Diablo III is Coming Soon

The newest entry in Blizzard’s Diablo series was first announced at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in 2008. Fans have waited in anticipation for the title, and now development is near completion.

Like its predecessors, Diablo III will be an action RPG with hack-and-slash and dungeon crawler elements. The quest system has been revamped for a better experience, and there are additional quests specific to the player character’s class. This, along with the random level generator and random encounter generator, should add replay value to the game by ensuring that several quests, levels, and encounters will be different in each playthrough.

The dark fantasy themes continue in this title, as it will once again task players with saving the world of Sanctuary. Sanctuary was saved back in Diablo II, but now, 20 years later, those heroes have lost their minds due to the pain they endured, so new heroes must arise.

Instead of the Havok physics engine used in previous Diablo titles, Diablo III will use a custom physics engine. With this engine, environments can be damaged and even destroyed during gameplay. It also will use a custom 3D engine, which will allow both players and enemies to interact with the environments in new ways. The overhead view will be familiar to fans of the series, as it resembles the isometric view used by Diablo in the past.

Diablo III will be released in North America and Europe on May 15, 2012. It will not need DirectX 10, and Blizzard hopes to make it playable on numerous systems.