It leaves just enough to chance to feel exciting when you get that perfect roll, but controlled enough that I never felt cheated when things didn’t work out.īut the crown jewel here is undoubtedly the new Adventure mode, which gives you unrestricted access to every waypoint across all five acts. Enchanting is handled really intelligently, allowing you to see what the possible outcomes are, and letting you either choose one of two new results, or stick with what you originally had. You’d be surprised how much that one extra passive slot opens up build possibilities.īack in town, the Mystic artisan can transmogrify your gear to give it a more cohesive overall look, and with enchantments, you can reroll a single modifier on a piece of gear until you get what you need, for a price. Particularly when equipped with a massive shield in one hand and a normally two-handed weapon in the other, Crusaders exhibit a presence and physicality that effectively sets them apart from the other classes, who have new active and passive skills to pick up on the way to the new level cap of 70. They hit with holy authority, but they also sport an array of defensive, and support abilities that can be useful when playing with friends. One of the biggest factors is the new Crusader class, which ably fills the role of Diablo 2’s Paladin. The new content in Reaper of Souls really helps give Diablo 3 a longer tail than it previously enjoyed. In one single act, Reaper of Souls exhibits almost as much variety as the entirety of Diablo 3 before it. Only one quick encounter borrows art from Diablo 3, so the rest of the five-ish hour-long campaign is flush with exciting new sights to see and ever more impressive demons to smite. The tritely written plot doesn’t successfully carry these ideas for long, but the atmosphere remains thick to the end, resulting in a world that feels imperiled, and more in need of a hero than the first four acts.ĭespite staying on the darker end of the spectrum, Reaper of Souls shows an impressive level of diversity in both its locales and monster designs. Corpses are piled high in cathedrals, civilians run futilely through the streets before being possessed by evil spirits, and civil unrest stirs as it becomes clear that Westmarch’s King is unfit to protect his people. The streets of Westmarch, where the new Act 5 kicks off, are bleak, and filled with scripted events and side-quests that effectively set a tone of hopelessness. While the saturated colors and occasional rainbows that punctuated Diablo 3’s rendition of Sanctuary were pretty to look at, Reaper of Souls tosses all of it aside and splashes the canvas with charcoal shades, and deliciously dreary landscapes that harken back to the Diablo of old.

Diablo 2 reaper of souls