In January of 1997, Blizzard released the very first Diablo game. At the time, it was quite an exciting spectacle that really hadn't been seen before. A top down game where you chose your class (Knight, Rogue, Mage...Monk as well with the Hellfire expansion, and Bard and Barbarian with the latter and editing the text file), fought some demons, and had a fun little RPG type of adventure. Think something like the original Shadowrun or Fallout, but it was much more about the killing hordes of monsters than it was the interactions (though there was a bit of that as well as sidequests).
Despite its simplistic approach to the level setup (with the main dungeon being a cathedral which eventually descended into a dungeon, and then hell itself..and then a second dungeon with the Hellfire expansion), Diablo was very highly regarded for its overall setup and gameplay...spawning both loving spins on it in the form of games such as the FATE series and Torchlight, but also an even better sequel.
Diablo II took the basic ideas of 1, and expanded it in several ways. Now what was a simplistic story and structure was now a 4 act (5 with the Lord of Destruction expansion) limited open-world type of setup. Rather than a single descending dungeon, each area for every act aside from the starting towns were filled with enemies, though each area still had both larger dungeon-type areas as well as a few smaller side ones scattered around each map. 3 classes (4 with Hellfire, 6 with text file tweaking) was now changed to 5 classes (Amazon, Barbarian, Sorceress, Necromancer, Paladin), 7 with the LoD expansion (Assassin and Druid). The story was also expanded on and continued directly from the end of 1, and the gameplay was tweaked a bit with some easier ways to identify items, as well as ways to get around far quicker even without town portals in the form of Waypoints that you could find in various important areas. Leveling skills was also expanded on greatly...now certain skills could be learned when you leveled up versus having to learn them from books that you bought/found, and it was possible at least once to have your skills reset in case you wanted to try a different build for your chosen class.
Overall, it ended up being the most beloved of the games. So beloved in fact that despite the original Diablo never getting a proper remake (though it did get a random timed event in Diablo 3 known as the Darkening of Tristram that occurs every January), Diablo 2 was given a carefully crafted remaster (though technically remake) with a completely fresh new coat of paint for the modern era, gameplay tweaks to make it accessible to players on console, and the option to shift between the new and old look similar to games such as the Secret of Monkey Island remakes.
Likewise, this was actually the point in which similar games started to really pop up, and games such as Torchlight 2, Grim Dawn, Path of Exile, Adventures of Van Helsing, and Victor Vran would borrow much more from this than the original game...with Grim Dawn being considered one of if not the best spiritual successor to Diablo II (along with Path of Exile).
But that wouldn't stop Blizzard from making another sequel to the franchise, Diablo III. Despite having some great aspects to it such as an even more expansive story and some excellent gameplay tweaks such as the new style of dialogue with character portraits as well as the option to choose what gender you wanted for your chosen class (Barbarian, Wizard, Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, and Monk for the original game, Crusader for Reaper of Souls and Necromancer for a secondary smaller DLC), Diablo III had a share of issues.
The first major issue for players at least on PC was the Auction House, which involved real world currency in both buying and selling items. This feature would last roughly 2 years before it'd be shut down due to the sheer volume of negative outcry in its inclusion in the game.
The second was the overall look of the game, which compared to 2's more muted and desolate color choices was more vibrant in areas where it just felt off. While the game was still as beautifully violent as previous titles and had some great environments, the choice of colors throughout clashed in places with the overall theme...especially when it came to certain monsters or minions such as the necromancer's skeletons.
The final issue for some especially hardcore Diablo II fans was the overall gameplay feel especially on consoles. Whereas even the Sorceress in 2 you had to really work to build up and tweak your inventory in anticipation of draining mana as a magic main...Diablo III felt incredibly skewed towards the ranged classes in that there was now no limit when it came to ranged attacks. Magic users could toss basic but powerful magic missile attacks which rarely missed and it would instead refill any lost mana (which would also regen on its own for certain classes such as the wizard), the Demon Hunter who primarily used bows had unlimited arrows, the Necromancer (which ended up being the most OP) would raise skeletons passively rather than needing a corpse to do so (and had basic attacks which would reach super far)...and overall it just felt very simplified and, again, heavily skewed towards ranged characters. On top of all of this, Town Portals were now 100% limitless once you obtained the ability to use them (and waypoints were more abundant), and you could now identify items on your own without any scrolls needed simply by holding a button on the item in question. On top of this, potions which were much easier to get would auto-heal your character upon picking one up, they didn't take up inventory space (which was also simplified to lists which were separated by equipment types/items), and there was no limit to how many potions you could have.
There were also smaller gripes such as the fact that the story retconned a bit of what happened in past games. For example, while it was known that the Dark Wanderer was the Knight (since he was the canon choice for the first game), it was changed to make him specifically a previously unspoken son of the mad king Leoric who had apparently been in love with the witch Adria.
Overall though, Diablo III had much more mixed opinions on it from folks who had played the past games, with some of its flaws being glaring enough to turn folks away from wanting to play it entirely despite the story being actually pretty decent (though yes, 2's was better).
Despite this though, the game still sold well enough for Blizzard to announce 2 different titles: The questionable and very lukewarm Diablo Immortal on mobile (which was met with absolute quiet and confusion when it was first announced, and where one of the devs famously asked "do you guys not have phones?" when the presentation was booed by fans), as well as Diablo IV.
Compared to Diablo Immortals, Diablo IV was met more positively, with the trailers being pretty awesome when the first came out. Eventually news on it died down since it was announced way back in 2018 (and here we are now in 2023), though Blizzard did give the fans Diablo II: Resurrected to tide them over in the meantime since even now Diablo: Immortals is considered a pretty divisive mobile game riddled with micro-transactions.
During this month, Blizzard opened two different limited time Open Beta versions of Diablo IV: The first was exclusive to folks who preordered the title (from the 17th to the 19th) and the second was for anyone, regardless of if you preordered or not (which went from the 24th to the 26th). Both versions included from what I remember was the entire 1st act of the game, and included every class for the base game.
I ended up giving the second open beta a shot since it was free, and I haven't decided whether I'm up for getting Diablo IV yet...and sadly I have to say this experience didn't sway me either way.
Pros>Once again, there's 5 classes as there were in the previous 2 games. You have the Barbarian, Sorcerer, Druid, Rogue, and Necromancer classes, which were all from previous titles (Barbarian and Necromancer being from D2 & 3, Sorceress and Druid being from D2, and Rogue being from D1). Unlike previous titles, you not only have choice of gender for each class, but you can also customize their hair types and color, facial features, jewelry worn, as well as makeup and tattoos. It's not entirely an unexpected change since 3 let you choose the gender of each class, so this is kind of a nice progression.
>The overall style goes back to 2. Meaning color wise and overall feel wise, it borrows once again from 2's more muted and dreary colors and overall vibe...which is welcome. The only exception to this is that the necromancer still has colorful skeleton minions, but it's something to overlook.
>The story, once again, is so far pretty decent...with some interesting twists right at the start. It's nothing wow worthy, and the lack of a Deckard Cain type of interesting character is very apparent, but overall I'm intrigued and where the story could go.
>The skill progression system when leveling up is more of a progression of 2's system versus 3's, and it's a very welcome change. You can also respec at any time so long as you have the gold on hand when you hit the higher levels...which is also very welcome in this new system.
>Enemies re-spawn when you move to a new area versus having to leave the game and come back, and likewise shrines will re-randomize in this same instance as well, which is a pretty cool change to the system which I was hoping for in past titles.
>Sidequests are extremely abundant in the game and are scattered everywhere. Side dungeons are also scattered throughout the map, which is noticeably larger in this game. On top of this, there are class specific awards known as "Aspects" which grant the chosen class certain perks are given for completing certain side dungeons and sidequests.
>Loading times are minimal and usually limited to entering side dungeons or story-related ones. Areas on the overall map such as traveling to and from towns, inside buildings (unless they're enemy-infested cellars scattered around the map), through caves and other areas require no loading. Likewise, you can now jump across or down/climb up certain highlighted areas and climb up/down ladders to give more depth to areas.
>So far there seem to be 5 different regions you'll visit, each with at least 9 parts to them...which again shows how large the map in general is in this game since when the full game is available to buy, those areas can be walked through at your leisure assuming you're the right recommended level versus being separated by Act.
>Waypoints once again are back, and aren't horribly abundant compared to 3...but there's just enough to where traveling back and forth to repeat places won't be a chore. Also, the unlimited town portal power (which you'll get after the prologue) is also back.
>Events, Treasure Goblins, Cursed Shrines, and Cursed Treasure chests from Diablo 3 are all back, which are all welcome. Events especially are extra rewarding if your complete them without a hitch...such as making sure any and all survivors are alive during a monster onslaught.
>The inventory style follows 2's look along with the grid, however it also follows 3's system of having different tabs that separate equipment, craftable items, and the like. Likewise, like 3, all items regardless of size will all take up just one square, so you don't have to worry about that two handed sword or large shield taking up too much room. As much as I actually liked 3's system (since I hate the unnecessary chore of shifting items around to have more space to get more stuff, or having to go to town constantly because it was super easy to fill up your inventory too quick even with the Horadric Cube), I very much liked 2's overall look and especially the setup for equipping stuff since you can see how it looks without having to go out of the menu and pausing the game...so this was actually a very welcome combination.
Kinda in the middle>Towns are more abundant in this game, which is both a pro and a con in itself. In the only traversable region in this beta version of the game, I hit roughly 4 towns at least in my travel, and am pretty sure there were more since I didn't get too far (mainly because I was trying out the different classes). I put this in the middle because while I appreciate there being some more towns...I overall enjoyed the feel of each act (or in this case region) having 1 specific safe haven while outside was normally a danger zone. It really just pushed a vibe of...I guess desperation both of a struggling world in general, but also for the player since you would always have to backtrack to that town alone to do stuff versus finding another along the way.
>Identifying items is no longer a thing, at least from what the beta shows. During my play-through, I gathered a few uncommon equipment, some rare equipment, and a couple of the super rare equipment (which in 3 was the only one that had to be identified). All of the equipment had their stats already shown, and didn't need to be identified at all to be used. While it's nice and convenient, I actually personally did enjoy having to take a break to identify gear every so often, so I actually kinda missed this.
>In between your inventory tab and skills tab, there's now a secondary tab that will be different depending on the class chosen. For Barbarian types, it'll be a list of your current weapon masteries and how many enemies you have to kill with each weapon to raise that specific one. For Necromancers, it'll be your summoned creature tab where you can, for example, change the type of skeletons summoned once you hit a certain level. You can also give them a specific perk at the expense of sacrificing your current minions (such as adding an extra one beyond the allotted maximum limit) as well as forgo being able to summon them entirely for a character perk. Other classes have a tab as well aside from the Sorcerer (which I didn't see pop up during my play-through of that class). This is a middle of the road one mainly because I see it as kind of a pointless waste of time in, say, the Necromancer's case when that could just be skill-tree added stuff...though for the Barbarian it really is nice to see how many kills you have left before you've leveled up your weapon mastery.
>Being able to gamble on getting good items from specific NPCs is back, which is one thing I enjoyed doing in D2 when I built up the gold since you could occasionally get really rare and valuable equipment from them. However, gold is no longer used in these gambles. Instead, you use a type of currency which iirc are called Curiosity Coins...which are more difficult to get since you get them from completing events...and you get a scarce few unless you completed the event flawlessly (which from what I noticed nets you 35 coins...and the items you can gamble for usually cost exactly that). So I'm pretty on the fence on that one.
>Potion crafting is a thing now which...sure, okay.
>There's a lack of character portraits as I believe I mentioned, which was a welcome thing that 3 introduced. Instead, there's more moments where it'll move closer down to the character's level which...it's kind of an odd thing and doesn't entirely feel right.
>On this same note, story bits are a bit more intrusive in this game. In Diablo II, story cinematic moments were limited to every time you started an act, and every time you finished one. Other than that, it was mainly walking up and taking to characters...and it was always skippable. In Diablo 3, it was extended slightly to where you'd get certain narrations from your character after specific quest moments where they'd explain very lightly what was going on as well as their thoughts on things along with illustrations. In this game, it kinda takes that same beat that 3 had, only these are more cinematic types of story moments as well as those, again, up close and more personal unskippable dialogue moments...both of which feel both more intrusive and more often than past titles. Despite that though, the cinematic ones alone have been pretty enjoyable to watch, so it hasn't bugged me enough for it to be a con just yet.
>Bosses are changed up a bit to where they now have multiple thresholds in their HP...and for every threshold you hit, they'll drop potions, so essentially they're easier but also still HP sponges.
>Enemies level with you, so don't expect to revisit an old area and have low level enemies...they'll usually re-spawn around your level. This is always a kind of middle of the road mechanic for me in that it's cool, but also kind of unnecessary. I kinda like revisiting old areas to look for stuff and just having my minions kill off the super low level guys in one hit so I can search without issue.
>Overall combat is kind of a weird hybrid of 2 and 3 combined which for the most part is fine, but other times feels weird...which is now where I'll segue into:
Cons>The game is still horribly unbalanced when it comes to classes. During my play-through, it was really easy to cheese through everything as the Sorcerer, Necromancer, and Rogue. Again, the ranged classes and ones with minions just made things super easy. Ranged attacks are questionably powerful and unlimited in source when it comes to basic magic attacks (sorcerer) or attacks using arrows (Rogue), and minions themselves could be damage sponges that dealt quite a bit themselves (Necromancer). However, unless you were putting points in quick-type dual wielding skills as the Barbarian, it's an absolute joke slogging through when you have to constantly hit things to keep your rage meter from falling (similar to 3's system for the Barbarian, which was equally unwelcome there) and enemies (especially boss or elite types) do absurd damage when you try to attack up close. Likewise, the druid is equally a joke of a class for similar reasons: Unless you're putting all your points in your magic skills (which the damage from them is laughable), you're asking to get killed since until a far amount of leveling in, you don't get minions to summon like in Diablo II, and it's not a ranged class (unless again you're putting all your points into magic attacks which do little damage), so you're more than likely getting up close like the Barbarian to either do incredibly slow attacks with your weapon or as a Werebear, or doing quick but smaller damage attacks as a Werewolf where either way you're going to get hit pretty hard by those same elite/boss monsters.
>According to the character journal which unlocks after the prologue, the game is only 3 acts. While I kinda get it since the map is bigger and the style of the game is a little different, I'm kinda worried about it still clocking shorter than past games with the absence of a 4th act...unless the 4th act is just being kept hidden. I say that latter bit because unless they're either already sequel baiting or saving it for the DLC (which I'd really hope they aren't that stupid), the description of the third act doesn't exactly scream end-game final act description, so I'm really hoping that there's a 4th act that'll pop up, and then the usual bonus 5th act via an expansion.
>So far none of the characters are incredibly engaging, aside from whenever Lilith makes an appearance...and even then it's more her character design and what she does that are engaging versus when she talks. Diablo 1 had some interesting characters such as Griswold and Cain. Diablo 2 had pretty much just Cain and Baal as the most interesting characters. Diablo 3 had, again, Cain until his untimely demise as well as Tyriel, Leah as she grew as a character until her plot twist, and even Adria who was a throwaway bland character in 1 was developed into an interesting character. 4 has absolutely 0 from my time in the beta. The first actual person you meet is exceptionally boring and you spend incredibly little time with him. The second is about as interesting as his monotone voice, and he joins you for all of 5 minutes to then leave on a horse to do other plot things far far away, and the third actual person you get as a temporary companion has yet to be interesting. So far all of the characters who would have had interesting stories have either died before we got to know them well enough, or are more offscreen via notes you find.
>While the world is larger than what I've seen in past games, I've yet to see the usual procedural generated world that Diablo has usually been known for. Like Diablo 3's outer areas, the map is the same on every play-through, which I was pretty much expecting if I was to be perfectly honest
because of how 3 was like that as well.
However, since it was supposed to have been going back to what made 2 a colossal success, I was hoping that also meant that the outer areas would also be randomized like 2's were. That being said though, I also noticed it's not just the outer areas that have static maps. Despite 3 having static outer areas regardless of play-through, the dungeons themselves had completely randomized maps that differed every time, with only the small handful remaining constant no matter what. Likewise, the open side areas such as the enemy-filled cellars would differ on every play-through as well: while one cellar may be open to explore during one play-through, it may be closed while another is open or both are closed by a well is explorable on another play-through. So even if the overall outer map was always set, what areas could be explored on it usually differed. From my play-through with multiple classes on D4's open beta I noticed 2 things: The explorable areas on the map were always the same (which I assumed with the side dungeons...though I assumed the class specific ones would
only be open to that specific class...but even the explorable cellars never changed), and the maps of the interior dungeons were the same regardless of play-through. I'm really hoping this is because it was an open beta multiplayer thing (even though that didn't seem to be the case for the dungeons themselves since they seemed to be solo or party only), and that this isn't going to translate to the single player portion for the full game...because part of the fun of these games has been the fact that the dungeons change in layout every time.
>Potions, at least from what I've seen so far, are limited to 4. Potions also don't heal all the way and will usually fill half your life, so on bosses you'll usually be using 2 at the very least unless you dodge often. Enemies and bosses will still drop potions, but unlike Diablo 3 picking up a potion won't heal you automatically, and it'll just be added to your total if you're down a potion, or will do absolutely nothing if you're full up on potions...so you essentially have to use one to pick one up. I don't know why 4, and I'm sure there's a way to increase the amount you can hold (but I've yet to find it), but it feels like an unnecessary limitation.
And those are my thoughts so far. As I said, I'm kind of on the fence right now about it as I was before, and I'm really hoping that some of those neutral and con areas are purely because it was an open beta of the multiplayer part of it (which was surprisingly seamless and decent) versus the single-player part. If those things bleed over into the single-player aspect though, admittedly I'll be a bit disappointed since some of those areas feel like pretty big departures from what made the games pretty decent to overall excellent.
