Dane McFarland

While I’ve been on the Diablo train since its inception and I’m happy with the idea of innovation made to these games over the years, in practice it slowly fails to arrive at its destination. I’m excited to see the crossplay idea incorporated and it works pretty well, but with that said, the story and gameplay takes a big backseat in comparison to its predecessors. Along with constant crashes and stuttering, the skills and gameplay loops feel sluggish and boring. Remembering that feeling in the past of fully leveling a character and demolishing the enemies that would give you trouble in the early hours of the game has waned being replaced with level scaling, so the power fantasy of breaking the game is kinda gone. While I don’t hate this iteration of Diablo, I think for waiting as long as we have for another installment and also paying a premium of 70 dollars to have micro-transactions poured into our eyes, we should’ve been presented a better game for our painstaking patience as it is quite underwhelming. Maybe I’m just being a staunch Diablo fan of old, but much like the Horadrim of the lore, Diablo is a shadow of its former self.

This game has been vastly updated since launch and I can say is a definitive pirate experience with pvp at the core of its gameplay loop. No loot is safe until it’s turned in. My complaint is that if pvp is integral to its core gameplay mechanics, which many features were implemented as a result of, why does every world activity on the pve side have to move at a glacial pace? Not only do you worry about boarding treasure at any given moment, but during the activity itself, on the open sea and at every given outpost? There has to be some feature implemented besides sneaking into the “shores of gold checkpoint” with your fort key or loot to get some reprieve from having all of that work stolen at a moments notice. To be fair, I love this game and the pvp does make a good challenge, but when the scale tips more in favor of pvp it loses its luster and my ability to play it wanes. I’ve encouraged many friends near and far to pick this game up and now I kind of regret it. This game needs a return to some sort of balance. Something is definitely amiss.

The callbacks, the fan service of this film alone is enough to keep me watching. I was born in a time when comic book based films never hit the mark and to see them being taken seriously enough In my adulthood to cover plot devises and character arcs in soo many different timelines of the marvel universe is breathtaking. Bring a box of tissues because if you grew with these characters from the start of marvel studios’ journey, you will without a doubt shed a tear or 12. One of the best culminations of a franchise I’ve ever seen. Full send on the Russo Bros part. Well done gentlemen.