Sometimes it seems to us that there are only two types of people among video game fans in the world: those who have played Diablo and those who have never owned a computer. Almost everyone who has shown even a little interest in video games has at least once in their life come into contact with at least one of the Diablo games.
That is how famous the Diablo franchise is, and therefore it is no surprise that Diablo IV (released on June 5 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Microsoft Windows) has aroused great interest from a huge number of players: veterans and newcomers alike. How good Diablo IV is, how great it is, how much it is filled with errors, which are often common for games of this genre, and whether it is worth buying the game or not, we will see in the following review.
Character Building
The first thing the player encounters is character building. There are five available builds in the game: Barbarian, Necromancer, Druid, Sorcerer, and Rogue, that is, some combination of Assassin/Thief characters. For each class, you can choose a gender and one of eight face presets, each of which can be customized. The settings are not the most extensive: four face types, 11 hairstyles with beards, mustaches, and the like, 33 jewels, 14 cosmetic options, and six tattoos. You can change the color of all of this, but you cannot create something radically different or extraordinary here. In addition, the player has a total of 10 slots to name a character.
The number of equipment slots has not changed from previous parts: two weapon slots, a set of rings, an amulet, and five armor slots.
The Leveling of Characters Is Based on Following a Simple Tree, Which Forks Over Time
There are only four skill slots, plus actions tied to the left and right mouse buttons. As part of simple builds, that should be enough. To begin with, the tree with skills is simple and easy to navigate, but after you level up, the system will distribute points for skills by itself. Literally, it is a straight line with seven node points. From each such point, several branches are separated, related to the main skills.
Skills, on the other hand, have upgrades, which are usually mutually exclusive. Depending on how you develop your character, new possible secondary skills will be unlocked. The advantages of such a system include constant progress. You no longer have to upgrade useless skills to unlock some possibilities. Thanks to the general progress system, you can easily monitor the situation and unlock the secondary skills you need, without the need to unlock redundant skills.
In addition to basic skills, each class has a separate card with special skills. They are unlocked in different ways: by completing quests, collecting certain loot, etc. These special skills are, of course, designed to improve either the skills or the character as a whole.
Things Are Very Simple in Terms of Equipment
As for equipment, armor, necklaces, swords, and the like, things are very simple, but at the same time complicated. Equipment is divided by rarity into Common, Magic, Rare, Legendary, and Unique. They can have slots for gems, can be disassembled, as well as extract/replace individual properties. It is nothing distinctive, we have had the chance to see it all before, especially if you have played any of the past installments of the game. Some of the special items can be put into equipment, for example, chest armor to further improve the armor’s ability. While the system itself is easy to understand, especially if you have played the Diablo games before, the thing is that after a few hours of playing you will collect so much of anything and everything that your inventory will be full, which can be confusing. But if you are a fan of Diablo, then you know that such a wide range of equipment is actually one of the things that contribute to the very charm of the game.
With potions, the situation is a little different. Now you do not have to buy them. Their quantity is strictly regulated, as is the amount of health they replenish. Alchemists are in charge of this and the whole system works quite well. Healing potions will constantly drop from enemies you take down, and if you play carefully, you will not have a problem with potions. You may be confused by the ingredients for certain potions, but that is what the world of Diablo is for exploring.
Elixirs that increase the character’s resistance are located in a separate section of the inventory and are applied from there. When talking about the inventory, what should be said is that each group of items takes up one place, which is appropriate. What is inconvenient is the lack of a separate section for precious gems, which can quickly fill the inventory. The good thing is that the Quest Items are put in a separate section, which means they will not be mixed with potions and similar items.
Evil or Worse?
The action in the Diablo series, at least within the games, was extremely stingy with details, so even a careful player was condemned to simple premises and a conclusion: there is simply a struggle between good and evil, and you, as a player, were somewhere in the middle. Here, the story continues, so to speak, on past events. We will not go into the details of the story because we do not want to spoil the story and thereby spoil the pleasure of discovering it for the players, but only briefly tell what and how it happened and what led to the events we witness in the fourth sequel.
In the middle of the war between heaven and hell, which has been going on since ancient times, some angel and some demoness decided to withdraw from all this confusion of war, take with them like-minded people, and found a new territory, which is simply called: Sanctuary. In this world, angels and demons could express their feelings towards each other, but they had to be at peace. The demon was Lilith, daughter of Mephisto, and the angel was Inarius. Lilith and Inarius had babies who were the Nephalem. Although the demon mom was happy about getting pregnant, the dad was not. And that is where problems arise.
Through two bloody wars, the almost complete destruction of the World of Sanctuary, and the banishment of Lilith, the World of Sanctuary took on a form that is familiar to all fans of the Diablo series games. But in the fourth part, Lilith finally got out of her long-standing exile. Yet, she still remembers what led to the war, and how her beloved Inarius treated her and her children, and because of all this, she has only one thing on her mind: revenge. OK, one more thing: taking over and controlling Sanctuary. And, so we roughly got the premise of the story of the fourth installment of Diablo.
The World Is Shown Excellently and Beautifully
Regardless of the gloomy and “ugly” impression it leaves (for a reason), the world is presented excellently and beautifully. The design of locations and enemies in Diablo IV is very good, to say the least. The game is a true “dark fantasy” game, modernized in every possible way and in every sense of the word’s meaning. The game will immerse you in a bleak world, full of pain and suffering, a world that you see as oozing with despair, tragedy, and death.
Piles of corpses, filthy cities, and curses generated by a depraved demonic mind affecting the entire space: this is the world of Diablo IV in a nutshell. Towns and villages look as they should, and the walls of the forts look like defensive structures, not a beautiful and spectacular fence. Ancient refuges and priestly chambers were built not as an arena for fighting enemies, but as something that could be used for its intended purpose. In the world of Diablo IV, there was a place that is majestic and beautiful, but also terrifying, and disgusting, and a world you do not want to be in, but that something pulls you to explore every corner of the Sanctuary.
What Are the Game’s Music and Quests Like?
The icing on the cake is the sound component. The soundtrack and ambient sounds that add to the atmosphere of Diablo IV are very good. It can be seen that the developers made an effort not to add a soundscape to the already gloomy atmosphere. The musical themes of the locations perfectly complement their atmosphere, without standing out from the general range of compositions.
As for the gameplay world itself, it should also be said that it is divided into four large zones, each of which has its own unique points of interest. The surrounding landscape changes often, it is very diverse, which absolutely adds to the variety of the game. It does not take much to get “lost” inside the dark and mysterious world of Sanctuary. Each part of the zone has its own towns, villages, and settlements where you will be able to talk to many non-playable characters, or NPCs, who will guide you in quests and the like.
As for quests, solving side quests, of which there are, as it happens, A LOT, are very “distracting” from the main plot and make you spend more time in some locations, but they help the character progress. And all that is clear. As your character progresses, so do your enemies, which is good, because the game constantly wants to offer the player a challenge, which is neither too easy nor too difficult, but just the way it should be.
Is Diablo IV Getting a Competitive Play?
One of those RPGs that never seems to stop offering is Diablo IV. Blizzard is working tirelessly, and there are tons of new gameplay elements coming in addition to the Season of the Malignant. Competitive play, which is modeled after the well-known ladder system from Diablo II, is one Diablo IV idea that sounds very appealing.
Diablo IV’s assistant game director Joseph Piepiora addressed the question that has been bothering players since the game’s release, speaking for PCGamesN in July. Will D4 support competitive play? Indeed, however, it can take some time for players to reach the top of the ladder. Piepiora said that a competitive system is in the works, stating that they intend to launch it online in Season 3 and that it will be extensive, so they want to make sure they get it right. In order to have a basic idea of the kinds of things that content creators and competitive players would be looking for in such a feature, he also disclosed that his team has been talking about competitive play with them.
To climb the ladder in Diablo II, you would need to make a new character. In order to promote more cooperative gameplay, no character in this limited realm would be permitted to engage with any non-ladder characters. New players would have the chance to appear on the leaderboard after each ladder reset. The details of Diablo IV’s competitive system are unknown, although it might function similarly to the previous ladder climb system, in which players had to work hard to win a slot. We will have some time to delve into the Season of the Malignant and all of its new features for the time being. Until then, if you are an aficionado of RPG competitive gaming, redirect your attention to Pokémon Go’s eSports tournaments which also give you the opportunity to bet on the best Canadian betting sites in 2023 at Bookmaker-expert.com/country/canada/ and many others.
Conclusion
And just as we started writing the review, we had already reached its end. Seriously, it is hard not to write at least 3,000 words about a Diablo game, even if you are not a particular fan of the genre or franchise. The game is so good, rich in content and details, it is so comprehensive, and it tries so hard to “immerse” the player in its magical and gloomy world. Not a fan of these types of games? No worries, Diablo IV could change that and could do so very easily.
It is a game that is, all in all, an excellent continuation of the series, which successfully combines the style of the second part, and the online elements of the third, and brings a lot of new things. Blizzard did its best and kept its promise not to disappoint its fans. Diablo IV is all in all fantastic, we will not say perfect, but a fantastic mix of action role-playing game (RPG) and “hack ’n’ slash” elements. It is a game that has a huge potential to attract newcomers to the genre and franchise, as well as a game that will undoubtedly steal the hours, days, weeks, and months of many seasoned players, who happily returned to the franchise through the fourth installment.
Why we would not give the game a 10/10 rating? First off, we feel that no game is perfect, which means it does not deserve a 10/10. Diablo IV is great, regardless of occasional bugs that the developers will solve as time goes by.