Diablo IV – Review

Diablo IV might be one of the most anticipated titles of 2023, if not the most anticipated title of the year. As longtime fans, we were looking forward to the game as well, and we couldn’t wait to finally go back to the world of Sanctuary to slay hordes of hellish demons. After trying out the Beta, it was clear that this Diablo would be unlike any of its predecessors, and while it certainly had a lot of strong elements, it also suffered from some odd design choices that did prevent this game from achieving greatness.

Story

In the world of Sanctuary, the Eternal Conflict rages on as fiercely as ever. The world is a dangerous place, and many do their best to simply survive. Now, however, the Mother of Sanctuary, Lilith, once again roams the world, and she wishes to put an end to this Eternal Conflict, albeit by seizing more and more power for her own. The ones standing in her way would be Inarius, the so-called father of Sanctuary, but also what is left of the Horadrim. Last but not least there is you, a warrior who has been tainted by Lilith’s blood. For some reason, you are able to resist her blood running through your veins, and you set out to combat the forces of evil.

As a whole, Diablo IV tells an interesting story that is fitting of the Diablo universe. We loved the overall story progress, even though this game has a ridiculous amount of filler content that does take the edge away from the epic plot that is unfolding in the background. Most of the story is told via voiced dialogues and in-game cutscenes, which is a shame, as the older games always had magnificent cinematics in between the different acts. In Diablo IV, you’ll have to make do with in-game cutscenes for the most part and only amazing cinematics at the beginning and end of the game.

Graphics

Graphically, Diablo IV is a very pretty game. The character models all look great, the monsters have never looked better, and even the world is quite cool to explore. We did enjoy the new designs, which stray away from the familiar designs seen in previous games, but we didn’t mind the overall graphical overhaul. Sadly, we also noticed that certain aspects of the game felt a bit unfinished or too basic. For example, there are a lot of cellars you can explore in the world of Sanctuary, and nearly all of them use the same small map, with the same clutter and objects in them. This felt a bit lazy at times. The game also has a lot of clipping errors, especially for characters that have armor sets with cloaks or mantles. For these characters, their weapons would then clip through the aforementioned armor pieces. We found this to be rather odd, as the character is specifically designed to have weapons on their back, so it feels as if both designing teams didn’t work together. Of course, these are all minor gripes, but they do become noticeable after playing the game for a while.

Sound

The game’s sound design is quite good. The sober cinematic backdrop for the most part of the game sets the right mood, even if the soundtrack itself is somewhat limited in nature. It’s mainly the more active tracks that hog the spotlight, as well as the fully voiced dialogues. Every dialogue option in the game is fully voice-acted, and this is a rather impressive feat considering how many side quests and optional conversational options the game has. It’s fun to hear that every region in the game has its own regional accent, which is also great for the overall immersion. The sound effects also provide great audio feedback, and fans of the series will also hear quite a few iconic sounds from the previous games. A lot of the skills also pack a proper punch, resulting in very satisfying audio.

Gameplay

Diablo IV is an online multiplayer-focused Action RPG. This installment of the series tries to find a balance between the mechanics of Diablo II and Diablo III. This can be seen in the overall skill system and the unlocks you get when leveling up, but also in the Paragon system. Up to level 50, you’ll unlock regular skill points to invest in your skill tree, and from level 50 onwards to level 100, you’ll work on your Paragon tree. This will somewhat be your main focus as you hack and slash your way through endless hordes of monsters, while also optimizing your gear.

Overall, Diablo IV has an entertaining gameplay loop, and there is a lot to do, even if not everything is as fun as it could be, but we’ll get to that below. You’ll be able to explore a fairly large open world in this version of Diablo, and that’s actually a rather nice change of pace. The different Acts you play through feel more connected this way, and you can easily access all the different areas thanks to waypoints that are spread quite evenly across the map. The game also added a few easy options, like being able to teleport to waypoints from whatever point you are on the map. This reduces the need to always use a town portal first to then use a waypoint to a desired location. This does add a certain level of ease to the experience.

Where Diablo IV truly shines is in its combat. By this we mean the fluidity of executing attacks, be it with a mouse and keyboard setup or when playing with a controller. In this regard, the game is truly optimized, and we absolutely adored trying out different builds for characters. Of course, as is the case in every Diablo game so far, not every build is viable for late-game content, but it was still nice being able to experiment with the skill tree and different combos. In Diablo IV, you’ll also have a dedicated dodge button, which also becomes a key element of combat. You’ll quickly notice that some bosses are almost akin to those you’ll see in Bullet Hell games, and thus you’ll have to make sure you don’t stand in the line of fire.

Even though Diablo IV has a lot of good elements, it also has much more questionable design choices. For starters, the scaling of enemies is interesting for multiplayer purposes, as each player will be fighting monsters that are scaled to their individual level. This is certainly a great way to bring players together, but it also removes the feeling of becoming a more powerful hero in the world of Sanctuary when, for example, a level 8 character can out-damage a level 60 character. After a while, it also gets tedious when you still get stopped constantly by monsters when exploring the Act I region to find Lilith Statues, for example. Everything in this game is a bullet sponge. Most bosses do not pose any challenge, they just take a ridiculously long time to kill, and this is the case for nearly every boss or stronger minion in the game. It just gets extremely tedious when everything just takes ages to kill. This again brings up that feeling of not becoming a truly powerful character the further you progress.

A lot of passives in the game simply do not work. For example, when picking the passive for the Necromancer’s minions that they cannot lose more than 50% of their life with a single hit, we still saw multiple of our skeletons perish with a single hit, over and over again. Other passives in the game would also not trigger, making it clear that certain portions of the game were simply not tested.

The world of Sanctuary is also fairly empty. Sure, there is still a bit to explore, but there are so many empty plains and other areas, and it feels like a lot of content is merely busywork. You do have your mount to ease the burden of having to run around a lot, but you’ll only get access to your mount rather late in the campaign. On the map, you’ll have a lot of optional dungeons that can give you Aspects, which you can use to empower items. These dungeons are fairly tedious affairs with, you may have guessed it, a bullet sponge awaiting you at the end. Many optional side quests also lead to these dungeons, or to other bullet sponges. Completing side quests or exploring the world will give you Renown, which is a nice touch. Sadly, doing side quests becomes less optional when important character upgrades, such as additional skill points, are locked behind the Renown system. We also regret the fact that ‘Set’ items are not present in this fourth installment of the series.

Conclusion

Diablo IV is a decent continuation of the series with satisfying combat, a fun world to explore, an interesting story, and great visuals. For the most part, the game proved to be an entertaining experience, and it was a lot of fun to mess around with different classes and builds. We mainly enjoyed our multiplayer experiences, which did make a lot of the bullet sponge sequences a lot more bearable. Even though the game proved to have an enjoyable gameplay loop, it ultimately got dragged down by very questionable design choices. We felt like we were constantly given busywork to hide the fact that this new iteration actually doesn’t really have that much diverse content. Don’t get us wrong, you’ll be able to spend hours upon hours playing Diablo IV, and you’ll probably like it, but we do miss some of the charms of the previous games in the series. In Diablo IV, you never feel truly powerful, which is a shame. Some negative sentiments aside, Diablo IV is still very much worth looking into if you’re a fan of the series and simply want to enjoy a solid Action RPG.

Ibuki

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Aspiring ninja.

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