First things first: because of the unmitigated disaster of Diablo III’s launch in 2012, which turned out to be a recurring problem for a bunch of online-oriented games since, the fear that Reaper of Souls’ release would see similar disruption has been looming in the back of our minds ever since the expansion was announced. But when the upgrade went live late Monday night, everything went smoothly. I first launched it at midnight PDT Tuesday morning and never encountered a hitch when connecting or playing it in the meantime. Blizzard did us right in that regard.
It also did us right in tacitly acknowledging that for all its strengths, Diablo III has been a total embarrassment in how it delivers its story — and in Reaper of Souls we have Adventure Mode. While Adventuring, players can simply roam the entire game world taking down bosses and clearing dungeons and hunting loot without the pretense of a cool plot that is so poorly presented that even I have very little patience for it. What most people really want to do in Diablo III is click on things and dig for treasure and min/max; that’s the core of the appeal, and that’s all Adventure Mode really does.
It’s dungeon crawling, except now you, rather than the plot, get to decide which dungeon you’re crawling through. Tired of those bugs that spit at you out in the desert? Congrats, you can go anywhere else in the game you want right now because in Adventure you can fast travel to any waypoint in any part of the world whenever you feel like it. By clearing bounties, which by the way are random and refresh every time you start a new session, you can unlock new random dungeons through Nephalem Obelisks in each Act’s main camp. Not to mention that in Act V you’ll encounter a Mystic artisan who can change what your gear looks like.
Adventure Mode is really just regular Diablo III without 15+ hours of linear quests to keep you on rails, so you have all the same things to work for that you already did. Too, if you’re leveling in Adventure your various companions will appear when you reach certain levels. Hit 12, for example, and the Scoundrel will appear at camp on cue.
Of course, in order to unlock Adventure Mode you do have to play the Reaper of Souls story. I’m not totally sure why that is, but it is pretty annoying. It’s not really unpleasant, just more of the regular Diablo III structure and more of the same type of really awesome religious fantasy story told in a wildly counter-interesting way. And this new Act V ends in the same ultra-perfunctory fashion as Act IV that prevents any sort of emotional release or satisfaction at getting through it, but with the bonus of a comically matter-of-fact cliffhanger.
There’s also the added comedy that stems from setting a chunk of the plot in the city of Westmarch, a place in which many people live. Because of the way the game generates levels and dungeons, you can’t know where the way out is until you get near it, which is fine most of the time. But it doesn’t make so much sense for the game to tell you to go to this particular cemetery in Westmarch and then force you to wander aimlessly through a very large neighborhood until you stumble upon it, nor is it any less weird when you must then scour that cemetery for the church it’s attached to. Logic says somebody you know in Westmarch would be able to tell you where these things are, but that’s not how the game tech works and so this is apparently just an irreconcilable irritant. Not that that makes it OK.
Having to complete Act V before playing in Adventure Mode adds a bittersweet flavor to the excitement of having a new class because unless you want to start the whole story over with the Crusader (more power to ya if you’re into that) you’ll probably just start Act V on an existing toon. Doing Act V once unlocks Adventure for your account, so at least there’s that.
The Crusader is fun, too, being a class that provides many opportunities to set monsters on fire. You haven’t lived until you’ve ridden around the battlefield on the Crusader’s horse that leaves flames on the ground it tramples. It uses strength as its primary stat, too, and since I tend to roll with a Barbarian that was convenient.
The gist of Reaper of Souls is a good experience. It’s more of stuff that keeps people coming back, but you’ll have to trudge through dungeons for a few hours because there’s another threat to all existence Tyrael says needs your attention before you can bathe in the cleansing waters of the main attraction, which is Adventure Mode. You do what you gotta do, I guess.
Final Verdict
8.5 out of 10
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It is available at an MSRP of $39.99. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
