Devilishly Delicious...
It’s been a near eleven years since Diablo III’s inception, with an underlining rollercoaster reception that’s taken the franchise on major highs and lows that have had fans on the edge of their seat for what inevitably was to come for its successor. Diablo IV’s Beta is already impressing many, including those that may have had doubts about its quality of life aspects, along with superior design and gameplay that ultimately trumps Diablo III’s ageing infrastructure. While it was a turbulent start for the closed round of the beta, the open portion over the last weekend was sensationally driven by its well polished and refined display to date. While only giving us a taste of things to come, Diablo IV’s capped classes and locked-in chapter served us a mighty banquet of insatiable action, that will unequivocally have long time fans bloodlust, and newfound fans bloodthirsty.
The return of Lilith bodes a unnerving sense of doom with the land of sanctuary under her control. The opening moments of the beta had me in awe with some of the greatest improvements in cinematics and sheer brutality laid upon bystanders. Within five minutes, a detailed backstory gives us all we need to know of our limited time in this world before it launches this June. In saying this, Diablo IV’s monumental improvements are immediate. Smoother, richer, darker, deftly and deadlier. Small anecdotes or colloquy give players insight to Lilith’s warpath as players will discover smattered corpses of the innocent across the land. It’s an immediate departure of sorts from Diablo III’s arcade aesthetic, with Diablo IV depicting a dystopian, war-torn world that is on the verge of an apocalypse, fitting of its title’s namesake and franchise legacy.
Dungeon Crawling is incredibly fun, with engaging altercations between enemies that include overgrown spiders, re-animated corpses, spirit guardians, sorcerers and a litany of other unearthly arcane entailed characters. Each area will have its own respective boss fight, and I must say that Blizzard have listened to fans here, giving the oversized sanctum securers an overhaul without making them a bullet sponge or a punching bag that tediously wastes time instead of delivering the player a diverse experience that leads to a gratifying finish. There was one qualm I had after the introductory period with each boss, and that is recycling their use and becoming an ordinary foe for future frivolity, but it’s in the nature of the beast that your character’s class – to which you may select one of three available in the beta – will level to a bountiful number above early adversaries, but it should be noted that the beta capped us at level 25.
UI is certainly busy, with markers and indicators popping up at an extreme level but is never in the way of important gameplay. The top-down aspect with the centre of attention being your character, allows eyes to wander at all corners of the screen to gauge the battle, but digest information at rapid pace, allowing for smoother execution on all fronts. From HP to inventory management and enemy readings, I was surprised at how easy it was to discern such a highway of mass meters and text without it getting in the way of the action. Traversing through each map with its legend distinctly located in the top right-hand corner of the screen, I found it easy to locate multiple items laid waste from past encounters or random drops. It’s also great to dissect an ongoing battle with mammoth creatures like Ashava, by tracking its movement while off-screen by using the mini-map while locating teammates, smaller foes and drops.
This works in tandem with character attributes and levelling on the go. Diablo’s sensational real time RPG style streamlines smaller facets of character development and improvements with haste and little to no bottlenecking. Of course, there’s always a grind but this has been cleaned from what I could gauge from the beta. You character’s abilities, stats, buffs and de-buffs are all arranged neatly for quick consumption and adjustment right from the game’s frontend without interrupting anything major. Finding a moment of solace and quickly navigating through loot, I was able to get my player to level 20 by the beta’s end. The skill-tree design is quite possibly one of the easiest to read, and exponentially superior to its predecessor in every way. The sense of immediately equipping the highest level weaponry or piece of kit is not only passé’, but there’s a sense of intricacies that encourage players to take their time while looking at their bag.
A constant connection aspect of the title leaves me critical, especially in Australia, with our garbage National Broadband Network speeds, as I suffered multiple disconnections in Diablo III. I was thrown to the main menu a few times during the beta, but I equate that to growing pains and an overloaded server of millions rushing to see Diablo’s hottest new release, so I can’t judge its stability quite yet. While I give Diablo IV its praise, the character creation suite is a little light on variety. Whether this is a test version that’s strictly tied to the beta and will be fleshed out on the full release remains to be seen, but assuming that this is the final build of the suite itself is a little lacklustre. Although, you won’t necessarily see your character up-close for 90% of the campaign, there’s still something to personalisation that carries through the adventure itself, so hopefully this is just a preview of its customisation tools from an aesthetic value.
Taking away what I have from the last weekend of incredible gameplay divulged by Blizzard, Diablo IV will leave an undeniable impression on its audience, especially those that took the time to experience this polished preliminary piece. Its opening is vast, lofty and has plenty to show for what is to come, and as a fan of the MMO/RPG genre, this may personify what Diablo has been trying to be for generations. From just a design point, the game supersedes its predecessors tenfold by performance and style. I can’t wait to dive deep into the land of sanctuary, and wage war with its deadliest demons as I tear my own warpath toward fate with Lilith. It’s going to be an excruciating wait until June 6, but I’m ready for more.
Diablo IV releases June 6, 2023 for PC, PlayStation and XBOX.
Diablo IV Beta Impressions
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Diablo IV is an upcoming action role-playing game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, and is the fourth main installment in the Diablo series. The game was announced on November 1, 2019 at BlizzCon 2019, and is scheduled for release on June 6, 2023.
