Well I now finished diablo 3 -at least in the normal mode- which explains that small drop in productivity those last few days
I'm a little mixed on it
It's definitely a great game, very fun and enjoyable that pull you in very quickly. Mission is accomplished in that regard, no problem
Yet it doesn't achieve the legendary status of its predecessor in my opinion. It has things I enjoyed a lot and things I didn't liked at all.

My biggest criticism is that the game has been dumbed-down to a large extent and on many points, probably in order to appeal to a larger audience like so many others franchise do. To me, it's generally a bad idea that announce troubles and Diablo 3 is no exception >_>

First constatation:  the game is really quite linear. you are constantly directed and baby-sited to go in this or that passage that was barred just a moment ago but is now conveniently open and the process keeps repeating itself. I don't like that very much. Directing / stopping the player is a necessary evil of course but it could have been done more subtlety than this. Diablo 2 had more of an exploration feeling with zone you didn't have to necessarily go through to progress like in the act3 for example.
Second point: it looks too much like diablo 2. There is really a lot of the monsters and even same zones that come back in the course of the game. I don't mind if it happens a bit but here...  to me it looked like laziness and lack of imagination from Blizzard...
And then….  the skill and ability system. Oh my god I hate this one with a passion! It has been so oversimplified it's ridiculous =_=
Now at each level up you gain automatically increased stats and new skills that you don't get to choose in a tree any more.  Yup. They basically removed entirely the character building aspect which was what… 30% of Diablo ? You can't level those skills anymore either except with runes that just change some of the effect of the skill and that's it. Every characters is now entirely identical in its core to one of a similar class and level. It causes many skills to be useless at later stages because there is no longer any specialization and they are unviable by themselves. It makes gaining a new level completely irrelevant. You no longer have that thrill of making progress in your build because everything is now automated. That's totally stupid and the biggest flaw of the game to me. It's going to decrease its replayability by a lot...

I found myself not caring very much for the story and narration either. Granted it's Diablo, it doesn't have to be overly subtle but here…  hearing those villains constantly repeating to you how they are villain and blah blah blah becomes kind of obnoxious after a while.  Overall the story was too stereotyped to be credible and tries a little too much to impress the player. And that's a pity. With perhaps a bit more humility it would have worked better I think.  
Lastly, the release was a disaster.  The servers were so over-saturated it was ridiculous. And it all comes down to this very questionable choice from Blizzard of FORCING players to be online all the time, even if you just want to play the game solo.  When you pay 60 bucks for a game and you just can't play it, that's simply totally unacceptable.

So yeah those are pretty big bad points.
But on the other hand I still don't regret purchasing it because..  well it's Diablo It's fast and furious, it pulls you immediately in and it has a plethora of little surprises along the way :  the dyes to color your piece of armors, the treasure imps ala golden-axe etc  
I absolutely loved how the game engine treats the slain enemies. There is few things more satisfying than watching the corpse of a crazed zealot fly out of the screen to come crashing down 5 seconds later in flames X3
Overall the game has that polish Blizzard had become famous for and a superb realization. Some scenes are truly beautiful with an attention for small details ( often macabre ones ) that left me staying there in awe for a few seconds admiring it… before getting back in the slaughter XD
The game musics were pretty forgettable, especially compared to the superb atmospheric ones in Diablo 2, but the sounds effects are good enough to pull you in. The randomization of the zones is here as well and works better than I thought it would with such complex graphics . Blizzard definitely did a good job here
The game is also challenging.  Not so much in normal but get to the higher levels of difficulty and you are going to die quite a bit, even if you are cautious.  Bosses get some modifiers that are going to make the hardcore mode very … interesting.  My condolences for those who step in, me I'm not even going to try   ( Imagine a pack in inferno with Jailer - extra-fast - vortex and fire chains for example.. fun times ! )

So closing words :  Diablo 3 is a great game but is clearly not a mythical one ( Blizzard seems to be done with making mythical games ) It falls on too many points to achieve that status, especially the character building which has been disgustingly simplified to the point it could as well have been removed entirely. And sadly it's a core flaw that no future extension is going to correct unless they remove that system entirely.  The game also feels a bit lazy on certain aspects and yet content of itself.
On the other hand is it fun and worth it ?  the response is a resounding yes ! If you were a fan of former Diablo games, just jump in, you know you want to XD



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