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Diablo III
Diablo III website splash page
Developer(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Designer(s)	Jay Wilson (lead) Leonard Boyarsky (world design)
Composer(s)	Russell Brower[1]
Series	Diablo
Engine	Proprietary
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X[2]
Release date(s)	2011 or later[3][4]
Genre(s)	Action role-playing (hack and slash)
Mode(s)	Single-player, online multiplayer (over Battle.net)
Media	DVD
Input methods	Keyboard, mouse

Diablo III is an action role-playing game in a hack and slash and dungeon-roaming style, currently in development as the third installment of Blizzard's Diablo franchise. It was announced on June 28, 2008, at the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational in Paris, France.^[2]

Plot

The game takes place in Sanctuary, the dark fantasy world of the Diablo series. This world was saved twenty years prior by a handful of unnamed heroes in Diablo II. Warriors that survived the onslaught of the armies of the Burning Hells have gone mad from their ordeals and it is up to a new generation of heroes to face the forces of evil threatening the world of Sanctuary. Players will have the opportunity to explore familiar settings such as Tristram.

The only confirmed NPC is Deckard Cain,^[5] who has appeared in both of the previous games. Cain's journal on the official site brings the player up to speed on the events of the first two games.^[6]

Gameplay

Diablo III's inventory and HUD will retain a feel similar to that found in earlier games in the series, including a viewpoint reminiscent of the old isometric view. At first there was a new inventory system, but it has recently been reverted back to the original "tetris inventory", as found in Diablo 2. The inventory is divided into two tabs, one for items that players find, and others for quest items that players will find throughout the game.^[7]

Diablo III is similar in style to its predecessor, Diablo II. The proprietary engine will incorporate Havok physics and feature destructible environments with an in-game damage effect. The developers are aiming to make the game run on a wide range of systems, and have stated that DirectX 10 will not be required.^[7] Diablo III will use a custom 3D game engine^[8] in order to present an overhead view to the player, in a somewhat similar way to the isometric view used in previous games in the series^[7] Enemies will utilize the 3D environment as well, in ways such as crawling up the side of a wall from the depths into the combat area.^[5] Every creature model will have around 35 unique death animations.^[9]

As in Diablo II, multiplayer games will be possible using Blizzard's Battle.net service,^[10] with many of the new features being developed for StarCraft II also available in Diablo III.^[7] Players will be able to drop in and out of sessions of co-operative play with others.^[11]

An enhanced quest system, a random level generator, and a random encounter generator are slated for use in order to ensure the game provides different experiences when replayed.^[2] Overall, the game will include both static and randomly generated levels.^[11] Additionally, there will be class-specific quests to go along with the main storyline quests.^[12] Blizzard originally planned to have in-game cutscenes,^[13] but decided these would divert from the gameplay and decided against them. Two new armor pieces will be available: shoulder plates and leggings.^[9]

Unlike previous iterations, gold can be picked up merely by touching it, rather than having to manually pick it up.^[13] Sidekicks, unlike Diablo II, are now distinct NPCs who join the player, rather than randomly-generated and endlessly replaceable hires.^[13] One of the new features intended to speed gameplay is health orbs that drop from enemies, replacing the need to have a potion bar, which itself is replaced by a skill bar that allows a player to assign quick bar buttons to skills and spells; previously, players could only assign two skills (one for each mouse button) and had to swap skills with the function keys. Players can still assign specific attacks to mouse buttons.^[13]

Skill Runes, another new feature, are skill-modifying items that are randomly dropped by monsters and used across all classes. Similar to runes in Diablo II but instead of changing equippable items, they can be attached to each skill like an item, often completely changing the gameplay of each skill.^[14] They also have the ability to make one particular spell in each class more powerful, and give the player options as to how the rune will enhance a particular spell. For example, investing Skill Runes on the Wizard's "Lightning" can allow the players to make the lightning jump towards additional enemies, or, alternatively, adding the runes with explosion effect blows the enemy up and causes damage to the surrounding area.^[15]

Character classes

As of August 2009, four of the five classes have been unveiled: the Barbarian, the Witch Doctor, the Wizard and the Monk.^{[2][16][17][18]} The Barbarian is the only class that Blizzard is planning to bring back from Diablo II for the initial release. Blizzard has also stated that the Monk is not related in any way to the Diablo: Hellfire Monk class.^[19] The Archivist was presented on April 1, 2009 following Blizzard's April Fool's Day joke tradition.^[20]

In the previous two games, each class had a fixed gender, in Diablo III, players may choose the gender they would like to play, a change from the fixed class genders in the previous two games.^[5] Although Blizzard initially revealed only one gender per class, the alternate gender is being revealed slowly in the lead-up to the game's release, including the female Monk ^[21], female Barbarian ^[22] and male Wizard ^[23]. The female Witch Doctor can be seen in the gameplay tutorial on the Diablo III website, and the fifth class is yet to be revealed, male or female.

Development

Deckard Cain speaking to a barbarian player in an in-engine cutscene.

Development on Diablo III began in 2001 when Blizzard North was still in operation. The original artistic design differed from that shown at Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2008 demonstration, and had undergone three revisions before reaching the standards felt necessary by the team behind Diablo III. The development teams are composed of fifty people. Most of the game mechanics and physics are complete, and are undergoing minor revisions. Most of the current and remaining development will focus on adding game content.^[24]

Diablo III's lead designer is Jay Wilson, a former Relic Entertainment designer credited with work on Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes. Its lead world designer is Leonard Boyarsky, one of the six co-creators of Fallout.^[25]

The game is being planned for a simultaneous release on both Windows and Mac OS X platforms. Blizzard has also announced it has "no plans" to make the game available on other platforms,^[11] but has recently been rumored to have begun talks with console manufacturers.^[26] No official release date has been announced.

Music

The music from Diablo III is composed by Russell Brower. When composing for the orchestra, he tries to respect the Wagnerian style from Lord of Destruction expansion of the second game in the series^[27]. The Overture is considered the main theme of the game and it has been performed by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra ^[28]. A similar composition was used on the Cinematic Teaser Trailer of the game. The Tristram theme from the first Diablo videogame, also used in the second game, is present in Diablo III with few changes on it.

Reception

Screenshots and gameplay footage were released on June 28, 2008. Three days later, several websites cited a petition that expressed concern with the art style used,^[29] calling for a "darker, more realistic" look.^[30] The petition criticized the game's apparent resemblance to World of Warcraft, the purported lack of the "light radius" from the previous games, "colorful and cartoon-like" visuals and "out-of-proportion" character figures and armor.^[31][32] To illustrate what the proposed changes would look like in motion, on September 11, 2008 a fan filtered the original promotional video through use of After Effects.^[33] However, while the proposed changes may be clear, the degree to which those changes reflect the original series is disputed, with developers arguing both for and against the current direction.^[34][35][36]

References

External links

• Official website
• Diablo III at the Open Directory Project

From StrategyWiki, the free strategy guide and walkthrough wiki

This game is yet to be released. This article may contain information of a speculative nature, not based on actual use, as the item in question has not yet been released. If you have any substantiated information to contribute, please discuss it on the talk page.

No release date has been specified. If you can find it, please add it using the year, month and day parameters for the {{future}} template on this page.

Future release

This game is yet to be released. This article may contain information of a speculative nature, not based on actual use, as the item in question has not yet been released. If you have any substantiated information to contribute, please discuss it on the talk page.

No release date has been specified. If you can find it, please add it using the year, month and day parameters for the {{future}} template on this page.

Diablo III
Developer(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Release date(s)	TBA
Genre(s)	Action, Hack and slash, RPG
System(s)	Windows, Mac OS
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Website	Official website
Preceded by	Diablo II
Series	Diablo

Diablo III is an action RPG currently in development, and the third installment of Blizzard's Diablo franchise. It was unveiled on June 28, 2008 at 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational in Paris, France. Two of the five classes have been unveiled so far, the Barbarian and Witch Doctor. The player will be able to choose either a male or a female character for any of the available classes, unlike previous games in the series.

Story

The game takes place in "Sanctuary", the dark fantasy world of the Diablo series. This world was saved twenty years prior by a handful of unnamed heroes in Diablo and Diablo II. Warriors that survived the onslaught of the armies of the Burning Hells have gone mad from their ordeals, and it is up to a new generation of heroes to face the forces of evil threatening the world of Sanctuary. Players will have the opportunity to explore familiar settings such as Tristram.

Table of Contents

Gameplay

Wikipedia has an article about:

Diablo III

Diablo III uses a similar style to its predecessors. While retaining many of the gameplay elements of the original, Diablo III will have a focus on cooperative or team-based play. The proprietary engine will incorporate Havok physics and feature destructible environments with an in-game damage effect. The developers are aiming to make the game run on a wide range of systems, and have stated that DirectX 10 will not be required. The game is being planned for a simultaneous release on Windows and Mac OS.

Diablo III will retain a similar look and feel to earlier versions.

Multiplayer games will be possible using Blizzard's Battle.net service, with many of the new features being developed for Starcraft II also being available for Diablo III. Players will be able to drop in and out of sessions of co-operative play with others.

An enhanced quest system is stated to work in conjunction with a random level generator to ensure the game provides different experiences when replayed. A random encounter generator is planned to further increase this. Overall, the game will include a mixture of static and randomly generated levels.

Like other games in the series, Diablo III will use an isometric, overhead view to present the game to players.

External links

• Official Diablo 3 Site
• Diablo Fans
• Battle.Net

From Wikia Gaming, your source for walkthroughs, games, guides, and more!

Diablo III is an upcoming action RPG developed by Blizzard Entertainment and published by Activision Blizzard.

Character classes

The following is a list of classes confirmed to be appearing in Diablo III.

• Barbarian
• Witch Doctor
• Wizard
• Monk

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