BlizzCon 2009: Diablo III - Controlling the Monk

Posted Aug 22nd 2009 4:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: Features, RPG, Diablo III

When it was revealed that the Monk would be the new playable character class for Diablo III, our minds went to thinking about one of our favorite TV shows: Kung Fu. Yes, we had the idea that we would be playing Blizzard's version of Caine, the Eastern monk who prowled the Wild West that preached peace but pretty much could kick everyone who tried to cross him

As it turns out, that's pretty much what the Monk is like when we actually got hands-on with a new build of Diablo III at BlizzCon 2009. His character look is both buff and also more serene than the Barbarian class. But he can also handle himself quite well with his various attack and combo moves.

We played the Monk in a desert setting in the game surrounded by monsters that wandered around above ground and, in one cash, below the sand as a lizard-like creature burrows around before jumping out to escape. The Monk is pretty powerful just on its own with its melee attacks. With swinging moves, fast fists and circular combos its clear that Blizzard has achieved its goal of making the Monk more of a fighting game character than we have seen before in a Diablo game.

Check out more info after the jump:

Gallery: Diablo III

That's not to say we didn't die why playing as the Monk (we died a lot) but that's our fault; we sometimes didn't equip our new Monk character with perhaps the best of the loot that was dropped by the creatures in our play test. Yes, there's everything from armor, weapons, jewels, and of course gold to be picked up after wiping out a slew of enemies.

From the Fallen devil like creatures to dog-like units to a cross between a lizard and a snake, there are no shortages of enemies to fight. You can even do some good deeds like rescuing prisoners that are trapped inside cells or are even being tortured on the rack.

We know, we know; lots of you still don't like the more "colorful" look to Diablo III compared to the first two games in the series. However we don't sympathize with you at all; the game looks incredible. The BlizzCon 2009 desert setting build looks amazing. It's the best looking action-RPG title we have ever seen. The visual effects created for things like spells, combo attacks and blood (yep, blood) are spectacular to just watch unfold. The art design, in our opinion, may be slightly more colorful but it's not the super exaggerated "cartoony" style that its critics have claimed it has.

There are some nice little touches we noticed while playing. When going under the surface in the dungeon we got to see sand from the surface fall down to the ground. The game's use of physics is small but important. When killing some enemies we notices that they slowly fall down stairs rather than just say put; a little but cute bit of reality.

The Monk character looks to be an excellent edition to Diablo III and based on our brief BlizzCon 2009 play time with the game and the character we think that the game is already playing like the addictive feel of the first two titles in the series. The biggest issue we have with Diablo III is that the final game is likely to be shipping to stores in TWO FREAKIN' YEARS! Sorry - we kind of lost it there but can you blame us?

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