Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (2014)

Diablo III – Reaper of Souls is an expansion for the main game and features a new map/area to go to, as well as a new campaign and an extra character, the Crusader. It follows the exact same principle as Diablo II – Lord of Destruction.

I always found it funny that, in Diablo II and Diablo III, you slay Diablo, evil itself, the Prime overlord of hell and after that, the campaign goes on casually and you need to defeat the “true end boss” of the game because of the expansion. Nevertheless, both expansions worked out fine.

Diablo III – Reaper of Souls is worth it, mainly for the Crusader character. Although the Crusader feels very overpowered in the beginning, it gets balanced out with the other characters later in the game.

In terms of the rest, the newly added campaign (or to be more specific; act) is all right. It has a classic and cliché story about a rogue angel Malthael, who turned into the Angel of Death. This of course, means that he raises the dead and wants to conquer the world (or wipe it out, whatever).

It is a fun little story with some new unique terrains and environments, some cool new enemies like the Rat men and the Boggits but also some cheap and recycled assets like “Revenant archers”, “Shield Barrers” and “Revenant Soldiers”. Those are recycled skeletons from the original game and feel lifeless (yeah, I know) and rushed and I didn’t get any satisfaction when wiping the floor with them. Mainly because there is nothing to wipe, because they just go up in smoke. The lore tries it best to put some life and connection into these new enemies, but for me, that failed miserably.

The boss battle with Malthael was good and rewarding tough and he was hard as bricks. This fight redeemed some fun I had with the game.

Overall, Diablo III – Reaper of Souls was not the worst expansion I have ever played, it was just not impressive of unique enough for me to care that much.

This is not a review for Diablo III itself, but for the beta test.

Introduction: The Prime Evils have shifted the natural balance between Order and Chaos—Tyrael has chosen you to return to Sanctuary to right the balance in the Diablo® III Necromancer Beta. As the Necromancer, you'll wield the power of the dead and defend the mortal realm from Diablo and his brethren. It is time for you to command a mighty army of risen warriors and draw upon the power of blood and bone harvested from your fallen enemies.

Comments: Played for an hour last night with the female necromancer, and hit level 10 (finished off King Leoric). I rather like her abilities so far. She replenshes "essence"/mana through kills. I don't know how to use an equipped weapon as she has spells that are bound to both the left and right mouse button. Fortunately, haven't needed a weapon, as her spells are sufficient.

Season 10 has begun. I didnt realize it was happening so soon. Change in gaming plans. I Figure that's a good time to do a review or write something about it. I've put a lot of time into this/D3 (most of it is this) but my review will be short (and silly steam-styled) but maybe give good idea of what Diablo 3 has turned into through RoS, and what the game is really about lol: :First 10 hours of playing:
Play regular game on normal.
"cool. hey lets do again." :)
Play a second playthrough on expert

:25-50 hours of playing:
"Hey i'm good at this"
play hardcore normal. die level 20-30
"oh fuck. that is lame. i wont do that again... D:"

[[In Hitler voice "Sane people leave the browser now, everyone else you can stay!"]]

:100+ hours of playing:
play new character on regular
keep playing into expert etc
unlock adventure mode (yay!) :D

[[insert RoS content approx here-]]
play seasonal normal
complete season journey. get cool set item/unique loot.
"that was fun! :D"

:250+ hours of playing:
do keywardens
start doing bounties
do a nephalem rift

"OMG AMAZING." :o

:500+ hours of playing:
get hooked on bounty->nephalem rift->greater rift progression scheme
get bent. like a littled twisted from all this diablo'ing

:1000+ hours of playing:
Do Hardcore seasonal by default now. normal>expert>master>TormentXX Ring and pinky fingers fall off
Doesnt notice... keeps playing
unlock paragon 1000 portrait
writes review, gets back to the season while it's fresh
zalgo emoji tl:dr stay away from RoS, its not a safe form of WoW, it's the electronic cigarrette version of it. 1000x more potent and rapidly delivered. You can play it with one hand and in 10 minute sessions. They've really gotten down the addiction factor to a science and taken it to the next level.

I'm on the edge about getting back into Diablo 3.
The new season started about a month ago.

I can't live my life that way anymore. Doing rifts until I fall asleep at the keyboard. Neglecting my duties at work and school. Not wearing pants.

But they have a lot of cool new legendaries and I want to get them.

Can anyone recommend something to scratch my D3 itch that is less time consuming?