I couldn’t have been more pleased to hear that there was a playable version of Diablo III here at Blizzcon. Even more exciting was that the Barbarian, that I had seen well over a year ago, wasn’t the only class we’d be able to preview. There would be the Barbarian, the Witch Doctor, and the all new Wizard. That’s right, Wizard, not Sorceress. Of course, it’s highly likely that we will never see any classes we recognize from Diablo II outside of the barbarian. Which is more than amazing, and really makes me eager to see what else we’ll be dazzled with.

At first glance the world of Sanctuary, now in stunning 3D, looks absolutely beautiful. One of the things that the developers really wanted to focus on was making it feel very visceral and epic. They wanted the characters to feel like they were powerful and unstoppable but still maintain balance and difficulty. This is shown perfectly in just the first few minutes with the Wizard. The sheer power of spells that you can throw out is awesome, and you can set up combos easily with new synergic abilities. The color palette that was used for the game, is vast and bright; a significant improvement over the blacks and grays of the previous games. The game play is still quick, even more so now that the “potion popping” aspect is gone. The UI has been greatly improved and is very easy to use, something that die-hard fans will enjoy.

More after the jump…

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