Diablo III : The Beta Testing Experience Part 2

What better way to start the weekend than with a dose of Diablo III Beta testing? This was how my past weekend started. After a few minor struggles with zip files I was able to get the Diablo III client installed and ready to go. For those of you who are unable to play the beta and did not take part in the open beta this weekend, I would suggest starting the client as soon as possible. With all of the patches and changes made so far the client is already at a rather hefty 9gb, so the sooner you download it the better.

As soon as the game menu opens up you realise that this will be your typical Blizzard experience. If you are the type of person who has played way too much Sims and feel the need to personalise your character to within an inch of its life, then you will be sorely disappointed. As usual, Blizzard has held off on character personalisation in order to ensure the quality of gameplay throughout the game.

Once you have resigned yourself to this fact it is time to choose your character class. My first choice for the Beta was the Demon Hunter. Sleek, sexy and fast: the Demon Hunter would appear to be one of the better choices when it comes to ranged attacks and DPS. Unfortunately I found the initial lack of weapon choice to be quite stifling. Added to this was the skill implementation system which leaves you with almost no option as far as choosing a new talent for your character to acquire. Both of these factors led to the frequent and rather annoying demise of my Demon Hunter, and unfortunately I did not complete the Beta with her. Hopefully there are still a few changes to be made as far as the Demon Hunter is concerned, otherwise she will always be the last character I pick when playing the final version.

After having put aside my disappointment of the Demon Hunter, I decided to try out the Barbarian. The change in gameplay was almost immediate. If you like to simply wade into a large group of demons and pound them to smithereens, then the Barbarian is definitely for you. The Barbarian has a much wider range of weapons in the early stages of the game and is therefore less prone to dying. Although it did feel like taking the easy way out, I thoroughly enjoyed playing the Barbarian and went all the way through to defeat the Beta with her. I was quite surprised, after a bit of searching via our good friend Google, to find that I was not the only person to be thoroughly distracted by the voice of the female Barbarian. There is no confirmation as yet, but most players seem to agree that the voice actress used for the female Barbarian is the same actress who voices Aggra from World of Warcraft. Like another player commented, I kept expecting her to say “Speak your mind!”

So far my Diablo III Beta experience has been a positive one. It is difficult to judge a game based solely on the very limited experience gained from the Beta. My only real complaint would be that it isn’t long enough! But I guess I will just have to wait for the full version like everyone else. For now I still have three more classes to test out, so keep an eye out for part 3 of my Beta Testing Experience Blog.