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Diablo IV won’t be out until 2023, but thanks to Blizzard Entertainment, I got hip-deep in the dead. When I wasn’t working or sleeping, I was mostly playing Diablo IV. To be honest, I couldn’t get enough of it. My only regret is that I couldn’t play more of it.
One question that some may ask is whether the game fits the Diablo aesthetic. The short answer is: Yes, it does. Diablo is one of my favorite PC franchises, so I have pretty high standards for these games. I’m looking forward to battling with Lilith. However, for now, I have to hang up my weapons and wait for the full launch of Diablo IV.
That said, I think it’s going to deliver great results, and fans of the franchise are going to love it. Here’s what I think about the press preview event of Diablo IV.
Diablo IV’s introduction is dark and perfect
The game drops our hero off into the bitter wilderness outside of a village named Nevesk in Diablo IV’s introduction. Nevesk is worn down, broken, and miserable looking. It’s just what I hoped for. I won’t spoil the story, but of course, our hero gets caught up in an apocalyptic event.
It’s already public knowledge that Lilith is going to be one of the primary antagonists, and her influence is already spreading when the game starts. I loved the bitter hopelessness of the people.
People are huddled into what can generously be called shacks or hovels, and not everyone is who or what they seem to be. Naturally, as the protagonist, you’ll have to set out and slaughter wildlife and evil forces in Diablo IV.
I genuinely did not expect this intro to play out the way it did. Again, no spoilers, but I was thrilled with how this story turned out. However, the real big question is, how’s the gameplay?
Combat is fast and exciting in Diablo IV’s open-world setting
I was admittedly a little nervous about Diablo IV being a true open-world game. After all, I’m used to using teleporters to get everywhere. I didn’t see any of them in the actual world, but it’s entirely likely I didn’t explore well enough. However, they are in every town I visited.
This made it easy enough for me to get to areas to tackle world events, push the story forward, or simply find new things to murder with my ever-growing selection of skills and weapons. Diablo IV retains a similar UI to its predecessor, and that’s a good thing. You equip your primary attack that builds whatever resource you use, and a series of other skills to burn through that.
As a Barbarian, I needed a lot of Fury. It was the class I spent the most time in, but there was only one thing I couldn’t figure out. There didn’t seem to be a way to swap from my two one-handed weapons to my two-handers. I had no issues fighting and destroying all of my enemies.
The actual combat felt amazing. The attacks felt like they had weight behind them, and the animations looked solid. I played on Veteran I because I felt normal would probably just be too easy. I wound up being right, but I wasn’t seriously challenged by that difficulty either. That may be chalked up to simply playing a lot of Diablo over the years. Not that Diablo IV is super easy, because that’s just not the case.
While the combat was exciting and gruesome, I had one minor qualm. You have access to a dodge/evasion button. On the PlayStation 5 build of Diablo IV, it was the Circle button by default. However, it has a pretty long timer. Thanks to that, some fights were much harder.
I don’t think you should be able to spam the evasion skill, but I think that the cooldown ought to be shorter. There was one mission I simply could not complete solo thanks to how long it took to evade enemies. It didn’t feel like it had invincibility frames either, so you have to be careful how you use it.
I also had access to the skill trees of these classes in Diablo IV, and I like how it was changed. You have a base of four major attacks for the class, which also had upgrades you could unlock with skill points. Then, it stretched down into other ways to enhance those or unlock stronger abilities. It’s a very easy-to-use system, and you can also reset the tree, in case you aren’t happy with it.
I hope that there will be the possibility of having a build or two to swap between, but that wasn’t available this time. You might want to have other loadouts for dungeons, world bosses, or simply grinding out levels.
Diablo IV combines the dark look of the first game, with modern graphics
While I enjoyed playing Diablo III, it didn’t quite have the same aesthetic as Diablo I or II. Diablo I had a dimly lit, dark, and hopeless vibe to it. The best way to describe the look of Diablo IV is that it has the look of the first game, but is done with modern graphics capabilities.
Everything looks so dilapidated and hopeless. That’s exactly what I wanted to see. It’s beautiful, while also looking grim, dark, and rundown. Blizzard nailed the aesthetic and look of the game, at least in Act I. I’m looking forward to seeing more.
You also have more control over what your character looks like, and that's a significant change to the franchise. You can be male or female and can change several things from skin tone, hair style/color, and tattoos. It might be a little thing, but I loved how the hair looked. It fit the characters, instead of simply being slapped into place weirdly.
In Conclusion
Is Diablo IV really that enjoyable? Absolutely, it is. It has striking visuals and excellent combat, and the story hooked me. There’s a satisfying "squelch" sound when you stamp across a body in the snow. I also found some interesting enchantments for my weapons while playing the game.
My favorite was probably Executioner. It had a chance to instantly kill a damaged non-Elite unit, and it happened way more than I thought it would.
There’s still a long way to go on Diablo IV, I’m sure, but I like where it’s at right now. Exping didn’t feel like a chore, and the missions were a lot of fun to play. I hope to see teleporters in the wild, just because that’s what I’m used to. If not, I hope that it will be quick enough to get to where you want to go.
I couldn’t get enough of the game, and I’m very much looking forward to another hands-on preview of the latest tale in the world of Diablo.
