Diablo 4 - Gameplay @ IGN

[bjon045]

I prefer full single player with optional MMO elements. Are these games even going to be playable in 30-40 years from now when all these servers are shut down? That is why I like old games - all you need is the executable.

 

[largh]

I prefer full single player with optional MMO elements. Are these games even going to be playable in 30-40 years from now when all these servers are shut down? That is why I like old games - all you need is the executable.

Maybe you'll like Diablo 4 in 30-40 years then AFAIK, all MMOs have been cracked but require running some sort of server locally to function.

 

[fatknacker50]

Enjoyable weekend with this, based in the UK I only had one long queue time which was on the Friday as the servers came up.
After that hiccup it was no longer than 30 seconds to get in. Two crashes all weekend, that's why we're here, other than that it was very smooth sailing.
Played Sorc and Barb, sorc was a much smoother leveling experience using ranged and a few close range spells for " F me" moments.
Got both to the cap of 25 but that was just using Act 1.

Looking forward to next weekend to get my hands on Druid and Necromancer.

 

[TheSHEEEP]

The game honestly seems very "meh".
The visuals are great, but the rest just seems so... tame and simple?

Better than D3, sure, but for that price, it would have to blow something like PoE out of the water and there's no way that's going to happen.
That and giving money to Blizzard doesn't sound very appealing to me at all.

 

[2D12]

clic-clic-clic-clic etc. Looks like I'll spare my already beaten mouse, and some money.

 

[SirJames]

but for that price, it would have to blow something like PoE out of the water and there's no way that's going to happen.

PoE free cosmetics are trash, though. Plus, 4 stash tabs isn't enough, in the long run.

It doesn't cost much to get more stash tabs when they're on sale but the cosmetics can be pretty expensive. Eventually you're gonna want to look good and there is no transmog system!

Sure, D4 might be $100 but look at how good the base armor sets and transmog system is! Must have been 12 different sets per class in act1 alone. Plus, you can buy more stash tabs with in game gold.

Yeah, maybe the sets D4 sells in the item mall will be the best, but there's definitely some awesome looking free options.

 

[TheSHEEEP]

PoE free cosmetics are trash, though. Plus, 4 stash tabs isn't enough, in the long run.

You are right about the stash tabs.
If you actually like the game, stash purchases are a must-have. Because of that, I don't really consider PoE f2p. More like an elongated demo
But still, compare that to the D4 price tag...

It doesn't cost much to get more stash tabs when they're on sale but the cosmetics can be pretty expensive. Eventually you're gonna want to look good and there is no transmog system!

Not really, no.
I have never really had the desire to play dress up dolls in my RPGs.
I did actually buy a pet, though. The reason being that I had hundreds of hours in the game and I felt like I should give the devs some money

Sure, D4 might be $100 but look at how good the base armor sets and transmog system is! Must have been 12 different sets per class in act1 alone. Plus, you can buy more stash tabs with in game gold.

Yeah, maybe the sets D4 sells in the item mall will be the best, but there's definitely some awesome looking free options.

The way you talk about RPGs as some way to play dress up is bewildering and confusing to me. Are you sure you're not looking for something like https://www.stardoll.com/ ?

All of that notwithstanding, in the end the price or the MTX isn't the main issue. The real problem is the gameplay and the systems.
The D4 UI is just plain bad - haven't heard anyone saying it's actually a good UI. 6 ability slots - with a nice "hello" from our console friends...
The skills and combos seem very underwhelming (again, compared to PoE and the possibilities it offers), just very dated and simplistic. This is a genre with extremely strong competition and you gotta bring something to the table to compete here.
The worst offender must be the pseudo-MMO stuff, though. I have zero interest in encountering other players in my exploration / dungeon delving, yet any of them could just appear at any point and lure some mobs my way if they felt like it... In addition to that you got "world bosses" you have to tackle with other players, etc. Oh, and there is apparently a forced PvP zone as well. If I wanted to play an MMO, guess what I would play. PoE kept the forced MMO aspect reduced to camps, which is acceptable at least.
I'm also very worried about the story. I really liked the D1 & 2 stories (as sparsely told as they were outside of the cinematics). D3 was like a piece of fan fiction and D4's MMO-like structure doesn't bode well. I'll have to await some reviews on this to see what direction D4 ultimately takes here.

I might give it a chance once the guaranteed DLCs come out and on a sale, but other than that, with all the other choices available (and PoE2 on the horizon)...

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I have never really had the desire to play dress up dolls in my RPGs.

I'm kind of surprised at this actually. These item-hunt video games are pretty much the embodiment of building a doll and playing with it.
And building it is both in terms of mechanics and its aesthetics of it. I've very rarely heard anyone belittle that part of it. I guess, if you need to feel better about playing these sorts of games.

That's why I'd even go so far as to say that it's kind of dishonest how some companies keep pushing the "it's only cosmetic" argument, when cosmetics are a very important part of the experience. It's the reason a lot of people spend a lot of money on cosmetics.
But I guess it's the lesser evil, to monetize cosmetics and not affect gameplay. As long as, and this is very important, if you choose to not buy you're not getting only the worst cosmetics.
Which Diablo 4 has proven, at least so far, to not be the case. Some of the cosmetics look even better in the free version. Of course, this is what they've directly shown us. It will need to be proven when the game launches.

 

[TheSHEEEP]

And building it is both in terms of mechanics and its aesthetics of it.

If you go for aesthetics, you'll hamper the effectiveness of your build.
If the game allows you to do that and still "do fine", it's too easy.
In all games I play that do not detach looks from stats, my character always ends up looking like a crazed hobo wearing whatever random stuff he could find. I laugh about that, but I couldn't care less.

Games that detach the stats of your equipment from the visuals are the best (ie there is a slot for "visuals only" that can override the item looks of what you are actually wearing).
Whoever cares for what the character they'll barely ever look at while playing actually looks like can do that, but won't have to sacrifice item quality.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Games that detach the stats of your equipment from the visuals are the best (ie there is a slot for "visuals only" that can override the item looks of what you are actually wearing).
Whoever cares for what the character they'll barely ever look at while playing actually looks like can do that, but won't have to sacrifice item quality.

Diablo 4 does this out of the box, so I'm happy about that.

Anyway, the open beta is gonna be live in 2 days. I'll be curious to see how the necro and druid skills look like.
It'll also be a test to see how they fare with the likely avalanche of new players, since it's completely free. Blizzard said they don't expect outages on release, but I'll believe that when I see it.
It would be funny, in a bad way, if in the 4 day early access you can't even play it for most of the time.

 

[JDR13]

Anyway, the open beta is gonna be live in 2 days. I'll be curious to see how the necro and druid skills look like.
It'll also be a test to see how they fare with the likely avalanche of new players, since it's completely free. Blizzard said they don't expect outages on release, but I'll believe that when I see it.
It would be funny, in a bad way, if in the 4 day early access you can't even play it for most of the time.

I'll check it out for sure. Btw how big was the install?

 

[Stingray]

I'll check it out for sure. Btw how big was the install?

85GB or so.

 

[SirJames]

The way you talk about RPGs as some way to play dress up is bewildering and confusing to me. Are you sure you're not looking for something like https://www.stardoll.com/ ?

All of that notwithstanding, in the end the price or the MTX isn't the main issue. The real problem is the gameplay and the systems.
The D4 UI is just plain bad - haven't heard anyone saying it's actually a good UI. 6 ability slots - with a nice "hello" from our console friends...
The skills and combos seem very underwhelming (again, compared to PoE and the possibilities it offers), just very dated and simplistic. This is a genre with extremely strong competition and you gotta bring something to the table to compete here.
The worst offender must be the pseudo-MMO stuff, though. I have zero interest in encountering other players in my exploration / dungeon delving, yet any of them could just appear at any point and lure some mobs my way if they felt like it... In addition to that you got "world bosses" you have to tackle with other players, etc. Oh, and there is apparently a forced PvP zone as well. If I wanted to play an MMO, guess what I would play. PoE kept the forced MMO aspect reduced to camps, which is acceptable at least.
I'm also very worried about the story. I really liked the D1 & 2 stories (as sparsely told as they were outside of the cinematics). D3 was like a piece of fan fiction and D4's MMO-like structure doesn't bode well. I'll have to await some reviews on this to see what direction D4 ultimately takes here.

I might give it a chance once the guaranteed DLCs come out and on a sale, but other than that, with all the other choices available (and PoE2 on the horizon)...

Playing dress-ups is big business! Look at Fortnite that somehow manages to make 3 billion a year just from selling cosmetics like skins and emotes. The cool thing about this example is Tim Sweeny has gone and taken some of those profits and said "I'd rather buy everyone free games than pay for Google ads" and buys everyone a new game every week. I've got over 300 games on Epic and haven't bought anything. Over $2000 worth! Hooray for dress-ups!

But, yeah, the 6 abilities does bother me a bit. Especially since I've played Lost Ark where you have 8 basic slots and 1 super-mode and 1 ultimate and then some consumables too. But I also played a lot of the beta using a controller, which is a first for me in an ARPG, and I kinda liked it. But I did have a thought to squeeze in 1 more basic attack. Left mouse could have an assigned skill for close enemies or distant enemies. BUT maybe that's a waste of skill points that would be better spent on another passive.

With PoE, I have the opposite problem. I want to group with people but it's pretty much impossible. You look at the group find board and its all people selling shit. Which is the other problem that I don't want to trade for my loot! So, I really have to play SSF or my drop rate sucks. So, it's quite a terrible game for multiplayer.

That said, in the d4 beta, I only grouped with one random for a brief time. The other co-op was old b.net friends who I don't remember but I assume must be from WoW inviting me to games. I don't think I saw any group finder in d4? Would be nice to have something to make finding groups easier. Maybe queue for dungeons or something. But since everything is soloable there probably wont be many people waiting in a queue. I don't think you need to worry.

Also, the PVP zones aren't "forced". You don't have to go to them ever. Same with the world bosses. They're just a fun option you can totally ignore.

I don't really understand the point of making a PoE2. Wont it just steal customers from their own game? Like, what are they going to do that they couldn't just add in an expansion/season? Plus, I really hope the stashes and dress-ups carry over.

 

[bjon045]

I've got over 300 games on Epic and haven't bought anything. Over $2000 worth! Hooray for dress-ups!

There has been 268 games given away for free if I am not mistaken. I think some of your 300 must be f2p games or games you have bought?

 

[SirJames]

There has been 268 games given away for free if I am not mistaken. I think some of your 300 must be f2p games or games you have bought?

I'm not sure, maybe some f2p in there? 314, it says.

 

[bjon045]

I'm not sure, maybe some f2p in there? 314, it says.

Either way, that is ton of free games. I can't believe people don't like Epic. The amount of joy that I have gotten from the free games has made me a convert. Only thing I miss is a decent cloud screenshot function and a better UI.

 

[SirJames]

Either way, that is ton of free games. I can't believe people don't like Epic. The amount of joy that I have gotten from the free games has made me a convert. Only thing I miss is a decent cloud screenshot function and a better UI.

That Warhammer 40k strategy game from last week is actually pretty fun. Did you have a look at that?

 

[TheSHEEEP]

I don't really understand the point of making a PoE2. Wont it just steal customers from their own game?

It will be a different game.
Just how D1, 2, 3 and 4 are all different games. And D2, 3 and 4 are all still being supported (to a degree).

Different core mechanics (to a degree, of course), updated graphics engine, etc.
Lots of stuff you can't really do just by updating the first game.

I'm not sure about their plans for support for PoE1 moving forward.
My assumption is that they'll support both at the same time while that is financially feasible, they already have separate teams for both games, anyway.

 

[largh]

Among millions of others, I tried Diablo 4 during the free beta. Here are my impressions:

I remember trying Diablo 1 when I was a kid on my friend's computer and found the atmosphere so spooky that I had a hard time continuing to play. I did not finish that game but I remember winning the fat guy with a cleaver. My last contact with a hack-and-slash game was Diablo 2, which I played through once back when it was the thing. Even though I enjoyed both of those games, I did not become a hack-and-slash connouseour. More complex games such as Baldur's Gates have always felt more tempting to me although I do see the appeal in the Diablo formula.

The beginning of Diablo 4 nails the creepy atmoshpere of Diablo 1. The graphics, cinematics, looks, and music are gorgeous. The entry (the cinematic before the game starts) is creepy and interesting, but quickly vanes away when you figure out that those vargs were not that scary after all: everything dies simply by spamming the attack button. Bosses and mini-bosses slightly vary the formula, but one thing is clear: similarly to Elden Ring, the main mechanic in the game is combat and there's plenty of that.

This a world where hollow tree stumps grow garments and enemies bleed gold without any lore reason. Even though the game tries to give a lore reason for the existence of different enemy types, I tend to forget their looks because there are so many of them and they all die by spamming attack button all the same. For many players such games seem to be about improving your character through leveling and loot. The game is so clearly grafted around these mechanics that probably most players would not notice if the awesome atmoshpere and narrative was removed from the game. Narrative is kind of a weird fit to such a world, but surprisingly, the game has a story. I played a bit beyond the prologue, and the story did not feel entirely moronic: I wanted to continue playing to see how it would unfold, but doing so in a beta where you lose your progress would be a waste.

All in all, the story and atmosphere felt pretty good and passed my filter. It's too early for me to comment on combat mechanics as they tend to get more complex after initial levels in these types of games, but the game felt far too easy especially when playing couch-coop on the harder difficulty. I am not quite happy how limited the classes and appearances were but do get it: the mechanics are focussed on builds and it would be impossible to offer D&D level freedom in such a game. Still, they could provide more body-type customisation options. I tried the druid, which I liked a lot, and the sorcerer which appeared similar to D2. Passable but far too easy in the beginning of the game. I think I'd do first play-through with the druid if I bought the game. Further, even on the Diablo standard, there is by far too much meaningless loot. I believe these aspects will get balanced over time. The same applies for bugs because the game was close to unplayable when the server trafic was at its highest. Most bugs I encountered seemed to be related to the servers, and these will probably be fixed before the release. Other than server problems, the game was running smooth except dialogues and banter was often mistimed, which made it more difficult to follow the plot.

I would get the game if it was released now. Seeing that it releases this summer, I am uncertain as the release of BG3 and Starfield is pretty close and I tend not to play during summer. Need to see, but overall, I got a good impression. Never tried Diablo 3 and was never tempted either due to its candy-graphics and uninteresting atmosphere, but Diablo 4 seems to return to the roots - intentionally.

 

[Drithius]

I don't really understand the point of making a PoE2. Wont it just steal customers from their own game? Like, what are they going to do that they couldn't just add in an expansion/season? Plus, I really hope the stashes and dress-ups carry over.

Path of Exile developer, GGG, was bought out by TenCent a few years back. While the game hasn't changed *too* much - Chinese version not withstanding - I wouldn't doubt that the plans for a new, "reenvisioned" sequel had its roots in that acquisition.