Diablo IV first impressions
by Ben Vernel
Diablo 4 is back! It’s been a long-time coming but fans of the isometric action RPG will be delighted to know that the return to hell will indeed be filled with loot to plunder, demons to smash, wells of blood to drink and about a million side quests to complete.
Lilith, Daughter of Hatred, has been raised by some creepy ass followers, and her demonic presence is sweeping across the land. At the same time, an angelic figure opposes her with his own fanatical army. You, unknown hero, must fight your way to victory, leaving behind you just piles and piles and piles of dead bodies.
Nothing much seems to have changed since the early access build just a couple of months ago, so if you enjoyed that you’re likely to be all in on D4. My characters from that build were deleted so I've started the game once again: however this time I was able to play as my favourite class from previous Diablo games, the Necromancer, and I'm happy to say that this class was a joy to play in single player mode for this review.
Character customization is possible, if limited, with more options for different jewellery than faces, but I was able to play around with hair colours and tattoos enough to make my Necro feel unique to me. Don’t come expecting a genuinely transformative customization tool though.
Summoning skeletons to fight as your personal bodyguard is as easy as pressing ‘1’ and you rapidly unlock ranged attacks that are bound to your mouse click. I can’t speak to how much this class has been nerfed since early access, as I didn’t have time to play the class on that second Beta weekend, but it plays much the same as it did in previous Diablo games, which is to say: summon skeletons, bone splinter, enjoy. All of the new abilities that I unlocked were fun and wonderfully visualised, from aforementioned bone splinters, blood-based damage, a bone spirit you can summon to a sweeping scythe of death.
The world is realised in beautiful grimy detailed top down 3D and while the opening act sees you trudging through an icy… ahem… SNOWSTORM, the game’s areas open up and soon become less monochromatic. Although, not much less. But this is a dark, bleak world with horrific things occurring in it, so perhaps don’t expect a Kirby level of saturation in Diablo 4’s colours. Palette aside, the world is finely crafted, with key areas and buildings possessing a level of believable detail and character that Blizzard’s best games are famous for. We also get plenty of cinematic and in-game cutscenes, with the in-game type featuring more camera movement than I recall from any previous game in the series.
At times the dungeons and even the overworld become a bit repetitive though, which is unfortunate for a game that will have players grinding away for loot and XP for hours and hours.
Equipping new weapons and armour is a breeze and the interface makes selling all that loot just as easy. Those special endorphins that you get from a slightly more powerful weapon, a slightly more protective piece of armour, or one that has golden or the much-desired orange title all come rushing back. The king of loot games is back to claim the crown (which when worn gives you +19 resistance to poison). No, this isn’t the kind of combat that makes you think too hard in the moment, but it does surprisingly introduce a dodge that makes things feel a little bit more methodical and timing-based as opposed to simply clicking the mouse over and over and over and over… and over. As a big fan of 3rd person action games, especially say Elden Ring, this addition of more traditional action game combat movement to a gothic fantasy setting went down a treat.
I haven’t mentioned multiplayer or co-op, and to be honest those aren’t things I usually engage in at all, so um… go look elsewhere for that. Sorry. It must be said that Blizzard appears to have introduced an even heavier focus on that aspect of the game than previous ones in the franchise, and due to its seasonal updates may require you to play regularly in order to stay up to date with the game’s meta.
But as far as the single player experience goes, Diablo 4 looks to be a welcome return to form in every way.