This post contains MINOR SPOILERS that should not affect your experience with Diablo 4 in any way.
Diablo 4 has had me completely consumed for this whole weekend. Every waking moment I've had where I haven't had to do other things have been spent playing this game. Every moment spent doing other things I've been thinking of Diablo.
After finishing Act 1 I took some time to do extra content there before heading over to Act 2. Even though I had already played Act 1 several times over during the betas I didn't want to rush on. When I eventually did move on it was quite refreshing seeing as everything from Act 2 and onwards is completely new content to me. Now that I've finished it I want to give off my thoughts on the game so far.
Heading into Act 2 we leave the cold, grey and depressing Fractured Peaks behind and head over to a new region called Scosglen. Instead of being cold, grey and depressing this whole region is instead grim, green and dark. Oh so very dark. The things that we get to see during this act is just... dark. There's no other work that can be used to describe it. Oh, and the people here are Scottish. No more of the Slavic culture and accent of the Fractured Peaks. This whole region seems to be heavily inspired by the Highlands of Scotland.
The story arc of Act 2 is just the same. Dark. I however didn't find it to be as good and gripping as the story in Act 1 but I guess that's only natural once we're past that introduction phase of the game that is pretty much designed to catch your interest and curiosity. There were parts of this act where the story arc felt like intentional filler. All games are going to have that though so that's ok.
The big events, cut scenes and cinematics that we get to see and happen during this act are however completely amazing which balances out the otherwise mediocre story. There were several times during this act where I was just left completely dumbfounded. The last boss especially was really cool and to me he even topped the awesome Act 1 boss that I mentioned in my last post. All in all a decent act that could have been better in some areas.
During my time in Act 2 my Sorceress reached new heights. I'm still going down the path of fire and burning everything in my part and it doesn't feel like that is going to change anytime soon.
During Act 2 I unlocked my Ultimate Ability which is basically a giant snake that circles around enemies and burns them. The skill itself felt quite underwhelming when I first unlocked it but after leveling up a few more times and slapping some extra abilities on this bad boy it is now pretty much the cornerstone of my build.
It now sucks in enemies to the center of the snake while allowing me to cast spells for zero mana cost during its uptime. This means that every 45 seconds I enter a nuke phase where I just blast enemies with eternal fireballs until they wither away. This is especially effective for elites and larger enemies but also completely destroys larger packs of enemies. The fact that I have a passive ability that causes enemies to explode in a fireball when they die makes this even more effective.
I do have to give a honorable mention to the world design in this game. I already loved the world design of the Fractured Peaks but I like Scosglen even more so. The dark and grim design of this region really helps lift the act as a whole seeing as the story is a bit on the weaker side.
The world design really brings out the child in a dark fantasy lover like myself. All around the world you'll find these dark and grim sights. Everything from the atmosphere to the trees in the background and especially the enemies is all dark and grim. If you though the world design in a game like Dark Souls 3 was dark then Diablo 4 takes it to a whole other level.
As I did in Act 1 I'll probably stick around for a bit to complete some side content before I move on to Act 3. There are so many side quests to complete and dungeons to delve into that alone takes more time than the story arc of the act to complete. I'm still in no rush to complete the campaign and reach the end-game even though in reality that is where the real game begins. With the eternal grind for more loot and power.
All images in this post are screenshots taken by me.
