A bold directional take on the franchise of Diablo

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Diablo 4 (Reviewed)

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment

Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment

Released: June 6th, 2023

Price: $69.99 USD

Diablo IV is an ARPG and one of the more well-known of the genre; whether you are a veteran of the originals from years ago or have gotten around to playing through Diablo III or Diablo Immortals from recent years, there will be things that you dislike and some things that you will appreciate about more than others.

This review is more about tackling the ideas from the mind of a hardcore player.

I believe it is best to state this clearly. This isn't Diablo III, nor is it Path of Exiles, it's not fast-paced, and it's not adrenaline pumping. Diablo IV takes a step back to the days of narrative story telling but also does one good a job with immersion breaking cutscenes at every opportunity when a side-quest or main quest starts.

If your sole goal is to rush through the campaign and reach the end game in order to experience the sensation of smashing hordes of enemies and taking down some large bosses, you'll be sorely disappointed with what you may find.

Story

It's alright if you're interested in lore. I am not when I plan to sit down and play through a game, if it requires a significant investment of my time. I am not a major lover of Diablo lore, or lore in general. When I play through, I usually simply skip dialogue here and there to eventually get to the good stuff.

This is a refresher, these are basically recaps of the lore. If you intend to play the originals, which I highly encourage, this could be considered a major spoiler.

Short version

Killing any of the evils simply returns them to hell. Putting them in a soul stone holds them there for the time being, but it will ultimately corrupt everything around which includes the host that is holding them within, thus needing to stop them and recapture them if the stone is not replaced in a new host.

Diablo 1

Leoric, a king, constructs the city of Tristram around the cathedral where Diablo's soul stone is hidden. The stone corrupts the appointed bishop of the cathedral, so he shatters it, releasing Diablo's spirit, which possesses the body of King Leoric's son. Diablo eventually sheds this body and assumes his original form. Our hero descends the cathedral to fight the demons and ultimately defeats Diablo. The hero then plugs Diablo's soul stone into his forehead, believing that this is the greatest way to keep Diablo's demonic power confined.

Diablo 2

Diablo's soul stone has corrupted the hero from Diablo 1. He travels to the east and frees Baal with the assistance of an elderly man he hires named Marius. Diablo assumes his real form once more, and the portal to hell is opened with the assistance of Mephisto and Baal. Diablo goes to great lengths to put the Lesser Evils in their proper place. Along the way, our new hero chases Diablo and kills the two Lesser Evils, Andariel and Duriel. Our hero then kills Mephisto and Diablo, smashing their soul stones. Marius, the old man, accidentally gives Baal his own soul stone. Baal, the Lord of disaster, travels to Mount Arreat to taint the Worldstone with his own soul stone in order to spread disaster even further. Tyreal kills Baal, but the Worldstone has already been tainted, so he throws his blade into it, causing it to explode. Without the Worldstone to inhibit the Nephalems' powers, they regain their strength quickly.

Diablo 3

The last two Great Evils, Belial and Azmodan, strive to exploit the power vacuum and conquer Sanctuary. Tyreal has had enough of angels refusing to help mankind, so he gives up his wings and descends to Sanctuary as a mortal.

Adria, the witch, discovers a black soul stone that can contain all seven Great Evils, and she has already sealed up five of them within. Even though the previous hero defeated five of the Great Evils in the previous game, it turns out they can never truly die.

The new hero obtains the black soul stone and murders Belial and Azmodan, imprison them within. Adria betrays everyone by snatching the black soul stone, which now contains all seven Great Evils. She admits that she has been working for Diablo all along, and she then uses her own daughter as a vessel to house all the evils within the black soul stone. The daughter transforms into Diablo, who now possesses the power of all seven Great Evils. He attacks the upper heavens in the hopes of corrupting the Crystal Arch, the source of all angelic strength, and eventually winning The Great War. Unfortunately for him, our new-found hero defeats him.

Diablo 4

The story's quality isn't great. Things that certain characters do and have happen to them is a puzzle in and of itself from taking on a huge hell beast and surviving the ordeal only to get scratched and die from a creature in the wall.

When the rest of the story tried to demonstrate a little more than what happened in prior games than the current game, I didn't think the finale was interesting.

I believe the entire aim of the conclusion is to make us wonder if we made the correct decision. Sanctuary was rescued now, but at a high cost in the future.

Open World

It's just a world

For a very big an expansive world there sure is a lot of nothing to do but run around until you come upon a dungeon, cellar, or a few packs of monsters out in the open, depending on which biome you've visited. Nothing notable happens in the world, including any of the global events that spawn at random intervals. I mean nothing remarkable when I say this.

Once you obtain mounts, you can move around more easily, but there is a lot of running around in the early stages where you don't have waypoints, with severe lack of mobility that anyone looking for fast-paced fighting may fall asleep to.

This could be due to the fact that I am still playing on hardcore exclusively, which means there are fewer people around because everyone else is on standard. But most of the world events I did manage to join just tend to be empty or lacking, while I believe the majority of the game is spent farming other events. 

The map is big and full of things to do, but at the end of the day, they all feel like a hassle. You can use this map to assist you complete all areas to 100% or to look for all waypoints or Lilith statues to help you with your early game.

World Events

After you finish the main story you'll get screen notifications when an event is live, otherwise you will have to be in the general location as it's coming up to really see it. Then all that matters if getting over to that location before it starts.

It's the same gameplay you've been playing for the last 10+ hours, but with people in a larger group doing the same thing as you until the boss which you find in dungeons spawns for you all to quickly kill.

It's just a way to make players feel like they are playing together just like they have been the entire time leveling and completely area events (occasionally) giving the sense of online play. A bit underwhelming when it's mostly sorcerers blasting away hoards of monsters if you're playing a melee class or single target class. But in the end you all get your share of the loot, so it is what it is.

Progression

There are many milestones that, when complete, will grant you extra points to spend on talents or simply more experience and gold to level up and afford new upgrades and gear. This is supposed to motivate you to travel around the world and find these things to complete, but I didn't care much about what was across the world. I actually simply wanted to find the nearest hoard of monsters to fight, not wander through endless dungeons and ruins being pulled into NPC dialog.

World Bosses

These have to be the game's one redeeming grace when compared against all of the repetitious dungeon bosses that are practically all the same, as well as campaign mode. While they are pretty underwhelming after a while, it is crucial to remember that the game is attempting to be more like Diablo II than Diablo III with more cinematic and showcase style gameplay, more than anything else.

General Gameplay

You can do dailies, weeklies map completionism, whatever you feel like, so long as you're not just trying to mow down hoards of foes all game, you should be able to sit back and enjoy the game, while the rest of us junkies have to suffer.

Dungeons

There's no excuse for Blizzard to keep using the same dungeon progression mechanic. Not only that, but the maps are quite linear—previous Diablo releases had far larger dungeons that you could conquer while neglecting a whole wing. But it's always the same: enter the dungeon, walk around, kill creatures, gain an artifact, place it on the pedestal, enter the sealed door and face the boss.

A Chore

Without getting into too much depth, the gameplay is similar to Diablo II, with heavier limits on your abilities and less sophisticated stuff compared to the likes of Path of Exile.

You'll spend the most of your time doing what you enjoy as a gamer or aimlessly following quest after side quests. Maybe you don't care about the plot and would rather skip it while others may stop and enjoy the visuals that they may offer, this is what the game does a lot of gives you a lot of things to do, but most of it doesn't really feel fun, when it doesn't aim to please anyone looking for carnage.

PoE and Diablo III point of view

It moves slowly. Very slow, focusing all of its efforts on lore and cutscenes, with big presentable boss fights tossed in after a slurry of repetitive dungeons that don't actually differ all that much from each other, and the same goes for cellars. If all you want to do is kill, I think it's just filler and a waste of time compared to other ARPG alternatives. This is story driven to the point of boredom.

It's not linear; you can accomplish everything in the order you want and when you want, including the main story. However, as someone who spent thousands of hours playing ARPGs throughout the years, it all just feels so monotonous.

It's been a good three years since I took them seriously, but even with my break, it's possible that I'm just tired with the genre as a whole; I want something new, not something old with a severe lack of things all others ARPGs have including previous installments of the franchise.

Classes can get boring

If you intend to play, you should create a character well in advance. If you play the best of the best builds, you may find it too hands-on and boring, but the Barbarian sounds wonderful with the sound effects utilized for lunging strike.

After all of the problems with testing each class several times, I ended up playing Rogue. It's just that there's a lot it has to have before it becomes "active," and when it does, it's amazing how much you can do with it. However, it remains exceedingly arduous until those conditions are reached, while also requiring a large amount of input while other classes only require 1-2.

Shrine Powers

These are strong shrines that bestow you with a variety of damaging or protective abilities, and they are as near to the type of action one would expect to see in an ARPG, particularly the projectile ability, which simply blasts the screen in a volley of piercing arrows. Sadly, they are so far in between.

Problems

Dialog

Yes, it's a story game.

It's excessive on the camera's zooms and panning. I don't think many of the players are interested in side quest voice acting or anything else that isn't directly related to Lilith and the soul stone main story. So, why the constant halt in the action, whether in town or in the vast field / ruins?

I skip the dialogue and don't look back because I've already heard it and don't want to waste any more time. It just syphons so much energy from the moment.

Map Awareness

If you plan on leaving your keyboard or even stopping to look at your map at any point during the game, it will an can result in your death if not in town, which would only be an issue if you played hardcore like myself an a few others do.

When you press (Tab) to examine the map, the previously described feature of region completion will automatically appear, and you must accept it before you can return to the main game if you have unclaimed rewards; doing so prevents any interaction with the actual game, much like a menu. However, because it is not an OFFLINE game, you can still be killed without being able to respond. 

This entire scenario may be resolved by just allowing people to see and interact with a low opacity overlay map, with the choice to preserve the present design or switch to the new one you know, the thing that has been in literally every single previous title and all games that copied from Diablo II. Two birds with one stone, unfortunately it comes down to the developers stating "You don't know what you want" mentality, building a bridge between their own and new players.

Online Game

In comparison to previous releases, you cannot play this game offline at all. It's online or nothing, which is unfortunate because, despite the fact that the game is a MMO, I haven't communicated with anyone outside of a few emotes. I'd rather play alone, with my head in the clouds, chopping through enormous groups of creatures with a better way of combat rather than slow energy storaging.

Path of Exiles junky

If you're like me and have spent over 2000 hours in that game, you'll agree that it's one of the best (free) ARPGs on the market. While it has suffered deuteriation over the years as a result of poor decisions by the developers, I would still rather play that game for the sensations that I want to have while playing an ARPG even if I know for a fact I will not have fun at the end of the day.

In comparison to PoE, Diablo IV has a better story but mediocre gameplay. This is the issue: after years Diablo III, and PoE, gamers have been conditioned to massive hits of dopamine and adrenaline just to be thrown back into the stone age as if we're all in rehab, causing episodes of drowsiness and fatigue. It's more Roleplay Game than it is ACTION!

Conclusion

Falling asleep

Start slow and build into a stronger clear speed late game, that is how all ARPGs feel once they start and get going, so if you want a overly slow-paced game with some open world and team play components while losing a lot of what made earlier iterations and copycats entertaining, this is the game for you.

I have several friends who wanted to play with me and reintroduce me to the world of Diablo, and I'm sure many people will white knight and protect Blizzard till the end of time, but this game did not appeal to me in any way. I can envision myself mindlessly running around the map in order to perhaps unlock more world completion for more money, levels, and stuff, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I just want to sit back and play like a zombie, in a mindless hack & slash.

You need a purpose to want to play this game for long periods of time; for some, that incentive was swiftly attaining max level on hardcore in order to win one of the 1000 username immortalized Lilith sculptures. Others may want to try something new or do something new with their pals. I find myself just returning to the genre for my next fix, which must be bigger and better than my previous hit or I will not bounce back, and I feel many others are in a similar scenario.

This is why the genre is so hit-or-miss. If you treat it as a classic, I believe that newcomers and veterans to the genre will appreciate it and ignore the lack of true physical gameplay, while the rest of us will simply move on to the next game.

This concludes my views of this game; while my opinions may be met with criticism, that is what distinguishes gamers; you don't have to like the same things as others, nor do you have to agree with them.

If you want to catch me on one of my streams or locate me on social media, you may do so at the following locations, I'm always playing something new.

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- Pawkt