Diablo 111 Game Preview

PARIS--The Barbarian sees, and the Barbarian smashes. The Witch Doctor sees, and usually let's something else do his dirty work. The two character classes shown off during today’s announcement of Diablo III (unveiled during the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Blizzard Invitational in Paris) are a mixture of old and new, and representative of the formula the Blizzard development team seems to be aiming for with the latest installment in its blockbuster action game series.

We'll spend some time recounting our observations of both classes in a bit but, first, we should talk a bit about the trailer that introduced the world to the game for the first time. It started off with your typical dire portents of dread, backed by spooky music, and gorgeous visuals. What stood out to us was the variety in those visuals, and what they could mean for gameplay and story. First, we saw a number of different settings in the trailer--including more than one city setting. In addition, the color palette seemed to be much larger than in previous installments; we noticed a grimy, dusty looking battlefield teeming with soldiers and war machines, as well as at least one night-time landscape, backed by a huge full moon. While still maintaining that grim gothic feel to the game, it seems like the Blizzard artists are getting a full chance to explore a larger visual palette that should give the game some variety.  

More to come!