PC : Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls

Well, I've been at it on the main story since monday midnight. Basic feelings? I enjoyed it alot! The new act gave me about 12 hours of play, and that was spent chasing every corner, looting, porting to town lots of times and talking to every damn npc every time they lit up with a blue '*' over their heads (means new conversations). Now that I did beat Malthael,

Adventure mode is available. Adventure mode is simply a distraction for those who want to grind out ultimate gear and whatnot. In any previous diablo title you simply re-grinded the entire story over and over and over. Well in reaper, you now have adventure mode. What this does is place random bounties in each act that award gold and exp above the normal reward as well as shards that act as a new merchants currency. On top of that, doing enough bounties in any act gives you a bonus chest and a chance at a key that can be used to unlock nephalem stages. Extremely challenging areas with really good rewards. The bounties are sometimes boss kills, sometimes their quantity kills or clear this out types and what have you. Every time you enter the game, they are randomized. All in all, this simply gives you a chance at getting your gear upgrades in a more timely manner.

The new mystic stall is nice. You can firstly enchant all your gear, this simply lets you add futher stat bonuses to your equipment. You choose from a variety of enchantments and bam, good to go. The mystic is also home to transmog. Trasmog simply lets you change the appearance of your arms and armor to look like something else. Your choices are only limited to what you've looted. Once something is picked up, its available for transmog. The expansion comes with several sets already available and pre-order/deluxe nuts got some additional options.

The blacksmith and jewel crafters both got new tiers of upgradability to their stalls. Jewelcrafters can finally make rings and whatnot. Blacksmiths, at max level several new patterns drop all over the place, legendary quality that you can put your smith to work on.

Reaper also brought with it another tab in your stash, not sure why its necessary. I havent filled half of my current three tabs to be honest. Infact with crafting mats being streamlined and also allowing stacks of 999, I have more space than ever. -shrugs-

If you don't want to know the story of Act 5, don't click "Read More" link that follows. You've been warned.

Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls

So, with patch 2.0 out (final patch before the expansion) players can watch the ingame sketch intro to act 5. I've watched it, listened to it and no longer believe the official trailer takes place as a primer to act 5. The official trailer makes it look like Tyreal took the black crystal from the heavens and decided to lock it up from everyone and Malthael attacks setting the pace for the expansion. The sketch intro to act 5 however is in Malthael's voice explaining to the Nephalem (you) whats going on post act 4 on sanctuary (earth), everyone is dieing due to the uncontrolled no-hosted black crystal.

My guess? Malthael brings to the council and you information that his job is going in to overtime due to the folks dieing. Everyone agrees to send you down to retrieve the crystal and to work together with Tyreal and the new Horadrim to seal it permanently. Now, its obvious we do retrieve the crystal and its obvious Tyreal attempts to seal it. And from the video it looks like for some reason or another Malthael decides to take it for himself.

My theory? Given this is from Blizzard and Blizzard has shown a lean towards WoW's expansion system for Diablo 3... what if the launch title does not have us fight Malthael? What if he dosent show up until mid way through the expansion? What if Act 5 leads up to Malthael's betrayal and... udunno maybe an Act 6 a year down the road as a big patch leads to him? I'd like this alot to be honest. Lets compare how a WoW expansion and how up until now a Diablo expansion worked.

WoW. Expansion hits, core mechanics in place, new places to run around, entry content for new expansion available. Every 3 months, new content added on to expansion. 1 year in to expansion final boss shows up via patch with related content and shortly there after next expansion announced and players only wait 1 year for new content.

Diablo series. Expansion hits, all content present including final boss. Players wait 2 years for new expansion.

I'd very much like to see WoW's expansion system applied to the Diablo franchise. Content at launch and periodic content added over course of two years until next expansion. Sounds tastier that way heh. Anywho, enjoy the trailer below, its the cinematic one and it is awesome.