The Environment

 Don’t let nostalgia upscale the screenshots in your mind: Diablo II’s maximum resolution was a paltry 800×600. Diablo III’s overhead isometric view keeps the game’s look consistent with the series; the camera stays clear of the action and we’ve seen no gimmicky use of 3D so far. We really don’t see a downside to this one – it’s logical progress.

What we know: Destructible environments are the order of the day, and they go hand in hand with the 3D engine. Some of it’s eye candy, like furniture that splinters after bearing the brunt of a magical attack, doors that can be blown off their hinges, and ancient bookshelves that spill dusty tomes (and their individual pages) onto the floor as they collapse. But some of it’s tactical, too: the Barbarian, for instance, can slam a wall in the Forgotten Tombs to make it collapse on and eliminate a crowd of walking dead.

 When he lunges into a wall, rubble falls away from the edges. Bits of concept art suggests a city desert environment with cave-like apartments, an Arabian palace dungeon reminiscent of Diablo II’s Lut Gholein, and the dilapidated town of New Tristram, which isn’t nearly as shiny as its name suggests