Is Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls a radiant star or common debris?
In addition to the new act, Reaper of Souls introduces an entirely new class to the Nephilim roster, the Crusader. The Crusader is almost an exact copy of Diablo 2's paladin class and honestly that's really fine. The core lineup of classes lacked a holy warrior which you think would be an obvious addition in a game where the primary enemy is demons. The crusader plays like a mix between the barbarian and the monk without their innate damage reduction. He has the ability to dish out a decent amount of damage while still being able to take a hit, while he has a few abilities that can make good damage builds (Blessed Hammer is back) he is mostly designed to be an engaging tank to play, freeing bored Barbarian players from the role.
With a new class comes a level cap raise to 70, and a fourth passive slot for all the classes.
But enough about the story, what everyone is really interested in is the gameplay. I have two words for disillusioned Diablo 3 owners. It's fixed. As a more casual player I never really fully understood just how much the loot system was broken by the in game auction house, now that it is gone, legendary items are drastically easier to find and you are much more likely to get loot for the class you are playing. The two of these things combined create a deviously fun Skinner box system. Instead of grinding the same bosses over and over again to get good loot all you have to do now is just play the game how you want. However, after you complete the new act which only lasts around 2 hours you are right back to going through the same story you've been doing for a years. Not now, with the new "Adventure Mode" in Reaper of Souls. In Adventure Mode you have all the waypoints in the game unlocked right away and Tyrael gives the player "bounties", these bounties can range from killing 150 minions and an elite in one area to purging a cave of it's inhabitants or even to kill act bosses such as Diablo. Even though the quests change daily, after a few days of play I quickly recognized doing the same task in the same place I had done it before. With a limited number of objectives and and locations this was bound to happen but it didn't feel monotonise. These quests can be as easy or as challenging as you like with the new dynamic difficulty system which adjusts the difficulty based on the level of the players in the party. No need to fret though skilled players, you can still change the difficulty and and xp and gold gain with modes ranging from normal to master as well as torment 1 to 6.
While I realize now just how bad the original campaign was with it's boring story and uninspired objective, now Blizzard has made loot and monster killing the star of the game, and it's a Radiant Flawless Star for Diablo fans worldwide.
Score: 9 / 10
