14 DAY TRIAL // 
Diablo 3 has had a pretty long life, appearing first on PC and Mac in 2012, then on PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2013, and now on the PS4 and Xbox One, in the form of the Ultimate Evil Edition. The new version of the role-playing dungeon crawler, which also launched on PS3 and Xbox 360, includes the new Reaper of Souls expansion, which in turn made its debut earlier this year on PC and Mac.
The new edition of Diablo 3 for consoles promises not just the addition of the Reaper of Souls content, like a fifth story act, a new playable class, or the solid Adventure Mode, but also plenty of smaller tweaks designed to promote local cooperative games and to ensure that loot is shared with friends easily and smoothly.
Does the Ultimate Evil Edition of Diablo 3 manage to deliver the ultimate experience for players on consoles or should Blizzard just focus on the PC version of the action RPG? Let's find out.
Story
Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition doesn't make any modifications to the base story of the regular game, only augmenting it with the Reaper of Souls expansion, which adds a fifth act. After going on a crusade against Diablo and the other Prime Evils in the regular plot, players are enlisted to fight another long forgotten villain, in the form of Malthael, the more or less representation of Death in the Diablo universe.
The adventures are much darker than in the regular four-act story, but they do provide some interesting comebacks for characters like the witch Adria, and many others. The new environment of Westmarch is also quite well designed and manages to reinforce the dark and gothic aesthetic that's a trademark of the Diablo series.
Gameplay and Multiplayer
In terms of gameplay, Diablo 3 respects the core action role-playing dungeon crawler mechanics, offering players a huge variety of levels filled with tough monsters and a lot of loot. However, it also takes advantage of many different tweaks and updates released for the PC edition of the game, like patch 2.0.1, which introduced the new loot system that's way more inclined to offer legendary items to players.
This means that Diablo 3 is much more fun to play if you're eager to deck out your character in all the greatest gear. However, the actual gameplay is focused more on slaughtering hundreds of monsters as fast as possible. Unlike the PC, once you kill 10 enemies in quick succession, a counter appears on the screen, urging you to keep the killstreak going for a chance to win bigger and better rewards.
This, in the end, is where Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition shines, as it's way more geared towards vanquishing your foes. You can still go back and analyze the best pieces of loot in the inventory or just while playing, but the game is always urging players to continue their adventures in a frantic pace.
The actual loot system, besides being more generous with high-quality items, is also geared towards sharing your spoils of war with friends, even if you weren't playing cooperatively with them. You have a special mailing system that allows you to send great gear to friends who have characters that can use them more efficiently than you.
There's also a special Nemesis system, in which a monster that killed a friend will appear in your own game, only with more damage and health bonuses. This neat little trick adds a tiny dose of customization among the legions of enemies that you'll no doubt slaughter during the story.
An emphasis on cooperative action is also present in this new version of Diablo 3, no matter the level of disparity between players. If the host of a game has a level 40 character, for example, and a friend with a level 20 character joins, their damage and health will be boosted via the Apprentice system, so that the two players can still have fun together.
Besides completing the new five-act plot, Ultimate Evil Edition also brings forth the Adventure Mode, which can be accessed after completing once the main story. This, like I said in my original Reaper of Souls review, is the pure Diablo experience. You can go through each act, complete different bounties, and earn Horadric Caches, which are filled with great loot, besides plenty of gold and XP for your character, not to mention rift keys, which can be used to unlock Nephalem Rifts.
These are beefier versions of the bounties, in which you need to kill a certain number of enemies before an imposing Rift Guardian is summoned. Defeating him nets players lots of great gear, including legendary items, thereby continuing the whole RPG experience and even allowing you to tackle the adventures at higher difficulty levels.
The character classes have also benefitted from the extra polish given to the previous versions of the game and feel quite solid. There's the Barbarian, Monk, Wizard, Witch Doctor, and Demon Hunter, and thanks to the Reaper of Souls expansion, a sixth class, in the form of the Crusader, joins the fray.
All of them have their different specializations, advantages, and disadvantages, but it almost always depends on whether or not you're playing with friends. If yes, then you can go for more vulnerable characters like the Wizard or Demon Hunter, but if not, you might want to go with classes that can hold their own, such as the new Crusader. If you're playing solo, you should also consider sharing some of your loot with your different followers, so that they can help in battle.
Visuals and Sound
A console edition of Diablo 3 was always perceived as a gimped version of the PC and Mac versions, but the Ultimate Evil version bucks that common misconception and delivers a pretty great experience in terms of visuals.
Of course, the best versions are on the PS4 and Xbox One platforms, where the game runs at a native resolution of 1080p and a pretty solid framerate of 60fps. Things get slower when a multitude of special enemies are on the screen, all deploying their fancy powers, but these moments are few and far in between.
The interface is also pretty well designed, and while PC veterans might certainly yearn for a mouse cursor or some number keys, Blizzard has managed to adequately translate the RPG to a controller.
The soundtrack is still quite good and the voice acting for the many different characters is very impressive. Sure, some audio taunts and sound cues will get repetitive after a while but it's inevitable with a game designed to be played for tens if not hundreds of hours.
The Good
- Great translation of the RPG dungeon crawling mechanics from PC
- Lots of interesting additions like the Apprentice system
- Good visuals and framerate
- Very fun local and online co-op
The Bad
- Framerate dips in hectic moments
- Audio cues and taunts get repetitive after a while
- Interface takes some time to get used to
