Game Review: Diablo III (Switch)

It can often be quite frustrating when developers continually port games from one console to another. But when that game is one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time, then we welcome it with open arms. Original released back in 2012 for Windows, Diablo III has made it onto numerous consoles and having sold over 30 million copies worldwide. It is something of a gaming classic and yet it is a franchise that has somehow passed this reviewer by.

This means that I’m coming into this review with completely new eyes having never played a single Diablo game in my life. And one thing is for sure – I have been missing out.

If you’re like me and been living under a rock then here are the basics of Diablo III. Diablo III is a dungeon crawler action role-playing game that sees you grinding your way through tons of dungeons with your selected hero. These dungeons are filled with the armies of Hell and it’s your job to take down countless enemies, power yourself up and fight the good fight.

But first things first, you need to choose your hero and Diablo III gives you plenty of choice. Fancy being a magic-wielding witch doctor, a bad-ass demon hunter or a deadly necromancer? These are just a handful of the options available and each offers them their own unique gameplay experience. For my first run through, I went with the wizard because who doesn’t love casting spells right?

What I got from my first few hours with Diablo III is how ridiculously addictive it is. It’s so easy for the gameplay and storyline to pull you in and for you to just keep on exploring. It’s been a good while since a game has pulled me in like this. And despite putting a lot of hours into this game, I’ve still only scratched the surface. And this is just the single player – there’s still the multiplayer and online to get through which I’ll discuss later on.

The Diablo Experience – Switch Style

But of course what makes Diablo III so special is that you can now take it on the go with you on Nintendo Switch. And the Nintendo Switch is just perfect for this sort of game. Grind away and power up your hero in bed, on the train to work or even on the toilet. I definitely did prefer playing Diablo III in handheld as with the game camera running from an almost top down view, I felt like I could see more playing this way.

Diablo III also runs really well on both handheld and docked mode. It didn’t matter if there were enemies coming at me from all directions with spells flying everywhere, the performance never lagged at any point.

And if you’re like me and never having played Diablo III before and want to then another why the Switch version is so great is that it comes with all the expansion packs and DLC! It really is the ultimate way to experience this game.

Beyond The Single Player

It’s not just about the single player experience in Diablo III, the game also offers multiplayer – both online and offline as well as a Quick Play mode. If you want to just jump in for a quick 10-15 minutes then the ‘Quick Play’ mode is pretty fantastic. There are a handful of scenarios for you to choose from and that’s you straight into the action.

And then there’s the multiplayer which can either be played locally or online. With the multiplayer, the aim is to team up with up to 3 other players and work together to take down the armies of Hell. It’s a lot of fun playing together and thankfully the Switches not always great online connectivity managed to keep it together during my time playing online.

Pros

• The full Diablo III package
• Multiplayer is great fun
• Great replay value

Cons

• Text on handheld can be a little difficult to read

VERDICT: This soup is the ultimate dish, it’s got everything you need for the perfect dungeon crawling dish.