How The Last of Us’ Clickers found their way into Diablo III Reaper of Souls

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Blizzard explains how the surprising crossover took place

Are you sitting comfortably? Alright then, we’ll begin. On 19 August 2014 you’ll be able to get your hands on Diablo III Reaper of Souls: Ultimate Evil Edition on PlayStation 4.

Not only that – only on PlayStation will you be able to enjoy extra special crossover environments from Naughty Dog’s smash hit, The Last of Us, plus some cool tie-in equipment inspired by the PS2 classic, Shadow of the Colossus.

We grabbed two key developers from the Diablo III team, Jonny Ebbert, Senior Designer at Blizzard and Josh Mosqueira, the game’s director, to find out exactly how you’ll be able to find these new additions.

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First, Ebbert told us how these unusual crossovers came about in the first place. “We knew we wanted to make some exclusive content for PlayStation because we love reaching out to the hardcore PlayStation fans, and straight away we thought about some of those timeless moments, the stand-out parts of games that gamers have experienced in recent years. Two titles that immediately sprung to mind were Shadow of the Colossus and The Last of Us.”

During the PlayStation press conference at E3 2014, we were teased with a mere glimpse of the equipment sets that seemed to draw a heavy influence from a PlayStation all-time classic. Mosqueira explained, “You can choose right from the beginning to don the helmet and take on the whole Colossus look with the Guise of the Colossi.”

Whichever of the six character classes you choose, you can wear the Colossus armour without it affecting the power of your armour, Mosqueira told us, “Within Diablo III Reaper of Souls: Ultimate Evil Edition you can find a mystic who transmogrifies your items. You don’t lose the power of the items you transform but you do get to choose how they look, and we think you’ll agree the Guise of the Colossi looks pretty cool.”

When it came to adding content from The Last of Us, the atmosphere of the critically acclaimed title from Naughty Dog fit in perfectly with the new special dungeons that have been added as part of the Reaper of Souls expansion – Nephalem Rifts.

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Rifts offer the highest drop rate of legendary equipment in the game as well as unpredictable enemy types and environments – every time you enter a new Rift, you’ll get something totally new.

“Everything else in Adventure Mode is randomized, so with this one time roll you’ll enter a Nephalem Rift and find a dungeon with an ominous yellow spore effect and enemies from The Last of Us,” Mosqueira confirmed. “There’s always going to be a chance when you enter a Nephalem Rift that it’s going to be The Last of Us.”

Ebbert provided a few more details, “The new Nephalem Rift has a great theme and a weather set inspired by The Last of Us, plus you’ll see certain enemies like Bloaters, Clickers and Stalkers showing up to fight.”

Diablo III Reaper of Souls: Ultimate Evil Edition is coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 on 19th August 2014 – be sure to check back with PlayStation Blog for more details as launch approaches.

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