Diablo IV BETA Experience

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment

Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment

Released: 24 March, 2023

Price: $69.99 USD

The long-awaited Diablo IV is now available for open beta, and many players are skeptical as to if it will live up to their expectations despite prior games.

While some players are still enthusiastic, many seem to be afraid that it would become yet another misstep like Diablo III or Immortals. I myself have never truly been a huge fan of the series, even though I did somehow end up playing 100 hours of Diablo III, I simply can not recollect any of the events that I did.

Whereas I have played Path of Exiles for 2000+ hours and can still recall many events, including the overarching plot. So you might conclude that the gameplay and dull stories I've encountered in most of the series have been somewhat tolerable, but very unrememberable due to a lack of interest.

I tend to play ARPG games for the turn your brain off mentality. I don't want to have to think, I want the screen to explode with flashing colors and lights in a very mindless point and click adventure. Other players may want something different, but this is just what I prefer since I don't care too much for story.

Character Creation

Limited

While you can construct a decent-looking character with various body types and other features, the character's hair appears to be linked to class rather than being available to all, which is kind of disappointing since I like long hair.

The face, skin tone, and patterns can all be altered, but that is about it. Though they still feel limited, you can still create some intriguing character designs.

Gameplay

Open World

Diablo IV unlike it's previous iterations in the series is the first one to incorporate an open world, in which you can run into other players and even help them especially with taking down the world bosses throughout the map.

Essentially you're just going to run around the world, fighting enemies that appear, finding dungeons and cellars in which you will fight and clear out to kill the boss monsters for rare and powerful loot, and continue the main story.

Though it's fairly linear... The side quests and what not are a good distraction, but the real fun comes from the boss battles in the open world with all of the other players currently around fighting with you.

Even with the strongest character builds early in the game, you don't actually kill anything that rapidly outside of the trash mobs so I didn't have much fun doing anything else. Moreover, the dungeons take a while to complete and often times you will get nothing for your efforts, which is exhausting.

Map

Although though the beta gives you access to a very small portion of the entire map, there is still enough stuff to keep you occupied for the two days it is free.

Each location is divided into different levels, you could, if you really wanted to, completely disregard your main story quests and run off to a location that is much higher level in an effort to kill and take down stronger enemies.

This is not recommended, especially if you're playing a hardcore character.

Combat

It has the same feel as Diablo III and Diablo II combined, which are one of two strongest entries in the series. You can play any build you want without having to worry about refunding your skill points for a large amount of cash, test away!

If you're low on mana, you restore your mana through basic attacks like in III and, as far as I can tell, not by drinking mana potions like you could in II. This makes it kind of annoying while kiting enemies while on low mana, because you might get stuck in auto attack animation, in which case your dodge helps a lot.

I believe there is a way to move and not attack, but I have yet to figure that out.

Bugs and Errors

Online play only

This means that if you have no connection or, even worse, a poor internet connection, you won't be able to play Diablo IV or the Diablo IV Beta period.

Most would not want to play it for this reason, which is more than enough.

Online Errors

With so many individuals trying to log in and doing their best to play despite the frequent disconnects, it is expected that the beta version will be full of errors.

The worst are while playing online with friends and they try to teleport to you and then they are unable to rejoin your party or the game until a complete reload of the client is done, which will take an hour or more owing to the queue.

Rubber banding

While leaving a zone and entering a new one, there is a high chance you will not be able to progress to the next zone, because the game will simply not load it.

This similar to the previous issue, can not be resolved unless you log out of the client and log back in, waiting in que. There is no way around this specific issue.

Lag

This makes sense. Since the vast majority of players are located in the EU, the games being played by many players and the servers are suffering, while the US servers are a little bit more tolerable having less but noticeable lag.

Story

Probably the strongest point

Much of the action will probably take place in the plot. Coming from a PoE player, I find the gameplay to be a little bit too janky and unpolished, and the fact that the majority of the skill tree branches to a small number of additional perks makes it seem like there aren't very many other gaming options outside of playing a different class all together, even with the ability to refund points.

When the game is fully launched, it's feasible that this will open up and become much more potent in the higher levels. Nonetheless, it appears that a large portion of their budget has been devoted to the visual storytelling, which has so far outperformed their earlier releases in terms of gore and emotion.

Concerns

Cutscenes

The game will pull you into a zoomed-in cutscene every single time you speak to an NPC, whether it's for a story or just to chat with them. This is unnecessary and detracts from the game as a whole, furthering the impression that it's more or less focused on the narrative than on gameplay when you're not fighting.

Conclusion

I'll probably pass up on this game

The character building options in Path of Exiles are virtually limitless. Even if there is a superior beginner class to start with, you can play almost anything and still make it work. Most new players find the passive tree alone to be frightening, but once you figure out how to navigate it and maximize your build, it becomes such an addictive game to invest your time in, for free. No purchase.

Diablo IV on the other hand, comes in at a whopping $69.99 USD, which in todays currency taxes included is around $91 CAD which is a massive amount.

While the game is currently free for open beta, I don't really think it has what it takes to rival the current strongest contender in the ARPG genre.

My initial thoughts on this game come to a close with the caveat that, while others may disagree, that is what makes gamers unique. You don't have to share their interests or agree with them and are welcome to critic me on mine.

If you want to catch me on one of my streams or locate me on social media, you may do so at the following locations, I'm always playing something new.

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- Pawkt