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.

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?

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.