avoid saving the game and choosing the new play location.

One of the bigger problems of multiplayer is each player will act on his or her own agenda and run off, so the parties are often separated. A new feature called Bounties gives the players a common goal, so they stick together to get the bounty, whether it's killing a monster or finding treasure. There will also be missions where players are sent into dungeons to clean them out of every living creature.

Blizzard also showed off the Nephalim Rift, where they took all the dungeons in the game and totally randomized them. First, they raised the depth limit (or lowered, depending on your point of view) of a dungeon from two levels to ten. Second, when you go into these rift levels, they are completely random. One may be a root cellar, the next an old crypt, the next an outdoor zone. You never get the same rift twice.

Second, they brought in monsters from the four Acts that comprise the Diablo game. So you might have undead from Act 1 attacking you along with demons from Act 5. And these dungeons will throw a random number of monsters at you. Some levels might be very sparse, then next one drops 30 on you at once.

Not to worry, for these random dungeons you will get special buffs to do insane damage. One shown off features chain lightning zapping eight monsters at once.

"Diablo III: Reaper of Souls" has no official release date. Blizzard also let players get their first look at "Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition" for PlayStation 4. It will feature the main game plus the "Reaper of Souls" expansion. It also has no release date but looked solid from the non-stop gameplay that was going on.

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  • MD1987
    It sounds very promising. And with some fresh ideas on the dev team I really think Blizzard will deliver on this one.
    Reply
  • MANOFKRYPTONAK
    Diablo 3 was ok, beat it in about 3 days. It was fun, but too easy...
    Reply
  • thebigt42
    do I keep my char or start all over???????????????
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    11900628 said:
    Diablo 3 was ok, beat it in about 3 days. It was fun, but too easy...

    You sure you did all 4 difficulties? Because unless you went to the RMAH and bought all Inferno class gear, Inferno was, at release, hard as hell and self found was near impossible.

    11900645 said:
    do I keep my char or start all over???????????????

    You will keep your current character just have ACT V open for you.

    My problem is why is it taking so long? The answer? The console version. They have focused more on it, hence why the console version is out, with a better loot system at that, and RoS will also hit for the consoles the same day.

    The last major update to the game (not including any small fixes but had gameplay changes or new content) was in May and there is no patch planned until at the very earliest March 2014, when they kill the AH and add some of the new loot features.

    The rumor is that the Expansion, which will be what contains most of the new stuff people actually want, is May 2014 so a year before the game may actually become decent compared to now where very few people will consistently play it.
    Reply
  • Spencer Castillo
    "Diablo 3 was ok, beat it in about 3 days. It was fun, but too easy..."

    I'l be impressed if you reach inferno act 3 in 3 days which i highly doubt.

    I played diablo on the first week of the release and unlike now, inferno was very hard to beat. I actually reach inferno act 1 after a week of playing, many players were able to reach sooner but im on a full time job so i can only spend 6 hours a day playing diablo. it took me one weekend to finish act 1 and a whole week reach act 3.
    Reply
  • Eisbrecher34
    Too bad that now that Path of Exile is officially released I have no use for D3...
    Reply
  • MD1987
    11901798 said:
    Too bad that now that Path of Exile is officially released I have no use for D3...

    I played PoE. Yeah, it's neat. But the skill tree isn't all that exciting once you realize that it's mostly +stats filler nodes with a couple almost mandatory ones depending on your class. And combat just feels clunky and slow.
    Reply
  • Eisbrecher34
    11901831 said:
    11901798 said:
    Too bad that now that Path of Exile is officially released I have no use for D3...

    I played PoE. Yeah, it's neat. But the skill tree isn't all that exciting once you realize that it's mostly +stats filler nodes with a couple almost mandatory ones depending on your class. And combat just feels clunky and slow.

    Well PoE has been in the making for 7 years so they never had D3 to compare against. That being said though, as a D2 fan I enjoy the slower and clunkier combat because it feels more like D2. Add to that the gem / skill system (colors, links, levels, etc...) and a good balance on loot I really have nothing to complain about. Oh and its free ;)

    As far as the +stats comment goes, I don't know how high of a level you have gotten to, but it becomes a pretty precise science by the time you get to merciless. That is when the game truly shines because you either live or die by your skill tree, not really so much what your equipment is, which is the exact opposite of D3.

    In the end I kind of liked D3, and hopefully these changes may make it a bit more fun, but other than the fact that it is a lot more refined and looks a little nicer, when it comes to core game play and D2 nostalgia, PoE is much more fun to me.
    Reply
  • timw03878
    Unless they up the player limit per server I'll pass

    4 is just too shitty.

    Never bought this pos and glad I didn't.
    Reply
  • mazty
    Why on earth would I pay for an expansion of a broken game? All this expansion will do is separate the gamers from the blizzard fanboys.
    Reply