A new adventure

Barring the early pre-order time, Diablo IV has been out for just under a week. In that time, I’ve played daily, and at least in my opinion it’s been time well spent. 

The story is interesting. From the opening cinematic, to the first part you get to play, it’s obvious that something strange is going on. Not long in, you’re tasked with finding the daughter of Hatred, Lilith. 

I have put probably a solid two days worth of time into this total (by which I mean about 48 hours instead of just playing for two days) and have as of yesterday hit the halfway mark on the level cap, and points are surprisingly plentiful. (So far I got about four to throw at improving my stats without leveling up again, so it seems post-50, they’re a bit generous with points) 

Aside from the plot and the leveling, I found myself enjoying some of the npc interactions, but of course it wouldn’t be Diablo if they weren’t typically brief acquaintances. I still hold on to some items from my favorites, even if they’re no longer of use to me. A fun consequence is worrying for npcs that are still alive and mostly well. Sometimes if I have to travel with them, I wonder if it’s the end for them. 

If you’re more of a grinder and gear perfecting type, you’re definitely in luck.

There are plenty opportunities to farm money and gear, the best of which, if it’s not better than what you have at least, can be taken to get the special stat removed so you can throw it on better gear, upgrade it and continue to use it for quite a while. You can also dismantle stuff to customize how your gear looks if your set isn’t to your liking and stash things for your other characters to use. Additionally, Lilith statues state that they apply to all your characters. 

One thing I don’t recall seeing that I had to look up out of concern I was taking away from other players, in co-op mode at least, the loot isn’t shared, but I still haven’t found a definitive answer as to whether or not the loot from events is shared or not. (If you’ve watched me play, you might have seen me hesitate to pick stuff up when I see others, or alternatively, swoop in and clear it all out sometimes.) 

I have a special fondness for Diablo as a series, and in fact I still have the original pc discs that my mom played. Stacked against D3, from a perspective of someone who played primarily necromancer in it as well as D4, it feels fairly OP still, though the focus on multiplayer feels more present and so it’s obvious they wanted to balance it out appropriately instead of letting you just be insanely powerful in a way where clearing out a hundreds of enemies in moments is an easy feat, sometimes a swarm of trash mobs is still enough to put you down. 

I played the server slam on 1, but have been playing it on 2 for the release proper and it feels good. Not too easy, but not too soul crushing and rage-inducing (unlike another Blizzard game, Overwatch 2, at any rate.) 

At any rate, I would easily give it overall a 4.5 for music, gameplay, functionality and story. I would give it more for nostalgia goggles though.