Diablo IV (PC) - Part 1

Developer:

Blizzard

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Release Date:

2023

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Systems:

Win, Xbone, Series X|S, PS4, PS5

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm taking a look at a game I said I would never buy due to its unnecessary always-online DRM: it's Blizzard's action RPG sequel Diablo IV!

So what made me change my mind in the end? Nothing, I didn't buy it, it was included with Xbox Game Pass so I thought I'd give it a try. Oh, I should mention that I played it way back in January, so this is going to be hilariously out of date. These regularly updated modern games are a bad match for my 'Eh, I'll finish the final draft later' work ethic. They're not a great fit for my 'Hey, here are some screenshots of retro games!' site ethic either, but I've found procrastination can actually solve that problem as long as I keep my articles on the back burner for a decade or so.

I had somehow managed to avoid learning anything about Diablo 4 before playing it, so if I seem entirely clueless, that's because I was. I'm still clueless actually. I'm assuming that there's something people don't like about it, some kind of controversy (because: Blizzard), but I haven't looked into what it is. Plus I did my best to ignore all the multiplayer stuff, all the microtransactions, and all the... whatever else it has. I don't even know what it has, I ignored it.

Though I did pay attention to the story, so there'll be SPOILERS for the first few hours of the game. Or at least what the game was like a few months ago.

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Hey, this is bringing me back to when I tried Diablo III! I love being in a queue for the title screen.

To be honest it took no time at all to get me logged in, so when it works the process is pretty harmless. Oh, speaking of the title, the game has gained the subtitle Vessel of Hatred, as that's the latest expansion pack. It apparently comes with quality of life improvements to the base game... and a bunch of other stuff I won't be seeing as I don't really have it.

This is interesting. I've seen games that add an optional coloured outline to enemies to make them stand out more, but this is the first I've played that lets you adjust their contrast. I guess most games just make the enemies visible against the background by default.

My theory is that this is a response to all the backlash to Diablo III's more colourful aesthetic. This time around they made sure to make the game suitably grey and murky.

I'm tempted to turn on highlighting so that the enemies show up better in the screenshots, but I'm going to go with the dark and gritty world of Sanctuary as intended. That way you can play 'spot the enemy' with every screenshot. See how many you can find!

The game begins with a cutscene showing that Blizzard are still among the best in the business when it comes to pre-rendered CGI cinematics. Either that or they know the best's email address.

A group of RPG characters are in a bit of a situation, with a locked door in front of them and a ton of monsters behind them. The scholar in the group figures out that it has one of those magic locks that requires the blood of three willing donors to get it open. This is never a good sign! Don't ever open doors like this. Fortunately blood is pouring everywhere from everyone at this point so it's not a big ask to get some redirected into the grooves on the floor.

The door opens and here it becomes obvious that certain members of the party are total bastards who think nothing about leaving their buddy to die outside.

But then things get a bit weird, with two of group getting cut up with runes and dragged onto pillars. Also it turns out that their buddy outside is still alive... kind of.

He's like some kind of zombie priest thing and he comes in and talks the group's scholar around to the idea that getting pinned to a pillar and bled dry for a dark ritual is actually the quickest route to knowledge. This is also a pretty bad sign! Donating blood is great, but not like this.

Their blood forms a solid skin and out of it a translucent demoness called Lilith emerges. Those giant horns make her look like a female Diablo, so I'm thinking this is going to be the game's last boss.

The intro's a pretty incredible demonstration of what you can do with CGI animation these days, with extreme close ups of the reflections in people's eyes as they behold their own arcane wonders. Plus it's almost 8 minutes long. That won't seem like much to Yakuza players or Hideo Kojima fans, but it's the length of one of the shorter episodes of Secret Level.

Now I get to create my hero, picking from five available classes. Vessel of Hatred adds a sixth class, Spiritborn, but I don't have it so that is currently unavailable.

There are a few things I can appreciate about this screen. Like it tells you the class's playstyle on the right, so you have an idea of what makes them different and shows you a video of them in action on the left so you can see it for yourself. Also if you click on a different class and then click back again, it's a different person standing there, so you can see another possible look.

I often go with the most boring choice in an RPG (sword guy), but I decided to pick a rogue, because ranged combat has worked for me in other Diablo games. Now I get to select a body type and a preset to start with.

This is a top-down action RPG so it wouldn't have surprised me if character creation had ended here, but no there's a little more to it.

I can pick my hero's face (out of 4), hair (out of 21), facial hair/eyebrows, skin tone, makeup, tattoos and jewellery. There are no sliders to move the eyes or expand the nostrils, but that's fine as the characters are going to be microscopic on screen during gameplay anyway.

Alright, now the character creation is done. The earlier games didn't let me mess around adjusting attribute points and selecting skills and it's not an option here either.

Damn, you think they included enough difficulty settings there?

Actually, I suppose they didn't, as the game doesn't have a 'Story' or 'Easy' difficulty. It starts with 'Normal' and only gets tougher from there. Unfortunately the developers couldn't think of a word that sounds more challenging than 'Torment', so half the modes are just that with a number after it.

Damn, Blizzard's really living up to their name with the next intro cutscene, as this place looks bloody freezing.

The game begins with a story about how the world of Sanctuary was never meant to be humanity's home, it was just a safe haven from the eternal war between Heaven and Hell.

While the narrator continues their history lesson the cutscene shows my created hero on horseback heading off on a journey to... somewhere. I'm sure it'll make sense when they get there. He just keeps travelling and travelling and travelling.

Damn, can I add high contrast highlights to the cutscenes as well?

Well the hero's horse ran off scared and got instantly killed by... something. I could've done without seeing photorealistic horse intestines leaking out across the ground in close up, that's really gross, but I guess it shows the tone the game's going for.

Oh, hey there's a game here in this movie.

Alright now now it's my job to keep my hero safe from the attacking Wargs and keep his guts inside where they belong. I'm sure that something's blood and gore will be decorating this snow by the time I'm done, but as long as the game can stop doing close ups of it I'll be fine.

This has the same mouse-driven action RPG combat as the other games so far, with 'move' and 'attack' assigned to the same mouse button... so a badly-aimed click in the chaos of combat is going to move me right into the middle of the pack. Though I don't have a ranged weapon yet, only blades, so that's where I'm going anyway.

Diablo

Diablo II

Diablo III

It's nice that Diablo hasn't really changed that much over the last three decades. It still has the elaborate illustrated HUD with a hotbar and orbs either side to indicate my remaining health and... whatever else an rogue has. Stamina or energy or something.

This ornate style of interface really fell out of fashion after the '90s, but Diablo remembers its roots and I appreciate that.

I found shelter in a nearby town and I'm getting good vibes about the place. Sure it looks a bit of a frozen ruin and the accents make me feel like I've wandered into a particularly bleak region of Siberia, but the music sounded a bit like the Diablo 1 Tristram theme for a moment so I'm happy!

Unfortunately I spoiled the mood by getting a level up inside a tavern, which set off a dramatic blast of magic energy. Fortunately no one else seems to be bothered by it.

There are a few people here and a woman called Vani has a quest for me. I've got a few dialogue options to steer my side of the conversation, but they're mostly just questions and I'm not really that curious about the answers.

That level up means I can begin building my character up. He has no attributes to upgrade but I can invest points in his skill tree. This time it works a bit like a Final Fantasy X sphere grid, with a road of icons that keeps branching out to more icons along the way. If I invest enough points in an area by picking skills it unlocks the path leading to another set of skills.

My first skill wasn't a difficult choice. I'm playing a rogue so because I want to be an archer, so I'm choosing an arrow skill. And then I'm heading into Icehowl Ruins to sort out the monsters harassing this town. It's like a 'rats in the cellar' quest, except they're not rats and they're not in a cellar.

My arrow skill has replaced my dagger as my new default left mouse button attack, so that's worked out well for me. Now I can click on people and make them dead from a distance.

The original Diablo made you click for every single attack, which seems kind of insane in retrospect. Fortunately the games moved on and now I can just hold the button. I can also hold 'shift' to stand still while attacking, which is handy when you just want to hang back and snipe all the skeletons as they come in through the doorway. This was the tactic I used back in the olden days: making the enemies go through a narrow chokepoint and filling that space with hurt. Your options are limited when your only moves are 'walk' and 'shoot', so you've gotta use whatever else you can to your advantage.

Oh I've also got a button to roll, but it's got a cooldown so it's not something I'll be relying on. In fact I'm going to forget I even have it.

Oh, there's no 'inventory Tetris' in this one, as every item I pick up just takes up one slot in the grid.

But this is basically still the Diablo I'm familiar with. I walk into the next room, hold the button on all the bad people, pick up their loot afterwards and if the numbers are bigger that what I've got equipped then I wear it. These new gloves have purple text, so they're better than the rubbish grey text ones I have on.

I can only carry 4 potions, which seems a bit stingy. Though I do get full health when I level up, so I just need to keep doing that and I'll be fine.

SOME DUNGEON CRAWLING LATER

Well I searched the depths of Icehowl Ruins and it wasn't a huge shock what I found down here: it's the dungeon's boss fight! There are three notches on his health bar so my theory is the fight changes each time I get his health down to the next notch.

I got a new skill earlier and assigned it to the right mouse button, so I can fire off a flurry of arrows now. There's no cooldown on the skill as far as I'm aware, though it is emptying the purple orb.

Speaking of skill, I didn't really need much to beat this guy. I did try a few dodge rolls, but it's not really working out for me. It's never charged up when I need it.

With my first quest complete I returned to the inn and got my reward: betrayal.

Those bastards drugged my character's drink, then stuck him on a cart and wheeled him off!

Well I can't lie, this doesn't look good for my hero. But hey, at least the camera angle's slightly different! I don't think it's possible to turn it at all during gameplay, so this is a welcome change of perspective.

I'm surprised at how vulnerable the protagonist feels in this, at least in cutscenes. In gameplay they're an unstoppable force, as always, but in a cutscene they can get scared by wolves or dragged off on a cart. Now I'm wondering if co-op mode adds extras carts for all the other players travelling with you, or maybe they have to go to the slaughter barn on foot. (It's probably more likely that co-op doesn't start until after this prologue).

Good news, I escaped the slaughter barn! Well, a guy called Iosef came and rescued me actually, but same result.

Bad news, these weird cultists shoved some evil petals in my hero's mouth while they were knocked out and now they're seeing cutscenes. I feel like I've spent more time watching videos in this game than clicking on skeletons so far.

This cutscene is a flashback to Lilith's arrival in the town's church. The town's priest was delivering a sermon, livid about all the sinners in town, but the congregation was more receptive to what Lilith had to say. It turns out that Vani was pure evil from the start, as she immediately gets murdering without hesitation.

To change the subject entirely, there's a DLC shop in the game and they've given me some gifts to get me familiar with the purchasing process. I'm already starting to get sick of the merchant saying "It stirs you, yes?" or "It calls to you," all the time.

I like how it gives you a nice 3D model you can spin around, because it's the only good look I'm going to get of any of this equipment. You've seen how tiny people are in the game! Also, I'm an archer, so I won't be seeing my free sword and axe cosmetics during gameplay at all.

Oh, also the game literally has horse armour DLC. Maybe lots of games do, I don't make a habit of scrolling through this stuff, but it amused me to see the original cosmetic DLC still around nearly 20 years after Oblivion.

Cosmetics cost platinum, and the more you buy, the more you save! They've helpfully written 'Best value' above the most expensive pack, to indicate that's the one they want you to go for.

I've been blessed with an immunity to microtransactions, but I know this is a temptation a lot of people don't need. Still, it's Blizzard, so it's not like this shop is going to be a surprise to anyone, and it's not a free-to-play MMO where you have to pay to avoid gameplay frustrations or to unlock characters. Well, except for the expansion pack class.

Speaking of other characters, I decided to start a new game to see how the sorcerer played, and now I'm standing in the middle of a town called Kyovashad. This isn't like Dragon Age: Origins where each class gets a different prologue chapter, it's just skipped the prologue entirely!

The place is full of people, presumably the kind of NPCs that give me quests and sell stuff, but I'm going to ignore all the icons on the map for now as it's the combat I'm here to try out.

I left town heading nowhere in particular to see how quickly a level 1 character got destroyed by the enemies in this later area, but I was actually doing pretty well with my starting weapon.

Then I stopped to help someone stuck under a wagon and that's when the pain started. It was a trap and hordes of enemies started appearing from everywhere. It was basically impossible to avoid taking hits, which isn't something a magic user is typically built for! But I didn't just survive the ambush, I was kicking their asses. Especially as every time I got properly overwhelmed all the killing earned me a level up and everything died in the magic shockwave.

By the time the ambush was over and got my shiny reward shoes I'd gotten enough experience to reach level 4, plus I had regained full health and collected max potions. So I can't say that I've found low-level combat all that challenging. Anyway, my sorcerer's already a higher level than my rogue after five minutes, so I'm switching back over.

I returned to my previous character and thankfully he was still in the pre-Kyovashad prologue where I left him so I haven't permanently missed any story.

It's certainly nice to have a change of scenery... at least I think there's scenery around me. Blizzard have figured out the secret to making ray tracing less demanding: the game doesn't have any light. Though it really is running pretty slick with the graphics turned up to high, even on my humble rig.

You can tell from the text under the minimap that I'm a soul in search of answers. I've been travelling the Eastern Pass, through a 🕷️ spider cave 🕷️ and past all kinds of harvestable resources in order to reach a hermit that Iosef knows.

Reaching the mountain hermit's windswept cabin and investigating its contents got me a bit of a tense cutscene where the ominous owner returned home with a bloody huge axe and... invited me to stay for dinner.

My character learned nothing from last time and sat down to enjoy some food and drink with the stranger. Thankfully Lorath seems to be a good guy and he explains that the petals the cultists forced into my character's mouth were the blood of Lilith. The two of them have a connection now, that's what's causing the visions.

It turns out that Lilith is the Daughter of Hatred and Mother of Sanctuary. As in, she literally created Sanctuary, this planet we live on. She's really powerful and she's up to something bad, so Lorath and I are going to head out to find out what.

Alright I've reached Kyovashad, where my sorceress started, and this time I'm going to go explore the town and investigate all its many minimap icons.

It turns out that I can buy and sell things, so that's always useful. But I can also break equipment down into components and unlock extra cosmetic options as a fun alternative to making cash.

I also ran into Lorath again, who tricked me into paying 20 coin to get his stick from the merchant. It's a bit late for a shop tutorial seeing as I've already been there, but I can appreciate the game being designed to introduce these things to players. Now that Lorath's got his polearm he's ready to head out on his own mission, but he did give me a lead at least to point me towards the next quest. The dude's got a great voice by the way, I hope I run into him again at some point.

I decided to explore the town some more, going over to every marker and exclamation mark, and I eventually found a pet shop. It's sure nice of the game to show off content that I don't have, with a handy button to let me read more about this expansion pack.

Fortunately I already found a well-behaved dog just standing in the street who wanted to tag along, so I don't even need to purchase a tiny tiger. My pet automatically collects gold and materials off the ground for me, apparently, though I can't send him back to town to sell things like the dog in Torchlight.

I also got a free horse, so I don't actually need to save up 100,000 coin to buy the panther mount.

Alright, there are important story things I should be doing, but I'm just going to do the same thing I did as the sorceress: pick a direction and keep going. Only this time I've got a horse so I can gallop off into the wilderness instead of hiking on foot.

Oh damn Diablo's never had a map like this before, at least not as far as I remember. It seems they've gone full open world this time, so I can play it like Skyrim and go looking for side quests.

I soon ended up at another town right next door to Kyovashad, or at least it seemed that close when I galloped down the road, ignoring all the enemies. So now I've got options: I can head off and keep exploring, I can look around Menestad for quests, I can activate Menestad's waypoint so that I have another fast travel point... actually I should probably do that last one first.

Or, I could just stop now. I've got enough screenshots, I've talked long enough. I don't think anyone would really mind if I quit right after the prologue and never reached the actual game.

Okay fine, Diablo 4, Act 1 coming soon in... Part 2.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Next time on Super Adventures, it's more Diablo IV. Sorry, I know that guessing the next game is the best part, but the game's too complicated for just the one page.

Don't let that stop you from leaving a comment though! You can talk about Diablo 4, and... stuff.