➤ Lost souls 🎮

The concept of expansion, ancient and now almost disused in favor of a granular distribution of content through DLCs and a tight serialization of the main chapters, which in many cases have become annual, remains one of the clearest when it comes to establishing the player's expectations. . Even etymologically, the expansion is by definition a "more of the same": a new piece of history, a new class, some extra features and finishing touches built on the basis of the original game. What is interesting in the case of Diablo III and Reaper of Souls, is that the path taken by the action RPG signed by Blizzard has been incessantly studded with changes that have kept the premises but radically upset the gameplay. More than an addition, a point of arrival and a new beginning largely conveyed by the feedback, often ferocious, of the players who, despite the criticisms, have decreed the commercial success of the product and made it possible to change it.. Interesting and rich, even if perhaps not complete with everything we would have wanted, Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is a must buy for all those who have followed the parable of the hack 'n' slash up to this point, but perhaps also a valid excuse to start playing again for those who, disappointed, almost immediately abandoned the original.

Reaper of Souls arrives on the market with a load of new features, improvements and excellent content

Start again

To understand the news of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, in short, we must look at what has been done with the recent patch 2.0, made available to everyone a few weeks before the launch of the expansion. The closure of the auction house and the reinterpretation of the collection system of objects, the so-called Bottino 2.0, has brought the conquest of the loot and the ability to rely solely on one's own strength to see the equipment of the heroes grow at the center of attention. from game to game. The overturning of the system of difficulties then paved the way for an experience less routed within certain predefined stakes. A similar objective to the one pursued, by choosing a different path, by removing limits for the accumulation of excellence points and by opening them to all the characters of the same account.

By moving the role-playing component from the auction house screens to the battlefields, Blizzard has thus followed the requests of its fan base that asked for an experience that rewarded the player's constancy and ability. A partial return to the origins of the first two chapters that playing Reaper of Souls can be sensed even just by launching the fifth act and immersing oneself in the gloomy streets of WestMarch and then up to the crazy lands of Pandemonium. The story of this portion of the story is quite predictable and asks us for a final effort to defeat Malthael, the Angel of Death, who has taken possession of the Black Stone of Souls with the aim of wiping humanity from the face of the earth. Great narrative developments are not to be expected, however the dark and gothic settings of this addition are a response to all those who found the first four acts too distant from the visual and stylistic past of the series. In terms of content we have no problems defining this segment of adventure, which entertains for about four hours, the best ever:

the mix between interior and exterior is convincing and transitions occur smoothly, the variety of views is as remarkable as that of new enemies and an important effort has been made to improve both the procedural generation of maps, which in some cases is really consistent, and the complexity of secondary events that most frequently occur in the form of optional missions and environments. The three battles with the three main bosses of the expansion are cared for and engaging, also thanks to the presence of sets of legendary objects with features that make them more tempting than in the past, but the process itself of eliminating the opponents who inhabit the maps benefits of a greater diversity of situations, new skills and new obstacles. We had never before defeated an opponent and discovered a new level of play by entering the dimensional portal located on his head, and it is this kind of small discoveries that entice you to return to the title after having already dedicated several hours of your time to it.

Looking for Adventure

If the fifth act responds to the need to expand the variety of encounters and situations, the Adventure mode is a decisive and successful push to the end game component that is unlocked once the fifth act is completed. On the one hand there are in fact all those who have repeated to exhaustion the same sections of the game, the most profitable ones in terms of loot and rewards, on the other hand the less hardcore players who have never had the perseverance and the desire to delve into a certain type of use of content less accessible for those who remain on the surface.

By selecting this option you have access to a revised version of the five chapter map, with all the control points already unlocked and studded with five missions each time to be completed in the desired order. They range from the defeat of a boss to the completion of a dungeon, from the killing of a certain number of enemies to the elimination of a single, precise opponent. These are fairly short challenges that usually take fifteen to twenty minutes to complete, and offer a good deal of experience, money, and two additional rewards.

Blood Shards are a currency that a merchant can spend to obtain random weapons and items. The Parts of Keys to the Rift, on the other hand, open the Gates of Nefilim: bringing five of these fragments to the appropriate non-player character, you gain access to a special dungeon created from time to time by mixing environments and characters taken from all the acts; levels to be cleared until, after enough kills, you have to see the boss on duty. The mix of quick games and great replayability make this a great idea and the perfect excuse to keep having fun after consuming the story. While this is one of the most successful aspects of Reaper of Souls, our biggest grievance also arises here: in fact it would have been interesting to have a further outlet, perhaps in the form of rankings or direct competitions between players - even without bringing up a real PvP - that would give a long-term goal to the most irreducible users. The foundation is still solid, however, and we hope this Adventure Mode will be expanded in future patches.

Personal satisfactions

Like any self-respecting expansion, Diablo III: Reaper of Souls does not refrain from inserting a new playable character (in Diablo II there were two additions, Druid and Assassin) that overall we found really well done. The Crusader starts from the idea of the old Paladin, also narratively being a sort of elite unit of the order, but then takes his own path: collector of damage and naturally devoted to melee, like the shield present by default in the his equipment suggests, he is also capable of hurting and being dangerous from medium range.

His skill pack allows him to area-hit, attract enemies, recover life by consecrating the surrounding terrain and escape unscathed from extremely crowded situations, but as usual the presence of the runes opens up a consistent series of alternative options.

In terms of mechanics it does not bring big innovations, accumulating anger with certain powers and then spending it with others, but the enjoyment given by the sensation of impact on the enemies that the other five Diablo III classes already gave, is here enhanced by sets of animations and complex and varied special effects like never before. The Crusader is probably the best class to watch and one of the best to play. All the others, however, benefit from several additions thanks to the increase in the level cap, which gains ten levels to reach 70, and the consequent new active and passive skills inserted.. In this sense, the developers have worked in part to pay tribute to old chapters of the saga, bringing back powers that have always been loved by fans, on the other hand they tried to introduce new ones that stimulate you to rethink your builds and try something different. Finally, it is absolutely necessary to mention the introduction of a new craftsman, the Mystic: in addition to changing the appearance of weapons and armor, by bringing her a piece of equipment, she can be asked to change a specific attribute by choosing from a list created semi-randomly, so to have a chance to improve an item where we might have counted for our build but lacked a certain stat or power. The Monk serves all the work done with Loot 2.0 very well and also helps take some money out of the game now that the auction house has been eliminated.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

The editorial team uses the ASUS CG8250 Personal Computer
Intel Core i7 2600 processor
8 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti video card
Windows 7 operating system

Minimum requirements

Processore Intel Pentium D 2.8 GHz o AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT or ATI Radeon X1950 Pro video card
1 GB RAM (XP), 1.5 GB (Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8)
12 GB of hard disk space
Permanent internet connection

Recommended Requirements

Processone Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz o AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ 2.8 GHz
NVIDIA GeForce 260 or ATI Radeon HD 4870 video card
2 GB RAM

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With Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Blizzard concludes a long path of change and enrichment of the play experience. The level cap raised for all the characters but above all the addition of the Crusader give new stimuli while the fifth act is inserted as the highest point of the entire campaign, a long and articulated journey into the darkest and best characterized page of Diablo III. Dozens and dozens of hours of gameplay are hidden in the Adventure mode, which serves the purpose of definitively opening the end game to less savvy players and moving it for all those who had already investigated every aspect in the past. A very long-term purpose is missing, something that can give us a glimpse of reasons to continue spending hours and hours online months later, but if the same path that led to patch 2.0 is continued it is likely that this criticality will also find an answer in the next updates.