izigame.me

TLDR: Game is fun if you want a simple game and do not care if features from other ARPGs are added or not to Diablo 4. If you want a game similar to the competition keep looking elsewhere.
Starting with the positives, the art is fantastic and the animations are fluid (I think the best of all ARPGs in 2024, including one releasing soon as of this review). The game is not difficult to learn, and the pacing is good for people who do not want something too sophisticated. The game is also very fast paced, so you can definitely mindlessly blast your way through hordes of demons. That part was pretty fun and this game does it well. For simple requirements, Diablo 4 hits the spot. Cinematics are top notch too and I am a fan of the open world. Being able to launch the game on Steam is a plus, for the Steam Deck, though mostly play on Blizzard's own launcher on PC.
However, even though I can recommend this game (to a certain segment of the ARPG community), it is still lacking compared to the competition. Once you reach a certain point the game feels bland and soulless. There is no excitement when items drop. Any item that is not an Ancestral Legendary is automatically salvaged. Legendary items drop so often, they are basically equivalent to the magic items in Diablo 2 in terms of rarity. But the issue is even magic items in Diablo 2 had a purpose. They could roll stats other item tiers could not, so seeing a magic drop still made you feel excited. Rares and magic items are so useless in Diablo 4 the game developers just set them to drop as crafting materials in the late game. Even when the perfect item drops, you can still ruin it with the tempering system. Being able to brick an item is fine, but the way they handle it means finding a 3 star ancestral is more dreadful than exciting.
Another issue is skill modifications are lacking, and there are much more modifications to skills in Diablo 3 than there are in Diablo 4, never mind the competition. Where are my Frost/Lightning/Mammoth Hydras? Why can't I shoot multiple projectiles for all projectile skills? Why can't I change the element of most skills (such as turning Fireball into lightning element so it chains or something)? Why can't I modify the behavior of skills (such as chain lightning forking on each hit). It's just the same skills from the moment you get them until the endgame, only difference is numbers go up. I will say this aspect of non-modifiable skills is very much like Diablo 2, but this is one aspect of that game I wish the developers did not mimic. Since then being able to change skill appearance and behavior is almost a new baseline.
Third, in my opinion getting stronger by only stacking multipliers is not fun. Give us more variety than just 20% more damage on top of 30% more damage (such as skill modifications). I remember reading online guides on how to do the Paragon boards and noticed they skipped many of the +% dmg nodes, which I use to always get. It was at that moment I realized additive damage does not matter, only multipliers. Also why do skills themselves do so little damage in the late game and require some sort of gimmick to proc to damage enemies? Why are my chain lightning doing no damage, and only the explosion at the end from the Axial Conduit pants doing noticeable damage? Reminds me of the "Razor Wing" Spiritborn build, where the actual Razor Wing skill does not do much damage, and it is a poison damage proc from a helm that actually does the damage. If so, can you still call it the "Razor Wing" build?
And finally, having your gear set to legacy multiple times a year on the eternal realm forcing eternal realm players to restart needs to stop. I do not want to keep rebuilding my characters over and over again. You call it eternal but it is just a season 6-12 months long. If you only play seasonal this is no issue, but if you want to have some sort of permanence to your characters, you won't find it in Diablo 4. At least, not until Diablo 5 comes out and this game gets put on maintanence mode.