Changes

[[Diablo III]] will have three '''difficulty''' levels, just like [[Diablo 1]] and [[Diablo 2]] did. They'll even still be called '''normal/nightmare/hell'''.

==Official Comments==

::"The combat model doesn't have a lot of depth in the previous games. It was very much a "one-skill spam" kind of game, which I think works great for the Normal [difficulty] playthrough. I think most of the audience is just fine with that, and through most of the Normal difficulty, it's going to be like that. But as you go into Nightmare and Hell difficulties, I think that the more serious player will appreciate a game that's a little deeper on the combat-mechanic side."

The only public play yet on [[Diablo III]] came at the [[BlizzCon 2008|BlizzCon event]], in October 2008. That play time can't be analysed very closely for clues to the difficulty, since the demo was set up easier than the version of the game the D3 team has been testing. New characters started off at level 5 in the demo, even as they took on level 1 monsters. The D3 Team has acknowledged that the early going was fairly simple, and that the difficulty curve will ramp up slowly in the final game, but they do say that the game will become far more challenging on higher levels.