Is this really the ultimate refinement of Blizzard's dungeon-crawler?

"The Reaper of Souls expansion and the various game system changes it introduced are perfectly at home with the console experience, and will undoubtedly add oodles of hours to the auction house-free adventure." ? 2014 Activision Blizzard, Blizzard Entertainment. All rights reserved.

Great control scheme carried over from last-gen; remote play works mostly well; local co-op is a blast

Waiting while a friend is in menus during local play can be a drag; remote play maps one ability to the rear touch panel; animations don't look as fluid with closer camera view

When I used to regularly play videogames on a LAN, Diablo and Diablo II were cornerstones of our LAN gaming. I'd have a single copy spawned across as many as six computers. We'd each have characters we were leveling, and I often had to shuffle character files around to different computers.

This game has been in the pipeline for some time now and Diablo fans such as myself have been waiting patiently for a next generation version. I myself have owned a copy of Diablo 3 on the PC since its initial launch over two years ago, the release of a next gen version means I can now play the game...

By ironing out the last few wrinkles from the original console versions, and adding in a few extra features, Diablo finally feels at home with a gamepad.

Satisfying combat with highly versatile character classes; Smartly console-ified controls, with improved co-op options; Useful tweaks and new additions, with clever use of friends lists

Deceptively linear and relatively short, in terms of the main campaign; Limited enemy artificial intelligence and awful storytelling

Finally this is the definitive edition of Diablo 3. Any fan of Diablo should play this right away. Well worth the money. So much content in this game that it will make your head spin.

It follows the original game - itself the third in the series - and a subsequent port to old-gen consoles, plus the Reaper of Souls expansion, which was released on PC earlier this year. The Ultimate Evil Edition brings all of these various strands together into one comprehensive package.

When it comes to Diablo, one should expect a sense of finality when an upgraded version features the word "Ultimate". After all, where do you go after defeating The Devil? Developer Blizzard's answer--in the Reaper of Souls expansion--was a villain that was the closest thing to Death.

Exceptionally accessible to newcomers; Well-implemented social features; Dungeons and fields rich in bonuses; Monster killing begets more monster killing; loot; and experience; Lives up to the Ultimate name

Some classes aren't as suited as others for solo play

Diablo III for consoles was, at its release, the best way to play the game. Can Blizzard make it two-and-o with an expanded edition that includes Reaper of Souls? Alan Bell ventures into the bowels of Pandemonium to do battle with the Angel of Death.

Smooth controls; Events and streaks that mix up gameplay dynamics; Adventure Mode and Nephalem Rifts add elder game variety; Cross console, cross generation saves

A couple of niggling bugs

It's been a long road for Diablo 3 fans, following every twist and turn from pre-release to now, hoping that the Diablo game they truly wanted was right around the next corner. Don't get me wrong, Diablo 3 nailed the moment-to-moment combat experience from the get-go, but the reward loop was way...

Excellent combat; Varied skills; Graphical upgrade; Adventure mode

Hokey story