Diablo IV Throws Open The Gates Of Hell, But Blizzard’s Still Fighting Its Own Demons

By Moises Taveras | March 20, 2023 | 4:11pm

Video Games Features Diablo

Diablo IV Throws Open The Gates Of Hell, But Blizzard’s Still Fighting Its Own Demons

The opening weekend of Diablo IV‘s beta has come and gone, giving folks who pre-ordered the game or had the poor fortune of eating a KFC Double Down—truly a sin unto itself—access to the entirety of the game’s first region and act. For the ever curious who have never really gotten into the series, like myself, the weekend represented a great opportunity to not only test the waters but meaningfully invest in the game ahead of its release in the middle of a packed window in early June, where it’s jammed between The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom‘s May release and Final Fantasy 16 at the end of the month. After spending most of a weekend hunkered down on a couch voraciously consuming bad food and the entirety of the beta’s campaign content, I think I finally get the shit y’all were on back in the ‘90s, and it feels as dangerous and potent as it must have back then.

Diablo IV seems first and foremost like it was thought up for a wider audience than ever. Though I’m certainly no expert, having only spent a handful of hours at best in Diablo 3 before this weekend, its story seems noticeably pared back and grounded. Paired with a brand-new focus on in-engine cutscenes that show off the game’s graphical fidelity, and importantly don’t entirely rip you out of the game to dwell on story, it seems Blizzard is going for a simpler tale: that of Hatred’s daughter Lilith’s return to Sanctuary, the world she created with the fallen angel Inarius, and how she capitalizes on the swaying faith of the land to turn it against itself in her conquest. It’s effective at least early on at setting the gnarly mood and attitude of this sequel, which seems just as intent on amping up the viscera as it is telling an understandable story this time around.

Most Popular

I really enjoyed this approach to storytelling, which felt like the component of Diablo that was missing for me to justify throwing myself into its loot-filled depths. Lilith doesn’t just come into this world, retreat to her lair and pull on strings like a fiendish Machiavelli, and in fact countless of Diablo IV‘s wonderful new cutscenes place her front and center, revealing her desires and thinking without telling too much that’d risk demystifying her. Instead, it lends her gravitas and presence as you follow the trail she’s actively carving through Sanctuary in a bid to slow the literal Hell she’s threatening to unleash. Of course, it wouldn’t be Diablo if you weren’t violently carving your own, and man does Diablo IV seem to get it.

I spent my time in Diablo IV‘s beta as a sorcerer, who, despite pitifully starting with a wand, soon graduated to a much more satisfying staff through which he could blast enemies with electricity, fire, and ice. In other games, I’d have been relegated to a ranged DPS incapable of taking more than a few hits, but in Diablo IV, I became a fearsome juggernaut, thanks in part due to a healthy selection of skills that made me just as capable at various distances. Though my ice abilities seemed like they were at a disadvantage—I’m chalking this one up to the fact that the game begins in the frosted Fractured Peaks biome—I had far more luck with my flame and electric abilities, especially the latter. Thanks to a build I just happened to chance into, my basic shock attack generated balls of electricity after hitting opponents that when picked up charged up a meter on my character, prompting my body to just discharge chain lightning at anything that stepped into my radius depending on how many notches I’d filled. This and Arc Lash, a shock-tinged melee smack, cleared rooms so much I almost forgot I had three other skill slots and command over two other elements. Of course I eventually remembered and honed my skills, making use of a short-form teleport that struck the ground where I landed with lightning, a defensive wall of fire, and my favorite little conjuration, a three-head flaming Hydra that functioned as a flanking turret. Before long, I felt shockingly powerful and geared up, a stark contrast to the power climb in similar games I love, like Destiny 2.

As a matter of fact, I felt a little too powerful, almost like there was very little friction, which had a lot to do with World Tiers, Diablo IV‘s take on difficulties. Considering my inexperience with the series, I settled on the first tier, Adventurer, for most of my time, which put me in a shared world with other players (this game has some very light MMO elements that at this point are pretty typical of games like it) who were likely similarly breezing through content mindlessly. This tier feels like Diablo softening its otherwise hardcore image to appeal to more players, a bid that’ll likely pay off in spades if I’m any indication. In my infinite capacity for masochism though, I did bump my character up to the second tier, Veteran, that is supposed to be more indicative of the traditional Diablo experience. Since I like challenging games, I felt at home here, and the dungeons that I took on at this tier felt instantly more aggressive without being cruel. Tiers 3 and 4, which up the ante with Champions and events like Helltide, as well as rewards like Sacred and Ancestral item drops, are unlockable with completion of the campaign and post-game content, and are seemingly only the beginning of the World Tiers, which presumably scale to 100. From the sound of it, hardcore Diablo players will have plenty to chew on and that’s before even seeing the full map.

Diablo IV is also making Sanctuary into an open world and populating the shit out of it. Everywhere I explored, every corner of its now densely layered map turned up a new town with new side quests to undertake and (more importantly) new dungeons to fight through, which reward Aspects that can be affixed to gear, granting bonuses to equipment for certain classes. The Fractured Peaks alone, which looks to be the smallest of Diablo IV‘s five regions, contains 35 sidequests, the entirety of the first act of the game, 23 dungeons, and three strongholds, a kind of dungeon in the open-world that turns the surrounding area into a new town and hub when beaten. Besides these cut and clear missions and goals, Diablo IV has public events as well, and over the course of the weekend Blizzard even unleashed a World Boss for 15 minutes a pop a few times a day. On the systems side, Diablo IV seems familiar, which is great news since it didn’t seem like it needed much fixing. You’ll still be salvaging tons of gear at the blacksmith, which will unlock transmogs for all your equipment, and updating your potions at an alchemist as you level up. New to this game is an occultist who deals with Aspects, which can also be extracted from Legendary gear (destroying that piece) to then be slotted into something better, maintaining the literal spirit of the Legendary armor or weapon in another form. In other words, if you ever feared Diablo IV wouldn’t have anything to do…well what a dumb fear to have. You idiot

Diablo IV, even this early on, feels like the decisive win Blizzard’s been fighting for years to get to. The now infamously embattled studio, which has been embroiled in a frankly baffling and embarrassing amount of legal fights centered on its toxic work culture, which allowed rampant sexual misconduct to take place, had been struggling even before the suits came. Many of Blizzard’s other titles were more or less drying up, with more and more resources and staff being put on new projects like Diablo IV until news of the lawsuits rocked the studio, resulting in significant enough tumult and turnover that virtually everything in the works got delayed. And yet the staff have toiled through a pandemic and corporate turmoil on their games nonetheless to mixed success. Some, like Overwatch 2, have emerged worse for wear, while World of Warcraft‘s latest expansion Dragonflight was widely praised, even if it did land like a pin drop. The Diablo series in particular has had a visibility problem in the last decade, largely due to Diablo 3‘s waning community and a mobile game that was met with a decidedly chilly reception that harshed the vibes around the franchise. After being dragged through the mud so decisively for years on end, Diablo’s potential comeback with this game is just as much Blizzard’s chance to prove it still has that magic that once made it the biggest developer behind many of gaming’s crown jewels of the ‘90s and aughts.

For what it’s worth, the game seems poised to be big. It’s releasing on consoles and PC at the same time, and seems incredibly accommodating, but certainly not at the sake of the depth returning players are likely hoping for. I suspect new players are going to have a similarly hard time putting the game down as I did, and might even find themselves just as invested in the narrative, and I only had access to a fraction of what the full game has to offer. The open beta, taking place between March 24-26, will even give players access to the full suite of classes, including the Druid and Necromancer, who were unplayable in the Early Access weekend that just concluded. I’m actually incredibly confident in the game, but a great game does not make a studio great. As has been the case with Blizzard’s other releases, I’m as thrilled for the team’s successes in such extremely complex and I’m sure demoralizing conditions as I am hesitant to offer my full-throated endorsement of a product from an institution that would disparage its workers to the lengths Blizzard has. Hell, the game’s only currently on track due to crunch, making for a foundation that’s just as rotted as the game’s countless demon-infested dungeons.

Where does that leave Diablo IV? In a prickly ethical place, an increasingly common occurrence for Blizzard (we’ve been exactly here before!) and an industry that has consistently failed to account for its shortcomings and who it harms as it continues its inexorable march, caring little for the bodies it leaves behind, not unlike the vengeful gods of the very stories Blizzard writes. Diablo’s Sanctuary is a supposed bastion for humanity as the High Heavens and Burning Hells wage their eternal war, yet constantly finds itself caught up in crossfire until someone steps up and affects change, only for another conflict to take its place and require another generation to continue the cycle, all the while everyone else ceaselessly suffers. Lets hope our own conflicts have a more optimistic and expeditious end in sight.

Moises Taveras is the assistant games editor for Paste Magazine. He was that one kid who was really excited about Google+ and is still sad about how that turned out.