Diablo IV

2025-01-04
What if Diablo 3 launched without massive server issues and a real-money auction house and went grimdark and open-world? Well, that's just Diablo 4 baby. And you know what? That's good, maybe even great depending on your appetite for the Diablo loop. The grimdark tone is cool, the graphics are fantastic--I mean I actually stopped in one dungeon just to gape at the hyper-detailed, glistening, meaty bits adorning the environment--, the story surprisingly solid with some classic Blizzard excellent CGI cutscenes, and the open world stuff is...fine.

Truthfully most of my time spent with the game I was engrossed in that classic Diablo loop: killing, looting, build-tinkering. But there's a decided tinge of rot due to the included open-world-live-service giblets. Why do I have to spend money to unlock this slot or this feature? Why do I have to spend so much fuuucking time running around these maps? Oh there's a mount? This isn't fucking World of Warcraft, my guy. Whatever, I had fun. And Ralph Ineson's voice in any game makes it worth playing IMO.

2023-07-15
It's certainly more Diablo isn't it? And that's not a bad thing at all. It's cool that this one came out fully functioning with only some server lag vs the disastrous launch of 3 which was a real spectacle to behold with the servers barely functioning and then the real money auction house. Sure Phil made $100 selling some rare sword but the rest of us were just playing a bad game. Which after they massaged it into an entirely new game turned into something quite wonderful. And that's exactly what you got here.

It's addicting, it's fun, and oh my word it's gorgeous. I mean this might be one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. Going through the first few dungeons I was just marveling at the horrifying, glistening, meaty bits. The way the sand blows when you're going through the desert and how there's even height to the terrain as you go up and down sand dunes. Incredibly interesting effect paired with the isometric view of the game.

Combat-wise I was actually a little bored with my initial choice of Druid. Killing stuff was a chore and bosses were wiping the floor with me. And then once I found a choice legendary that added 30% to my basic attack speed and unlocked and experimented with some more abilities I finally had a viable build. Teleporting between enemies as a werewolf for the next 20-odd hours was a blast.

The structure of the game is both good and bad. It's cool that there's all these persistent elements like finding the shrines of Lilith giving permanent stat boosts to all your characters, leveling up the reputation for an area also gives you skill points and things that really make you more powerful, BUT you also have a giant open world that's kind of repetitive and slow to move around in. Why make me walk across this giant game until the very end where you get a mount. And even those permanent upgrade features feel more like a lure to get you to play the game like it's fuckin' World of Warcraft or something. No thanks, dude.

And hey the story was actually cool too. There was a surprising amount of pathos with the death of Donan (?) due to the good writing, characterization, and wonderful voice acting. The voice actor for Lorath is incredible. Oh man and the fully animated cutscenes were genuinely spectacular. The one where the armies of the humans and the demons in Hell clash is truly one of the coolest scenes I've ever seen in anything, not just games.

All in all while I'm miffed I spent $100 for a game I really have no interest in engaging in the Seasonal Content in, it was a really good time. And funnily enough I did the whole thing solo. I'm sure if I return someday and do couch coop on the PS5 or something it will be far, far better.