Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls Ultimate Evil Edition Review

As progress wears on, more powerful enemies start flinging around a load of abilities which, when combined, can become seemingly impossible to tear apart. For instance, Arcane Enchanted elites dot around sentinels which radiate a powerful purple beam for a short time and can generally be easily avoided. When mixed in with the ability to raise stone walls and freeze you in place though, they become incredibly dangerous.

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That’s really where Reaper of Souls excels. The progress you make is matched by a well-balanced bump in the difficulty of enemies displayed before you to keep gameplay interesting but at a level where you feel comfortable. However it must be said, the difficulty levels don’t quite match up to their titles. Normal difficulty requires little more brain power than the average bowel movement. If you want to actually delve into an engaging action-RPG, switch it up to Hard at least.

There is one major difference which at first seems rather trivial. Taking out 10 or more enemies in quick succession sets off a “massacre” counter with a small fuse above it. Killing as many enemies as possible before that timer runs out dishes out a sizable experience bonus. The PC version has close to the same thing but how its presented in the Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls Ultimate Evil Edition provides a small and yet infinitely compelling drive to push on quickly into conflict.

fire
Sir did you want your Crusader Medium Rare or Well Done?

Now this may sound strange but this maelstrom of blood and death has a strangely cathartic element to it. Wading through enemy after enemy never gets dull. After spending 30 hours on the PS4 version and well over 150 hours on the PC version, my desire to keep playing has not been dulled by anything. Admittedly there are a few niggling problems like how enemy path-finding sometimes decides to act like a stone-age SatNav system and the console user interface, while generally competent, has a few clunks like a 10 year old minivan.

As you may expect there’s a graphical upgrade on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions when compared to last generation. Now the game does look good on the latest generation, running at a happily stable frame-rate in 1080p on both systems — which should confuse the console warriors. Loading screens go by in a flash so you’re always straight in the action. However, you do sometimes find that when portaling into an area the loading screen fades a few seconds too late, jamming whichever one of the six characters you’ve chosen into a temporary prison of marmalade.

Reaper of Souls may have an impressive roster of features but it still holds one ace in the hole to keep you coming back for days and weeks: Adventure Mode. This takes you back into any of the five Acts to take on five different challenges for a bonus cache. Sounds a little simple, but a “quick session” with Adventure Mode quickly becomes a three hour lootfest which ends with you realizing you’re sat in a pool of your own filth, shivering while the cat decides whether or not you’re dead.

adventure mdoe
Adventure Mode adds a huge amount of gameplay to an already massive title

Alongside Adventure Mode is a little set of events called Nephalem Rifts. These instanced zones require you to systematically murder enemy after enemy until a really big one rocks up for you to split in half with an axe. Even the music doesn’t become annoying after 100 hours listening to the same soundtrack thanks to the fact that its a very passive but wonderful accompaniment rather than an obvious cacophony of orchestral nonsense.

What Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls Ultimate Evil Edition does is nothing ground breaking. The world will not suddenly be at peace. The ozone layer will not suddenly be prepared. Firefly won’t suddenly be recommissioned. However there is something a little special about it. There’s an incredible amount of polish sat comfortably with hours upon hours of content in a happy little embrace.

Action RPGs may not be your thing but if the idea of bringing death to thousands of gruesome monsters in a forboding world burning in the flames of unending war sounds like fun, then Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls Ultimate Evil Edition is a shining prospect as a game to pick up. Its not a replacement for the already-strong PC version but there’s definitely enough here to keep anyone going for hours.


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Author
Chris Jecks
Chris Jecks has been covering the games industry for over eight years. He typically covers new releases, FIFA, Fortnite, any good shooters, and loves nothing more than a good Pro Clubs session with the lads. Chris has a History degree from the University of Central Lancashire. He spends his days eagerly awaiting the release of BioShock 4.