Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls Expansion Review

The recently released Reaper of Souls expansion has invigorated the Diablo series and redeemed Blizzard in most of the fans eyes.  So what has brought the series back onto its feet after being buried in negativity you may ask... Well let me tell you:

Let me just get this out of the way first:  The story of Act 5 really isn't much better than acts 1-4.  The CG-I opener of the game is the usual Blizzard greatness that we expect but it's already been all over the internet and you've probably seen it.  Though a few loose ends are tied up from the first acts, the story is just kind of there and isn't necessarily a compelling factor of playing the game.

Story aside (And arguably the price. 40 dollars is a little steep for a digital download of just a 1 act expansion with 1 more playable class)... Lets get to the major changes that make the expansion a redemption of the Diablo name.

Loot

The first major change actually came in a recent 2.0 patch to Diablo 3 as a precursor to the expansion.  A major complaint among the community was that the loot in the game really wasn't all that special and forced major issues with upgrading characters.  The previous loot design was that an item had 4 to 6 stat boosts and each of those were individually rolled with every stat in the game.  This caused a problem when you would get a rare, or legendary, because it could be completely worthless due to the mixed stats.  You could be playing your Wizard class and get a drop that had strength / dexterity and a Witch Doctor only special damage making the loot absolute garbage.  The randomness of the loot was such a deterring factor in the "end game" of Diablo that many players simply quit playing.  Finding upgrades to help push your character through Inferno was like finding the perfect needle in a pile of needles shoved somewhere in a mountain of a hay stack.  

With the patch, the stat rolls on a piece of gear changed to include what the class of the character you are playing and eliminated the "non essential stats" from classes you weren't playing. This is nicknamed the "smart loot" system.  Gear that dropped would only have stats that were beneficial to your character and made playing Diablo infinitely better again.  When a rare, or legendary, dropped there is a sense of excitement that what you pick up is an actual upgrade to the gear you have on.  Playing in the 2.0 patch after a hiatus made you feel like you were playing a completely different game and your characters that you had would all benefit from it.  

Finding legendary items also became a bit more exciting because of the newly designed philosophy about them.  These items were supposed to be immensely different from rares and not just be different because of the text written on the mouse-over of the item.  (Though I'm sure true lore fanatics loved the little text blurbs) Legendary items were no longer as insanely rare to find and when you did find them your character is more than likely able to use it because of the way stat rolls were changed.  These legendary items also had some bizarre and great special abilities.  For example:  There's an item that makes a treasure goblin follow you around collecting gray/white items.  When the goblin has collected a specific number of items, it spits out a rare (and can also drop a legendary) for you.  Blizzard also added a Thunderfury... with the same proc as it has in World of Warcraft. 

So with the change to loot, the major reason to be playing Diablo in the first place, Blizzard took a gigantic step in the right direction to fixing the core problems that plagued Diablo 3.  The next step was to fix the dreaded "end game" problem of being bored / discouraged to continue playing the mindless slaughter of monsters.  In order to do that, the developers decided to take a look at and tweak a system already in place.  

Torment, Paragon Levels and Crafting

In the 2.0 precursor patch to RoS, major system designs also received an overhaul.  Inferno, Paragon level cap and ridiculous material costs for crafting were all eliminated and replaced with systems that are infinitely better designed for the player.

Crafting: Crafting in Diablo 3 was a bit of a joke to players.  Sure some items could possibly be upgrades while leveling but you still had to deal with the random non intelligent roll factor of the stats and ridiculous material costs (not to mention the gold cost on top of that as you got higher item levels).  Basically the risk was not worth the reward and so crafting just fell to the wayside.  2.0 attempts to remedy that by eliminating a lot of the excess materials from your bags and have two sets of rare/blue/legendary material costs. One set from 1-60 and the other from 61-70.  The "smart loot" system is present now when using the smithy and items that you create are mostly always beneficial to your character class you make the item on.   While leveling new classes, the blacksmith retains the highest recipe list that you have and gives you the opportunity to constantly have that newbie class geared up.  This helps keep the gear disparity low if you've been having terrible luck out in the game with finding an upgrade.  

Torment Levels: The developers decided to completely eliminate Inferno mode and added a slew of new game modes to choose from.  Each of these game modes offer special bonuses and at level 60 you're allowed to use the "torment" difficulty option. Torment has a difficulty slide bar and with each notch you raise it, the xp/gold find and legendary item drop rate increases.  At 70, you're also given the bonus of regular mobs being able to drop "imperial gems" which are significantly better than previously crafted level 60 gems. 

Paragon Levels: Previously added to give more life and meaning to the "end game" of Diablo, paragon levels have had their level cap completely removed and also been giving 4 different categories with 4 subset character stat boosts.  Players are able to distribute points as they see fit for their character to boost up their main and secondary stats.

In this picture to the right, you can see that the player has 32 points in each category for the first three categories and 31 points in the last.  They are then able to choose the point distribution how they want, giving the player more control over the way their character is designed to be played.  If you feel your gear is lacking in vitality, for example, you can pump all of your points into that option.  The player is also able to change the points whenever they want with a very convenient reset button. (which just resets that category) So now when you're playing, your character is constantly gaining XP and becoming stronger with every point placement in the Paragon system's categories.  This breathes much needed life into the end game system and is further amplified by the addition of Adventure Mode.

Adventure Mode

The new game mode in Diablo is called Adventure mode and it is just that:  An adventure.   Once you play through act 5 and defeat Malthael, your account unlocks Adventure mode for all of your characters.  If you were sick and tired of redoing the acts per character, you no longer have to.  Instead you can take on bounties and Nephalem rifts to level up and this is truly the Diablo game mode that players have wanted. Adventure mode opens up all waypoints, bosses and acts for you to fully and freely explore the world. 

Bounties: In each act you are able to complete a series of 5 randomized bounties given to you by Tyrael which will yield you a chest that contains a bunch of rares (possibly a legendary), rift keystone fragments and other valuable items.  Each of the bounties are fast, ranging from killing a boss, to killing a named mob and 150 creatures in an area, to cleansing a cursed chest and so forth.  Moving to the next bounty once one is complete is incredibly easy:  Simply hit M and pick where you want to go.  After doing a bunch of bounties you may have acquired enough Rift Keystone Fragments to be able to open a Nephalem rift and the opportunity to slay a Rift Guardian within it.  

Nephalem Rifts: Once you've obtained 5 fragments, you are able to open up a rift to a randomly generated battlefield which pulls any type of monster from the game and inserts it into the tier.  Each tier of the Nephalem rift contains multiple named mobs, elite packs and an eventual Rift Guardian that spawns after you've killed a certain number of enemies.  While slaying pack after pack of mobs, a red bar on the right of your screen slowly fills up until the point you reach 100% filled, only then the Rift Guardian will spawn.  This guardian is essentially a boss fight and will drop a good cache of items once it's defeated.  

Adventure mode is a very simplistic way of making Diablo incredibly fun again and it works.  It gives you a reason to escape the general drag of repeating act 3 over and over and over again for loot and provides you all the elite packs and named mobs it can in quick, short periods of time.  The development team really knocked it out of the park with this and it will easily have players addicted to Diablo once again.

Oh. There's also a new hero class (the crusader) and Myriam the mystic! 

Myriam the mystic is a new NPC for your main town hub that you unlock during Act 5.  Once you unlock her, she is available for all of your characters on the account and this will definitely come in handy.  She's able to provide two services:  Enchanting and Transmogrify.   

Enchanting: With the "smart loot" system in place, enchanting can be an incredibly powerful thing for you.  Myriam is able to provide you with one, and only one, stat change on an item.  For example:  Say you have a set of gloves that have a +armor stat on them that you really just don't need.  You are able to select that stat and buy a new stat roll with some items and gold (both costs are dependent on the quality of the item).  If you don't like the two randomly generated things you were given, you can pay the same cost again in hopes of something better.  In the + armor category, you might just be able to upgrade that set of gloves to have a socket or attack speed in its place.  Items that are potentially a side-grade can become a major upgrade with a good re-roll of a stat!

Though I think this image was just pointing out a bug in the system, you can get the idea of what the enchanting screen looks like.  There on the left you can see the 6 stats that can potentially be "re-rolled".  When you hit the question mark next to the stat, the possible properties appear on the right.  Those possible properties are what can be re-rolled when you accept the cost and enchant the item.  Just remember though, you can only do one!

Transmogrify: The other thing you're able to do with Myriam is re-skin weapons and armor to a different appearance of a different item in the game.  This has been a popular feature in other games and players generally enjoy customizing the look of their characters as much as they can.  When you find certain items in the game, a "New Transmogrify" message will appear in the middle of your screen and you're then able to re-skin any item that you wish to that item. 

For example:  Did you find a Thunderfury and want every weapon you have in the future to look like it? Well you can once you unlock Myriam and give her over some gold.

The last new feature of the expansion is its new hero class:  

The Crusader.

That's also a new weapon for the Crusader only: The flail.

  Though I won't go into detail about the crusader (because honestly, you're going to want to play one), I will say that it is a very accepted addition to the cast of classes you're able to play.  

All that being said, Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls has finally brought the game back to where fans expected it to be.  A fun and action packed dungeon crawler with an addictive quality of excitement when you're craving it. I know 40 dollars and the past woes of this game might be a reason not to pick it up, but you'd be missing out.  This is the Diablo we wanted and now have to enjoy and I definitely recommend checking it out. 

((If I were to give this a number value on a scale from 1-10, I would give it a 9: Only losing a point because of the story.  Although act 5 is pretty mediocre, the dark and dreary moodiness of the level design brings Diablo back to its original roots.  The overall changes of the game have proven that the development team was listening and delivered what the fans of the game franchise wanted))