And then there are adventure mode’s bounties: a system of unconnected quests doled out from an angel. Players can now amp it up from day one and then bump it up even more when their items are good and ready (and color-coordinated). Gone are the days of having to replay the same campaign over and over again to reach a higher difficulty. Her secondary ability is to change the cosmetic appearance of any item of equipment that shows up on a character, because stat points are great and all, but when I bury an axe in a prime evil’s head, I need to look good doing it.īut it’s not just characters: the game also wants players to own the greater experience of the game. It wants to make sure players can do the same for their characters, and a big part of this is the new merchant: her enchantments allow the player to alter single stats on items, turning almost-swords into awesome-swords, caulking any cracks in the loot 2.0 system. Blizzard looked after Diablo II with patches and expansions they’re obviously working to do the same here. It wants to offer up a new and improved sense of ownership, even in the wake of quick-swapping skills that unlock on their own.īecause Reaper of Souls is about ownership: not just for the player, but for the franchise. The new Diablo wants you to play like you want to play. Meanwhile, Reaper of Souls’ paragon points are basically a compromise between personalization and freedom level up past the cap and earn stat points to swap around willy-nilly on minor increases to things like health, mana, or critical chance.

The clothes don’t always fit, but they’re obviously trying. If the auction house was a second-hand store, loot 2.0 is a custom tailor with shaky hands and a heart of gold. No more second-hand clothing from the auction house all items are the result of slaying hordes of demons, and further bolstered by something Blizzard is content to call “loot 2.0,” which could basically be the name of a hook-up app, and is actually a system in place to get the player more suitable items. In a lot of ways, Reaper of Souls is the latest step in a return to personalization on a road of recent patches. In Diablo II, when I made choices, I became invested: my character became the sum total of something more than just hours played. Skills unlocked and grew stronger on their own, but after several difficulty levels of the same thing-the same enemies, the same environment, the same whirlwind route through Diablo’s face-why continue? What was lacking was a certain sense of progression derived from continuity: the continuity that comes from picking skills, allotting stat points, and, ultimately, making choices. When I leveled up, I didn’t choose anything. In Diablo III, nothing ever really changed.

For something steeped in a battle of heaven and hell, there’s something awfully purgatorial about the franchise. And in that time, not much has changed: select an alluringly mysterious explorer to venture forth against the dark minions of a demon lord, dress up in metal and leather, and banish him. Let’s be honest: we’ve been playing Diablo for nearly 18 years.

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