[Diablo III] Diablo III Beta

Welcome to Sleepy Hollow.

Okay folks, here's my take on the Diablo 3 Beta. Since Blizzard announced that it's open beta weekend, a lot of people jumped into this game to try out and drool over the expected-game-of-the-year, which is supposed to be officially released this coming 15th of May, worldwide. Let's take a stroll down at New Tristam and meet the people....

*MAJOR SPOILER ALERT*: Throughout this article I will talk about the story and lore of Diablo 3. So to the newcomers of the game, or to the ones who haven't played into the open beta, consider yourself warned. Not my fault that you read the whole thing here.

Once you've steeled yourself, hit the break and let's move on.

What, expecting some Dragon Aspect in the login screen?

Diablo 3 uses a login system that's similar to either to World of Warcraft or Starcraft 2. You need to provide a Battle.net account name, your password, and (this one is optional), a Battle.net authenticator number combination. It would seem that Diablo 3 would also need to be connected online even when playing a single-player campaign, much like my gripe against Starcraft 2. But let's move on.

Creating a character is easy: choose one from 5 different classes (Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Wizard, and Witch Doctor), select your gender (a first for the Diablo series), and your name. Each class has its own strengths and weaknesses, so it's up to you to decide whether you're magic-inclined or physical-attack-proficient.

Oh, and your name should only contain letters, as numbers and special characters are not allowed. After all, you don't want to be remembered as loL*F0cK_Y333334hhh69 in the forums.

Your starting area is just the outskirts of New Tristram. If you're familiar with the 'old' Tristram, you may remember that it was leveled down by demons during the second game and Griswold was turned into a sort of zombie guardian for it. And if you've watched the opening cinematic before, you may remember that the Cathedral was struck down by a meteor, or as the people call it, "the Fallen Star", which was an omen of horrible things to come. And that horror was people turning undead and graves opening up.

If you can't remember, here's the link to the video.

Once inside town you'll be asked by Leah, Deckard Cain's adopted niece, to escort her to the decrepit hut of Adria. Yes, the Adria the Witch of Diablo 1. Turns out Leah was her daughter, and her father was one of the few adventurers who were slain during the attempt to cleanse the cathedral during the first game. Adria's fate, as written by Cain in his lore, was that she had gone mad and died before the Diablo 2. Or so it seems.

Like ever other RPG, you can enter buildings, get their stuff, gold, letters, and nobody's complaining.

Anyway, going back to the current game, once you've gained access to the cathedral, your first mission is to find Cain (old bastard's so lucky there's not even one scratch on him when the Fallen Star directly hit them), and retrieve him. A familiar old boss comes out to terrorize you in the form of the Lich King Skeleton King, Leoric. It would seem that the meteor resurrects old nemesis too.

Once Cain is rescued, your first task is to placate the mad spirit of Leoric once more. In the Diablo lore, the one who defeated the Skeleton King was Leoric was Aidan, Leah's father. And surprisingly, Aidan is one of the sons of King Leoric (and you thought Albrect was an only child), not to mention he WAS the Warrior character in the first game, and became the Dark Wanderer in Diablo 2.

Sheesh. Talk about lore overload. But let's continue.

Throughout the dungeon in the cathedral you'll come across tomes of lore, and for the beta Lachdanan's journal is scattered among the ruins. Yes, that Lachdanan from the first game too. His journal tells him what happened to him and his king (like we've heard that story a million times already).

Flirting 101: Talk the girl from behind. It's better that way.

In the dungeon you'll come across Kormac, a Templar who will become a follower (hireling) to you when you save him, provided that you complete some quests first. But since this is the beta, you don't get him to follow you all the way through (he's the guy in the picture above).

I dunno if I'm playing God of War, or Dark Souls.

So delving deeper into the catacombs, my friend and I (I'm using a Demon Hunter, while he plays a Wizard) finally found the Crypt of the Skeleton King. Turns out that the area is an instanced dungeon, similar to WoW's implementation that all party members have to agree to enter the instance. Though, once inside, and you get killed and use the "Revive at Last Checkpoint" option, the system will say that you can't join the instance again. Booo.

So what did I do when I was dead? Well, it would seem that you can revive team mates with a 'revive' option and such, though it will take a bit of time. And being that you're in a dungeon, with the Skeleton King, that summons a whole buncha skeletons, yes. It's a dangerous gamble, but my friend was able to pull it off, revived me, and finally we get this message after kicking Leoric's bony ass:

All those years of being addicted to games has paid off. Low-level char killing boss chars. Hahaha

Yeah, to quote my friend, "WTF?"

So there you have it. Kill the King, win the beta. The level cap is supposed to be level 13, but we managed at level 5 for me and my friend at level 9, though he had to kite Leoric and move around in circles. All in all, the experience was fun, and you can replay it using another set of characters that you like. To get the feel of the game, and prepare yourself on what characters to use once Diablo 3 goes live.

Errata note: In my previous entry I've said that multiplayer was disabled. I was wrong on that one, my bad.

Anyway, enjoy the game as much as I did. Now to test that Monk.