Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

For anyone who's been through that painful moment, having a snack on hand to tackle midnight server issues, and other heartbreaks associated with the launch of the PC version of Diablo III, it's hard to imagine a bigger turnaround in situation than that proposed by Diablo III: Reaper of Soul. Not only does the game revolve around the latest Loot 2.0 patch (collecting items left behind by monsters you kill), but the excellent new content in this expansion is in perfect harmony with what I wanted to experience with the series. Its universe is darker and sends back a greater impression of danger, its bestiary is more varied and its new Adventure mode, brilliant, offers us what was sorely lacking in Diablo III.

While the saturated colors and rainbows that occasionally punctuated the world of Sanctuary of Diablo III flattered the retina, Reaper of Souls puts them aside and splatters the screen with charcoal undertones and deliciously sad landscapes. which plunge us back into the quintessence of Diablo.

The alleys of Ouestmarche where the new Act 5 begins are dark and studded with scripted events, as well as side quests that establish a lasting feeling of despair. Corpses pile up in cathedrals, civilians run in vain through the streets before being possessed by evil spirits and turmoil reigns in the city as it becomes clear that the King of West March is no longer capable of protect his people. The banally written plot fails to keep us going for very long, but the atmosphere remains oppressive from start to finish and the world appears to be truly in peril. And he seems a lot more looking for a hero than the first four acts.

Although it explores above all the dark side of the universe of the saga, Reapers of Souls shows a lot of diversity both in terms of the design of the places and with regard to that of the monsters. Only a few quick encounters borrow material from Diablo III, and the remainder of the campaign (roughly five hours) features exciting new locations to explore and awesome demons to battle. In one act, Reaper of Souls features almost as much diversity as Diablo III as a whole.

New content in Reapers of Souls brings much more depth to Diablo III. One of the biggest assets is the new Crusader class, which takes over the role of Paladin from Diablo II. He fights with holy ferocity, while enjoying intense defensive abilities and showing very useful skills when playing games with friends. When equipped with a shield in one hand and a weapon usually held with two hands in the other, the Crusaders demonstrate a presence and physique that sets them apart from other classes, which now have new active and passive skills to take them up to level 70. You will be surprised at how much this new location for a passive skill opens up new possibilities.

Back in town, the craftsman can transform your equipment to give it a more consistent overall appearance, and thanks to enchantments, you will re-roll a modifier on part of your equipment until you get what you want ... for a certain cost. The enchantment is managed intelligently, allowing you to visualize the possible outcomes and choose from two possibilities or preserve your original paraphernalia. When luck is on you, the prospect of a perfect result is especially exciting, but you have enough control that you never feel cheated if you fail.

But the icing on the cake is undoubtedly the new Adventure mode, which gives you unlimited access to all areas of the five acts. Random side quests, called bounties, appear on the map and provide you with increasingly rewarding rewards as you progress. Complete enough and you'll get items that grant you access to the Nephalem Rifts. These randomly generated, variable-sized dungeons are packed with monsters from all over the map, resulting in the most intense and varied battles I've ever had in an action role-playing game.

Different elements of the sets and environmental effects combine haphazardly in passing, giving each flaw the look of a somewhat crazy dream. Take out the boss at the end and you'll be covered in gold and rewards, very often with legendary items. Blizzard has created a game mode that generously rewards us for the activity we all do after completing the main quest: we connect, we fight the campaign to get paid (collect items and gold) and we disconnect. Brilliant.

Each of these new elements builds on the many changes made to Diablo III over the past few months. Even if you don't need to buy Reaper of Souls to experience the joys of Loot 2.0, the revamped Paragon level system or the end of the Auction House, greatly enhances your feeling of freedom despite the ultra stat system. -simple that supports it. Modifiers that enhance specific skills appear more frequently, which finally lets you build a character around particular talents. Legendary items are also less rare, and the ability to enchant more trivial items allows you to use whatever you get, so you can continue to explore the countryside as you see fit until you find other items. ever rarer.