Diablo III Preview

Diablo III graced the cover of the latest issue of PC Gamer magazine, so I can only assume that this four-page BlizzCon-based preview that just hit their online portal is ripped from it. Anyway, on with the quotage:

Away from the showfloor, Jay explains some of the thinking behind the Demon Hunter. Her inspiration is (part Kate Beckinsale in the Underworld films, part Boba Fett. The idea of a kind of monster hunter was always the class on the list that we were like ‘˜we really, really want to do this’.) The problem: WoW already has plenty of Demon Hunters, and the team were nervous about repeating concepts. (We don’t want people to think we’re pulling stuff from that. But then we went, ‘˜Well, if Diablo can’t have a class called a Demon Hunter, no game can,’ so that kind of convinced us.)

The Demon Hunter makes us all the more keen to try the singleplayer/co-op demo, because for the first time, all of the game’s five classes are ready to test. This playable slice of Sanctuary is devastatingly smart and seriously slick. You begin in a dungeon and within seconds you’re screaming through demons. The Demon Hunter multishot skill quickly proves its worth. Demons in Diablo don’t come singly, or in pairs. They come in vast hordes. Casters at the back, shackled to pets. Ranged attackers lobbing fireballs and pyroblasts in the centre, creeping up, taking a shot, then pulling back. Creepers and melee at the front. They scuttle forward, take a swipe and then pause, stupid enough to give the player a chance to kill them, vicious enough that if you’re cornered, you’ll need to spam a Fan of Knives.

It’s clear from the demo that a Diablo monster’s job isn’t to be a vicious and cunning AI, or a realistic and thoughtful opponent. Their job is to die, bloodily. And so they do. Zombies explode in a mash of gore, limbs rolling across the floor. Vast bile boomers pop, leaving behind waves of snakes. Demons are sucked up into the ether. Gibs fly, ricocheting off the walls. When a caster is hooked by a Bola Shot, it keeps on coming for a moment, oblivious to its impending doom.