Reaper of Souls Initial Reactions

Diablo III was seen as the Blizzard Entertainment of old's death knell by much of the developer's notoriously pious fanbase. Key points of contention were the presence of the Auction House, where items could change hands for real or in-game currency,  the distinct lack of endgame content, and let's not forget the 'error 37' debacle that left many users unable to play at all for the first few weeks, and vindicated concerns over the always online requirement.

Baby steps taken in incrementally released patches have attempted to rectify Diablo III's perceived problems piecemeal, but with the release of first expansion, Reaper of Souls, Blizzard are making a large scale, concerted attempt to reshape the overall package into something that offers a more satisfying long term proposition. Many of the changes to the original title's fundamentals, such as the complete removal of the aforementioned Auction House, are being patched into vanilla Diablo III anyway, but those punting for Reaper of Souls will also gain access to a new act, character class and the meat of the package; a new free-roaming Adventure Mode, which re-purposes the campaign's environments into open playground of endless loot, slaughter and randomly generated events. It's easy to see why Blizzard's overall focus with Reaper of Souls is post-campaign longevity; hardcore players will be spending most of their time here given that the narrative can be breezed through so effortlessly.

With this in mind, I feel that I cannot properly judge Reaper of Souls until I've finished Act V and tried my hand at Adventure Mode. At the time of writing, my Crusader has only just bested Diablo, the penultimate boss of Act IV, so I've a way to go yet. My biggest take away so far,  however, is how generous the newly revised item drop rules are. By the end of the first act my character was wearing almost entirely rare items, and cutting through adversaries like a hot knife through butter.  It's certainly a stark contrast to the scant spoils of war Diablo veterans may be used to, but necessary given the closure of the Auction House and the fact that items can now be traded only with players who were present in the game in which they were found, and within the first two hours of being picked up. I've decided to tweak the new, more nuanced difficulty settings to provide a bit more of a challenge, and to ride completely solo for my first playthrough of the new act. I'll report back on my impressions of it, Adventure Mode and more soon.

Stay tuned.