Diablo IV (2023)

Th gameplay loop of Diablo is:

Battle Loot Batttle Loot

In this gameplay loop having all of the great loot designed around the paid cosmetics fundamentally disrupts what would be an all time classic game.

If people say "Just ignore it", not only is that impossible due to the in game ads for the loot, it is impossible not to feel the massive hole that exists where a real reward system should be.

Visual rewards, weapons and armor, are THE defining feature of this this genre of game so it is impossible to rate this game highly. I would most likely have spent 1000 of hours in the game if the end game included a search for unique weapons.

Tying the paid cosmetics to in game quests would have been a much better compromise. Just dropping them on the game is lazy and thoughtless.

One thing I loved about the console versions of Diablo 3 was their full offline functionality, available on both the Switch and PS4. Unfortunately, that's not the case with Diablo 4; you can't even access the menu without an internet connection. I had to download the latest system firmware, set up a PSN account, and then endure a 12GB update. After wasting an hour, I still hadn't played the game. Another 45-minute wait for a 4GB patch followed, which should have taken only 15 minutes. Finally, I could launch the game.

The gameplay feels reminiscent of Path of Exile, which I found quite dull, especially when you need a search button for the skill tree. At least the characters wear pants this time. Since my usual choice, the Crusader/Paladin, wasn't available, I decided to try the Necromancer. It's nice that you start with four skeletons right away, sparing the slow build-up of your army.

Diablo 4 retains the core mechanic from Diablo 3: use your Signature Skill to build Essence, then unleash other skills to clear enemies. It's better than spamming a single skill like in Path of Exile. Surprisingly, I found the Barbarian more enjoyable than expected. The character has four weapon slots—one for a two-handed bludgeoning weapon, one for a two-handed slashing weapon, and two for dual-wielding. The skills are cleverly designed to use the right weapon for each job.

The game has clearly taken inspiration from MMORPGs. Unlike the mostly linear Diablo 3, Diablo 4 offers quests in every village, and since the world levels up with you, your starting location doesn't matter much. An interesting feature for the Barbarian class is that weapon mastery increases with use, not with character level—quite different from previous Diablo games where everything was tied to leveling up. I built a Whirlwind Barbarian, and it's a blast to mow down hordes of mobs with this skill available from level 3.

The first area has a distinctly Slavic feel, perhaps inspired by the success of The Witcher. Names like Fedor and locations like Zeleny Lowlands, along with enemies like Volkodlak, give it a unique flavor. Unexpectedly, I've had the most success with the Rogue class. The Rogue has two weapon slots like the Barbarian but for ranged and dual-wield sets. The class mechanics are as expected, with homing arrows, arrow barrages, and elemental imbuements. I haven't died yet with the Rogue, unlike with the Barbarian, where I died multiple times.

Reaching level 24 at the end of Act I, I finally saw my first "orange" item—it's amazing how much has changed since Diablo 3. The story again involves a dysfunctional family, reminiscent of Adria sacrificing her daughter. Now we have Lilith and an Angel who killed his son, the goth-necromancer, due to anger and prophecies, and now "mommy" is angry.

Seeing Vigo as a Knight Penitent is strange, especially after playing Blasphemous. I'm not sure if the reference is intentional, but it's noticeable. Just when I complained about the lack of "orange" drops, I got my first proper one—a bow. However, the game involves a lot of backtracking, which feels outdated. Whether it's intentional or not, I often couldn't fast-travel to a dungeon entrance or quest-giver, leading to repetitive battles or walking through empty halls.

Around level 30 at the end of Act 2, the game hits a slump. Monsters get tougher, but gear doesn't keep pace, making the earlier "orange" bow as effective as new "blue" drops. Since it's an open-world game, and monsters scale with you, there's a bizarre situation where you can defeat a boss like the Guardian of the Cathedral of Hatred, only to be killed by a random porcupine right after.

One of the better-written but annoying quests involves the "Goose Sign." I've shifted my Rogue build to focus on poison and traps, which is satisfying, especially with a feature showing if an enemy will die from poison damage. At level 35, the "orange" drop rate improves, but even then, these legendaries quickly become obsolete compared to "yellow" rares. Strangely, rares have unique names, while legendaries often have generic titles like "bumpy helm of greater might."

The fight with Andariel is surprisingly underwhelming; you barely see her as she shoots at you from a distance and then dies. It's a far cry from her menacing presence in Diablo 2.

By level 43, I finally got a horse, making travel easier and a bit like Legend of Zelda with its "boost carrots." The horse helps speed past repetitive enemies, which is a relief. However, encountering the same triple boss setup multiple times in dungeons becomes tiresome.

Despite the story bosses dropping junk, a Treasure Goblin finally gave me a useful bow with a unique mechanic. As for the villain Elias, he's portrayed as someone culling humanity to prepare the strong for an inevitable demonic invasion—a concept that makes sense in the context of the game.

Legendaries, as it turns out, aren't the rarest items, which explains their generic names. I finally got my first Unique item, again from a Treasure Goblin. Although I previously complained about story bosses, Duriel dropped two Unique items, marking his return.

The game's cinematics are excellent, reminiscent of the days when we'd play games just to see the next cutscene. However, some narrative elements feel offhand. For instance, Donan's death and Neryelle losing her hand are handled rather casually. Remembering how Diablo 3 dismissed Deckard Cain, these moments feel similarly underwhelming.

As for the story, the inclusion of Mephisto in a bubble raises questions. Are Diablo and Baal also trapped somewhere? While Lilith speaks of an eternal battle, her death is portrayed as a significant event. But, considering we've defeated Andariel and Duriel multiple times, couldn't Lilith just return like them?

Dlaczego Diablo 4 jest takim rozczarowaniem?

Moim zdaniem dlatego, że jest trochę jak reklama gry mobilnej potrafi oczarować grafiką ale gorzej z zawartością. Nie będę oceniał zawartości end gamowej bo jej za dużo nie ma, do gier z tego gatunku na ogół mam podejście, że przechodzę fabułę i ewentualnie tworze nową postać w innej klasie w tej części diablo nie czułem takiej potrzeby. Po naprawdę bardzo dobrym otwarciu gry wszystko zaczyna stawać się miałkie, zaczynasz widzieć, że gameplay stał się maszowaniem ataku aż nie naładuje się skillek który sczyści trochę więcej przeciwników. Co prowadzi do totalnej nudy fajne przerywniki filmowe stają się rzadkością a i tak jakbym miał je wymienić to poza tymi z otwarcia i chyba przed ostatnim w którym Inarius walczy z Lilith reszty nie pamiętam xD Poza tym dla mnie np totalnie bez sensu jest to, że gra wymaga ciągłego połączenia z Internetem ktoś powie ale co ci to robi przecież masz Internet w domu mam ale sytuacje w których inny gracz który dotarł na danego spota parę sekund przede mną i go sczyścił bo robi tego samego side questa co ja są bez sensu w takich grach. Lek dla diablo 4 dodać prawdziwego singla oraz wywalić z firmy każdego kto podpisał się pod pomysłem skalowanego poziomu przeciwników w tej grze.

Diablo IV has returned with a vengeance to claim most of my free time. Improvements with patches and seasonal updates have reduced the grind. The experience is also enchanced by the addition of Season 02's mechanics related to vampires. The blood harvests as a means of upgrading vampiric powers in particular offers substantial engagement.

This game would be exponentially better with a matchmaking system. Maybe I should say this game will be so much better when they implement a matchmaking system. One can hope.

The Itemization is the last big obstacle to Diablo IV being a supreme offering. It's too tedious to determine if an item is worth keeping. It also feels highly limited. I look forward eagerly to see what their plans are to address that, which they've fortunately confirmed they're doing.

Played the free trial on Steam and was extremely disappointed to be booted out of the game at level 20, unable to log that character again without buying the game. I thought this was play the entire game for free for a few days, not a demo. It took some doing to get the game working because I have not updated my video card driver for several years. Since I'm still on Windows 7 I had to download the fourth driver down the list because the later ones would not install on win 7. I was annoyed at the class selection because it was Diablo 3 all over again; where's my paladin? Why did some classes return and others did not? At this point I think they should have included every single class in the series, created all new classes, or made some kind of classless system like Path of Exile. I was also very annoyed with the always online bullshit, and how often the game crashed. I lowered the graphics to the minimum, to the point where it looked like playing Diablo 2 on a CRT, which lessened the crashes a somewhat.

I started with Valcaria the necromancer. Several things annoyed me during the beginning: my basic weapon attack was permanently replaced by my first skill. What if I want to do physical damage and take all shadow spells? Are there even enemies immune to certain damage types at end game? The camera zoom was too far in, alt did not highlight breakable objects, and the enemy numbers and difficulty were not high enough on tier 2. I miss the old days of Diablo 2 when I would play multiplayer mode solo and set the difficulty for 8 players. Even Diablo 3 had better difficulty. Every battle should be a life or death struggle balanced on a razor's edge. Why even have any encounters that would not even make a character break a sweat? The difficulty was much better for world events and dungeons; the entire game should be intense fights like that. It was quite hard though when I first got out of the prologue because I did not understand how damage scaled. I kept using a low level 2 handed scythe with +20 intelligence. Necromancers are casters so weapon damage should be irrelevant right? I discovered the truth when I found a much better 2 handed sword with +10% skill damage while testing it out to see if the int bonus or damage bonus was better; the boost to my dps was like 200 to 300%. There were also no attribute points on level up, but that was fine. There were plenty of other build choices to make, and I did very much enjoy those; making my own judgments while also brainstorming all the other possibilities. I especially liked how easy they were to change, so I could try out different builds and even adjust on the fly.

The book of the dead allowed me to choose from 3 different types of skeleton warriors and mages. I am very much into being the minion master but I did appreciate the option to forego the minions altogether for personal buffs. I focused on damage with skirmishers and shadow mages. I did not try out reapers, I assume they are more area damage. I also did not try out the tanks or other elements for mages. Switching to more defensive support minions with slows, stuns etc, would be useful in some situations. Most of the time the enemies did not directly attack me, so I would hang back playing the commander. Other times I could kite while my minions did damage. There were 2 times where the difficulty was too much, both inside dungeons. 1 was an end boss spider that kept summoning minions. It was a minion master vs minion master battle that dragged on forever, though was not much of an actual threat. I believe the main challenge for this fight was the aforementioned low level weapon. Later I had my first and only death to the butcher, because he completely ignored my minions to bee line for me, and could move faster than us. I had the complete wrong build for that; maybe some more slows and stuns would have allowed me to win, since I did get him down to 50%. I liked the layout of the skill tree, with its variety of build choices, either/or boosts for each skill, and the cheap cost to respec. I went with decompose, a hit scanning channeled damage over time that could create extra corpses. I decided to focus my points to specialize in the few skills rather than spreading them thin, so I went for the 10% damage boost for myself and minions rather than the 50% slow. For my second skill I chose blight, an area effect damage over time with some initial damage. I did not like how it was a projectile that put down the area damage upon hitting something rather than just putting it where I clicked. Again I chose the damage boost for myself and minions over the chance to root. I put the rest of my points into passives for the skeletons and had not decided on the third skill yet. I liked how raise skeleton included both warriors and mages in the same skill slot, and I absolutely loved the mechanic of summoning a temporary skeletal priest to buff the minions when using that skill with full capacity. It was a great way to use excess corpses. No idea what other skills I would invest in, though I might switch to blood skills to heal minions; will have to see how it goes at higher levels.

Then I made Crystallycea the sorceress and did not like the hairstyles. I settled on a pony tail but blonde was not nearly blonde enough. I decided to be frost mage and started with ice bolt. It was a very good spell, fast and accurate with good range. I liked the mechanic of repeated chills eventually freezing enemies solid, and the upgrade to make ice bolts against frozen enemies do area damage. I chose the upgrade for vulnerability rather than mana. The next spell I tried was frozen orb for its area damage, but I did not like it due to lack of range. I refunded it and got ice shards instead, which was like a machine gun of ice. It did bonus damage against frozen solid enemies and I chose the upgrade that allowed that bonus to apply anytime I had a barrier. This spell synergized very well with ice armor and frost nova. I also picked up teleport leaving only one free slot. It was a fun combat loop; snipe with frostbolts, pop barrier to unload ice shards for massive damage, teleport and dodge away to create range and allow mana to regen, snipe again then use frost nova to freeze enemies solid when they closed in, then unload ice shards again. The shards also ricocheted for area damage against frozen targets. I found an amulet that gave plus one to all conjuration skills. Hydra was the best, which I started using at the beginning of fights by popping it down at the edge of the screen. Cold blades and lightning spear were not as good because they had to travel from me to the enemy. But I think that final skill shot should be for the ultimate ice spell. Stupid limited skill slots. Not sure if I would keep teleport, a pet, or get blizzard. I could see making a fire mage, lighting mage, tri elemental mage, summoner, and possibly others.

Next I made Aevariel the rogue as an archer and skipped the campaign for him and the following 2 characters just to get a different experience. I liked how he had equipment slots for both bow and melee weapons, but I didn't quite understand how the stats on the blades affected archery; I chose blades with bonuses like +dex over the actual weapon damage thinking they would benefit archery more. I tried out both powerful shot and heart seeker early on. The auto aim on the seeker was not quite my style for a point and click shooter but it was handy to shoot around corners, and around enemies chasing me to hit certain valuable targets. Ultimately I decided to refund that and focus on powerful shot, which when given the knockback bonus functioned like a sniper rifle and shotgun in one. Next I chose barrage which fired a spread of shorter range shots. I chose that to help with multiple targets and upgraded it to ricochet on vulnerable targets, which synergized well with the vulnerability on powerful shot. Then I got caltrops to help with creating range. It was a good area effect slow that also created distance, but I had a tendency to use it while running away and end up jumping straight into the enemies. There was also a lack of animation cancelling so sometimes when I tried to use it while shooting I hit the button twice and ended up doing two back-to-back caltrops. Then I found an item that gave me a point in shadow step, which caused me to teleport to an enemy for a melee strike, then a short movement speed boost. It actually worked very well with an archer build when used against a distant ranged attacker, so I might actually take it for real. He died a couple of times and I found myself not using energy very often, largely due to how I only used barraged at close range when I was meant to be a long range sniper. So I refunded barrage and got penetrating shot instead, which was much better for the sniper play style. I choose the slow upgrade for penetrating shot, and ice upgrade for caltrops, both of which helped a lot for keeping enemies away. This build lacked area effect damage so the next skill I chose was poison trap. I tried out ice imbuement but did not like it that much; it was redundant with the slow on penetrating shot and chill on caltrops anyway. I found an item with +1 to shadow imbuement and found that to be a great source of area damage. I think in the future I would drop poison trap, choose the vulnerability upgrade for shadow imbuement, get clone as the ultimate, precision as ultimate passive and then spend the rest of points on passive stuff; stutter step, concussive, exploit, weapon mastery, precision imbuement, frigid finesse, and last point in malice. I could see making a separate pure melee character.

Xalveris the barbarian was next and I knew I wanted to be a dual wielding frenzy build, just like in Diablo 2. I was a little shocked to see just how many weapons the barbarian could equip at once, though it was an interesting mechanic. I went with frenzy for the damage reduction, then double swing with vulnerability upgrade for my big hit. It was fun, but this character died more times that every other character combined. He even died before I unlocked the defensive skills, largely because of those damn giant goat men with their very high damage attack that also stunned. I got iron skin with the healing upgrade, and challenging shout with thorns. I needed both of those to stay alive; I would start with the shout then wait until low on health to use iron skin. Then I got charge for much needed mobility, investing in the cooldown reduction. He died far less often with those abilities, and killed faster than the previous characters. I think for the future he would get call of the ancients for ultimate, and unbridled rage as ultimate passive, then spend the rest on passives to focus on tanking; duelist, tempered fury, invigorating fury, imposing presence, martial vigor, pit fighter, and 1 in thick skin. I could see playing a different character that focused on 2h weapons.

The last character I played was Valcarius the druid. He actually died at low level because I was trying out all the different basic skills without spending any more points, so he was underpowered. I did not really have a clear build idea for him other than be tanky. I settled on storm strike with vulnerability upgrade because it had damage reduction. The chance to immobilize enemies and hit multiple targets came in handy. I also considered maul for hitting multiple targets and fortifying health. The wind and earth magics were cool ranged options and I would definitely make different character(s) as a ranged mage type. Next I chose pulverize with the damage reduction upgrade, earthen bulwark with fortify upgrade, and debilitating roar with healing upgrade, so I was in and out of bear form all the time. I tried out all the pet skills and liked raven the best; it did passive damage every now and then like the Diablo 2 thunder storm spell, and could be used to place a much needed area damage over time wherever I wanted. The wolves were more single target damage but had health bars and thus could be killed, while the plant had immobilize and would be better for a ranged character. I also tried out the next tier of spells; trample was like the barbarian’s charge and gave much needed mobility, though that was not as much needed with the raven. Hurricane was more like a point blank area damage over time that was attached to the character, which was good for a melee build, while boulder hilariously slammed into a target and took it away from me. I was getting boulder for free from an item so I used that to push annoying enemies out of the fight and get some range. In the future I would get grizzly rage for ultimate, ursine strength for ultimate passive, though I have no idea which skill I would take for the final slot between ravens, trample and boulder. Trample gives fortify so it might be the most tanky option. Passive would focus on tanking: quick shift, heightened senses, natural fortitude, ancestral fortitude, vigilance, 1 point in predatory instinct, 3 in iron fur.

It is difficult to judge the game from only low level play. I did enjoy the world, main story, side quests and moment to moment gameplay, though I would prefer a singleplayer mode where enemies did not respawn, did not scale, and events and dungeons could only be done once. The game has way too much MMO vibe when I just want to play offline by myself. The build and combat mechanics were excellent fun but I am dubious how much I would want to play a character past max level. I did like how every character benefited at least somewhat from every attribute, like strength giving armor. Though there should be attribute requirements for better base item types. The crashes were a problem and sometimes I could not skip dialogue and cutscenes. I did not like the base loot items because they did not seem to be power scaled like in Diablo 1 and 2; for example, finding a shortsword and a broadsword in the same area when the broadsword should have higher base stats. Though I have not seen enough of the game and items to see how that will pan out. Will probably get the game years into the future when it is cheap just because I love the genre so much, despite how much I hate the mandatory online.

Finished at Level 48. Far superior to Diablo 3. I went with the Necromancer class, since when it comes to these types of games (Torchlight, Torchlight 2, other Diablos) I have way more fun when I can summon a bunch of minions and let them wreak havoc. Did they ever, here! Having my skeleton warriors and mages constantly beside me, along with my big Golem, was a treat. I always felt like I had an undead army at my call. Graphics and audio are terrific, and the game is dripping with a sensational atmosphere.

Perfect podcast game, and I say that as a compliment. I love listening to PTI or the Giant Bombcast as I zone out and pulverize thousands of demons with my Bone Spear or Corpse Tendrils. They're even forgiving on the clicking!

That's two major games this year featuring the voice of Ralph Ineson, and hell yes. Put this man in as many video games as you can, his voice is unbelievable. A terrific actor.

PC version.

While playing through the campaign, the game felt great; A big open world, decent story and the cutscenes were of amazing quality.

After the campaign however, the game felt like a slog. It was promoted as an 'mmo' diablo, always online, but meanwhile there isn't even a groupfinder, something that has been in d3 for years! The leveling/grinding up also feels really boring, mainly due to how they spaced out the nightmare dungeons. About every NM in the game is one of the 3 same basic ones, and the mob density is just not right, too low for a diablo game, making it more a walking simulator dan an ARPG.

The first season added to the game really did a poor job of re-invigorating anything, it's just the exact same feeling i had before the season: everything in this game has the potential, but's just about off of making it a fun experience. When D3 still feels like the way more fun ARPG to play in about evewry single way, you know you've done something wrong with 4.

In short: I think the game is worth the price to play through the campaign, which is lengthy and fun to do. Just don't expect to have much fun after the campaign.

Diablo IV. Oh, this game. I fell pretty hard for it when it launched a couple of months ago. The art design captivated me and the gameplay and story were decently engaging. But at the end of the day, and the end of the game for that matter, there's just nothing there. It's a pointless grindfest, pointless being the keyword here. I'm cool with a grindfest that rewards the player for the time and effort invested but there's nothing at the end of the tunnel in D4's leveling up. The gear is useless and even if it weren't, there's really nothing for you to do with it.

I'm falling off of this one for sure. I was going to make it my 'main' but I don't have any faith in its ability to scale or go the distance. Live service games gonna live service.

And the recent patch that nerfed all the classes, the one that the whole playerbase is freaking out about, is just a nail in the coffin for me at this point. There's just no point to playing this game. It's not fun and it's balanced to a fault.

So, farewell Diablo IV.

Reached World Tier 4, hit level 80, and finished renown grinding in Diablo 4.

I have mixed feelings about the game. First, the mostly good:

1. Setting: The atmosphere is terrific and reminiscent of D2. The amazing soundtrack, gothic aesthetics, overall polish, and great(ish) graphics all add to the dark and brooding ambience.

2. Gameplay: The game is fun. Skills look good without being cartoonish, attacks have weight to them, and mowing down hordes of enemies is satisfying. Different classes also play differently enough with distinct resources management mechanics (sick of every class having mana in most ARPGs).

3. Campaign: The story is solid (with caveats, like wasting half the game trying to trap Lilith in a Soulstone as if it is was the only way and then just beating her ass at the end), consistent in tone, and uses the lore well. The cinematics are fantastic (expected of Blizzard). The campaign also sets up the expansions well.

Second, the neutral:

1. Itemization: The variability in item properties is low, but the game has found a good way to keep multiple rarities of items relevant. Rares to optimize base gear stats and legendaries to optimize aspects. Some uniques are either build defining or best in slot regardless of class. That you can farm lower tiers of many aspects from dungeons (Codex of Power) also makes RNG less critical. Items being locked to your level when you pick them up is idiotic. Also, this is an open world MMO-lite ARPG where you are forced to play solo-self found (no trading). facepalm

2. Game world: While the open world looks nice, it is unnecessary. We don't need more open world games if half the time is spent traversing. Strongholds are great though and we need more of them.

Third, the dumpster fires:

1. Mount: The mount is atrociously bad. My stallion gets stuck on pebbles, has random ass cooldowns for remounting, cannot sprint for more than 5 seconds, and has horrendous pathing.

2. Dungeons and end game: Dungeons suck (worse than Skyrim's dungeons) and have mind-numbing chores associated with them. There aren't enough other activities to keep the end game interesting. The game is essentially unfinished so that they can milk players with expansions and seasons.

3. There are also a bunch of miscellaneous stuff like the tiny storage space, the low mob density, the general lack of build variety and viable skills within classes, the sad and pointless state of gems and socketing, and how unfathomably rare some of the high-end unique items are.

Overall, I think Diablo 4 contains the framework for a great ARPG, but is bogged down by strange design decisions and quality of life choices in its current state (which they have been fixing, even though some of these issues were already known in Diablo 3; so unsure why they implemented them in the first place). The current state of the game and the expected changes over future seasons and expansions are probably intentional and in line with Blizzard's long term goal of generating maximum profits from players over the years.

Score: 3.5/5

PS: Really like how I do not have to depend on equipped gear for my characters' look after I unlock that skin; and that this feature is free (for now lol). I think my Necromancer looks sick.

Blizzard's long awaited Diablo IV is a really fun game. It's a huge, polished open world action RPG with big-budget visuals and really deep mechanics. In many ways, I think it's a new peak for the series, and for Blizzard's development team. But it's also far from a redemption story for Blizzard. Diablo IV is also a great showcase of all the things that are irritating about the company.

But let's start with the good: Diablo IV makes some core changes that made the game more enjoyable than Diablo III, which I recently revisited. Earlier games were pretty linear, with each Act locking you to self-contained areas that you can explore. The story would lead up to a big boss encounter, which would then let you proceed the story into the next Act.

Diablo IV still has "Acts," but they are instead simply used as progress markers for sections of the main story. Once you reach the city of Kyovashad, you are free to explore what is now one massive, seamless open world. Early on, you are even presented with the option to take "Act 2" and "Act 3" of the story out of order. All of this is to encourage you to discover the world of Sanctuary organically, stumbling upon dungeons, cellars and world events as you go. This change really works!

The other significant core change is to the game's combat. The "feel" of the combat is still extremely similar to Diablo III, but it's been dialed back a little bit. You would often get swarmed with so many enemies in Diablo III that I would sometimes compare it to a Musou, but that comparison is not really apt anymore. On the flip side, enemies feel a little tougher to kill, and there is a bigger focus on crowd control and dodging enemy attacks. Thanks to level scaling, the difficulty feels a lot smoother, and I never was able to trivialize it to the point of boredom like with Diablo III.

Diablo IV reintroduces Skill Trees, and it has a tremendously positive impact on the experience. Diablo III did not have these, and instead doled out new abilities at a predetermined rate as you leveled up. Now, you get skill points which you can spend to create different builds, and the trees are deep enough that there are many potential playstyles within a single class. As you level up and your old gear gets outpaced, you need to rethink your build, which always keeps you on your toes. This is because the game's legendary items will often have modifiers that serve as the catalysts for powerful builds.

For example, I played the game as a Druid, focusing primarily on Lightning spells. Late in the game, I hit a difficulty spike and I was dying a lot, but then I found a legendary item that boosted the critical strike of my Earth spells when I used my Lightning spells, and vice versa. This served as the push to completely redistribute my skill points and to try spells I hadn't even thought about touching. This felt so organic to me, and it really made Diablo as a whole click for me.

It's a shame, however, that all of this is tied to the same exhausting Blizzard BS that anyone who has played their games should be aware of. The game is completely online and server based. While login queues were often nonexistent, it feels like it exists purely as a draconian form of DRM for a game that doesn't really warrant being always online. There are multiplayer features, but I didn't try them. Sometimes other players would pop up in cities, but their presence does not really add anything. I'm sure more hardcore players might feel differently, but I really wish I could have played this as a purely offline experience.

I played a bit on my PC, but I really dislike the point-and-click controls of the game, and it bafflingly lacks an alternate WASD control scheme. Because of that, I mainly played on my Steam Deck. That wasn't a problem! The game looks great, runs well on the device, and the gamepad controls work extremely well. However, playing on the Steam Deck also meant I had to use WiFi, which led to occasional lag and rubber-banding which was super annoying for what I was treating as a solo experience. And of course, this being Blizzard, you will never be allowed to forget about the plethora of available microtransactions. Did I mention this is a $70 game?

Even if you look past these things, the game isn't totally flawless. The game wants you to explore its open world, and at first, I was totally on board with it. Side quests are plentiful, and while they are often simple, they serve as a great vehicle to get you away from the beaten path. However, as you explore more of the world, you'll quickly run into an irritating 20-quest limit in your quest log. You can't just grab every possible quest and save it for later, and you have to abandon older quests if you want to grab new ones.

Once I was later in the game, I was so annoyed by having to micromanage my quest log that I just quit doing side quests entirely. It felt like the game wanted me to tackle side quests as an endgame activity after finishing the main story. This one flaw contrasts greatly with, say, Tears of the Kingdom, which respects the player enough to let them pursue the content they want to engage with, without any pointless guard rails.

All in all, Diablo IV is a great example of things that can only be done on a AAA budget. The visuals are fantastic, and cutscenes display some of the best animation work I've seen in the entire industry. The mechanics are deep and the world is filled with an overwhelming amount of content, clearly wanting you to stick for the long haul--and maybe spend some cash on microtransactions along the way. I find it easy to ignore the scummy side of the game, but whether I recommend it or not comes down to your own tolerance for it.