Review: Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

Get prepared Nephalem; the adventure continues… Diablo III: Reaper of Souls expansion pack is available, and it will take your Diablo III experience to the next level.

Are you ready to stop death? You’ll need to be. Rise up, Nephalem, and take your place… A new evil has revealed itself.

30 Second Review

+ Adventure mode

+ Nephalem rift runs

+ Level cap raised to  70

– Story mission levels run a little long

– Demonic symbolism

Notable Features

• Crusader class now available
• New items have been added
• The story continues with Act V
• Bounties have been added to help level characters faster
• Loot system redesigned and improved with “smart drops”

Are you ready, Nephalem?

Don’t allow the Diablo III story to end with Act IV. Purchase Diablo III: Reaper of Souls in order to continue the story into Act V. The Act V story is the best story-driven act of the five. Not only is the story better, but the gameplay is awesome, the boss fights are harder, and the maps are all excellent. The maps almost give you that feeling of a maze-like labyrinth. A lot of attention to detail was paid while working on this expansion.

A 6th class has been added to Diablo III: Reaper of Souls in the form of the Crusader. The Crusader has a lot of versatility from being a tank to being a damage dealer. It is awesome to see how many different ways everyone chooses to play the character. I personally feel that the crusader class is the most versatile. The level cap has also been raised to 70.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls has added Adventure mode. You can travel to any waypoint in the game at any time. Want to just battle bosses across all five acts? You can do that. Tired of leveling through the campaign? Complete bounty missions in Adventure Mode for a boosted amount of experience. Adventure Mode allows you to play the game your way.

Nephalem Rifts have been added to Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, with a little bit of controversy. Originally the Nephalem Rifts were suppose to be free for everyone, but at the last minute Blizzard Entertainment opted to package this game mode in with the expansion. Nephalem Rifts are zones that may have as few as 1 level to as many as 10 levels within the rift. The enemies you’ll be faced with, the maps that are played on, and the rift guardian boss battles are all randomized. The replay value is greatly increased with the addition of this mode.

Riddles in the dark…

The demonic symbolism is presented in greater detail in Diablo III: Reaper of Souls from what I experienced in Diablo III. The enemies look more demonic. There is even one enemy that whenever you destroy it, it dies and becomes a pool of blood in the shape of a pentagram. If there are 20 of those demons present, and you destroy them as a group, then that is 20 pentagrams you’ll have to stare at until you leave that section.

Diablo III was mild in the imagery department. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls pushes right up to the edge of what is acceptable. It’s not quite over the top, but the demonic tones are entrenched a little bit deeper in the expansion pack than they were in the core game.

I complained about the Act IV story mission being a little too short in my review of Diablo III, and now I kind of feel like the Act V story mission in Diablo III: Reaper of Souls runs a little long. It’s not even the story necessarily so much as the level designs. The levels are massive, and they criss-cross all over the place. Almost every level feels like a maze that you are trying to navigate through in the dark, which definitely adds to the immersive experience one can have within this game. It’s dark, and foreboding, both visually and musically.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is rated M for Mature for blood, gore, and violence, but as previously mentioned, I think the expansion pack is more graphic in detail than the original core game.

You need this expansion pack…

If you enjoy Diablo III, then you have to experience the Diablo III: Reaper of Souls expansion pack; there’s a lot of content here. Break away from the campaign story that you’ve leveled through multiple times, and break into Adventure mode. Adventure mode by itself is worth the price of admission, and there is so much content beyond that.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is currently available at multiple sites for $29.99. While the perfect price would be $19.99, there is really no reason to wait. I’d recommend owning it as soon as you can, especially if you can find a bundle deal with both Diablo III and the Reaper of Souls expansion if you own neither. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls just adds so much content that I cannot recommend it highly enough.