Diablo 3 ‘Xbox 360’ Review

PC and Console gamers have a long feuding war with one another, arguing who has the better system and who has the better games (my vote goes to the Xbox 360); and now to add fuel to that fire Blizzard has brought Diablo 3, the popular PC RPG, to consoles all over the world. Now PC to Console games don’t always work out and it can be for any number of reasons; the controls can differ, online gameplay takes a decline due to less powerful systems, the quality of graphics aren’t as great on consoles as they are on high end gaming PC’s. One game in particular that has made the transition from PC to Console and seen its form slip is the Command and Conquer series which is a lot more restricted on console allowing fewer troops to be made, more complicated controls and view restrictions, so how will Diablo 3 cope? Will it rise to the Heavens or fall down to Hell and meet with the Devil himself?

Well I for one couldn’t wait for this game to come through the letterbox, and as soon as it did I called up my friends and ordered them to come round. After many arguments about who was going which class (because I can’t have someone the same as me, I’m a girl like that) we finally settled down and got on with the game. So what can the PS3 and Xbox 360 lovers expect from this cult PC classic? Well as you guessed there isn’t a change as far as the storyline is concerned. Diablo 3 returns to where it all began in the small town of Tristam. Twenty years after the Prime Evils were defeated and banished from the world of Sanctuary, trouble starts again as rumours of a fallen star crashing down from the heavens emerge, an omen that the End Times have begun. It’s your job to investigate the strange activities that are going on and to make sure that you keep the people of Sanctuary safe.

Anyway like I say I’ve been playing with friends locally as you can have up to four player co-op on the same console, but you don’t have to squeeze four people on a couch. If you wish you can invite friends to play online or mix and match with random people across Xbox Live and the Playstation Network. If you’re a bit of a loner, fear not, friends are not needed for your quest as you can go solo on this bad boy and pick up allies along the way who’ll fight by your side; or if you don’t even fancy working with allies then go the witch doctor and you can team up with man’s best friend, that’s right summon a couple of hounds to go take on the enemy up close as you stand back and launch long range attacks.

Now once you’ve sorted out how you’re going to play your game and which class you want to go you’ll be ready to play your role in saving Sanctuary from its gloomy fate. Navigating through the 3D Randomised environments, you’ll face hordes of enemies from skeleton warriors and succubi to zombies and more. The views of surrounding areas are a little more restricted than from footage I’ve seen of the PC gameplay but nothing too big that it impacts on the game, although when playing with multiple people locally it can be annoying when people split off into different directions and the screen stays where it is until someone folds and goes with the group. However with all this, the graphics are spectacular and you wouldn’t complain that they’re much worse than the high end gaming PCs that PC gamers can’t stop going on about.

There is also a poor targeting for aiming at enemies and other objects. Whereas on the PC you can aim with a mouse for precision, using the analogue stick my character sometimes threw his jar of spiders in the wrong direction even though I was pointing it in the right direction. Whether this is because they don’t have a 360 degree system like on FIFA so movement is more accurate I’m unsure but it wasn’t a major issue unless I was playing by myself as I had others fighting off enemies preventing them from killing me. The movements of the right analogue stick to dodge attacks is also a little stiff only allowing you four possible movements; rolling/flipping left, right, forward and backwards. However having said all that the controls are easy to pick up and are less complex than if you were using a keyboard on the PC.

Another aspect of the game that I like but differs from other RPG games I’ve played is the menu to customise your character; sectioning each piece of equipment into different areas, and having different tabs for skills and such. It’s really easy to navigate and one of my mates who played the same game on PC, said he thought it was a slightly easier system to use with the controller. Now I know you can get a controller for your PC but a lot of people tend to still use the old keyboard and mouse rather than using controllers or downloading software to connect your PS3 and 360 controllers.

The only issue with this menu is it can be time consuming, searching through all the loot that you find on your journey, and believe me there is a lot that gets dropped. New items are labelled with a star so you know what you’ve collected since you last checked, but when there are 4 of you playing and you all have a lot of loot it takes its toll on you. But after a while you learn to negotiate with each other and the process becomes a lot simpler. You can also cycle through your latest finds by using your d-pad though you won’t be able to compare it as well as you can in your customisation menu.

The biggest bonus of Diablo 3 coming to consoles though is that there is no need to register to battle.net and therefore you don’t have the worries you hear about of getting hacked and losing all your loot. Instead you can just log on to your console, start up the game and be on your way. Which is one aspect that many are saying makes the console version that little bit better than the PC.

So overall, we have an action packed RPG which successfully makes the transition from PC to console. The controls are easy to pick up and not as complex as I have found with some PC games, with the abilities being designated to the buttons perfectly. The graphics are great, although view is restricted a little and it is very annoying when friends wonder off into different directions. In my opinion it’s the best multiplayer game that I’ve played since Borderlands 2, something where you can get the beers in, call the mates round and order some pizza to make a night of it. Definitely worth purchasing.

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.