Welcome to our review of Diablo IV, the return of legions of hellish demons and a handfull of warriors to defeat them all!
The endless battle between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells rages on as chaos threatens to consume Sanctuary. With ceaseless demons to slaughter, countless Abilities to master, nightmarish Dungeons, and Legendary loot, this vast, open world brings the promise of adventure and devastation. Survive and conquer darkness – or succumb to the shadows. Seeking refuge from the eternal conflict between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells, Inarius and Lilith formed Sanctuary and gave life to the Nephalem with the stolen Worldstone. Fearing for the destruction of her hybrid offspring, Lilith led a violent, protective act to protect the Nephalem; ultimately leading Inarius to turn his back on her, banishing her to the abyss, becoming enemies henceforth. Lilith’s return ushers in an age of darkness and misery. What fate awaits?
Craft an experience uniquely your own. Everything from how your character looks, chosen skills to dispatch Hell’s blood lusting minions, and how your found gear can enhance your character’s abilities or transform their appearance. With over 8 trillion appearance combinations, each class boasts unique hairstyle selections and you can adjust your character’s appearance down to eye color, body markings, accessories, and more.
From the items and loot you discover along your journey, you may find gear that stands out as a favorite. Evolve your playstyle by utilizing items as found, or adapt them by extracting their bonuses or crafting for specific modifications. As you level up, choose from categories of skills to make your character more powerful. Upgrade passives, offensive, defensive, elemental skills, enhance existing abilities, and more. Focus on a specific section or pick and choose across specialties.
For many years, Diablo has been known as the trendsetter for the genre and this highly anticipated game had some very big shoes to fill. Many players out there will call D2 the best, but honestly, I had the most fun playing D3 in the past. Spoiler Alert, that changed with Diablo 4. Diablo 4, it is just nearing perfection as a game in its genre, if asked to name the things I would personally improve, I would have to start nitpicking a lot. Like how I would side missions more prominently shown on the map when highlighted, but again, pure nitpicking as you see where to go as soon as you actually select the mission.
It is that good, that I have to name minor details like that in order to get any negatives in. Diablo 4 is in my humble opinion just the best Djustiablo. It starts straight from the start and how the entire story of Lilith (She is the pure evil of this game) unfolds. How it leads you across snowy plains to desert lands to the inside of hellish bowels of the underworld. Having played the first chapter 3 different times now, each time with a different class, I decided to do my full game run with the necromancer as my main, a choice that hung strongly in the balance with the druid, she was a mighty big bad bitch and I just love strong characters like these.
The biggest reason for chosing the necromancer over the druid, the entire skill tree, I just had more feeling with the attacks and options. Not dissing the druid, just the ability to summon a golem and several minions at once, it just topped the scales in favour of the necromancer, not forgetting to mention here how incredibly cool and vicious I was able to make my character. Another great point why you should buy the game, the personalisation options. Aside from joining clans and going on hunts with friends or so, you can just really go deep into the game or just be a loner, the game allows for many playstyles.
What I really like, the way you can manipulate your attacks. To give some more information, I have a small army of undead to assist me and I opted to chose for several long range attacks and a single heavy hitter up close. Most of the big boss fights, I get my minions to attack the big boss. Personally, I keep my distance and use a long range attack that keeps dealing damage over time. If the boss jumps towards me, I instantly hit them with the big hammer attack and try to get into safety again. Similar to a hit and run, but just that much better.
When I was a druid, I would have been almost using a deep dash attack. I had the instant attack straight for the enemy, I would relentlessly attack until running out of power, retreat just long enough to get my breath and then back into the suicide dive pattern. So very different and that is what I truly love about Diablo IV, it just plays so well and as long as you do your job and get some levelling up-work done in the meantime, you will never get overpowered by any of the big bosses and always the same, be smart and heal, be smart and dodge, be smart and kill the enemy in front of you.
Now what if you are new into the game, do you start with the fourth one or with another title? That is something I would be tempted to say IV, it is just that good. I would have loved to see a bigger inventory eventually, but with the ability to quickly instant travel to a town and sell off the “junk” items and return, it is more like a time to take a small drink or snack, rather than an inconvenience. Maybe if we had endless inventory, I would think it is more annoying than it really is?
In conclusion, Diablo IV is going to take up a ton of your free time when you start the game and that might be its biggest enemy, being such a time hog, what a luxury problem to have, right? It is nearing perfection as a game and I am throwing this one into the conversation of Game of the Year in its genre!
