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Despite having access to all the ingredients needed to craft an exceptional ARPG campaign, Diablo IV still manages to butcher the execution, resulting in a messy story that feels more like a prologue for things for come than a well-rounded experience
When I first played Diablo IV on PS5 back during its original launch in 2023, I came away from the campaign so disappointed that I subsequently didn’t engage with the game anymore. Now, almost a full year later, I rediscovered the game for myself thanks to the SteamDeck – and many updates that shaped Diablo IV in the meantime. But while I enjoyed the game much more to the point where I even bought the first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, I still found the story campaign to be lacking, to be much more of a mixed bag than it had to be. As to share my thoughts on the highs and lows on this initial story experience, this review will only focus on the journey of completing the base game campaign while levelling a character up to level 50, the point at which the second levelling system (“paragon”) sets in. I’m aware that many ARPG fans only consider story experiences like these to be the setup for the “actual game” - which is true if you’re playing these games to fully dive into building the most powerful characters possible – but I personally consider a campaign that takes at least 15h to beat more than worthy to talk about on its own.
Let’s start with the basic premise of the story: Taking place 50 years after the events of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, the campaign of Diablo IV is centred around the return of Lilith, Queen of the Succubi and daughter of one of the prime evils, Mephisto, lord of hatred. You, a lone Wanderer, end up on Lilith’s trail throughout the bleak landscape of Sanctuary after being caught up in the events surrounding her return. Your journey will take you through frozen woods, infested swamps, scorching hot deserts and, of course, a lot of dungeons, caves or cellars slaying thousands of enemies in order to level up, carefully invest skill points and obtain loot. While it’s quite common for ARPGs to treat their story campaign as nothing more than window-dressing, guiding the player through the various areas, it’s noticeable that Diablo IV wants to offer more than that, as shown by a mix of high-budget in-game and prerendered cutscenes, excellent voice acting (at least in German), story dungeons/bosses and even set-pieces shaking up the gameplay at times (e.g. navigating through a sandstorm).
However, just wanting your campaign to be more than a one-and-done affair unfortunately doesn’t automatically turn it into a great story experience. For example, while following the basic plot is far from complicated, newcomers to the franchise are going to lose out on much of the finer details, since Diablo 4 occasionally does surprisingly little to introduce them to its setting, which has been developed throughout multiple games and novels by now. Basic concepts of the world of Sanctuary, like its creation heavily involving Lilith or the eternal conflict between heaven or hell, are quite important for understanding the larger picture yet the game doesn’t allow newcomers to catch up on them.
Another huge issue in terms of story is that being on the trail of Lilith means you spend most of the game just trying to catch up with her and going on unnecessarily long tangents instead of facing off against her or her underlings during meaningful encounters. It’s a shame that the wonderfully diabolical Lilith is mostly relegated to flashback cutscenes, since it’s only at the very end that the game attempts to build up a meaningful connection between the player character and Lilith, which is simply too late to have much of an impact anymore. This also contributes to the fact that the base game campaign of Diablo IV feels more like a prologue than a well-rounded experience, as it's ending on a big and unsatisfying cliffhanger setting up the first expansion.
Lastly, while having a dark setting is part of the core identity of the Diablo games, the story of Diablo IV is bleak to an almost comical degree. The game is so obsessed with always delivering the worst possible outcomes to the point where it borders on parody, since you can be sure that almost every story-important character you meet is in for an incredibly bad time sooner or later. This might’ve been a result of overcorrecting, as Diablo III was called “too happy” by some players, but a little more restraint would’ve gone a long way in making Diablo IV less comically oppressive.
Still, on the bright side, the story campaign works decently enough to guide players through the world of Sanctuary and isn’t without memorable moments. The levelling and looting experience has been significantly improved, with better equipment always just around the corner and the main story quests keeping you sufficiently levelled (aside from two level jumps later in the game, where engaging with side content is needed). The combat is also a lot of fun, feels great and allows you to already dive into different powerful builds early into the game. And while the dungeons can get a bit repetitive, I really liked the concept of “Strongholds”, small dungeons with unique objectives and a small story attached to them, which almost feel like bite-sized adventures on their own. Additionally, the game looks and sounds great, really showing off its huge budget, while running decently enough on a SteamDeck OLED (I went for a capped 45 FPS configuration).
However, while the game has gotten a lot better through the various updates in the last year, the MMO-ification of Diablo IV remains a problem: While killing world bosses or engaging in Helltide events seamlessly with other random players can be fun, the always-online requirement of Diablo IV makes playing it on to go via SteamDeck almost impossible. I would’ve preferred an option to toggle between an offline and online-mode but at this point, it’s probably never going to happen. It also should be noted that Diablo IV offers a cash shop for cosmetic items, with prices that can only be described as outrageous. Check out these World of Warcraft collaboration skins for example – while admittedly looking quite nice, each skin can only be equipped by one (!) character class and comes at the cost of 2.800 platinum which is equivalent to about 24.99€ or 28$. This is not a price anyone should pay for just a single skin.
Concluding, who would I recommend the campaign of Diablo IV to? If you’re a fan of the franchise and haven’t yet engaged with Diablo IV, now is a great time to do so. If you’re looking for a high-budget decent enough ARPG campaign, it might also be worth a look. I wouldn’t recommend Diablo IV to players who are hoping for an extraordinary story in a dark setting however, despite its story-focused marketing, it’s simply too much of a mixed bag if this is the only thing you’re looking for. Lastly, for all SteamDeck users out there, keep in mind that while the game is verified and runs well, it’s not worth purchasing unless your SteamDeck has access to a constant internet connection.