Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

"No one can stop Death."

- Malthael

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is the expansion set to Diablo III.

It was announced at Gamescom, August 21st 2013, and continues the story from Diablo III after a brief period of peace.

The game has two versions&mdash;a standard edition for $40, and a collector's edition for $80. The latter version includes exclusive in-game content and bonus items.

Features
"The Prime Evil lies defeated, confined to its Black prison by the Nephalem, in the hope of an age of peace and prosperity. And yet, when Angels have fallen, so begins the end of all things."

New features include:


 * New class: The . Inspired by the Paladin from Diablo II, the Crusader is a Holy Warrior that fights in melee to medium range.
 * New act: A fifth chapter in the Diablo III storyline will be added, taking place mainly in Westmarch.
 * New antagonist: Malthael, formerly the Archangel of Wisdom, returns as the Angel of Death.
 * Raised level cap and unlimited Paragon Levels: Level up to level 70 and keep leveling with the removal of the cap of Paragon levels. Paragon levels are also account wide, and give special points to distribute among your characters stats as you see fit
 * Loot 2.0: Lower amount of drops, but drops are more frequently usable for your class.
 * Different end-game: Introducing Nephalem Rifts, a 2-15 min random dungeon to clear for loot.
 * Followers: No new followers will be introduced to the game, but existing followers will gain extra background and side-quests.
 * New skills for existing classes.
 * Artisans: Transmogrification: The Mystic artisan returns with her transmogrification services. Like Followers, Artisans will likewise have their backstories expanded.
 * Adventure Mode: A mode where the world itself is the player's battlefield. Bounty quests are also available for the nephalem to undertake, with a reward for finishing all the bounties in each Act.
 * Difficulties: The game's difficulties have been revised to, , , , and.
 * Limited-time content, such as Anniversary Dungeon or Udder Cowlamity.
 * Seasons
 * Conquests
 * Greater Rifts
 * Legendary Gems
 * Leaderboards
 * Action Combat

Special Editions
Reaper of Souls has a digital deluxe edition and retail-exclusive collector's edition. The digital deluxe edition has the following bonuses:


 * Arma Mortis provides seven exclusive Malthael-themed weapon and off-hand transmogrification plans when used at the Mystic.
 * Arma Haereticorum provides three exclusive helmet transmogrification plans when used at the Mystic.
 * A Spectral Hound minion players can summon to keep their adventurers company.
 * Three additional character slots to accommodate new heroes, in addition to the two slots guaranteed for anyone purchasing Reaper of Souls.
 * A World of Warcraft in-game companion, the Treasure Goblin, ready to compete in pet battles.
 * A set of StarCraft II Crusader-themed portraits and Malthael-themed decals.

The collector's edition features the bonus items from the digital deluxe edition, along with a hardcover artbook, a behind the scenes Blu-ray/DVD, and a Malthael-themed mousepad.

Pre-ordering the game granted players Wings of Valor (an aesthetic artifact) and automatic access to Valla the Demon Hunter in Heroes of the Storm.

The game saw release on consoles through the Ultimate Evil Edition.

Development
The design document for Reaper of Souls took form towards the end of 2012. It was a giant Google document that listed the problems of Diablo III, and how said problems could be fixed in the expansion, which they saw as their best opportunity to overhaul the game. Work had begun on the game by 2013.

Some of the game's new features features, most notably the Paragon changes and Loot 2.0, were added pre-emptively to Diablo III via a pre-expansion patch. Blizzard sent out surveys to registered Diablo III users for them to rate which new features are most important to them. Players who don't install Reaper of Souls will be able to play with those who have installed it, but won't be able to access Act V.

Visually, Blizzard intended Reaper of Souls to have a more gothic feel than Diablo III did. The game was intended to get back to Diablo's darker roots, where the environment would be darker. To represent this, its art style was primarily blues and grays. The music style was more centralized than its predecessor, in order to make the soundtrack more cohesive. Individual compositions were submitted to soundtrack director Derek Duke, while he arranged them.

The game's soundtrack was composed in 2013 using a symphony orchestra. 19th and 20th century music was used as inspiration for the game's soundtrack.

The game entered beta in China in April, 2015.

Reception
Reaper of Souls sold 2.7 million copies within its first week of sale. As of November 2014, it has been the #2 bestselling PC title for 2014 in terms of revenue.

Scores

 * Eurogamer: 9/10
 * Gamespot: 8/10
 * IGN: 9.1/10
 * Polygon: 9.5/10