Diablo III 'Review'

Despite extensive stress-testing, Diablo 3's global launch was bound hit a few snags. And sure enough, as the 23.01 deadline passed and BattleNet servers opened worldwide, literally thousands of gamers started a mad dash to install the game, promptly crashing servers … as it did again the following day.

Diablo 3
Activision
It may have been a delay rather than a disaster – and it certainly didn't stop me racing through the first act before breakfast – but it did reflect many people's top pre-launch concern: Diablo 3's need to maintain a constant internet connection. Blizzard insists this is to ensure that characters can only be levelled up in one way to prevent fraud as well as retain security and control.

Nevertheless, having already lost some progress and booty between checkpoints myself, it's clear this latest multiplayer intrusion will rankle some single players deeply – at least until Battlenet returns to its usual, stable self. Of course, there are some advantages to having your character ID, stats and items stored online, but more about that in a moment.

In terms of gameplay, first glance reveals everything you would expect from a Diablo sequel: five playable character classes, roughly divided between close-range brawlers like the Barbarian and Monk and rangier characters like The Wizard and Demon Hunter. And, for sheer strangeness, there's the Witch Doctor – whose Demon Dogs skill fast became my defence of choice. For the first time, I was also able to make him a her, even though gender has no bearing on anything but appearance and voice-over.

Once in the game, it's clear that the new 3D engine has been put to work on rendering a level of detail we haven't seen in the series before. Superb lighting effects make even Act 1's formulaic dungeons seem more atmospheric, but once you reach Act 2's Caldeum and beyond, more spectacular locations and draw distances emerge. Enemies may have a tendency to swarm mindlessly towards you, but they come in large numbers and reasonable variety.

Not every improvement pays off, however; there's far too little destructible scenery and context-sensitive traps – such as falling chandeliers or rolling logs – sound like a great idea on paper but require such careful lining up of enemies you won't be troubling with them after the first few attempts.

There's improvement as well as innovation, particularly with the UI. With a permanent Portal spell to take you back to nearby towns and a much smarter way of choosing and comparing items, you can now focus on the important task of killing things.

However, in the 12 years since Diablo 2, RPG combat has moved on in leaps and bounds and D3 seems determined to stick to its tried and tested brawling system. Certainly there's a plethora of pyrotechnic skills for each character, most of which can be customised with up to five Runes each, opening up some fascinating alternative strategies for each class. But the way this is organised onscreen is confusing, with skills taking precedence over weapons by default and no clear overview of the powers you already have, let alone aspire to.

There's also a tedious "cooling down" period once a rune is activated and even longer after taking a Health potion. At least slain enemies now drop orbs that can be collected by running over them but this tends to give you abundant health at precisely the moment you don't need it (ie, once the danger has been eliminated).