It's a brutal, unsentimental revision of the action RPG template that the first two Diablos defined, which means there's still plenty here for purists to dislikeīut let's not get carried away. It's a different approach, especially on console, and it's strikingly attractive. Blizzard's visual technique uses low-detail models with emphatic animation, colour and effects and a thick layer of gloss. So console Diablo 3 feels like a return to the Blizzard of 1997 in more ways than one. Go nuts, break the game, see if they care. This lavish approach to fixtures and fittings is nothing new for Blizzard, of course, but it's notably unrestrained here by a corporate mandate for an internet connection, or by the need to protect a real-money trading market. Everything you can think of is supported - right down to custom soundtracks and exporting your profile to USB - and it all works seamlessly, flawlessly. And there are additions to make your eyes light up: offline play, system link support on Xbox 360 - yes, you can LAN it up like the good old days - and the coup de grâce, local multiplayer on a single console for up to four players.Ībout the only thing you can't do to console Diablo 3 is mod it. Every feature is there too, save one, the unloved auction house for trading items with other players. Every update to the PC version in the last 15 months has made it across intact. Love it or hate it - and Diablo 3 has certainly proved divisive - you cannot fail to be impressed by how complete and insanely customisable the console version of this visceral action role-player is. The strange thing is that its return is marked with a release that is more like a classic PC game than the PC game it's based on. The strange thing isn't that the titan of online PC gaming is back on consoles - that was always going to happen. The last game Blizzard Entertainment made for consoles - not counting an outsourced Nintendo 64 version of StarCraft, a PlayStation port of Diablo (outsourced again) or the unreleased StarCraft: Ghost - was The Lost Vikings 2 for the Super Nintendo.

Diablo 3 console 4 player co op classes