My Thought on Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

Hi I’m Elizabeth, long time Diablo series player—I’ve been playing the series since I was in Kindergarten, and I have played my best character in Diablo III: Reaper of Souls for over 100 hours. through five acts and through three difficulty levels.

Storyline

With the expansion pack came not only a new character class but also a brand new act and a bran new storyline, featuring a non Lord of Hell boss named Malthael, the Archangel of Death. It is a nice departure from facing one of the Seven Lords of Hell, and gives a glimpse of just how much the angels in the High Heavens really hate humanity. The expansion begins with former archangel Tyrael and Horadrim member, Lorath Nahr attempting to seal away the Black Soulstone—an artifact used to contain the Seven Lords of Hell. However, their efforts are thwarted by Malthael, who intends to use the Black Soulstone to destroy all demonic essence within the mortal realm, which would destroy all humanity because humans descend from both angels and demons. The expansion pack continues to expand on the back story of the angels and the High Heavens, a realm mentioned but not ever explored by the hero until now. I liked learning more about the angels because it shattered old stereotypes of angels being gentle, loving beings and demonstrated their dark side and desire for absolute power. Reaper of Souls proves that even beings in the High Heavens can succumb to mortal desires and act with the same level of cruelty as demons. The game also proves that humanity is resilient and able to save the world from multiple existential threats. As a long time Diablo player both Diablo III and the Expansion have given nods to the previous games through dialogue and places such as New Tristram and Pandemonium, allowing the player to appreciate both the past storylines of Diablo and the future ones.

The Fifth Act

Another feature of the expansion pack was a fifth act, which took place in a city known as Westmarch. When your hero arrives it is under siege by Malthael’s forces, and it is your job to weaken Malthael’s power over the city by destroying the soul crucibles, which turn ordinary people into Malthael’s death minions. The gameplay and graphics are amazing as always with great attention to detail on the character’s armor and the surrounding landscape. Although I haven’t finished Act 5, it has so far been a wild ride through the city of Westmarch, Blood Marshes, and ruins of an ancient Nephalem City. Along the way your hero engages in thrilling battles against Urzael, a minion of Malthael and Adria, a witch that betrayed your party by rebirthing Diablo. The battles can be really long depending on the difficulty you have chosen, so be ready to stick it out for a good 20-25 minutes, but it is well worth it because your character is guaranteed to come away with extremely powerful armor and weapons. The act hasn’t ceased to amaze me—after defeating Adria, your character must find Malthael in Pandemonium and fight through hordes of demons to reach the Pandemonium Fortress. I have finally reached Malthael, and so far the boss battle has been a lot harder than previous ones, so it’s taking me more than 3 tries to beat him and server lag doesn’t help either when you’re trying to dodge his deadly attacks.

The Crusader

Reaper of Souls offers a new hero class to play as—the Crusader. The Crusader is a warrior that is motivated by faith and fights with holy magic. Like the other classes, the Crusader can either be male or female, and starts the game with a flail and a shield. Gameplay with the Crusader is pretty overpowered for the first few quests in Act I—most enemies will die with one hit from one of the Crusader’s special skills such as Sweep Attack, which summons a flail to attack enemies. The Crusader is a melee attacker, so be prepared to fight up close and personal with bosses and ordinary monsters, and although less powerful than the Barbarian in terms of brute strength is still pretty formidable. When I played as the Crusader it was a bit of a shock for me as I usually play as a ranged hero class, where I could usually kill enemies before they got to me, this time I had to get close to the enemies to attack them. Despite this, I still really like the Crusader because she can mow through enemies with relative ease, something I was never able to do with a ranged attacker, and because she is still able to use magic spells like any other chracter.

Overall

I would highly recommend those who are new to the Diablo series or those who have been playing Diablo since the first game to get this game because of its stunning graphics, expanded skill sets for each class, and a storyline that makes you want to keep playing the game to get the full story. With plenty of surprises you will not be bored by this game and you will love playing through the new Act. If you need advice about which class to create I would recommend the Barbarian or Crusader if you are starting out or the Demon Hunter if you have been playing Diablo for awhile. As I played through the Acts on the different difficulty levels the game has to offer with my Demon Hunter, I learned how to best exit the heat of battle when I found my health going down too quickly, which skills are most effective against large groups of enemies and bosses, and most importantly I learned to stay resilient and hungry for the next chapter in the story, despite some tough fights. I also learned to be really patient when playing this game because as I got to higher difficulty levels making a huge amount of progress in the game took a lot longer as my character died a lot. Death of your character is inevitable, but you have to learn to just reset and go to battle again.