The best iteration of Diablo yet | Full Review - Diablo IV

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Diablo IV is the upcoming installment in the popular action role-playing game series developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The game is set to release for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox on June 6, 2023.

🟩Pros

+Immersive storytelling, succeeds in capturing the foreboding atmosphere and grim undertones of Diablo II

+The game's visuals are stunning, with high attention to detail and immersive atmospheric lighting

+Five classes and a deep skill tree allows deep customization and freedom to experiment

+Vast and interconnected seamless open world with MMORPG-like features

+Fluid and responsive visceral hack and slash combat experience

+Activities are evenly spread throughout the land, resulting a varied gameplay experience

+The endgame content is deep, and doesn’t feel like an afterthought

+Controller support

+Cross-platform multiplayer

🟥Cons

-Minor issues regarding the inventory management

-Performance issues regarding VRAM usage, despite using a decent GPU in 3080

Diablo IV has finally arrived (in Early Access form), and it's a game that effortlessly merges the best elements of its predecessors. With a masterful combination of Diablo II skill tree mechanics and dark tone, along with Diablo III's smooth combat and quality of life improvements, this latest installment in the series offers the best Diablo experience for both longtime fans and newcomers alike. I was fortunate enough to be able to play Diablo IV in Early Access, and I have to tell you guys, it is amazing. It is everything I had hoped it would be, coming from Diablo 3 and 2.

Diablo IV features a dark and gothic atmosphere. The game's visuals are stunning, with meticulously designed environments that are both haunting and beautiful. From the eerie dungeons to the desolate landscapes, every location feels meticulously crafted to immerse players in a world fraught with danger and intrigue. The attention to detail and atmospheric lighting further enhance the overall experience, making exploration a visually breathtaking journey. By the time Diablo III released back in 2012, I was already unimpressed by it. This time with Diablo IV, the graphics are actually amazing.

In terms of story and tone, Diablo IV also features dark and depressing themes. It is simply classic Blizzard storytelling in play. The lore is deep and it continues the neverending conflict between demons, angels, and humans. The narrative is filled with occult and demonic elements, as well as morally ambiguous characters and deep lore that harken back to the series' roots. The storytelling is immersive, drawing players into a world on the brink of destruction and giving them a sense of purpose and urgency. Diablo IV succeeds in capturing the foreboding atmosphere and grim undertones that made Diablo II such a beloved title among fans. 

Diablo IV presents players with a diverse but familiar array of classes, each with its unique playstyle, abilities, and skill trees. Whether you prefer the brute force of the Barbarian, the agile skills of the Rogue, or the magic powers of the Sorceress, there's a class that caters to your preferred style of combat. The refined skill tree system — complete with a rather accessible respec system — allows for deep customization and freedom to experiment, enabling players to shape their characters' abilities and change them as they please —no need to restart a character, except if you die on the permadeath hardcore game mode.

Compared to previous iterations, you can now fully customize your character's looks, its not as deep as some RPG games like Skyrim, but it is varied enough to give players a sense of identity and not look the same as everyone else.

Diablo IV introduces a vast and interconnected open world with MMORPG-like features, beckoning players to venture beyond the confines of dungeons and instance based activities. It features up to four players in a party, but the outside world is instanced with many other players, resulting in an active, living world full of interaction and player characters roaming about doing their own thing.

Activities are evenly spread throughout the land: hidden treasures, side quests, dungeons, strongholds and many more, ensuring that exploration is rewarded. Dynamic events further enhance the sense of immersion, as players stumble upon unexpected battles, encounters, and world-changing events. The active, living world of Diablo IV constantly surprises, making every step outside the safety of towns an adventure filled with risks and rewards.

While the map is a seamless open world, characters will have their own instanced dungeons and sometimes even towns when the situation calls for it. The world is indeed seamless, but the game isn’t, suffering from rubber banding and constant stutters when traversing and loading from one place to another. While the rubber banding is due to the servers, the stutters are caused by VRAM usage issues that most people will experience. Even though I had an RTX 3080, I needed to turn down the texture settings from Ultra to High, to alleviate some performance stutters.

The combat in Diablo IV is a visceral and satisfying experience. The game embraces its hack-and-slash roots, offering fluid and responsive controls that make decimating hordes of enemies a joy. Each class possesses a wide range of devastating abilities and spells, allowing players to unleash their fury in spectacular fashion. The strategic use of skills, combined with the satisfying feedback from each strike and the physics system that allows you to feel your power with the bodies flying and destructible environments, creates an addictive loop of mayhem and carnage. Diablo IV truly excels in delivering a power fantasy, making players feel like godlike warriors as they obliterate demons with a mix of brute force and calculated finesse. Combat wise, the game has a much closer feel to DIablo III than II.

The gameplay in Diablo IV strikes a harmonious balance between the strategic depth of Diablo II and the fast-paced action of Diablo III. The reintroduction of the Diablo II skill tree-like system adds a layer of complexity — in some categories, you are forced to select only one choice — allowing players a sense of uniqueness and tailoring their playstyles. The feeling of progression and the satisfaction of developing unique builds reminiscent of Diablo II are a true delight. Simultaneously, Diablo III's fluid combat system ensures that battles are dynamic and exhilarating, with responsive controls and impactful abilities. The combination of these elements creates an engaging gameplay loop that keeps players hooked for hours on end.

The developers have taken note of player feedback from older games and implemented many familiar and new features that streamline the overall experience. Diablo IV addresses many of the frustrations that players encountered in the past. Something as simple as completely eliminating inventory tetris by giving items a fixed inventory space, to more complex mechanics such as skill system and itemization.

The Itemization is the best I’ve seen, especially for a game newly released. There are many different ways you can further customize your gear. Item rerolls, legendary affix customization, and many more. My only gripe so far is that while crafting resources and materials all have their own inventory “bag” to not take up space, the gems don’t, and they constantly fill half your inventory spot.

As a bonus, the game also features proper controller support adopted from its console counterparts, with seamless switching between keyboard/mouse and gamepad schemes on the fly. This is unlike the previous iteration Diablo III, which offered only mouse and keyboard support for PC while supporting gamepad controls for consoles. Diablo IV is also fully crossplay, being able to play with PS5 and Xbox players are a nice feature that essentially triples the playerbase over having a closed platform.

As said earlier, activities are evenly spread throughout the land.  There are many different ways you can play this game, ingredients to gather, legendary items or affixes to discover, challenges and rewards to aim for, and the game does a good balance of spreading many different activities that target specific in-game goals that a player would like. It results in a pretty varied gameplay experience especially since it is a game that is designed to be played for hundreds, if not thousands of hours on end after the main campaign is done. Simply put, the endgame content is deep, and doesn’t feel like an afterthought.

Diablo IV is a triumphant return to the dark and enthralling world of Sanctuary, successfully blending the best aspects of Diablo II and III, to create the best iteration of Diablo yet. With its well refined gameplay mechanics, gripping storyline, and fluid combat, the game offers a satisfying and captivating experience that caters to both nostalgic fans and newcomers. It signifies Blizzard’s return to form, capturing the essence of its predecessors while introducing many new elements that make it truly a worthy addition to the Diablo franchise.