Diablo III Preview

The guys at Games Radar have slapped up a hands-on preview of Diablo III that supposedly appeared in the latest issue of PC Gamer UK magazine.

The console heritage is also applied to monster design. In the demo, Jay points to the engorged Sand Wasps buzzing across the desert. They’re not hard to punt across the dunes, if you can get to them, but reaching melee range is a problem because they spit smaller versions of themselves at the player. (When we were designing the Sand Wasp, we had the idea of bullet hell [a reference to top-down 2D shooters like Galaga]. In fact, our designers mocked up a Galaga level with Diablo graphics, to illustrate exactly what we meant to our artists.)

All the enemies have that similar sense of ideas swiftly appropriated. There are the land-sharks: monsters that dig into the soil and reappear underneath your feet. There are dervish warriors who spin like fans of knives. (The only strategy you need: run away as they spin, and attack them as they rest.) There are mages who shoot fireballs, easily dodged, or reflected by the Monk’s bubble ability. There are skeletons, undead, wizards, fanatics and followers boss monsters and elites, rares and fodder. It’s the PC RPG equivalent of Double Dragon every encounter presenting a new combination of bads to beat down.