30 May 2023 , 16:00
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Diablo 4 is a strong successor to Diablo 3 and Diablo 2: Resurrected before it, implementing clever changes to the structure and gameplay to keep you looting and hack-and-slashing for longer.
The Diablo series going open world arguably makes more sense than certain others due to how its story and gameplay is structured. Sure, moving from one act to the next while on a mission to demolish every creature, beast and boss in sight to find better loot has always been fun, but it also meant leaving untapped quests, dungeons and opportunities behind.
By making the world of Sanctuary a true contiguous map – with hardly any loading screens – Diablo 4 finally feels like the experience this hellish franchise was always intended to be. More impressive, though, is how much this one design choice alone bleeds into almost every other aspect for the better, so much so that it’s often painfully hard to put the controller down.
Side missions in Diablo 4 almost always have a twist, and are just as in-depth as those in the main story. (Aaron Potter)First things first, for all that’s new here, it’s important to state that the fundamental basics of the Diablo formula blissfully remain the same. You still play as one of a handful of customisable classes, endlessly hacking and slashing away at enemies from a top-down, isometric view while acquiring new skills and abilities that sees the power balance regularly tip in your favour. World tiers, in which you can set the level of difficulty depending on your desired challenge are back, as are dungeons and the need to plunder them. Such elements work just as harmoniously as they ever did, only now there’s a few extra twists to the gameplay in store.
Class of their own
Perhaps the biggest shift, aside from the transition from segmented locations to an uninterrupted overworld, relate to the classes of Diablo 4 themselves. There are five to choose from in total: Barbarian, Necromancer, Sorceress, Druid and Rogue. Each have their own specific traits and skill sets designed to suit almost every player’s specific playstyle, but are far more flexible than ever here thanks to how they’re handed out. You see, unlike before where abilities are unlocked in an order you may or may not like as you rank up, Diablo 4 opts for a skill tree system that gives you greater control (and therefore mastery) of your build.
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I played as the Necromancer for the majority of my review playthrough, and although at first my basic Reap attack started off pretty weak, in less than an hour my sweeping scythe was transformed into a formidable AOE attack due to my decision to buff its range and natural attributes. My Blood Spear and Bone Splinters ended up equally effective by the time I’d levelled up enough, but I knew the action would reach an all-time high as soon as I unlocked Corpse Explosion. Carrying on over from Diablo 3’s Reaper of Souls expansion, blasting bodies into a cacophony of blood instantly sends the screen into chaotic action; it’s cathartic in that ‘switch your brain off and enjoy’ sort of way.
Sanctuary's locations being interconnected means you travel between different climates fairly regularly. (Aaron Potter)All five classes have skills that can be amped up in this way. You can respec your character whenever you like, too, meaning you can always experiment to make a class play wholly differently – even when multiple hours in. True, you aren’t able to switch classes without starting an entirely new playthrough, as in games past, but each class is so flexible that it never matters all that much. For me, the Necromancer was a great mid-range character option that I kitted out to cope with foes both close and far. Plus, if all else failed, I could always choose to raise more skeletal warriors out of corpses rather than explode them. Creative decisions like this are present in every enemy encounter.
In my time playing through the story, Diablo 4 found constant ways to distract using objects/areas of interest primed to force me off the beaten path. Aside from the 100-odd dungeons necessary to explore for finding better weapons and armour, Activision Blizzard has now added what are called cellars, best described as dungeon-esque locations of a smaller size that are similarly eventful but won’t take up so much time. These shouldn't be conflated with Diablo 3's version of cellars, as they're larger in scope.
Then, of course, with the switch to being an always online, server-based game come world events, which can pop up in Sanctuary at any time. Admittedly, very few boil down to more than simply ‘kill this enemy’ or ‘defend this thing for a set amount of time’, but they’re ripe for creating personalised stories either with members of your party or people in the same server.
Fight like hell
You’ll likely bump into these instances a lot since the location of Sanctuary is far more enticing than maps past. Its inherent connectivity ensures you always want to poke around to see what lurks around every corner, true, but side quests are so well written and thought through that you’ll visit various zones in the frosty Fractured Peaks, rainy Scosglen in the north and the swamplands in Hawezar fairly naturally.
One of the most memorable stories I stumbled upon involved a woman's missing husband. And rather than being a simple fetch quest, when I found him he was strung up and stripped of his skin, resulting in a fight with the menacing witch responsible. In true The Witcher 3 fashion, no side story in Diablo 4 ends up where you think it will.
As for the main story itself, it’s far less cheesy than Diablo 3 before it and is closer in both theme and presentation to the first two games in the series. The feud between Mephisto’s daughter Lilith and the fallen angel Inarius is a genuinely dark tale that is no doubt engaging, but can be ignored by those who don’t want to play full attention as to why Sanctuary is the way it is and the motivations behind the behind the land’s factions. That said, cutscenes are no longer used to simply bookend main acts, popping up regularly in all their gorgeous glory to help really immerse you in this dank and dour world.
Diablo 4 uses a skill tree to let you pick and choose your preferred skills, rather than forcing them upon you. (Aaron Potter)Any seasoned Diablo player will tell you that reaching the story’s final act is only the beginning, and the same is very much true for Diablo 4. Because in addition to harder world tiers accessible after completing a capstone dungeon, the Fields of Hatred allows you to dip into PVP, the Tree of Whispers assigns you high-level bounties to chase, and then Nightmare Dungeons are on hand to challenge your combat ability by seriously upping the difficulty of previous ones you’ve completed.
It’s hard to tell at the time of this review just how effective such endgame content will be in maintaining players’ attention. However, they all form a good base for Activision Blizzard to build off of, and if Diablo 4 receives even half of the seasonal support as Diablo 3 did, players won’t be short of things to do.
If there’s one small niggle I have with Diablo 4, in addition to certain world events having very simple objectives, it’s that the UI can be a tad finicky. You don’t start off with a lot of gear slots, and assessing the attributes of the armour and weapons you possess can be cumbersome as you have to physically hover over each manually and then hit an extra button to see how they stack up compared to those you have equipped.
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Previous Diablo games felt a lot less chore-like in this regard – Diablo 3 even used a green and red arrow system as shorthand to tell you if something you just picked up was superior to your current inventory. Couple this with the fact you can no longer pause when perusing your gear, and doing so is more inelegant than it perhaps could have been.
With all that said, Diablo 4 succeeds at unabashedly returning to the franchise’s grittier roots without ever losing sight of what it means to make the constant pursuit for loot immensely satisfying and addictive. Combined with a much sharper focus on story, a true open world and classes being more flexible than ever, this is an excellently balanced mainline Diablo instalment that will no doubt occupy players for years to come. Your only real issue will be working out when to put it down, as there’s always sure to be another gear item, side quest or dungeon in Sanctuary waiting for you to find.