Diablo 4 isn’t dark… Yet.

Mad Soulless Queen
Nov 6 · 4 min read

I admit, writing about video games isn’t a strong suit of mine. I’ve played them most of my life, starting back with an Atari 2600, but never thought to write about them or my experiences. There is a first time for everything and I’m going to put my critique of the new Diablo 4 trailer regarding story craft.

Particularly, spine tingling darkness.

For those new here, Diablo is or was (depending on your views) a dark game about the descent into Hell. Physical and psychological. You must go to the limits of yourself as player and character to defeat this terror. You have to immerse yourself so fully into this descent you forget how to breathe. The original Diablo and the sequel, Diablo 2, did this very well.

That first time you opened the door and met the Butcher, you jumped. The initial Diablo ending, you freaked out, wondering what just happened. In Diablo 2 you started again chasing that darkness and watching how once decent people became corrupted in madness and in power. It haunted you.

The games explored darkness in a way that was both difficult on the heart and on fingers of keyboard mashing. That was the point and they succeeded. This is what we loved about the game (also loot, cause finding that first Windforce in Diablo was epic for the Rogue).

Something was lost in Diablo 3, we can all admit that.

Now with Diablo 4, they promised us a return to darkness, and it was lacking. More blood and skeletons don’t make for “darkness”. It makes for a cheesy classic B Movie. More gore doesn’t make a horror movie, it makes a mess.

The trailer felt rushed, from the mechanical movements of the CGI, to the unpolished script, and that lack of real ambiance. It was a group of people trying to break into a vault, then suddenly lots of skeletons and half assed sacrifice to open the door. Even the introduction of Lilith felt lacking, it was too wordy and felt more like a jump cut than an actual ritual.

There was no connection with these people, no sense of dread, and wide eyes/open mouth expression don’t convey true terror. Even them just willy-nilly slapping hands on a ground and a fair amount of blood coming out, didn’t do the job. We needed to see, hear, and feel more about this.

Don’t show us your impressive skeleton army, let us hear the scratching of claws and see shadows moving that aren’t the trick of the light. Let our imaginations run wild with the potential of what could following the group. Build the suspense, not waste it with bad exposition until the skeletons show up.

Show don’t tell.

Where was the pain of the sacrifice? The furrowed brows of that moment of wondering if this is the right path. The sound of a heartbeat racing as the unseen horror creeps ever closer. The quiet murmurings of a man scared out of his mind and desperate to escape what he cannot see but can feel.

The die has been cast and things must move forward.

The opening of the crypt needed to tell this story, that the air is wrong, the promise of wealth is wrong. That the goal may feel completed, but it is not. No, the door has opened, and you (not just the character) stepped in. It should impact you in a way that makes you wish you had taken your chances with the guaranteed death on the other side.

Once inside, the moment of loss should be mingled with a sense of relief. A moment to breathe, a moment to wonder and look around, realizing that you’ve walked into your own mortality and not untold wealth. While you breathe, the next darkness should start to creep up your spine.

Someone has betrayed you.

Before you could even consent, your soul has been sold. The final act will now be played, and you are merely the puppet in the hands of a puppeteer you did not know was there. There is no “okay boss,” to this situation. The corruption worms through your brain, battles inside your mind and you try to claw out your eyes to unsee the nightmares brimming over.

Hallucinations blend with reality and you do not know which is which until it is too late. You think you might be safe and it’s just your mind playing tricks on you. When content it is all in your head, reality takes over and that ceremonial knife, it was plunged into your own heart.

Now it’s too late and she has arrived, rising from your head and covered in your very soul, Lilith is here. Much how in the first Diablo the soul stone was forced into your head, bring that full circle and let Lilith rise where once Diablo was trapped.

Your fate was decided since you met that man in a bar before you headed to the vault. You missed all the warning signs, the arrogant smile, the twitch of his hand as he held a drink he didn’t touch and the bit of malaise that clung to your skin like a cheap suit. You should have known but now it is too late.

You lost.

That’s what was missing and that is what was needed from the trailer. That descent. The fall. The unknowing what is to come that leaves your blood cold. The temporary feeling of victory and relief, only to have it snatched away.

The fact that the darkness has won and the light, your light, is now gone.

Those are things that need to be changed, polished, and thought of. The psychological darkness is more true and real to Diablo than more cut up corpses and blood pools. These are things we need back into the game. We need a return to this world so dark; you couldn’t play with the lights off.

There are still years of development left to go. I can only hope by the time it is released; the game will finally be dark.

Mad Soulless Queen

Written by

Snarky, lovable writer and artist. Randomly too old for this internet thing.

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