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Diablo IV First Impressions - Gameplay, Combat, Classes, And More
2022/12/07 시간 09:59
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Tharid
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Three years ago,
Diablo IV was first revealed at BlizzCon 2019
. After a highly controversial Diablo presentation the year before, Blizzard went all out - and Diablo fans around the world religiously but also cautiously followed, guided by what many call
the best Blizzard cinematic trailer of all time
.
A lot of things have happened in and outside of the world of Sanctuary since then. Earlier this year, Blizzard announced Diablo IV's release in 2023, followed by friends-and-family testing and a so-called End-Game Closed Beta phase. Leaks and reports have made it to Reddit, Twitter, and other social platforms - but what is the actual state of Diablo IV at the end of 2022?
Thanks to Blizzard, Wowhead has been granted exclusive access to a Press Preview build. Over a whole week, we were able to test and review Diablo IV’s prologue and first act with three different classes up to Level 25, getting a good and close look at what Diablo IV is going to look like going into 2023.
What Was Tested?
The Press Preview Build featured a hands-on experience of the Prologue and Act I. Players were able to play three out of the five announced classes: The Rogue, the Sorceress, and the Barbarian. The level cap was Level 25 - players were able to play their characters after reaching that level but gained no more experience. PvP was disabled.
Act I, set in the Fractured Peaks zone, was fully available. Before that, players needed to complete the prologue set in the same zone to progress further. Traveling to other act zones was impossible.
We tested all three classes up to Level 25 in both World Tier I (Adventurer) and World Tier II (Veteran), trying out many different talent builds and completing the majority of world content available.
The Story
Blizzard has stated multiple times that story in Diablo IV will play a much bigger role compared to its predecessors.
We obviously won’t spoil the story of Act I. However, we, as long-year Diablo fans, can confidently say that Diablo IV’s story approach most certainly hits the right notes. It fully supports the overall dark fantasy vibe of the game, and almost forces you to know your place on Sanctuary as the average adventurer. Being guided through this world between Heaven and Hell by characters trapped between Heaven and Hell feels natural and immersive, even dangerous at times. Progressing through the story means visiting both ends of a polarizing spectrum between light and darkness, between right and wrong.
Small lore details like interactable items and optional NPC dialogue make a big difference compared to earlier Diablo iterations. They finish what the main story seeks to begin: a true RPG experience.
The greatest thing about Diablo IV’s story, however, is that it is modular. If you want to move on to another act, you can absolutely do that and return to the story at a later point. We certainly wouldn’t recommend skipping what appears to be the pinnacle of Diablo story-telling in the last two decades - besides that, story quests reward really good and often usable item rewards. But we as well as Blizzard also understand that some players are into Diablo for the “hack and slay” and not the linear “stay a while and listen” part of the game!
Gameplay and Combat
Now to the most important part of any ARPG - the gameplay.
In recent interviews with IGN
, Diablo General Manager Rod Fergusson promised Diablo IV to have the visceral combat and snappy gameplay of Diablo III together with Diablo II’s unique approach to character and skill customization.
Was all this just simple PR talk?
We can say that it felt incredibly good playing Diablo IV compared to current-gen ARPG titles. From the very start, the player can partake in a multitude of activities like following the campaign, grinding through dungeons, completing flavorful side quests, or just collecting materials and farming gold. Combat in Diablo IV doesn’t only feel like a well-made upgrade to Diablo III. Compared to earlier Diablo versions, combat pacing feels natural and can become quite fast in sticky situations. In fact, it ties everything together: The current state of character itemization, your choice of difficulty, your decisions in the Skill Tree, and so much more. Whenever you fight a group of monsters, you not only feel like a part of the fantasy world you’re playing in - you feel like a part of the game designed around your player character.
A Sorceress taking over a Stronghold with her party
It's hard for us to define what makes Diablo IV’s gameplay and combat feel so incredible and immersive. That is why we want to bring up two examples of new in-game mechanics that change your way to play compared to earlier Diablo iterations:
First: Evade. Mostly just a simple dash ability (the small foot icon on the top left of the resource globe), all characters can use it to their advantage from Level 1 on. Adding a general movement skill to all classes creates a ton of player agency in early leveling gameplay already. One of Diablo III’s main caveats over the years has been its limitations in design space - and Evade alone solves a meaningful part of this issue.
Developers are able to introduce more complex monster mechanics early on because players will have a tool to deal with them. Blizzard can also create a much vaster world because characters will move a lot faster using their Evade button - this applies to city hubs in particular, where using class-specific movement skills is not allowed. Additionally, Evade can be further customized with items through modifiers like "40% increased movement for a few seconds after using Evade".
Long story short: It feels very good to use this button every single time.
First look at Diablo IV's World Map, Quarterly Update June 2020
Another in-game element that drastically changes your Diablo 4 gameplay experience is the World Map. Just like combat, the World Map serves as a tool to unite multiple systems, showcasing what the player has done, can do at this very moment, and should do in the future. Over are the dark days of Diablo II and its vague quest descriptions and Diablo III's linear Campaign Mode!
As long-time Diablo fans, our first look at the World Map didn't feel very Diablo. The new degrees of freedom provided by the World Map felt like gaining a new superpower - it made Diablo 4 feel like a fully-fledged role-playing game. There will be a "best way" to level up in Diablo IV, no doubt about that - but you can be absolutely sure that Diablo IV's World Map and all systems tied together by it will make this experience a thousand times more interesting compared to other Diablo games and ARPG titles in general.
Classes and Class Design
Class design in Diablo IV feels like the next natural step in the franchise. This evolution already starts during Diablo IV's character creation: Being able to create your very own version of the class almost overwhelms the average Diablo player. This goes in line with Diablo IV's approach to "main character storytelling": You're the average adventurer - but you're the average adventurer you want to be!
In the PR Preview Build, players were able to choose between becoming a Barbarian, a Sorceress, or a Rogue. In general, playing all three classes up to Level 25 felt good and rewarding. Depending on playstyle, leveling from 1 to 25 took about 5 to 10 hours. All three Skill Trees offered many different choices and playstyles even in the early stages of the game. Most importantly though, the Skill Tree combines the best of both former Diablo worlds: Much like in Diablo II, players are able to level up their main skills, enabling them to focus on a couple of specific and very powerful abilities. Each skill also has different upgrades, which, similar to Skill Runes in Diablo III, alter gameplay in other ways than just to do more damage. The combination of both skill design approaches adds a ton of depth when choosing a character build - at least compared to other Diablo titles.
Rupture and Flay, two fully upgraded Barbarian skills including their modifiers
In our Rogue playthrough, for example, we started off with a "jack of all trades" kind of melee build with lots of different upgraded damage abilities. Thanks to the low respec cost in the early game, we decided to try out a more straightforward bow build later on, basically only using one resource generator (Forceful Arrow) and one resource spender (Rapid Fire) for dealing damage. Combined with many different skill-agnostic passive nodes and a focus on applying Vulnerable debuffs to all enemies around us, playing this build was a pure treat.
No matter if you want to go wide or deep in the Skill Tree - class gameplay offers a ton of variety from the very start. On average, classes should be able to reach the final nodes of each class tree in their thirties, so one has to hope that the Paragon Board and Legendary items offer the same good feeling of making meaningful decisions as players did traveling through the Skill Tree.
By the way: We are going to release separate impression articles for all three playable classes over the next few days, so stay tuned!
Items and Itemization
There isn't a lot to say about items and itemization based on our Level 25 playthroughs. We've only found a handful of Legendary items, with most of them offering very specific Legendary powers - but that wasn't a bad thing at all. Thanks to the Occultist, we were able to store away these powers in a separate inventory tab. This system will enable players to use specific legendary affixes later on as soon they have enough skill points or gear to get a specific build going. The so-called Codex of Power also helps with that, storing aspects found after clearing specific dungeons, for example.
First look at Legendary itemization back, Quarterly Update June 2020
Other than that, itemization in Diablo IV seems fairly straightforward, at least in the early leveling stages. Players will understand quickly what modifiers do. Additionally, like in most ARPGs, different slots have exclusive modifiers, like +Skills on helmets or gloves. Weapon scaling is dominated by its DPS modifier, which can feel one-dimensional at times - switching out a rare bow with cool affixes against a normal crossbow without any bonuses just because it has 30 more DPS isn't fun, especially if you can't upgrade it.
Finding and using upgrades still feels awesome, though. Bonus damage combined with status keywords like Overpower (bonus damage based on health values) or Vulnerable (20% more damage for a certain amount of life or time) should increase complexity of choice going into Diablo IV's end-game, especially if your build relies on these keywords.
Dungeons and Strongholds
From the very start of your first playthrough, it becomes obvious that dungeons are the dark heart of Diablo IV’s gameplay loop. While dungeons can be part of a campaign step or other story-driven content like class and side quests, they offer a true alternative to playing in and progressing through the open world, providing excellent experience and item rewards.
Even up to Level 25, the sheer variety of dungeon themes and layouts is impressive. We now understand Blizzard’s decision to announce that Diablo IV will feature over 150 unique dungeons - it really feels like a new core feature. Big end-boss fights, puzzles, traps, hidden switches, rescue missions, and much more will wait for players even in the early stages of progression - Fractured Peaks alone features 23 dungeons. Dungeons also directly scale with character level and will be reset after completion.
Over five minutes of juicy Rogue dungeon gameplay!
Besides the incredible amount of dungeons, the introduction of Cellars and Strongholds increases spatial variety as well: Cellars, one-room mini-dungeons, provide a quick-and-dirty dungeon experience, while Strongholds fulfill the adventurer fantasy of freeing a camp from the spawns of Hell to convert it into a friendly hub with different NPCs and quests.
Renown System
Not a lot of systems were active in the Press Preview Build due to its level limitations, unfortunately. However, one of Diablo IV’s core pillars, the Renown systems, was fully available. Similar to World of Warcraft, you can earn Renown by completing different activities or discovering side areas and optional quests.
Each zone has five Renown tiers, each rewarding players with gold and experience. Additionally, players can get Skill points, Paragon points, or additional potion charges. Collecting Renown feels very natural and “on the side”, not least because Diablo IV’s World Map does a tremendous job of showing players points of interest to visit and things to do that will reward Renown.
Exploration in Diablo IV will be rewarded
By the way: Skill and Paragon points earned through the Renown system will be available to all of your future characters. The starting experience with a second or third character was vastly different and even more fun because you were able to go deeper into the Skill Tree much earlier.
Crafting and Gathering
Honestly speaking, crafting in Diablo IV already looks much more complex on Level 25 than it did in all of Diablo III. While the Jeweler and the Blacksmith basically serve the same purpose they had in D3, both the Occultist and the Alchemist add a lot of depth to character customization in Diablo IV.
Imprinting and extracting Aspects, the powers of Legendary items in Diablo IV, enables players to make use of legendaries that would otherwise end as “Charsi food”. The second aspect of the Occultist which is the crafting and salvaging of Sigils, end-game “map” items that turn Dungeons into Nightmare Dungeons, couldn’t be tested in the Press Preview Build.
The Blacksmith doesn't add a lot of new things in Diablo IV
The Alchemist also proved to be quite useful early in the game. Upgrading your Health Potion feel very rewarding because you can feel the difference in regen. For example, a Level 20 Minor Healing Vial is 100% more effective than your Level 10 Tiny Healing Vial.
You can also craft consumables in the form of elixirs that provide powerful buffs like increased Resource Regeneration or Cooldown Reduction for up to 30 minutes. All elixirs also provide a 3% experience buff, encouraging the player to keep their elixir uptime as high as possible!
But how will you be able to craft elixirs? That’s right - you need to gather materials. Gathering is as one-dimensional as it could be - you click a node and auto-collect. Ore, Skin, Plants, Monster Parts - players will collect all sorts of materials over the course of a playthrough. Much like in World of Warcraft, refining materials is also a thing in Diablo IV - more refined materials are needed for higher-level recipes.
You will also be able to craft Incenses at the Alchemist. We don’t know what those are but hope to find out during Open Beta next year!
Wardrobe and Transmogging
The Wardrobe was one of our favorite character customization systems in Diablo IV’s Press Preview Build. This system works a lot like transmogrification in World of Warcraft. As soon as you equip or salvage an item, it gets added to your Wardrobe. You can have up to five outfits which are called Snapshots. In its current form, each item slot offers 33 different collectible Variants, and each item slot can be dyed with 12 different pigment patterns.
The Wardrobe already feels like a system that needs one thing and one thing only to become a WoW transmog fan’s dream: More Variants and more Snapshot slots!
By the way: You’d think that early-game armor would look bad to reflect its relatively low power level - that is not the case in Diablo IV. Even the most basic sandals show impressive amounts of detail and fit right into the dark, adventurous new world of Sanctuary.
World Tiers and Difficulty
World Tiers are the difficulties of Diablo IV. In our test build, World Tier I and II were available for testing. Tier I or “Adventurer Mode” is recommended for new players with easy-to-defeat enemies and average drops. Tier II or “Veteran Mode” is recommended for Diablo veterans who seek challenging fights and increased loot and experience.
While World Tier I felt fairly easy, leveling in World Tier II posed a decent challenge that slowed down gameplay tremendously. This isn’t a bad thing, though - you get to know your class while being able to dive deep into Diablo IV’s visceral combat. Tier II also made one of the most important feelings in ARPGs much more palpable: Item upgrades.
Another interesting fact about World Tiers is that you can only change them at a World Tier Statue in one of the main cities. Instead of pressing a button in a random UI dialogue, going easier or harder becomes a character action and thus a much more perceptible gameplay experience.
Graphics and Look
Even in this non-optimized Preview Build, players were able to almost fully experience the incredible visuals of Diablo IV. The promised dark tone of Sanctuary is transported on every possible occassion - may it be in the middle of nowhere or in the town center of Kyovashad, main hub of the Fractured Peaks zone. Some might say that this iteration of Sanctuary looks bland, dark and the same everywhere you go - but I'd expect nothing more from a world consumed by darkness. Additionally, the omnipresent hopelessness makes locations infused with light much more noticeable. Hope, however, is still dominated by despair in Diablo IV's Sanctuary, and players will learn this the hard way both through visuals and story.
A quick tour through Kyovashad, main hub of Fractured Peaks
We're not in-depth game testers, so our experiences are subjective, but performance on "High" settings with a three year-old graphics card (RX 5700 XT) looked more than acceptable with our framerate being in the 70-90 range pretty much all the time. Things like dynamic weather effects added a lot of visual depth and immersion, the same goes for shadow effects. Again, this is all subjective, and we advise you to wait for Blizzard's official specifications - however, we can somewhat confirm expectations that Diablo IV should run on a lot of different systems while still looking great.
Console Port
This headline might be a bit misleading because playing Diablo IV on a PS5 doesn't feel like a "ported" version of the game. It's obvious that Diablo IV has been developed for both PC and consoles from the very beginning. Controls felt very intuitive and snappy, the same goes for navigating through UI elements. We weren't able to test couch-coop mode but are sure that it will be one of the main selling points for Diablo IV on console.
Conclusion
Based on our experiences made in the PR Preview Build, Diablo IV is off to a great start. The game definitely delivers regarding the core pillars of any good ARPG - a dark world, visceral combat, rewarding class design, and interesting systems. Novelty bias aside, Diablo IV in its current iteration most definitely has what it takes to become the best game of its franchise. As simple as it may sound: The development team took a lot of great ideas from Diablo II and III, merged them, and put them into Diablo IV. As a result, engaging with systems like Dungeons or the Skill Tree feels fresh and exciting.
Wounds still run deep - in and outside of Sanctuary
Will it be fun to play Diablo IV for thousands of hours? We couldn't tell. Some important ARPG aspects like Diablo IV's approach to end-game itemization still feel lackluster and "up in the air", at least after getting a glimpse of it at Level 25. It's also needless to say that the wound caused by Diablo Immortal still bleeds.
One thing is certain, though: Both Diablo fans and players new to the franchise will have a blast playing through Diablo IV - if Blizzard and the development team stay on course. We at Wowhead can't wait for Open Beta and Diablo IV's release next year!
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