Diablo 4 is the herald of your newest time sink. Blizzard's constantly captivating ARPG went to refine rather than redefine, resulting in a familiar dungeon crawler that gives players fountains of loot and endless possibilities to blitz through increasingly vicious foes.
I find it hard to fathom that Diablo 3 released 11 years ago. But then I’m reminded it took 12 years for the follow-up to Diablo 2 to arrive. Maybe in 10 years Diablo 5 will release. And then 9 years later in 2042, Diablo 6 will break the double-digit pattern.
Unsurprisingly, I can imagine legions of players still flocking to Diablo 4 nearly two decades from now.
My finger wasn’t truly on the pulse of Diablo` until the third game launched. A friend bought me a copy to play with him so I would have something to do in the strange first year I had been living in California. I remember the Auction House. And the inability to play the game because the servers were so beleaguered. “Why was this game so popular?” I thought to myself. Diablo 2‘s sole reference point for me was talking to someone about it back in high school and how they had a thumb drive with a character on it they would take to LAN parties. They described the awesome stat rolls on gear to make their Necromancer insanely powerful.
After ripping through Diablo 3‘s main campaign and diving into the endgame, I could sense the exhaustion creeping in with crunching numbers to craft the perfect build. I understood what had hooked players for all these years but I simply wasn’t sure I had the time or patience to no-life a game like this.
The years passed and Diablo 3 eventually flowered into a rewarding game with a satisfying endgame loop. Better yet, I had been victimized by Destiny and understood now what a loot grind was all about. The Reaper of Souls expansion injected much-needed life into what (to me) felt like an ancient game. Even after turning away I would occasionally get an itch to play it again and torture myself to climb whatever seasonal leaderboards were going on at the time. But I held strong, biding my time.
Blizzard Entertainment has been cooking up recipes for ARPGs since the original release of Diablo, further refining the ingredients over nearly 30 years. With Diablo 4, that sense of expertise has nearly reached an apex. For genre and Diablo diehards, this fourth entry will in no way be revolutionary. Rather, it pushes the limits of engagement, especially right out of the release gate, offering an insane amount of content that will hopefully be supported by seasonal content for quite some time.
Diablo 4‘s five starting classes are plucked and sampled from previous games, all meant to provide relatively unique vehicles for pummeling the legions of Hell. The Barbarian is a brute force, using Fury to fuel devastating whirlwinds and an arsenal of weapons. Necromancers summon undead armies and wield blood and bone magic to sap enemies of life. Everyone’s favorite glass cannon Sorcerers are capable of wielding fire, ice, and lighting magic to impose crowd control effects. The Rogue operates like an Assassin or Demon Hunter, using traps and agility to gain an edge where raw strength is less an option. The Druid can summon the forces of earth and lighting, fueling their ability to transform into a bear or werewolf.
During my time with the game, I focused on a Sorcerer while dabbling into a Druid build and a Rogue. Diablo 4 allows for deep experimentation and customization with its classes, using branching skill trees that ask players to make key sacrifices. As much as you may want, not every skill node on the tree can be activated. But this forces players into thinking wisely about their builds, reading up on the various nodes and how those abilities and boons might synergize with each other. At first, I played my Sorcerer with the power of chain lighting, meant to increase movement and attack speed while stunning enemies. A few ice powers helped with crowd control and to group enemies for devastating close-up attacks. Nearing level 50, I was able to switch to a more devastating frost build that I had saved gear for, constantly chilling enemies and making them vulnerable for increased damage.
Thankfully, character respecs are not egregiously expensive in Diablo 4. Blizzard wants to give players an avenue to mess with a character to play in new and exciting ways and not make it punishing. Though the gold cost can be a thorn in the side at times, it never felt prohibitive if trying to meaningfully adjust a character. That being said, Diablo 4 could really benefit from a loadout option because having to redistribute all those skill points can be a pain in the ass.
The game loop in Diablo 4 is going to be similar to other ARPGs during the initial climb towards the true endgame. Activate a story mission, go to a location, kill everything in your path, collect shiny new loot, complete the objective, rinse, repeat.
Where Diablo has always risen to the occasion is in its world building. Since Diablo 3, I’ve become obsessed with the lore of Sanctuary, the High Heavens, the Eternal Conflict, and the Burning Hells. There’s a strange comfort to this dreary, depressing world where humans are constantly under siege by demon attacks. In Diablo 4, Lilith is the mother of Sanctuary, the world created as a haven from the constant fighting of angels and demons. But after eons imprisoned, Lilith is summoned back to her home, concocting a potentially nefarious plan that may further break the world.
Diablo 4‘s main campaign is an enjoyable one that takes players across five main areas of the world but can be entirely ignored once it’s completed the first time. The story beats themselves might be strung along a bit too far and the ending is obviously open-ended for potential expansions and seasonal content. However, spectacular voice acting and engaging cutscenes continuously set the tone for players.
Aesthetically, the game is a feast. At one point I was exploring a necropolis squirming with infestation and a towering humanoid figure laying flat in its center. Then I was racing along a river bank in a once-verdant countryside, killing swarms of bugs. Exploring an old archive I unearthed books detailing sinister acts by priests. These moments are framed with an exceptionally moody score that highlights the tone of nearly every situation a player is in.
Comforting might not be the most appropriate word but I found solace in how bleak Diablo 4 is. This world is full of pain and characters that you may try to help end up dying or meeting a worse fate. These moments get under the skin and allow small triumphs to hit harder. It’s why I find the side quests such an important and fascinating aspect of Diablo 4. Not only do they take players to further stretches of the game’s massive open world, they expound upon the lore and have eerie stories to tell. And sure, they reward XP as well.
The sense of adventure and progression with Diablo 4 is meant to drive player engagement for hundreds if not thousands of hours. I’ve read about those who still play Diablo 2 and their hardcore characters, always searching for perfect stat rolls on gear. Content is king for any game wishing to grab players’ attention and one can appreciate what Diablo 4 has to offer in its initial climb to level 50 and the daunting path to level 100 and beyond.
Gear fundamentally shapes the journey of an ARPG and I found myself constantly pulled in multiple directions just with my Sorcerer. Early on I found a legendary piece of gear that contained a unique bonus for an ice skill I wasn’t using. Of course I had to try it out, refunding skill points. Maybe less than an hour or two after, the same thing happened. In the midst of my head spinning, the possibilities of what these gear stats could do gave me resolve to stay the course and focus on what I was enjoying.
Scouring the internet for build guides is a viable option for players but I think there’s an art in figuring out what works for you. Blizzard is going to be constantly tinkering with skills and their viability, buffing and nerfing things that just aren’t performing the way they should. These things happen when millions of players get their hands on a game and start breaking it.
Lulls may exist for players who don’t mainline story content and dungeons, as those activities can result in massive XP gain. But my advice with Diablo 4 is to take your time with it because the game is going to exist for a long time. No reason to do everything as fast as possible. It might be annoying to not have a horse initially, but it comes sooner than you might think. The map is full of “blink and you’ll miss it” stuff, from Altars of Lilith that grant stat boosts to any character on your account to public events that other players may just join you on.
Being always online can result in frustration. During this launch period, wait times are present and I’ve experienced rubberbanding, lost inputs, and temporary freezes that have led to a couple deaths and questions of whether I should reset the game. Perhaps the most frustrating thing is getting disconnected in the middle of a dungeon, losing all progress and having to repeat it again. While we are on gripes, I do wonder why Diablo 4 doesn’t simply look better on PlayStation 5 at times. Visually, the game has phenomenal moments where spells and attacks and numbers are crackling across the screen. But getting close up to some of these character models and environments can show how basic they are, which is disappointing considering the isometric, distant angle.
Endgame, however, does not disappoint. Blizzard seems to have learned the lessons for a healthy loot economy and worthwhile post-campaign progression based on the fundamental shortcomings of Diablo 3‘s launch. So much of this endgame content is designed to further test and reward players in the journey towards the ultimate goal of min-maxing builds with.
Outside the journey past level 50, players unlock Paragon boards that are meant to further infuse a character with power, unlocking nodes and bonuses that can be further enhanced with glyphs. It’s here that character builds will get more breathing room outside of the first 50-ish skill points. Right now across the internet, players can find the best builds for doing the most damage through the first 50 levels and then new builds that take advantage of all the game rewards players with. Paragon boards, in my opinion, may allow players to find their own joy outside of a meta that everyone might feel pushed too. It becomes a game about character optimization, fleshing out how the Paragon system can compliment the basic skill tree or completely alter how the two work together. A flame Sorcerer felt so impractical until I found better gear and found potential in the Paragon board, but guides on the internet would tell me to stick to ice magic… it makes me curious to see what the next few months for Diablo 4 will look like.
Players will eventually reach a point where the difficulty and rewards start diminishing. This is where unlocking World Tier 3 comes in play. Players must first complete a Capstone Dungeon around level 50 to unlock the Nightmare difficulty. Once in this difficulty tier, new events become active, including Helltides and Nightmare Dungeons. Helltides randomly spawn across the world, raining down blood and unleashing more powerful enemies. Defeating waves of these enemies will reward players with Aberrant Cinders that can be exchanged for unique loot. Nightmare Dungeons can have unique modifiers and events in them to add further edge to the increasingly harder enemies. Torment, known as World Tier 4, is unlocked around level 70 after defeating yet another Capstone Dungeon. Torment further buffs enemies and the rewards for killing them, while also dropping tons of unique loot specific to the difficulty.
Keep in mind, across all four World Tiers players will be fighting similar mobs of trash enemies and Elites. The method of killing them remains about the same, except that around Nightmare and Torment, expect pools of elemental effects. I’m not sure if enemy fights in ARPGs have ever been a highlight, regardless of their visual design. And Diablo 4 has exciting trash to fight along with memorable bosses that might not be mechanically complex but are still fun to take down. But the bigger reward for players is watching dozens of enemies die within seconds of each other in a shower of blood and grunts. By the time larger, more difficult fights occur, death can happen in seconds.
On its current course, Diablo 4 is one of the richest, fullest games available. I haven’t witnessed a more vibrant endgame at launch in memory. Even The Division 2, which learned all the lessons of its predecessor, Destiny, and others, had ways to keep players invested in the long run. But it takes nearly every game months–if not years–to reach the content possibilities that Diablo 4 has at launch. The paths I’ve described here can be applied across four other classes, all with their own branching possibilities. PvP zones exist to betray friends, gain new enemies, and collect more loot. World Bosses–which are probably going to need buffs soon–can bring a server together. And you can randomly help a fellow player take down en elite or simply overturn a stone for them to collect gold from. I do have my fears about how the seasonal content will play out and if the harmless, yet expensive shop will stay that way. But if new stories and content are going to be doled out regularly, players will have an extremely healthy game in Diablo 4.
Diablo 4 is a vast, daunting experience. One that I gladly dive into. One that I think about while I’m at work. My brain tingles and itches of new skill implementations and ways to maximize gear efficiency. Diablo 4 is also a constantly changing experience. Even as I finalize my thoughts, Blizzard is toiling away at patches and changes to characters, players are coming up with new optimizations. This is a game that can consume your attention with captivating grinds and immersive world-building. Players will hit highs and lows in their search for absolute power, just like in so many other games. Diablo 4 is a culmination of effort, one that isn’t entirely new, but one that is the best at what it does.
