Diablo 4 Season 3 Season of the Construct review: A mediocre season compared to Season of Blood

Diablo 4's latest season, the Season of the Construct, rolled out to dismal reception from gamers but Blizzard's hotfixes seems to have alleviated much of the pain points.

I joined the season relatively late, about a week after the launch, but me doing so allowed me to skip a lot of the teething issues. But this shouldn't have been even a thing, given the excellent previous Season of the Blood.

This time around, Diablo 4's third season introduces new dungeons, called Vaults, which are filled with traps. Avoiding the traps is key, as these will allow you to collect more loot after you beat the boss.

You also get a robot scorpion companion, to which you can add various effects or buffs using tuning stones. You'll need to farm these, either in the open world or in the Vaults. Speaking of open world, the new open world stuff isn't as fun as Season of Blood.

Unlike the previous season, there's no special material to hunt to trigger events. Instead you just walk up to a tower, click, and collect enough in a zone to summon the big bad to kill for tuning stones.

I'm not sure if it's worth the effort though, since I don't really notice the constructor doing anything important during combat. It doesn't feel as game altering as last season's Blood skills. Furthermore, the lackluster trap mechanics and the boring grind similar to the first Season of the Malignant means Season 3 is already proving to be a bit of a bust.

All's not lost though, Blizzard just released a new patch to allow users to craft their Uber Uniques of choice, but given the ridiculously low drop rates and the constant farming of Uber boss Duriel to even get a chance, this may feel like yet another carrot to chase that most will never bother with.

However, there's also no endgame this time around as last season's Abattoir of Zir doesn't make a return, which means the endgame is effectively trying to clear a Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeon. I do note there will be some leaderboard gauntlet thing, but details have not yet been revealed.

Which, if you ask me, isn't all that great of a target to hit. You can get there with most decent builds and classes, and you have plenty of time to do it. There's still around two more months until the season ends, so maybe the Abattoir will return for players to have something to do.

That said, there are some improvements and tweaks to balance the game. Helltides are on the hour now, which means the grind for materials to farm Duriel will be a lot easier. Living Steel and Mystery chests are now marked on the map, which means no need to run around or use third party sites to locate.

I'm still having fun though, trying to clear through the Battle Pass, but once I do, I don't think there's anything more to keep me in the game. It's honestly a season you could skip, since it won't affect anything in the upcoming expansion.

If Blizzard wants to use seasons as a mechanic to keep players around for its live service game, then they may want to consider bigger changes to spice things up, or even maybe have small buffs for playing in the current season that helps them get a headstart in the next.

Otherwise, you could just skip everything and maybe come back for the "Vessel of Hatred" expansion when it finally releases.

Aloysius Low is an ex-CNET editor with more than 15 years of experience. He's really into cats and is currently reviewing products at canbuyornot.com

For more gaming news updates, visit https://yhoo.it/YahooGamingSEA. Also follow us on Twitter, as well as our Gaming channel on YouTube, and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page!