There's still a chance we'll get to play the highly anticipated third Diablo game in 2011. Whenever we do get Blizzard's next big action role-playing game, it will look like a very different beast from the canned 2005 version.
The Diablo III we'll eventually play on our PCs will be much more colorful—too vibrant for some fans of Diablo's dungeon crawl style—than the version Blizzard North was making half a decade ago. The battle plan back then was to take the hack and slash action to from Hell to Heaven, based on previously circulated rumors and artwork posted online by former Blizzard North employees.
As one can see in the early Diablo III screen shots in the gallery above, Blizzard North's vision for the third entry hewed closely to the previous entry in visual tone as the series made the jump from 2D to 3D graphics.
More than a dozen screen shots of an early version of Diablo III shows three environments: Keep, Angelic Lands and Heaven. In Heaven, it appears the player was destined to run into some familiar Archangels, with an appearance by Tyrael.
As for the class of the character, it appears to be a fighter equipped with sword and shield, with a style that reminds us of the Paladin or a Crusader.
Blizzard has since gone in a very different visual direction for Diablo III, but for this rare look back at what the game used to be, peruse the gallery for many more shots.
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)
Diablo III (2005)