Diablo III Preview

Hooked Games has put together a pretty informative three-page preview of Diablo III, covering everything from the five revealed classes to skill runes to art design.

Blizzard also designed the new health system, in addition to every other aspect of the game, with cooperative gameplay in mind – no surprise given the lasting online popularity of Diablo II. Health power-ups won’t simply heal the player who claimed them; they will also heal all nearby allies, thereby removing the tank’s potential monopoly on health potions in Diablo III’s predecessor.

More importantly, Diablo III promises a seamless integration between its single-player and multiplayer aspects. The game will scale its difficulty according to the number of players and their respective levels, and that scaling will occur immediately as players jump between online and offline campaigns.

Of course, Diablo III’s multiplayer success is contingent on how well Blizzard incorporates the developer’s online gaming service, Battle.net, into the game. Blizzard plans on implementing all current Battle.net features, including the social networking aspects and cross-game communication, in Diablo III. However, Blizzard is placing a large emphasis on matchmaking. The developer promises a system to match players according to many different factors including story progression and character level.