It has now been just over two weeks since the release of Diablo III and most people have had a chance to enjoy the awesomeness of this wonderful game. I, myself, have invested a whole bunch of hours into playing. But it wasn’t all sunshine and slaughter from the very beginning.

On launch day, Diablo III servers were packed to maximum capacity and then some. Error 37 plagued all gamers. I can just imagine the frustration of wanting to play the most anticipated game of the year, only to be confronted by none other than “The servers are busy at this time. Please try again later. (Error 37)”

Several days later, the amount of Error 37’s had gone down and the amount of happy gamers had gone up. This is more or less the time that I started playing. At this point I would like to thank Blizzard for releasing the game right when my exams started. Of course not all problems were solved and there were still some game-ending bugs.

Twenty years have passed since the defeat of Diablo, and his brothers Mephisto and Baal. Now Deckard Cain and his niece, Leah, are investigating an ominous prophecy when a falling star strikes Tristram Cathedral creating a deep crater, into which Cain falls. Once more the dead are rising and monsters roam the lands of Sanctuary. It is up to you, the hero, to rescue Cain, and investigate the fallen star and the cause of the risen dead.

Diablo III has 5 different classes of heroes that you can choose from, namely: Wizard, Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, Barbarian and Monk. I started off my experience with the Wizard. Now according to my profile, I played for around 30 hours, completing the game on Normal difficulty and moving on to Nightmare difficulty (then Hell, and hopefully Inferno).

I have thoroughly enjoyed myself, and my Wizard (above) is looking not so shabby.

Every player is given a banner that they can customize. As you progress through the game you unlock certain achievements and rewards which you can then use to make your banner look even more unique.

Armour can also be customized using a variety of dyes. The further you play the game, the more dyes you can buy.

Items drop frequently in the game, some better, others only good for selling or salvaging. One aspect about the game that I rather like is that any magical items can be salvaged for crafting materials, which can then be used to craft armour and weapons using the Blacksmith’s forge. As you progress, you can level up the Blacksmith and unlock more items to craft.

Similar to the Blacksmith, you get the Jeweller. Gems start to drop from around Act II, once you have 3 of the same type of gem; you can craft a better, more powerful gem using the Jeweller. Levelling up the Jeweller unlocks better gem recipes. These gems can then be used in socketed items, making them more powerful.

On your travels through the realms of Diablo III, you meet up with 3 companions: the templar, the scoundrel and the enchantress. They are meant to help you out during any battles with undead and demons. But frankly, they are useful and useless at the same time. I’ve found that any damage they dish out is only a fraction of the damage that my hero can do, no matter the weapon I equip them with. Some of their abilities help out in battle, others are just irritating. Charging into a horde of monsters, hacking and slashing, only to have the Enchantress knock them out from under my weapon, irks me somewhat.

There are four Acts to play through in Diablo III, each populated with a wide variety of enemies. Undead, beasts, demons, and deranged cultists to name a few.

During the Acts, there are certain boss creatures that need to be defeated in order to further the story, and at the end of each Act there are, what we shall call, the main boss. The Butcher, Belial, Azmodan, and eventually, Diablo himself.

The cut scenes between the Acts are very well done; game-play is fast-paced and smooth. And apart from the “always on” internet connection needed to play, it is overall an amazing game that I would recommend to my friends any day.

Now, where did I put my cloak and staff?

Zaphira