One of my earliest experiences with playing video games in Alaska — and my first introduction to the frustration of cheap internet plans in Alaska — was the launch of Diablo III in May 2012. While I was hesitant about the always-online state of the game and its predatory real-money auction house, I was long-time fan of the franchise and bought the collector’s edition along with a copy for my brother.
After plenty of internet troubleshooting, I fell in love with the basic moment-to-moment gameplay. The abilities were punchy, the painterly art style was unique and it was just fun to mow through hordes of Diablo and their minions. Everything else about the game, though, was ... not great.
The real-money auction house on its own was bad, but it was made worse by a loot system that seemed to be intent on making everything an underwhelming slog. There was a time that legendary items, which ought to be reason for celebration when they drop, were straight up worse than a good uncommon item. It also meant once you beat the game’s story, there just wasn’t that much to stick around for. And before too long, my brothers all left the game behind.
Having finished up a lot of games recently, my brother and I took a dive back into the end-game world of Diablo III and found that many, many changes Blizzard has made to the game over the last decade not only make it worthwhile but a complete blast.
Diablo III is now well into its rotation of seasons, which are roughly three-month rotations of major tweaks, unique rewards and fresh challenges, and is near the end of its 27th season. You start a fresh character — or set of characters once you max out the first once — for each season, making it a fun opportunity to run through the game and discover new builds.
Importantly, though, the developers have seemed to turn all the fun dials up to 11.
Where the game was once working to find a way to extract the maximum amount of time and money from you to kit out your characters, Diablo III now feels much more like a piñata of loot with several different and, importantly, fun ways to fill your inventory with valuable legendary and set items. Those items themselves have also been tuned up to deal maximum damage with some sets offering bonuses like a 24,000% increase to the damage of key abilities.
My crusader spends most of his time bolting through stages on his magical warhorse while calling down a constant lightning storm all around him, while my witch doctor can slip through the hordes in her ethereal spirit walk form to pop out and call down an army of buffed-up spiders that punch for an upwards of 500 billion damage. My brother’s wizard can call down meteors that do damage in the trillions.
While dialing in an effective build can be challenging, usually requiring a stop at a website like maxroll.gg to see how everything can fit together, it doesn’t take that many play sessions to put together all the necessary pieces of loot. And you can fine-tune your gear through multiple avenues like rerolling specific stats or the entire legendary altogether.
My brother put it well: When Diablo III clicks, it feels like that perfect moment when you get a pair of scissors to just slide through a piece of paper.
It’s been an easy and fun game to rediscover, and I’ve already put together two characters and will likely put together a third — a whirlwind barbarian who spends most of his time swinging an axe in a whirlwind of destruction — before the end of the current season.
And, yes, Diablo IV is right around the corner, set to come out later this year. But judging by the track record, it might take several years to get to a really good spot. In the meantime, I’ll be busy clobbering baddies in Diablo III. Finally.
Game: Diablo III (in 2023)
Platforms: PC (reviewed), PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
Price: $30 with the Necromancer class costing an additional $10
Internet: Required for multiplayer
