Diablo 4 Beta Impressions
It has been almost a decade since the last mainline Diablo game. With everything happening at Blizzard, it’s almost unreal that Diablo 4 has a release date let alone the first of two beta tests. Only time will tell if Diablo 4 will have a better start than Diablo 3 (remember the auction house debacle?) but at least we can get an idea of what we can expect come June.
Diablo 4 takes place after the events of Diablo 3’s Reaper of Souls expansion. Heaven and hell have been depleted so Lilith has decided to return to Sanctuary (she is the mother of the Nephalem and creator of Sanctuary) and take full advantage in the aftermath of that war. The beta provides full access to all of Act I and a level cap of 25 (the full game will go to 100 with the returning paragon levels after hitting the max level).
Aesthetically speaking, Diablo 4 returns to Diablo 2’s feeling of bleakness. It is also darker, both in tone and graphically. If your most recent foray into Diablo was Diablo 2 remastered, you will feel right at home. If you did not have/care for the nostalgia bug and you last played Diablo 3, you will definitely notice the difference, especially when diving into the many dungeons. Even the cinematics share this but they also look phenomenal.
Speaking of, the story…is good? To be fair, Diablo’s story was never bad BUT most people recall other features from the Diablo series before the story; loot grinding, boss fights, inventory management, rifts, etc. Your character is generally thrown into the mix and expected to kill the big bad demons. With Diablo 4, you start the game only a step behind Lilith so you get to see the plot unfold in a way. Of course, previous entries have had memorable story beats but I was actually interested in what was going on more than I have been.
Players were able to choose 3 of the 5 playable classes during the open beta: Barbarian, Sorcerer (returning from Diablo 2 and replacing it’s replacement from Diablo 3, the Wizard), and the Rogue which is a cross of the Diablo 2 Assassin and Diablo 3 Demon Hunter. I went with Rogue and went with a ranged build. Blizzard implemented a far more in-depth talent tree this time around as opposed to just having available skills. The tree works as such: you have Basic skills (these were your spammable abilities), Core skills, and then specific subsets of skills. Each branch requires a minimum amount of points to reach but they do not have to be in any specific order. To reach Core skills, you have to put 2 points in basic. To reach the third branch, you will need a total of 6 points but those can all be in Basic and none in Core or any combination.
It seems overly complicated but when you see it, it makes sense. Players can refund the points spent at any time (at an increasing cost after level 15). All skills have 2 of 3 possible buffs that can be invested in to make stronger. For example, as a Rogue, I picked up Heartseeker (it is basically a homing missile), enhanced Heartseeker, and then had the choice of 1 or 2 modifiers. Players have access to 6 skills at at time so, while you could do it, it makes little sense to pick more than 6 abilities, especially with the ability to refund whenever.
This also plays into changing things up if you get stuck in a dungeon. Perhaps you need a bit more AOE and you are talented for pure single target or vice versa. Granted, sometimes you may just be underleveled but it was nice knowing that a change of strategy/skills can make or break the dungeon. Gear can also provide talent points and the ability to overpower a skill. If you have played Borderlands, you will recognize this system. Active skills can be talented up to 5 points. If you find gear with a skill, active skills can go to 6/5 and will improve that ability. Additionally, gear with skills you have not chosen can provide you that ability free of charge (as long as you keep that item equipped).
I have no doubt that there will be “best meta” builds for end game but this new tree opens up far more customized playstyles. While I did choose to make my rogue a ranged class, there are equally as many skills I skipped that could change the class to a deadly assassin specializing in melee combat. Hopefully, Blizzard adds some type of loadout system allowing players to save skillsets that could freely swap to whenever.
Another new addition to Diablo 4 from its predecessors is the world itself. Yes, you still have the small and large hubs with the blacksmith/jewelcrafter/healer/whathaveyou and various quest givers. You may also notice player characters. No, Diablo 4 is not a MMO. MMO-lite? The game has features generally seen in MMOs but can still be played as a solo adventure just like the previous entries. Hubs will have other player characters (not a ton of them) and you will see others out in the wilds (you even get a Nearby Player bonus which grants +5% XP).
During my roughly 10 hours of the beta, the only thing that absolutely needed to be completed with others was the world boss (kind of). You are not required to group up (although parties gain +10% XP) to kill the world boss but you will be taking it down with others. It was unclear as to who appears in your world but playing with friends is easily accessible through the menus. Dungeons remained solo (unless in a group) but a few of the random world events are significantly easier with a helpful stranger. A new feature was that dungeons could be reset en masse from the map. First time clears provided unique loot but that does not stop you from running through it again for experience and the chance at a legendary. If you are worried about loot, fear not as the loot that drops is yours and yours alone. Share the kill not the loot.
Speaking of loot, it works similarly to the previous entries. Legendaries did not need to be identified, meaning you could use them immediately. There is still some item management (your character will regularly tell you your bags are full) but all items take up the same space in your bag. No more having weapons take 3 slots, armor 2 slots, gems 1, or figuring out the best way to organize squares and rectangles (ifkyk). I probably completed 85% of what the beta offers (all main quests and around 25-30 of the 35 side quests) and I had almost all legendary gear.
Now, I have no idea if that was buffed for the beta, tied to playing on Tier 2 (there are 2 starting difficulties), or just got lucky. Either way, it was nice to hear that familiar sound and see the highlighted piece of gear on the ground after a kill or fly out of a chest.
Diablo 4 was almost definitely a day 1 purchase for me prior to the beta. Now, I am not sure I can even wait until June 6. This is going to be a massive time sink and I am all for it. I would be remiss in not mentioning it but there were technical issues (not suffered by me personally) that will hopefully be rectified in 3 months, mainly the login issues. Perhaps Blizzard underestimated the number of people wanting to get back to Hell. The worse of it for me was a 7-minute wait to start playing but I know of people who had a little longer and were also getting disconnected. I have no doubt this will be fixed by release (a login queue on launch would not shock me) so I would not fixate on this. I cannot speak to any PC issues as I played on PS5. For those who did not preorder or purchase KFC for last week’s beta, the open beta starts today (March 24th) and I highly recommend giving it a try.
