Hand Hell’d.

Can you believe it has been six years since Diablo 3 first came to PC. Since then it has been ported to two generations of PlayStation and Xbox and it hasn’t stopped there, as now it is the turn of the Nintendo Switch and all of a sudden Diablo has been given a new life and one that is as good as its predecessors. In fact, maybe a little more so as it is now portable. Once again, I am staggered by what can be achieved on the platform when given to a bunch of dedicated and talented people.

The Eternal Edition comes with everything that has been released for Diablo 3 so far. That includes both the Reaper of Souls expansion and the Necromancer class, as well as all of the updates that have been added to the game since launch. Things like the Nephalem Riftsand the all-new Seasons are here from the get go, meaning that the Eternal Edition truly is eternal if you want it to be. Seasons Mode is a massive addition to Diablo 3, with it providing some challenging quests but offering some exclusive loot. The player must go into this mode with a brand-new character, selected from one of the seven classes available, that can only be used in that season and cannot be leveled up in any other mode. At the end of the season, players can elect to transfer the hero to the normal play modes so that they can continue to level them up. It adds an endless wave of content that will draw players in on a regular basis and it is credit to Blizzard that after 6 years they are still as committed to this game as they ever have been.

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Price: $59.99
Price I’d pay: $59.99
Multiplayer: Local and Online

The Adventure Mode has also been unlocked from the start, so I now didn’t have to complete the story mode before taking on the challenges of this mode and seeking out some top-notch loot. Players can, of course, start in story mode if they wish, and if they haven’t played it before I would recommend it as it has a nice difficulty curve for new players. The story revolves around the return of the Diablo and the hero’s journey to prevent the world falling to the darkness. Although the story is a little thin, the characters are interesting and the voice acting is superb which is enough to keep people going. Besides, Diablo is all about the dungeon crawling the loot finding and there is plenty of that available. The loot system has been overhauled since the original release, when the Auction House was a thing. Back then, loot was a literal grind as Blizzard wanted people to pay real money for the best gear (and in turn get their cut). This idea was soon abandoned after a massive fan backlash.

Since then grinding for loot is a pleasure, not a chore with those little green arrow and larger numbers acting like a drug. Every possible pick-up could severely increase stats and power. Of course, the best loot is saved for those later levels and harder difficulties, but it is balanced in a way that no matter what level I was playing at, I always felt like I are getting stronger every time I picked up a better piece of gear. And with 17 levels of difficulty, players are sure to find a suitable challenge for their skill level and they will need to slowly work their way up to the higher levels if they want the ultimate gear and the greatest accolades. All-in-all Diablo 3 offers unlimited exciting play for those seeking adventure and the support it is getting doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. The Switch even has Amiibo support where once a day players can tap any Amiibo and it will generate a random high-leveled enemy to defeat for some tasty, tasty loot.

This may all seem well and good, but a solo adventurer is a lonely adventurer and everybody needs a helping hand from time to time. Diablo 3 on the Switch offers the standard four player multiplayer that has worked so well in the past. Online I could join my friends or make new ones in a lag free environment, just remember that players will need the new Nintendo Online Pass to partake in this. However, if players want to play local there are two options; up to 4 players on one system, or linking 4 systems together. These two options do not require the online pass to play them and both work incredibly well. Although it is worth noting that when playing with friends on one system the game can get a little hectic and the frames can drop slightly. Everyone is also sharing one screen which means they’ll all have to stay in the same area, whereas there is more scope for exploration when playing with multiple systems as each player can wander off. To me Diablo 3 is a game that had co-op play in mind when it was designed and is the true way to play; whether playing with just one friend or three, it is much more fun than playing on my own. And you don’t even have to fight over loot, as each player gets their own.

I guess if I have one little niggle it is the UI when in handheld mode. With the small screen it can sometimes be hard to read the text and the graphics can look a little fuzzy. But I am just nitpicking here and it in no way detracted from my experience. In fact, I spent more time playing in handheld mode than in docked, simply because it was such an easy and pleasant game to do so and was perfect for a quick pick-up and play session for 30 minutes or so. I often found myself picking the Switch up and just bashing out an area in Adventure mode whilst watching something on TV in the background.

Once again Nintendo’s little machine is getting love that the Wii U never got from third party developers and we are seeing so many great games make the transition to the Switch, with Diablo 3 being the best of the bunch so far, a near perfect port with an endless amount of content to keep you happy for as long as you like. If you own a Switch then you owe it to yourself to pick up Diablo 3 and go Devil hunting.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.