Diablo 4

[Skinypupy]

I was able to get in and play for about an hour before having to leave for a meeting.

Initial impressions? It’s…Diablo. If you didn’t like it before, nothing here will change your mind and vice versa. I happen to love Diablo so I’m perfectly happy with that but if you are looking for some sort of evolution of the genre, this doesn’t appear to be it. It does look really good, I’ll give it that.

[Sudy]

Epic head sweat. Sold!

[Sudy]

[Skinypupy]

Just got home and tried to log back in.

97 minute queue.

[Hyena]

I got in fairly early, but hit a bug on my first playthrough, had to wait for 144 minutes, then got about twenty minutes in before I hit another bug and had to wait for another 66 minutes. Since then, I've played straight for about three hours or so, just Roaming around with no more issues. Playing a sorc, I just found a legendary Relic and then gambled three times and hit a legendary wand to pair it with. Chain lightning is stupid OP, frequently killing things off screen before I even see it.

All in all, really liking it. Cool dungeon mechanic, interesting skill tree system, and playing in veteran mode right off the bat is doable, making for faster leveling and better loot.

[hepcat]

Epic head sweat. Sold!

Add hair dye and make a class called the Giulianiator

[Daehawk]

Is that T'ealc?

[Sudy]

No Teal'c is Kratos now.

Edit: Actually reminded me of the Agent Smith-Morpheus torture scene in the first Matrix where Smith is all like, "You know what I most dislike about humans? It's the smell!" and Morpheus is all drenched in sweat.


And damn, I tried hepcat! But none of the faces or haircuts are old enough.

[Blackhawk]

Is that T'ealc?

I also got T'ealc, mostly due to the dark makeup around the eyes, which is very similar to what they did with him early on.

[Isgrimnur]

[Skinypupy]

Played through the end of Act 1 (as far as you can go in the beta) with a Sorc and about halfway through with a Barb. Some random thoughts from a mostly casual Diablo player:

1. I actually kinda like the static overworld with procedurally generated instances and dungeons. Makes getting around much easier when everything is always in the same place.

2. The action RPG gameplay is still just as solid as ever. It's amazing to me that now matter how many games are in this genre, no one quite nails the combat as well as Diablo does. I did prefer the Sorc to the Barb, especially at the lower levels. The Barb felt a bit clunky.

3. The loot all now gets dumped into one big inventory space, instead of splitting it out by slot like D3. I prefer D3's way, but this works fine once you get used to it. Loot drop progression feels fine, and I had almost a full set of Legendarys by the time I finished Act .

4. The skill system gives a ton of flexibility in builds. I'm not really into the Diablo metagame, but I imagine those who are will have a field day with this. You unlock a set of skills after you spend X number of skills points, then each of those skills can be further tweaked an upgraded. I mostly just used Chain Lightning/Hydra with my Sorc. Was a fun combo.

5. Unique don't have cool names anymore, which was disappointing. They just say things like "Flaming [Monster Type]" or "Icy [Monster Type]".

6. I think it looks and sounds amazing. They really nailed the atmosphere, as they always seem to do. It's a beautiful game, and I love how much of the environment is now destructible. Although they did remove "Item Destroyed" bonuses. I also didn't see any enemy kill chain bonuses either, so I'm guessing that's not a thing anymore either.

All in all, I think it's an absolute blast and can't wait for the full game.

[TheMix]

3. The loot all now gets dumped into one big inventory space, instead of splitting it out by slot like D3.

What? Do you mean the equipped gear? Because D3 just has one big backpack inventory for picked up gear. There is no automatic sorting.

[Sudy]

Haven't read SP's comments yet, but in general, and maybe it's just because I've ingested more than one [legal] substance tonight, I'm quite happy with this as a demo! Technical issues aside, I think they've really actually nailed combining elements of Diablo 2 and 3, and most of them are the good ones. The tone and mood are much darker. The environment is gorgeous. The story is actually kind of interesting knowing the previous lore.

The itemization seems some between 2 and 3. Legendaries have noticeable effects, but aren't overpowering (so far). Identifying the best items isn't quite as easy as in D3, but the systems aren't as esoteric as in D2. I think I like this balance. The skill tree is modernized... there are more choices than in D3, and they're a little more important. But you can respect; you certainly won't be rerolling when you good like in D2. That said, putting additional points into skills doesn't feel meaningful. Two more damage per hit as level two? Whooo! But it was that way in D2 also. Most skill points were fleshing out the abilities you'd already picked. On D3 to contrast, there was of course zero fine-tuning whatsoever.

The visual style is great, but it's less stylized than D3's. While this will make many people happy, I think it will cause it to age less gracefully. The visuals and animations remind me a bit of Path of Exile (but it's just a superficial similarity). Combat mostly feels great, as always. Except for when I occasionally seem to whiff, but I think that's a latency thing. Have had pretty rough intermittent connection and also RAM issues. Also, it doesn't feel as easy to gauge line of sight. This is mostly due to the complexity and splendour of the environments, but it's really frustrating and reminds me of the witch doctor's zombie bears not connecting in D3 because the enemy was on a three-inch incline.

I've played a barbie to 10 or so and a sorc to 17, so I haven't seen everything. But I did complete the world boss. Barb felt really underpowered, or at least more difficult to play. I was unable to close the distance on the Den Mother (on veteran difficulty) without dying. But it was so much easier on the sorc. Still a long battle, but minimal risk of dying. Lightning sorc feels OVERpowered. I know sorcs are glass cannons, but I'm just wiping packs with chain lightning. Fire is pretty but feels less effective, at least without sprucing it up with legendary effects. Many of the spell animations will take you back to D2, but I think they might be hewing a bit too closely to the past. I also found some of the returning D1/D2 sound effects to be a bit pandering.

But at the end of the day, yeah... it's Diablo. And if you live Diablo, that's great! But it's a refinement, not a revolution. Other ARPGs are still doing more interesting things. But Diablo remains a very tight, focused product that feels great. I'd definitely recommend checking out the open beta next weekend if you weren't in this weekend's closed one.

Oh! The open world stuff definitely makes the world feel more lived in. World events, phasing into the same instances as other players on the overworld map, etc. Looking forward to seeing what the season passes hold even if I don't like the idea of being nickeled and dimed in a full-price AAA+. But the real question that won't be resolved during the beta is, what's the endgame like? Though I'm sure there's some reading to be done on the matter out there.

[Sudy]

Oh, I really like that there are no companions at this stage, other than temporary ones who hang around for certain quests. Makes your journey feel much more lonely and foreboding when you're instanced in dungeons by yourself. But I hope they return in some form at some point due to the fun of gearing them and having a little control over setting them up to complement your playstyle/build.

[Sudy]

3. The loot all now gets dumped into one big inventory space, instead of splitting it out by slot like D3.

What? Do you mean the equipped gear? Because D3 just has one big backpack inventory for picked up gear. There is no automatic sorting.

I believe SP means all item types take up two verticle spaces now. Gems/amulets/rings/etc. now take up as much inventory space as a tunic does. I'm indifferent.


Oh, I'm confused by the weapon switching mechanic. I kind of understand it now, but on the barb for example you equip four weapons at once; different ones correspond to different skills and automatically switch. But it's not the easiest system to grasp at first.

[Daehawk]

I was going to ask about companions but see you touched on it. I hope they make them easier to customize. Right now Id normally just loot rare and legendary items but im picking up about everything still then going back to town and hiring one and equipping that one then hiring the next and dressing that one and so on then selling whats left in my inv in Diablo 3 . Since this is the last character I plan to ever play through in D3 Im not crafting anything or combing gems or changing item appearences. This is D3's last ride forever for me after many many character play throughs.

[GreenGoo]

Seems like I will be picking this up after all. Eventually.

I'm mildly surprised at this.

[coopasonic]

Not a clue. I'll check reviews after release and see if I should give a damn. I've played Diablo 3 seasonal content as a filler for a while. I'm curious to see what they are going to do with 4, but totally cool with waiting for reviews and impressions.

OK I lied.

I bought it on Saturday and then bought it for one of my kids (accidentally gifting the ultimate edition - happy birthday I guess).

Played a barbarian to 20, starting with whirlwind and then moving to rend. I finished Act I. It felt like a slow-mo D3 just because I am used to racing to max level in seasonal content in D3. Cutscenes were overlong but kind of interesting. Graphics are quite a bit prettier than D3. I don't think Barb is the class for me. I guess I got to used to ranged classes over all the seasonal characters.

[stimpy]

Find it strange that it looks like the only place to buy the PC version of this is from Blizzard.

[gilraen]

Find it strange that it looks like the only place to buy the PC version of this is from Blizzard.

That's literally always been the case for all Blizzard games.

[stimpy]

Find it strange that it looks like the only place to buy the PC version of this is from Blizzard.

That's literally always been the case for all Blizzard games.

No. I have bought other Blizzard games from Best Buy.
D2 and Starcraft for sure.

[gilraen]

Find it strange that it looks like the only place to buy the PC version of this is from Blizzard.

That's literally always been the case for all Blizzard games.

No. I have bought other Blizzard games from Best Buy.
D2 and Starcraft for sure.

Oh, you meant those things called physical discs You can still buy physical media through other retailers but only if Blizzard actually produces it, which is rarely the case for PC versions outside of collector's editions.

[stimpy]

Find it strange that it looks like the only place to buy the PC version of this is from Blizzard.

That's literally always been the case for all Blizzard games.

No. I have bought other Blizzard games from Best Buy.
D2 and Starcraft for sure.

Oh, you meant those things called physical discs You can still buy physical media through other retailers but only if Blizzard actually produces it, which is rarely the case for PC versions outside of collector's editions.

You would think the game would be more widely available via digital download.
No GMG. No Epic. No Steam.

I mean....I'll still get it but it irks me because I have so much credit available with Best Buy and Steam.

[baelthazar]

Oh, you meant those things called physical discs You can still buy physical media through other retailers but only if Blizzard actually produces it, which is rarely the case for PC versions outside of collector's editions.

They used to just sell empty cases/boxes with a code in them (after they quit manufacturing CDs). Then they switched to these little credit cards with scratchable codes.

Point is, Blizzard sold stuff at Target, Best Buy, etc., even after the end of physical media.

[Blackhawk]

Find it strange that it looks like the only place to buy the PC version of this is from Blizzard.

That's literally always been the case for all Blizzard games.

No. I have bought other Blizzard games from Best Buy.
D2 and Starcraft for sure.

*Checks his watch*.

VHS was still outselling DVDs when those came out. I think the last physical disk PC Blizzard game I bought was Starcraft 2. That was a decade ago, and still had to be installed on Battle.net.

[stimpy]

Yeah.....so the argument is Blizzard will sell way more PC games by not making them available via other outlets.......got it.

[El Guapo]

Personally I think Blizzard really shot themselves in the foot when they stopped selling through horse-and-carriage outlets.

[Blackhawk]

Yeah.....so the argument is Blizzard will sell way more PC games by not making them available via other outlets.......got it.

Who made that argument?

I think that the argument that ActiBlizz would make is that they feel that they will have increased profits (vs more sales) if they are able to control the prices of their products, avoid third party shenanigans, and don't have to share a big slice of their sales with other retailers.

And they are high profile enough (and with a large enough established customer base) that they are probably right. Will they lose a few sales from 'only Steam' customers? Sure. But they will probably come out ahead anyway over keeping those few die hards and paying Valve 30% of half of their sales.

If you're unhappy with it, don't look at Blizzard. Look to Valve for the way they abuse their market share and drive away a lot of AAA publishers.

[stimpy]

Yeah.....so the argument is Blizzard will sell way more PC games by not making them available via other outlets.......got it.

Who made that argument?

I think that the argument that ActiBlizz would make is that they feel that they will have increased profits (vs more sales) if they are able to control the prices of their products, avoid third party shenanigans, and don't have to share a big slice of their sales with other retailers.

And they are high profile enough (and with a large enough established customer base) that they are probably right. Will they lose a few sales from 'only Steam' customers? Sure. But they will probably come out ahead anyway over keeping those few die hards and paying Valve 30% of half of their sales.

If you're unhappy with it, don't look at Blizzard. Look to Valve for the way they abuse their market share and drive away a lot of AAA publishers.

I dont care about just Steam.
Why can I walk into Best Buy and get a physical disc for Xbox and Playstation, but not PC?
Or for that matter, even a empty box with a download code?
Hell....I bought the digital Elden Ring from Best Buy not that long ago.

[naednek]

Hell, most new devices don't even have dvd drives these days.

[rittchard]

I had mixed feelings overall. A lot of stuff I absolutely loved and I’m still really looking forward to trying the Druid and Necro this weekend. The overall game atmosphere, as others have mentioned, was fantastic, and I love that the majority of the game there aren’t a ton of load screens. It has that “seamless” world feel that I think a lot of games are lacking these days. I love walking into an inn or opening a door and just walking into the next area without a load screen breaking immersion. Performance was pretty smooth for me throughout when I was actually playing (I did get booted multiple times and the queue was not fun).

I think I’m not sure how much I like the MMO-ization of the game. It sounded really good to me on paper but playing it seemed a little odd. I can’t say I felt negative about it, but just odd. Kind of like someone mixed Lost Ark with Diablo3 and had a baby. As a fan of MMOs I think it will grow on me in the long run. A couple times a rando helped me with a challenge, and that was kind of cool. Also cool that they auto scale the levels to be appropriate for the player. I didn’t get to try the world boss, but that seems like a fun addition.

As I mentioned in the Last Epoch thread, I was a little underwhelmed with the skill system. I know we’ve only scratched the surface in the beta, but from the initial look I’m not sure how exciting the future specializations will be. I think each skill having just the one branching node was a bit of a turnoff, especially since the branches weren’t particularly game changing. Something like my Frost Nova gains back some mana for every one it hits - this was the furthest node?

Overall I’m optimistic, I definitely see many improvements over D3, which I also enjoyed.

Side note: I was able to get the game to run on Steam Deck in case anyone was curious. Choppy but playable.

[Blackhawk]

I think I’m not sure how much I like the MMO-ization of the game.

As someone who does follow hype, what do you mean by 'MMO-ization'?

[coopasonic]

I think I’m not sure how much I like the MMO-ization of the game.

As someone who does follow hype, what do you mean by 'MMO-ization'?

Shared open world, you see other players when you are wandering around the open world, you can work together to complete events and world bosses without having to join a group or anything.

[Isgrimnur]

Had a random drop in to my Dead Island game last night and help.

[Torfish]

I like the in-game boss event concept. I hope they have a chance to drop loot that is unique to the boss and not a bunch of random stuff that can be found anywhere else.

[Hyena]

I think I’m not sure how much I like the MMO-ization of the game.

As someone who does follow hype, what do you mean by 'MMO-ization'?

Shared open world, you see other players when you are wandering around the open world, you can work together to complete events and world bosses without having to join a group or anything.

Gotta admit I was a little surprised to see someone running around in my game. I don't think I was aware that it had that much MMO in it's genes. It didn't bother me, other than the fact that I had to wait in line to play a game I paid for. I also like that there was no boss kill stealing mechanic. If you hit the guy even once a chest would still drop and the quest would complete. I had that happen a few times on both sides, where I ran up on a guy taking out an event boss (or someone ran up on me) and after the killing blow we both got xp and credit for the quest.

And if you think this weekend's queues were bad, I shudder to think of what next weekend's will be. I hope they have more servers up and running. And I hope my graphics card can handle being in an open world with 100 necromancers running around with all their armies of skeletons...including mine.

[Sudy]

Other thoughts, some more critical:

The Story - The plot directly references some of the audio logs in Diablo 3. I don't know if the history has been explored elsewhere in any of the games. I played Diablo 3 a ton and listened to the audio logs multiple times, so I find it kind of cool. However, the delivery method... I mean, it's more and better storytelling than in any previous Diablo, but it's dished out mostly in in-game dialogue that's well acted, but just kind of... boring. (Not that I expected otherwise.) Thankfully most of it can be advanced by clicking, or altogether skipped. Getting through it was still a pain on my second character. I want to experience the story but the delivery is just kind of boring. Especially in terms of the side quests. And no, there are no dialogue choices to make. I can think of one thing there were multiple responses to in the demo, but it seemed irrelevant. I do love the setting though; most of the demo took place in a snow-covered Eastern-European-like region.

MMOGification - I don't mind it, but it definitely affects the feeling of the game. I think it works more like Path of Exile or Lost Ark (my time with those titles has been limited); there are other people in town and in the connecting overworld, but you're solo once you enter a dungeon. It's kind of jarring. The solo areas feel lonely and foreboding as in previous games in the series, but in the overworld you no longer feel like "the chosen one". All in all I think it's a fantastic move for the gameplay however. There's so much to do, and more variety. But there are also more timesinks. Traveling around without a mount is annoying. Thankfully the game is fairly generous with waypoints and portal function. And as the overworld is now static, it takes the guesswork out of where to unlock portals, and how close they get you to your destination. The dungeons themselves... there are some people complaining about how samey they feel. It's true, but it's expected. What does annoy me is the lack of meaningful exploration. Like earlier games in the series, the dungeons are mazelike with little reason to explore. I like to uncover every corner of the dungeon maps, but there's just no point. And retracing your steps through areas you've already cleared is boring as hell. Resource gathering in the overworld is... fine. It's a distraction, but a minor one. I have no interest in farming routes however, which I'm sure will be a thing.

Skills and Gameplay - It's a Diablo 2 nostalgia trip. I kind of wish they'd iterated more. It's cool to see a D2-esque frozen orb and blizzard again, but were those attacks really ever fun? Attacks felt better in D3 IMO, and there was a lot of variety between some of the runes. It's still in beta, but barbarian through level 10 felt so much harder to me than sorcerer. Closing range wasn't fun (though I didn't try all the skills). In general, the dungeon bosses I fought felt samey. Dodge the telegraphed attacks, avoid the bad stuff on the floor. Is that any different from earlier games in the series? I guess not. But it feels more like D2 than D3, and maybe not actually for the better. The bosses were absolutely HP sponges (though again, the beta's only the first 25 levels). What's great though is that challenge has returned. You actually have to pay attention when fighting elites and bosses. And while your health potion refills like in the updated D3, it only has four charges. So you can't kite indefinitely. (Bosses will drop potion charges occasionally though.)

Performance & Bugs - The longest queue I experienced was 90 minutes on Friday. I don't have high hopes for a smooth launch, but that's par for the course. There was an extremely frustrating bug in which it was impossible to traverse transition points and you hit an invisible wall, but I presume that will get fixed. In terms of performance, it ran like crap for me at times. Most of my hardware is five years old, but it was top-of-the-line back then and far exceeds the requirements. It was an inconsistent problem though, and seemed better when I went down to minimum detail. (Which still looked really good!) There seems to be a major ram leak or some kind of similar issue. When I booted up the game only 40-50% of my 32GB was typically in use. But after an hour or two, I had it hit 85+ a couple times and my system would just chug. Again, I presume they'll get this under control. But it wasn't fun to have to break up a session to restart. Sometimes I had no choice though, even if I was in the middle of a quest.

Gearing - TBD. As others have mentioned, I pretty much had a full set of legendaries (oranges) by the end of the demo. The reward for beating the world boss was eight (!) legendaries. Fighting the boss was not too fun BTW; the experience itself was cool (the boss was on the more breathtaking scale of Belial from D3), but I kept getting one-shot. (Mind you, I was significantly underlevelled.) I'm not going to enjoy if it turns into a "set-an-alarm, be online at a specific time" farm though. The perks on the legendaries aren't nearly as powerful as in Diablo 3 (probably for the best). It was easy to see how they'll enable you to augment builds though, which is pretty cool. As well, you can modify gear by applying "aspects" earned as dungeon rewards. You can target dungeons that give you a reward for your specific build/class and then overwrite your legendary with an ideal perk for a fee. Separately, you can "level up" rare+ gear by paying gold/mats, but that stat boosts are so small that it seems like it may not be worth it until endgame.


Conclusion: I still really, really like the game so far. I know I'm going to sink hundreds of hours into it. But while all the new stuff seems cool, I feel as if they may have added too much in terms of the amount of unlocks and upgrade options there are. For fans of Diablo 2, I think you're going to be pleased. But maybe not pleased enough? For those who came to love Diablo 3, I think this game will suit you also. But the goals don't seem as clear, for better or worse.

[Daehawk]

Hehehe necro powah!

[rittchard]

Skills and Gameplay - It's a Diablo 2 nostalgia trip. I kind of wish they'd iterated more. It's cool to see a D2-esque frozen orb and blizzard again, but were those attacks really ever fun? Attacks felt better in D3 IMO, and there was a lot of variety between some of the runes. It's still in beta, but barbarian through level 10 felt so much harder to me than sorcerer. Closing range wasn't fun (though I didn't try all the skills). In general, the dungeon bosses I fought felt samey. Dodge the telegraphed attacks, avoid the bad stuff on the floor. Is that any different from earlier games in the series? I guess not. But it feels more like D2 than D3, and maybe not actually for the better. The bosses were absolutely HP sponges (though again, the beta's only the first 25 levels). What's great though is that challenge has returned. You actually have to pay attention when fighting elites and bosses. And while your health potion refills like in the updated D3, it only has four charges. So you can't kite indefinitely. (Bosses will drop potion charges occasionally though.)

I think the thing in D2 that was really interesting (though some might say frustrating) was that the more points you put into a particular skill would sometimes unlock additional effects and make the skill more fun. But they weren’t clearly spelled out so it was kind of an experiment and I suspect if you played casually you may never have known since some of the bonuses required items that increased skill levels (IIRC). I don’t remember off the top of my head but I do recall there being significant differences boosting skill levels up, some of them being very dramatic. I was told the Aspects would be what changed and enhanced skills the most in D4, and I didn’t really fiddle with them in the beta, so I’m hoping that’s going to be the game changer in the long run.

[YellowKing]

Thanks for the write-ups everyone. I skipped the beta because I knew I wouldn't have much time to play, so it's good to hear the first-hand impressions.