Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition
RELEASE DATE:AUGUST 19, 2014
REVIEWED FOR: PS4, XBOX ONE
THE SHINIEST HELLBY:
AUGUST 14, 2014


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 off-kilter. With the release of the Reaper of Souls expansion on PC, the somewhat erratic rhythm of its reward and progression cycle steadied into constant thrum. Now, with the Ultimate Evil Edition on PS4 and Xbox One, Diablo 3 takes on its highest form, melding the successes of two years of patching with the positive side-effects of porting to current-gen consoles.



Ultimate Evil Edition teems with content. You're getting everything from Diablo 3 and its expansion, Reaper of Souls, including the incredible endless Adventure mode. The raised level cap, reworked skills, and of course that handy fourth passive slot are all here as well, and importing your character from a last-gen console is a breeze, so you won't have to replay a bunch of content you've likely already replayed over and over to experience it. If you're returning from the original console release, you won't miss a beat.

If you're a new player, and you don't already know what's in store, just ignore the cheesy story. Diablo 3 is about killing things, all the things, whether alive, undead or inanimate, and seeing what sweet new piece of gear drops so you can kill more, bigger things. Ultimate Evil's excellent analog stick controls, deep bestiary, and varied character classes make that hunt enjoyable both in the short term, and the long haul.
A regular stream of upgrades and legendary items means that even over the course of a short, 1-hour play-session, you'll often see your avatar make tangible progress, and by your 200th hour in the endless, infectiously rewarding adventure mode, you'll still be finding ways to eke out ever more power from your character. I can still remember leveling my first character In vanilla Diablo 3 to 60 without crafting a single thing, or even making very many decisions. Starting a new character from scratch really highlighted how much

Blizzard has changed for the better.
That well-tuned cycle of violence, profit, and growth is easier on the eyes than ever here too. Last-gen consoles had to make visual sacrifices to run Diablo 3's more heated battles at a respectable frame rate, but on PS4 and Xbox One, no concessions are necessary. At 1080p, and an almost constant 60 fps, the action looks sharp, plays smooth, and is mostly on par with Reaper of Souls on a nice gaming PC. There are very occasional hiccups in framerate during huge battles, and the effects, while greatly improved, aren't quite at max PC levels, it's still a huge step forward from the last console iteration.
Finally, Ultimate Evil serves up a few social-minded twists like an in-game mail system to gift loot to friends, and a new nemesis system which allows a monster that slays someone on your friend's list to grow in power and come into your game to give you a chance to avenge your fallen comrade. It's a cute trick, but not a game-changer in any way. The real star is still the ability to play on the couch with up to three friends, tearing through the angry hordes that await you in adventure mode, where the wildly randomized dungeons form the backbone of Diablo 3's endgame.


THE VERDICT
This is the third time I've reviewed some version of Diablo 3, and each time I've been met by a better, more refined experience. Ultimate Evil Edition collects the entirety of that experience in a slick new wrapper, giving console owners a complete, and uncompromised version of Diablo 3.