Diablo III - hands-on

We’re not accustomed to being sworn and spat at when attempting to preview a game, but that’s a consequence when you bust through a two-hour queue at Blizzcon 2008 waving a press pass. But such hardships are worth it when it means, dear reader, we manage to sink several hours into Diablo III, playable for the first time at this year’s Blizzcon, in order to bring you our impressions on one of the biggest games of 2009.

Blizzard offered up a generous single dungeon demo at the event, which inevitably became a playground of charnel pursuits for the hundreds of attendees that managed to score a playthrough. It wouldn’t be Diablo without fully randomized dungeons. During our three playthroughs, the game generated a unique dungeon every time, with few reoccurrences. And just looking at the dozens of monitors around us, we knew immediately what everybody’s favorite class was. The Wizard, which Blizzard unveiled only an hour before…

The Wizard is what Blizzard dub their ‘glass cannon’ class: a ranged spell-flinger with all the armor of a yogurt cup. Unlike previous magical classes to appear in the series, such as the Sorceress and Necromancer, the Wizard dabbles in ‘high magic’, which extends to manipulating the laws of the universe, such as time, physics and the weather. Many of her spells look like she’s summoning up the very primordial stuff the universe was wrought from, and are beautiful as a result. Our favorite spell so far has to be Disintegrate, a searing beam of flame that sees you holding down the mouse button until you’ve reduced everything in the room to a charred sludge. Her talent for stopping time and flinging enemies around using Havok physics brings a fresh twist to Diablo.

The Wizard was the only class in the demo that we played to have Diablo III’s new Rune system implemented – a fresh twist on Diablo’s patented tiered Skill Trees only made possible with the impressive tech pumped into the game. Essentially, as you play through the game you’ll come across randomly dropped Rune stones when looting the corpses of your fallen foes. These can then be slotted into your player’s skill tree, upgrading your standard spells and abilities in unique and visually impressive ways. So the Witch Doctor’s trademark flaming skull grenade, for example, when applied with a Multistrike rune, now bounces, giving it a greater range and damage. Even defensive skills benefit from this system, with the Wizard’s teleport spell becoming an offensive weapon when applied with the same Rune. The screenshots here simply don’t do justice to the spectacular torrent of spells you’ll be flinging at your foes during play. Just wait till you see her Tornado spell!