To put this mildly, my only experience with a Diablo game was from 2003-04. I did play the first two games, but I never touched Diablo 3. The other dungeon crawlers I've played in my life were Torchlight and Path of Exile. But I have heard quite a bit about D3.
Bad launch, server problems, and once all that has been glossed over, some of the design choices and storytelling seemed to have miffed even the most diehard old Diablo fans. People weren't generally happy with the series. And with Blizzard's reputation sinking gradually, is D4 going to change all that?
From a mildly experienced player, I can pretty much say, yeah it might. If they can nail this launch, I think Diablo 4 might exceed expectations. After playing the open beta, even did consider buying it.
Evil Within Us
The opening of the game focused on a shot with my rogue character riding a horse against a blizzard storm, on his way towards Sanctuary. The narrator gives grim monologues, right before my character stops and dismounts, his horse runs off before being found mutilated. Guts, and all.
He eventually finds shelter in the storm, and then taking a nap, he sees a vision, in it a wolf with its face skinned off, and it's skull with demon insignia on the forehead, starts staring towards the player, visibly animated before he wakes, and the game finally starts.
I fought wolves, maybe the ones seen from the vision, before finding a few locals, just lying low from the weather. They seemed like the usual villagers I've met in any other games, they needed help from me to deal with a threat in a dungeon.
And playing the game, once that evil was dispatched, the villagers rejoice, invites him to a party, a short moment later, the player faints, and the townspeople stopped cheering, a sudden tonal shift occurs. One big guy comes to carry him out with a cart, to a shed as a sacrificial lamp. At this point, it was clear that the real terror comes from within the confines and vestiges of our making.
I heard negative things about Diablo 3's story and setting, but it seems not only have they gone back to their gothic horror roots here, it looks much more detailed and gory in the macabre sense. These elements also mix well with the game's themes about the cardinal sins, and humanity itself.
And the immersion isn't just set in from the dialogue, amazing visuals and the cool cutscenes that Blizzard is known for. To fully realize what a game like Diablo is about, they absolutely allowed me to explore the demonic presence to its fullest extent. Enemies are fiercer, deadlier with powerful abilities and in large numbers. The aggression on top pushes the intensity of the game further.
It would make sense, since a great evil from the original two games return, and she has far sinister plans setting afoot, while brainwashing the masses of humans in her maternal presence. It's all about Lilith here.
It is a colorful world, and that is thanks to a lot of different characters I'll interact with, either from the main campaign or the side missions. But instead, that color is surrounded with deeply saturated crimson, like blood-red, still sending chills down my spine.
Deadly Hollows
When it came to the gameplay, it seemed like there wasn't much of a deviation. A lot of the designs are similar to the older games, but with significant changes in other areas. I played it in a large open-world setting, with dungeons and cellars to raid. I didn't go far, but could see highlights of sections for one map, and this map seems huge.
The open-world has online activities, meaning I'll see players almost everywhere, including world events. There's an option to play solo for those who want. These events scale with any player's difficulty, so no matter who I play with, it's balanced out.
Now, with the paper based details out of the way, going to talk my personal experience playing it. Diablo was always known to me as a game that excelled at constant engagement. So good of an impression did the 4th installment give?
I guess to answer that, I'll talk about two of the different classes I was playing; Druid, and Rogue. With the others left out, being Necromancer, Barbarian, and Sorcerer. Once the prologue section was complete, I went to grind a bit more till I was level 8. Where the rest of the skill casting kit was unlocked.
The prologue did a good job of going easy on me, because once I was out in the wilds, I was dealing with all manner of foes. Some easily could eliminate me if I didn't dodge out, others were in the distance, resurrecting fodder or range kiting me in the distance. Like a ballad of death, destruction, and survival.
My rogue fighter, after level 8, did fast wave clears with the barrage of arrows I was throwing, and helped take out ones who got too close with my damaging sword skills. My left was melee, and right was shooting arrows. And on 3rd hit, it induced vulnerability on enemy. It took time to familiarize with all this, before making the best use out of the waves of enemies aggressively pushing towards me in such relentless form.
The Druid was what I assumed to be a tank, that summons elemental and beast abilities. Of course, the former wasn't that true, and most of the battle, I fought from a distance. It didn't help that the bear form skill were close range, and getting out of dodge wasn't easy, being he was easy to hit. So, a bit of unbalance found between the two classes.
But that notwithstanding, the moment to moment combat was, to put, a lot of different experiences. Just going by the usual route of bridges, and open-ended areas were being filled with bandits, beastmen, mythological creatures, putting me in traps, cornering me, knocking me out, almost one-shot killing me, they were ruthless as they were adamant.
The dungeon monsters had their own cacophony of evil doings, and whatever attacks and spells they were throwing at me reflected that bit. This was what I started to really like about this game, the grim world, represented from the main story and visual aesthetics, is integrated fully with the game design and mechanics. For me, all of this makes it feel exciting to explore.
I even came across a loot runner, he was fast, so I did my best chasing him while being surrounded by enemies. At just level 10, sadly I didn't get close enough to killing him, as I was taking serious damage around me. The kind of activities they have going, they've really noticed PoE's content.
To Sum It Up
So, the caveat of taking my opinion about this game is that I didn't play long enough, I wanted to reach levels of 20 or 30 even. But, one big hindrance really took me off, and that was the server issues. Lags, rubber-banding, instablity, FPS drops, it was really terrible.
Obvious considering how little Blizzard cares about free things, long as people give money, but even those loyalists had dealt with similar issues. The open beta was magnitudes far worse. I hope before release, they resolve all this. Microsoft/Activision Blizzard needs to get a grip here. I did have a good time, and I'll follow what this game has going before release.
Not only does this seem like a return to form, from what I can gather, but also maybe a good evolution of the series. The online integration looks seamless, with character class and enemy design getting balancing before launch, and the world looks exciting to explore, maybe I'll fork up the 70 USD asking price.