Some genres are defined by their ancestors. Doom begat the first-person shooter, Grand Theft Auto begat the open-world game, and Diablo begat the hack-and-slash RPG. But unlike the others, the hack-and-slash still carries the moniker of “Diablo clone,” nearly 20 years after its creation. And for good reason--while games like Torchlight and Titan’s Quest made slight modifications to the formula, they’ve still treated the genre as “Diablo” instead of a standalone idea. Each game iterated on the Diablo concept, making changes that served to supplement🐷 the tropes instead of attempting to reinvent them. In many ways, Diablo 3 approaches the genre in the same way--it’s essentially a good Diablo clone. But thanks to the 2.0.1 update (which released in late February, 2014), it has finally become the game many had been hoping it would be from the start.

At its core, Diablo 3 is a game about clicking on stuff until it dies, stealing its loot, and leveling up. It’s been dressed u⛦p in beautiful graphics, garnis🦄hed in stellar physics, and turned into a persistent online game, but these are mere supplements to a largely unchanged formula. Many of the tweaks from its 11-year-old predecessor. There are some large modifications to the formula, but many of the changes from its 11-year-old predecessor are basic quality-of-life improvements, leaving the core as classic as can be and retaining the same addictive, repeatable, enjoyable gameplay that had us hooked for hundreds of hours back in 2001. Though Blizzard made great strides to assure that the mechanics fit more in line with 2014’s standards, it did so without sacrificing Diablo’s essence.

The gameplay--that’s the “clicking on stuff until it dies, then leveling” part--is simplistic and satisfying. Despite sporting insultingly bad dialogue and a forgettable plot, the act of beating on bad guys with the mouse pointer and watching them ragdoll around is the ultimate power fantasy. Playing through the game’s fou⛎r acts fulfills primal urges, and taps into the same pleasure center that other loot-fest games have in the past.

Each of the five classes give yous different ways to click bad guys to death, allowing players to bash in heads as the Monk, blast foes with elemental spells as the Wizard, shake snakes at enemies as the Witch Doctor, cleave through waves with the Barbarian, and fire barrages of arrows as the Demon Hunter. Each has a varied moveset that makes ﷽it feel different from the other classes available.