One of the more surprising announcements at Wednesday night's reveal of Sony's next console, the Playstation 4, was the news that Diablo 3 would be being released on both the Playstation 4, and the Playstation 3. Revealed without so much as a proper trailer, a screen, or a release date, the announcement was certainly one of the more understated at the event - but also one of the most exciting.
Making its way across from its incredible success on the PC, where it holds the record for being the fastest selling PC game to date, Diablo 3 is a hack-and-slash fantasy role playing game that treads the gap between challenge and accessibility. With controls that have been designed to be as easy to use as possible, combined with the addictive levelling, quests, and looting that role playing fans love, Diablo's been designed as one of those games that's easy to pick up and play, but tricky to master. And pick up and play it is. With five character classes to choose from, that move slightly away from your standard fantasy game fare, you can choose to be a Witch Doctor, Wizard, Monk, Barbarian, or Demon Hunter, each of which comes with their own strengths, weaknesses and special powers. But perhaps what has us the most excited about Diablo 3 is the news that the console versions will be playable in four player, same console co-op.
One of the first shots of the PS3 version. Expect the PS4 one to look even fancier.
We've long had a soft spot for adventuring games at Everybody Plays (which is part of the reason we were so disappointed with the similar Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale), so the idea of forming a party, bashing some monsters, and exploring the game's expansive world with three friends in tow, all from the comfort of our sofa has us sold. With developers Blizzard specifying that it'll be "seamless" (which we're assuming means drop-in, drop-out) same screen (rather than split screen) multiplayer, we're already polishing our gauntlets in anticipation. Everything's better with friends, but Diablo 3 has the potential to be better than most, giving you extra firepower in the heat of battle, and letting you go into battle with a strategy rather than just the mashing of buttons - if you're proficient at magic, but weak at melee attacks, why not bring along a Monk to help when things need to get a little bit more physical - or simply enlist a few friends to act as medics, frantically healing your from the sidelines.
Either way, with a redesigned interface to make it easier for console players to equip their newly won loot, a redesigned camera to cater to all four players, and all of the updates from the PC version included on the disc, Diablo 3's shaping up to be quite the jewel in Sony's crown. With a release date that's sadly yet to be announced, though, Diablo 3's local multiplayer mayhem may be quite some way away. For us, it can't come soon enough.
