izigame.me

"So, what did you write on that piece of wood? I bet you didn't write anything at all. I wouldn't blame you."


Introduction

Diablo 4 is an APRG looter-style hack-and-slash and the long-awaited sequel to Diablo 3. Diablo 3 had an infamously flawed launch and eventually grew to be one of the best of its kind on the market, so Diablo 4 had a lot to live up to, to improve on the baseline of what was, and to become something better, but did it rise from the pits of hell to seek salvation or was it doomed to fiery eternal imprisonment?


🟩 Positives
🟥 Negatives


🟩 Five unique classes that introduce new elements and bring back many beloved favourites from the series.
🟩 A more realistic stance on the series than the previous entry, Diablo 3, reviving the atmosphere of Diablo 2 with a darker, more grim perspective of the world.
🟩 A gorgeous soundtrack that balances nostalgia and immersion perfectly.
🟥 Horrible balance, making difficulty almost negligible throughout the campaign.
🟥 This game isn't particularly visually pleasing, and much of the CGI has seemingly been replaced with in-game graphic sequences that improve immersion but don't deliver those set pieces Blizzard has come to be known for.
🟥 A lengthy and tedious story that doesn't deliver any suspense or excitement.
🟥 The microtransactions inundate your every action and burden the game to a crawl.




Story

The great war between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells continues to drag on following the events of Diablo 3. As the battles continue to rage, Sanctuary is caught in the middle and is consumed by darkness as the Prime Evil's powers prepare for the impending return.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3300863093
Cults emerge from the shadows, revering Lilith, the daughter of hatred, as their saviour and the acclaimed Mother of Sanctuary who will save them from the eternal conflict and bring peace to their home.
But this peace will come at a cost, and one that all of Sanctuary will have to pay in blood.
Diablo 4's story provides an outward allure for fans of the series with promises of a dark and gritty storyline and well-thought-out plot points. But in actuality, it lacks substance and fails to deliver those set pieces that defined the series to date. The story tends to drag on and consistently forgets where it is with dialogue clumsily backtracking on itself and reiterating points already made, while at other times the dialogue is rushed and ill-paced and never really feels like it has grasped the perfect balance.

Gameplay Analysis

Stay a while and listen!
I won't spend too much time here, as most of the fans coming to Diablo 4 would have played the series or genre in some form.
Diablo 4 is about slaughtering demons en masse for money and items that boost your power to massacre demons faster and more effectively. The game gauges difficulty through a system called "world tiers" Raising the world tier increases the difficulty and the frequency of rare drops, but for the duration of the campaign, you will be restricted to world tier two at a maximum.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3300864577
Unlike the previous iterations of Diablo, this game is entirely open-world, allowing you to freely explore an immense map with loads of secrets and side content to complete, including quests and dungeons. Completing these quests will accrue special items and experience points required for levelling. Waypoints scattered across Sanctuary's many regions will give you fast travel options to unlock as you begin exploring and the ability to summon a horse once you hit about midway will help speed up travel as well.
World bosses and events will periodically spawn on the map, allowing for more difficult content for greater rewards.
Endgame content is decently varied, providing a vast assortment of activities to complete once you have finished the campaign, ranging from higher world tiers, new dungeons, world events and more challenging bosses exclusive to higher levels.
You will constantly be confronted by microtransactions of all kinds in nearly every moment of playing this game. From the main menu screen to the inventory/map UI and every place in between. A clear emphasis has been placed on making the purchasable armour and weapons look infinitely better than anything you can find.

Audio and Visual

Diablo 4 isn't a particularly visually captivating game, especially considering how current it is. The general atmosphere is much darker than Diablo 3 and is far more reminiscent of Diablo 2 in its style and design, but fails to deliver in many aspects. Environments shift quite rapidly and generally don't feel that unique compared to zones you've just been in, you will spend a vast majority of your game time trudging through some degree of mud with slightly varying weather effects. Thankfully the cinematics, which Blizzard is generally well-known for have remained consistently high-quality here and still push the threshold of that standard.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3300863400
The audio is thankfully, at a much higher standard and actively captivates your senses with nostalgia and intensity. If the music was worse I'd have probably given up on this game, but it genuinely kept me motivated and wanting to pursue the story to completion.
I want to iterate that both aspects of the game were designed with passion, but I think the direction of this game was more focused on profit than on pushing the evolution of the genre.

Performance and Specifications

I had little to no performance issues running this game at maximum at 2560 x 1440 resolution. There were no graphical or performance bugs to report.
RAM: 32GB 3200GHz G-Skill (DDR4)
CPU: i9 10900KA 3.70GHz
GPU: MSI Ventus RTX 3080

Final Thoughts - Mediocre

Review chart here.
Call this harsh if you must, but Diablo 4 is little more than corporate greed wearing the mask of an old friend. There is little to this game that is unique or interesting and a majority of the experience will make you wish you were playing something better. This isn't Diablo in anything but the name and calling it such is such a indignant insult to gamers who devoutly loved the series up until now. If you can pick this up on sale and want something to make them wish Diablo 2 was on Steam, this is the way to go, but if you want a fun ARPG experience, there are far better ones on the market.
The High Heavens and Burning Hells have been at war for countless centuries, but they will never invade the sanctuary that is Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. Come in, take a load off and enjoy the peace this Sanctuary can provide.