Diablo 3 Review, a Wonderful Surprising Must-Have on the Nintendo Switch

Diablo 3 is the black sheep of the Diablo series. Since I never played the previous games my view on the game is a lot more positive. It is an action RPG game which is very true to the RPG genre. But on the Nintendo Switch it truly shines.

The gameplay loop focuses on the player going through various areas fighting hordes of enemies. Completing quests. And at the end of each stage fighting a big boss. The boss battles are varied and require different patterns of attack. But if your character becomes too powerful, they can ignore these patterns and continuously attack. The answer to this, is by changing the difficulty level. Increasing the difficulty level, makes the enemies hit harder. But they also are worth more exp and drop better loot. The game provides detailed information on what each difficulty level rewards the player with.

Diablo 3 Plot

A falling star smashes into an old Temple. The undead begin to rise and start attacking New Tristen. A small village that is very grim to look at. As an adventurer, you help New Tristen push back the undead. Leah, one of the local villagers, asks you to save her uncle Deckard Cain. It doesn’t take long for the adventurers to find Deckard and also the fallen star. Which leads to further adventures and battles with Demons. The DLC Reaper of Souls takes place after the events of the campaign.

Diablo 3 Presentation

Diablo 3 has an isometric view of the field. It rendered the characters in full 3D with reasonable detail on the Nintendo Switch. The environments are highly detailed and great to look at. The special effects make everything feel magical. The GUI is quite straightforward and is easy to use on the Switch. The only issue I had was navigating item descriptions, but that was more a ‘me’ issue rather than the games.

Check out my Diablo 3 tips for Seasonal Play.

My only concern would be that the text is easy to read if you have great eyesight. But, not so easy if you have trouble reading small fonts. However I did see this reddit post (Reddit post) which clearly shows how a blind person could play the game.

Diablo 3 Re-playability

Diablo 3 has a huge amount of re-playability. Once you have completed the main story + DLC story your character will unlikely be at level 70. You can then grind for levels to get better equipment. The game will get progressively easier as you level up your character. Diablo 3 comes with multiple levels of difficulty. If you find yourself one shotting enemies, you can increase the difficulty to make it more enjoyable. Higher levels equal greater rewards and this is where the bulk of the re-playability comes from.

For an overview of seasonal events click here

There are also seasonal events where you can complete various challenges to unlock seasonal rewards that can be used for your main characters. I’ve spent most of my time playing season 27 trying to get through the different levels of challenges to earn my place on the leaderboard.

Due to the nature of looter-style games (such as Borderlands, Diablo, etc) you can spend hours just to get better weapons and unlike free-to-play games it feels very rewarding. Though the game is now free-to-play, buying the full game is the best experience you will get. This method of free-to-play is one I’m happy to support.

Diablo 3 on the Switch

Diablo 3 is perfect for the pickup and play nature of the Nintendo Switch. No need to boot up a PC or console. Just push the power button and you can go straight back into the action with no issues. Multiplayer also works quite well. Either couch co-op or online co-op is a breeze to play. Though couch co-op is best played on the big screen rather than on the Switch’s tiny screen.

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Unfortunately, if you care coming from another version of Diablo 3 (PC or console) you cannot transfer save data. But this is the same regardless of which version you play and isn’t limited by the Switch’s capabilities. It would be a much-needed improvement if they enabled cross-save.

Playing in handheld mode is best suited for Diablo 3. You don’t need a big screen to enjoy the game when its only you are playing. Nintendo is well known for making the games on their consoles expensive. Diablo 3 is no different, though you’d also be hard to find deals on other ports of Diablo 3.

Diablo 3 Battle Ready

I would almost say that the best version of Diablo 3 is the Nintendo Switch version. Of course, the PC version has access to mods etc. Which provides greater quality of life improvements. But if you want to play Diablo 3 on a console, it’s the best version to get. It doesn’t suffer from any lag and the graphic fidelity may be slightly lower. But with the graphical style of the game, it would be hard to compare.

If you have a Nintendo Switch, it is a must play. And I foresee that it will be my go-to game in the future.