Diablo III is a hack and slash game within the action RPG genre. While being third in the series, it is the first one to be ported to consoles, albeit with a bit of graphical downgrade compared to the PC version. The controls transfer over to a controller very well, where you map your character's skills to the face and shoulder buttons. This makes for a very intuitive control scheme which is a good thing because Diablo III lacks a tutorial. You're basically thrown into the game head first and explore what all the buttons do and why there are so many menus. The radial menu system can be a bit finicky and sensitive but on the whole, works rather well. When you first play the game, you will be asked to create a character. You can pick from one of five character classes: Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor or Wizard.
Each character class plays differently, with unique skills, strengths and equipment. The Barbarian is the all-rounder who is able to get into the thick of things and brute force their way through enemies, while the Wizard is more ranged. Since Diablo III is hack and slash, it throws heaps of enemies at you. Enemies explode in stylized blood whenever you defeat them. You gain experience from defeating enemies and completing quests, allowing you to level up. Leveling up means you can equip better equipment and unlock more skills and abilities. There are various skills and abilities, and a lot of them have different effects, it can be overwhelming at first. As you defeat the demons, they will frequently drop equipment and the main aim of the game is to kill these demons to get better and rarer loot to equip, and then kill more demons. It is basically a vicious cycle and this one idea manages to keep you going through the whole story mode and beyond. The drop rates are generous which means you will constantly be able to upgrade your character's equipment such that you have a sense of satisfaction each time.
You will usually travel in a party of two, occasionally three but most of the damage is going to come from the player. However, if you wish, you can play co-op with someone else physically next to you or over the internet. The environments are randomly generated when you start a new game and you uncover the map bit by bit as you explore them. These environments are huge but you lose your map data once you continue from a save which is annoying. Then again, there's little reason to go back to an area once you've explored it. The camera angle is fixed since the right stick is for dodge rolling. The graphics are decent and has a pre-rendered artwork feel to it. Unfortunately while the game runs smoothly for the most part, there are frequent framerate drops where the screen stutters once large number of enemies show up onscreen. The game can also freeze from time to time requiring a restart of the console. The story is not the draw of Diablo III since it is fairly boring and generic. The storytelling isn't that great. Basically, 20 years have passed since the events of Diablo II and a star falls from the sky crashing into a cathedral.
The player's character arrives at the cathedral to investigate the fallen star and basically sets forth a chain of events to seal the other demon lords. Eventually, the character will fight and defeat Diablo and save the world. The pre-rendered cutscenes are fantastic and looks amazing but a lot of the story is told via dialogue between the characters. The plot ends up being shallow and doesn't do much to capture your interest. Once you finish your first playthrough of Diablo III, the next difficulty unlocks and there are a total of four difficulties. Overall, Diablo III is simple in theory and doesn't try to suck you in through complex menus and systems. Rather, it presents a fun hack and slash element with constant rewards to keep you hooked. Diablo III can feel a bit short if you don't want to play through it multiple times but will still you around ten hours at minimum to finish one playthrough. All in all, while this is a great game, you're probably better off to get the Reaper of Souls edition which contains the original game plus the expansion.
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