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In Diablo II, the story was consistent across all acts. Every time the hero entered a new town, the townspeople directed him towards the demon. The entire experience was essentially one drawn out hunt. Diablo III's story promises to be more complex. The first act is a mystery - a cult has been operating around Tristram and the player must discover its purpose. Act II maintains themes of intrigue and deception thanks to its main antagonist, Belial, the Lord of Lies.

To add depth to each class's skill system, Diablo III incorporates Skill Runes - items that any class can use to increase the effectiveness of any active ability. Skill Runes consist of five different categories: Striking, Hydra, Energy, Viper, and Force. Each category is also divided into ascending quality levels, with low quality or minor runes being the most prevalent and higher-level runes being much rarer.

One rune type focuses on damage, another multiplies an ability's effects, the third focuses on energy-efficiency, the fourth concentrates on critical or death effects and the final rune type acts as a miscellaneous category - any effects that don't fit into one of the four main types fall under the "weird" category. For example, the Wizard's Electrocute ability will damage up to two targets in its base form. Adding a Hydra rune will increase Electrocute's chain effect, thereby dealing damage to three or more enemies. Electrocute with an attached Viper rune will maintain the same chain effect, but deal additional explosive damage.

While runes only enhance Electrocute's existing effects, they can also add effects to other skills, completely changing those skills' dynamics. The Wizard's Teleport skill is typically a defensive ability, useful for retreating from an overwhelming force. However, added damage from a Striking rune makes teleporting into a group of enemies a viable offensive tactic. The entire rune system promises to add a great deal of customization and depth to each playable character. Two different players with identical classes and skills can still gain very different experiences from Diablo III, depending on how they manage their runes.

Blizzard also designed the new health system, in addition to every other aspect of the game, with cooperative gameplay in mind - no surprise given the lasting online popularity of Diablo II. Health power-ups won't simply heal the player who claimed them; they will also heal all nearby allies, thereby removing the tank's potential monopoly on health potions in Diablo III's predecessor.

More importantly, Diablo III promises a seamless integration between its single-player and multiplayer aspects. The game will scale its difficulty according to the number of players and their respective levels, and that scaling will occur immediately as players jump between online and offline campaigns.

Of course, Diablo III's multiplayer success is contingent on how well Blizzard incorporates the developer's online gaming service, Battle.net, into the game. Blizzard plans on implementing all current Battle.net features, including the social networking aspects and cross-game communication, in Diablo III. However, Blizzard is placing a large emphasis on matchmaking. The developer promises a system to match players according to many different factors including story progression and character level.

Trading items via Diablo III's Battle.net will be easier thanks to an auction system similar to World of Warcraft's, in which players can buy and sell items both online and offline. Blizzard also plans to incorporate anti-hacking and anti-cheating features, including an active item scan and deletion system. In addition to its cooperative play, Diablo III will include PvP, though few details have been released about its implementation, other than the fact that Blizzard is focused on creating a system that protects players from griefing.