Reaper of Souls First Look: Adventure Mode
BlizzCon Lore and Story Q&A
Reaper of Souls BlizzCon Preview - Now with 100% more screenshots
Prepare for Ultimate Evil on PlayStation 4
Update: Added two videos for Reaper of Souls!
Reaper of Souls Features Trailer and Crusader Gameplay Video
Two videos have been released by Blizzard for BlizzCon. One is the Reaper of Souls Features Trailer which shows the majority of new mechanics, how they look and work and a good amount of gameplay footage. The other is the Crusader Gameplay video, which involves a good amount of Crusader play!
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - New Difficulties, Adventure Mode and More
The Reaper of Souls FAQ is up and also we have a lot of artwork and other interesting things. Check below!
- Difficulties are revamped: Now are Easy, Normal, Hard, Torment, Demonic, Apocalypse
- No launch date so far
Originally Posted by Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
(Diablo III: Reaper of Souls™
FAQ
Q: What is Reaper of Souls?
Reaper of Souls™ is the upcoming expansion to Blizzard Entertainment’s epic action RPG Diablo® III—a dark and terrifying new chapter in the ongoing conflict over the mortal realm of Sanctuary.
Q: What is the story of Reaper of Souls?
Following the defeat of the Prime Evil by the Nephalem in Diablo III, the mortal realm of Sanctuary should have entered an age of hope and prosperity. Instead, this event has drawn out a shadowy being of immense power, one more sinister than any demon.
Malthael, the fallen Archangel of Wisdom, vanished long ago. In Reaper of Souls, he returns as the Angel of Death and seizes the Black Soulstone, the ancient artifact containing the essence of the Prime Evil. It is now up to the Nephalem to track down Malthael and thwart his plans, a journey that will take them through the legendary city of Westmarch, across the fetid swamps of the Blood Marsh, and into the ancient halls of the Pandemonium Fortress.
Q. What new features can we expect to see in Reaper of Souls?
In addition to expanding the story of Diablo III with an all-new, action-packed Act V and introducing the incorruptible Crusader class, Reaper of Souls increases the game’s level cap to 70. Players forging ahead with their existing Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor, and Wizard characters will benefit from an array of fearsome new spells and abilities as they advance in level.
The expansion also builds upon several key features of the Diablo franchise, with a greater emphasis on randomized environments, horrific new monsters, epic new quests, and substantial updates to the loot experience. The redesigned loot system in Reaper of Souls focuses on rewarding players with even better treasure through targeted “smart drops,” new and improved multi-level Legendary items, and a third artisan, the Mystic, who can augment an item’s power and appearance.
A new Adventure Mode has been added as well; with all Waypoints unlocked in this mode, the entire world becomes the player’s battlefield! Included in Adventure Mode are two new game features, Bounties, a randomized objective system, and Nephalem Rifts aka Loot Runs, a randomized dungeon system, provide fun and rewarding challenges for players to tackle when they’re looking for new ways to test their might. Diablo III’s Paragon progression system will also be receiving several updates for the expansion, adding even more endgame character advancement and replayability.
Q. What is Adventure Mode?
In Reaper of Souls, players will be able to experience the world of Sanctuary through two different games modes: Campaign Mode and Adventure Mode.
In Campaign Mode, players reprise their pivotal roles as the heroes of Sanctuary in this latest chapter of the continuing Diablo saga. All quests, cut-scenes, in-game movies, and NPC dialogue will be available and progression is intentionally linear. Campaign Mode is very similar to how Diablo III plays currently.
Adventure Mode is Diablo III’s new sandbox mode, where players have the freedom to explore and play the game however they like. All waypoints are now unlocked, soplayers can go where they want, when they want. The waypoint list has been replaced with a waypoint map, a metaphor for the world that serves as a guide for Bounties and a checklist of completed gameplay options. The world is literally your battlefield! Adventure Mode also includes the aforementioned Bounties and Nephalem Rifts.
Q: Can you give us more background on Malthael?
Quiet and elusive, Malthael was an enigma even to his own kind. In the years following the destruction of the Worldstone, this revered member of the Angiris Council grew increasingly distant and withdrawn, prone to long periods of isolation. Malthael’s eventual disappearance led to his transformation into the Angel of Death—a cataclysmic threat to the people of Sanctuary.
Q: What can you tell us about the new class: the Crusader? Will the Crusader be available to all players?
Crusaders are righteous warriors who have been hardened through relentless, brutal combat with the foul evils plaguing eastern Sanctuary. In addition to wearing immensely heavy armor and wielding a wide range of cruel and punishing weapons, this new playable class uses battle magic to strengthen allies and weaken foes. A natural walking tank with a plethora of mid-range melee abilities, the Crusader adds power and versatility to any party of adventurers.
The Crusader class will only be available to players who purchase the expansion.
Q. Have any changes been made to the difficulty scaling or settings in Reaper of Souls?
In Reaper of Souls, the game difficulty settings have been updated to Easy, Normal, Hard, Torment, Demonic and Apocalypse. Similar to the way the tiered settings and Monster Power work in Diablo III, higher difficulty levels present more powerful enemies who will potentially reward players with more powerful loot! Unlike the previous tiered difficulty system, though, players are not required to defeat the game on a lower setting in order to unlock a higher difficulty setting. These settings can be selected at any time, for both Campaign Mode and Adventure Mode, making it more convenient than ever to find the level of challenge that’s right for you!
Q. How does the new Paragon system work? Will the new Paragon system be available to all players?
We’ve made three significant changes to the Paragon system:
- There is no cap on Paragon levels. Players can now earn as many Paragon levels as they please.
- Paragon levels are now account-wide per game type. Normal characters on an account will share a Paragon level. Similarly, all Hardcore characters on an account will share a Paragon level. Any Paragon experience you gain on your Normal or Hardcore characters will contribute to your account’s “Normal Paragon level” or “Hardcore Paragon level.”
- Players will now earn Paragon Points each time they level up. These points can then be spent to boost up various stats in four different categories: Core Stats, Offensive, Defensive, and Adventure. All characters on your account have their own version of the allocated points, which can be reallocated at any time.
Q: Will there be an auction house in Reaper of Souls?
A: The gold and real-money auctions house will be removed from Diablo III on March 18, 2014 and will not appear in Reaper of Souls.
Q. Will players who have Reaper of Souls still be able to play with people who don’t?
Currently, yes; however, Act V will not be available to players who haven’t purchased the expansion.
Q. Will there be a beta for Reaper of Souls?
A: We don’t have any details to share at this time.
Q. When is Reaper of Souls going to be released?
A: We aren’t ready to confirm a launch date at this time.
Q. What’s the price for Reaper of Souls? Will there be a Collector’s Edition for Reaper of Souls?
A: We aren’t ready to confirm the price or the availability of a Collector’s Edition at this time.
Q. What languages will Reaper of Souls be available in?
A: At release the game will be fully localized into English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, European Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Korean, and Traditional Chinese for Windows, and English, French, and German for Mac.
Q. Will Reaper of Souls still be rated M (Mature)?
A: We haven’t submitted for a rating yet. We’ll share more information about our global ratings once they are officially set.
Pandemonium Fortress
Battlefields
Crusader Heavy Armor Artwork
Reaper of Souls PlayStation 4 Information and Screenshots
We also have all the sweet info on the PS4 release of the game, plus a good amount of screenshots.
Originally Posted by Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
(GAME FEATURES:
- The complete adventures of Act I-V, which takes players from the besieged town of New Tristram to the ancient halls of the Pandemonium Fortress
- Six powerful character classes to choose from: Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor, Wizard, and the all-new Crusader
- Newly designed loot system and offline gameplay mode designed to take advantage of the fast-paced action of the console platform
- Hardcore mode for players who seek the thrill of constant peril that comes with the possibility of permanent death for their character
- Direct character control and new DUALSHOCK®4 functionality such as color-coded player indicators for same-screen coop and touch pad shortcuts to keep players in the action
- Seamless cooperative play featuring four-player online co-op and four-player local co-op games
- PlayStation® Network support, which will allow you to connect with friends, send game invitations, and access voice chat
- All the new and exciting features coming with Reaper of Souls™:
- Customize your hero’s appearance and augment your items’ power with a new artisan, the Mystic
- Battle a new menagerie of fiendish monsters slavering for the chance to feast upon Sanctuary’s heroes
- Never stop exploring with Adventure Mode, where all waypoints are unlocked—the world is your battlefield
- Engage in Nephalem Rifts, formerly known as Loot Runs, to test your mettle in 10-20 minute dungeons consisting of randomized areas, monsters, and bosses
- Take on Bounties for fun and rewarding objective-based challenges
I'll probably start my Crusader on Hard just out of stubbornness, especially with pargon 2.0.
Like I've said in other threads, I acknowledge that's it's not THAT big of a deal. Who cares about the difficulty format or names, as long as the game is fun?
I'm just the kind of person that lets those little, insignificant things bug me the most. I'll get over it once I can get my hands on the game.
The FAQ states "Similar to the way the tiered settings and Monster Power work in Diablo III, higher difficulty levels present more powerful enemies who will potentially reward players with more powerful loot! Unlike the previous tiered difficulty system, though, players are not required to defeat the game on a lower setting in order to unlock a higher difficulty setting." This seems to imply that the new system will replace the current Normal, Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno modes, as well as the Monster Power system. This would mean refining what was previously 40 selectable difficulties into just 6.
No they wont. They wont get access to the account wide paragon bonuses until they hit lv 70.
They actually do, new characters can allocated Paragon Points directly from Level 1.
But if they choose not to they're not forced to.
That's the first time I've heard this. Do you have a link to this source?
I'm sure not many will aggree with me on this but its what I would like to see...
I would like to see it again, but not quite to the extent that the necro was in D2. Whether they bring back the necro or allow the WD to spec into it, I'd like to see pets have the option to be a much larger portion of your damage. Maybe 40-50% instead of 90%.
( http://www.diablofans.com/topic/35494-new-battlenet-mockup/ )
( http://www.diablofans.com/topic/87920-suggestions-the-talisman-and-the-burning-hells-portals/ )
I kid, I kid.
D'oh. Well obviously it was good enough to fool me.
Pretty sure Loot 2.0 comes with the game's launch or when they shut down the AH.
Both of course could be on the same day.
Have you ever heard the expression "to call a spade a spade"? Because easy mode is just what MP0 is.
Have you ever heard the expression "don't sweat the small stuff"? Yeah, I always had trouble with that one. It's the small things that bug me the most. It's fine if you don't agree.
If they want to keep the "Farm at any place, it's all the same difficulty" of the current Inferno, there's certainly two difficulties that distribute makes the whole game the same level. One makes everything lv63 (current Inferno), another makes everything lv70/73 (expansion's Inferno).
The current difficulties level ranges range are 1-30, 30-50 and 50-60. The normal one shouldn't be changing, other than the end-point due to act 5, but for compatibility with no-expansion people, let's ignore it. There's a need of at least one more difficulty to fill the 30-60 gap, possibly 2. And I'm not touching on the 60-70 gap. Just level on inferno? No idea.
There's also the console version to consider. We have Easy, Normal and Hard there.
With all that considered, these new difficulties seems plausible and interesting, but we'll need more confirmation to be sure of anything.
Oh, for names, they may be using all-new names to avoid translation name clashes (Hell and Inferno means the same in Portuguese for example.), and names changing meaning.
If you're breaking the "Normal then Nightmare then Hell" tradition, you may as well break the naming tradition.
They could have just changed the level curve per difficulty to 1-35, 35-55, 55-70. For people already at level cap, they would need to use act 5 Hell to catch up before moving back to level 70 inferno. A lot less work than redoing the entire level up experience.
Not that it matters now, but its not nearly as big a deal as you make it out to be.
Two wrongs dont make a right.
Achievements related specifically to the current difficulty modes will become feats of strength. They won't be in the standard list and won't count toward your achievement total anymore.
Also, nice avatar