"The dead deserve nothing when the living are in danger." - Lorath
I say these things as a fan of the entire Diablo series. I've been playing since the first game and even enjoyed the first game on the first PlayStation console which I thought couldn't be done on a controller and was pleasantly surprised to find out how wrong I was. The third game is my favorite, especially after Reaper of Souls.
The visuals in Diablo IV are stunning in every way including amazing environments and animations. The music is superb. The voice acting is excellent. The cinematics have some very cool camera angles that don't take away from the isometric look and feel. The stories are great. It's totally worth playing. It's a great and impressive experience.
The rest of what you're about to read is what bothers me.
As impressive as Diablo IV is in different ways, it's a huge disappointment and no longer Diablo. Like what Ubisoft has done to the Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs series: ripping out the heart and soul of the first games and turning it into mainstream cash grab garbage, Blizzvision has done the same with Diablo. Diablo IV is like if you want to play a game that's like Diablo but isn't Diablo.
I took my time playing through the campaign. I was level 50 (normal level cap) in Act 3, and was nearly level 52 (Paragon) before getting my mount. I hit level 55 just before completing the main campaign.
The HUD displays large keybind buttons that aren't even on the ability icons. They're just covering up empty space on the screen. Is the target audience people with no brains and are using a keyboard for the first time? If players need this, they aren't gamers. This is what happens when you have developers that aren't also gamers. Why did this get past the Beta with no update? Even the Alpha players should have mentioned this nonsense. The key commands are better over the icons themselves and in a small part of it, not covering the entire thing. An option to remove them entirely would be cool.
Diablo IV has level scaling for enemies that plays like World of Warcraft where when you level-up you're suddenly no longer as powerful as you just were ten seconds ago. The scaling is unreliable and makes no sense with many enemies being overly difficult while others are easier in different zones while switching "Acts" and such. It's a mess. This is something that's not as noticeable in the early game.
I believe that PvP balancing ruined PvE itemization somehow. I just can't make sense of why the itemization in the game is so nonsensical. I'm choosing between plus spell damage or plus spell level and other random nonsense. Stats are now restricted to specific item types. Rings and amulets have stats on them that other gear doesn't get and vice versa. It's another mess. I like the idea of different stats on different items. I think it's mostly the variations in nonsensical and unreliable stats that is frustrating.
The loot system sucks. It reminds me of Diablo 3 at launch where it's nearly impossible to find upgrades. Sure, there's a lot of interesting loot but it's such a mess that you get the most random stats on items. I get endless amounts of "Sorc" items that have Strength and Dexterity stats. I had gotten all kinds of impressive loot in the Beta. It seems to me that the Beta had enhanced loot drops turned on or something cuz this is just ridiculous.
Then there's the copy/paste of assets in every single piece of content. I wonder how many different "zones" there actually are in the game because it doesn't seem like a lot. Entirely different forts have the exact same layout with a different coloring, filters, and asset placements but it's all the same. Are people really not expected to notice this or are we just expected to not care that every single dungeon and area that we travel through is exactly the same? The visual effects and details are incredible, just gorgeous. This still has me reacting "What the fruk?" Imagine playing the first Sonic the Hedgehog game and every single level is exactly the same as the first level but with different colors and asset placement. That's Diablo IV.
The copy/paste also includes the repeatable open world quests. It's the same exact dialogue every time. There's maybe three different versions of that same quest. There's lots of great enjoyable content in the game. I'm just sayin this is ridiculous.
Here's a less detailed list of more things that suck:
Leveling isn't fun.
Now focused on fetch quests.
Only two camera angles (again) and with an even worse zoom-in!
Giant glowing feet for climbing or jumping events.
Have to loot nearby individual gems.
No pet that loots gold, no pets at all.
Re-skill costs money and there's no real incentive to try different builds while still punished for wanting to try others.
Spellcasting feels tedious rather than fun, too much mana management and no mana potions. Spend more time managing resources than slaying. (It's fine and you get used to it. I'm just saying. It obviously would take major re-balancing to change this.)
Destructible environments never drop any loot.
Nearly pointless to explore cuz all the quests will take you everywhere and the maps are just copy/pasted everywhere, There's a lot of backtracking. I read some bookshelves and then immediately after started a quest to read the bookshelves I just read.
Can't view world map from dungeon map.
Some parts look like D3 re-used / re-skinned assets.
Open world events are like Destiny patrols.
Paragon traits are garbage and uninspiring.
Lore books / journals have the same blue colors as magic items so they're easy to miss.
Shop prices are ludicrous, should at least include extra "premium" coins with every purchase at these prices.
Zero lessons learned from previous games. How?!
Some things in this list could use more detailed explanation. I just don't care that much about getting deeper into them.
What happened with the developers of Diablo III? That game was near perfect after Reaper of Souls. It currently has the best end-game I've experienced in a video game. It's endless and incredible. The loot system could still be better even now but the fun is there and it's damn good. I cannot believe that if the same developers of III made IV that it would be the same game it is. Instead, they grabbed devs from World of Warcraft and had them make it?
Diablo III also had an impressive and fun to use skill system. You could easily change anywhere from two to twenty different playstyles on the fly. Diablo IV comes nowhere close to it.
The Diablo grind used to be about enjoying the gameplay, skill builds and RNG loot. Now it's just a grind with no real feel of reward, reminiscent of what World of Warcraft was also turned into. Now, the "RNG" is what shows up in the Shop.
There's also two expansions for Diablo IV confirmed. Two expansions that they already know they want for this game that we already paid for. They knew about these two expansions before launch of course. Combined with their insane Shop prices and you should really see the only thing they care about.
Diablo IV is a very impressive and enjoyable experience. It's just not what I would expect or want from the series gameplay wise. Welcome to World of Diablocraft. It's not Diablo anymore. Thanks for reading. Game on.
By the way, "Activision Blizzard Fires World of Warcraft Game Designer for Making Fun of Corporate Greed." LOL
An additional note: Diablo Immortal's character creation intros and animations are the best and I'm really surprised there wasn't something similar done for Diablo IV.
Bring back instruction manuals. /sigh
Trust your instincts. Expertise is an opinion. Professionalism is inhumane. Authority is the enemy.
You just killed my hype for the Steam port...
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