Diablo IV | Game Review
Fourth time’s the charm, as Blizzard unleashes one hellstorm of a dark fantasy adventure.
- Genre: Action RPG
- Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
- Released: 2023
- Played On: PlayStation 5
Mother Knows Best
Somehow I missed out on Diablo as a kid. Even during the height of insanity that was Diablo II in 2000, I never played it. Hell, I don’t think I ever even saw the game, despite a friend of mine being a huge fan of it. I wasn’t really playing computer games (except for Star Wars Battlegrounds and Aliens vs Predator 2) back then, and the franchise as a whole just kinda shot under my radar. It wasn’t until my friend brought Diablo III over one day that I got my first taste of the series, and while it was fun sinking some time into co-op, I didn’t really enjoy the game itself much. Then, in 2021 Diablo II: Resurrected dropped and everything changed. I snapped up the game at the behest of another friend, and proceeded to sink I don’t know how many hours into it. We must have beaten the campaign at least 4 times, striving to unlock stronger and stronger gear to tackle the highest difficulty tiers. Moreover, I was in love with the dark fantasy aesthetics, gothic mood, and the general accessibility of the game. Having people to play it with made it even better, too — especially someone who was deeply familiar with the original. I got to really feed off his enthusiasm and love for the whole experience, which just made the whole thing special.
It also reminded me that Diablo IV was supposed to be happening. Originally announced in the wayback of 2019, I recalled being intrigued by the grimdark vibes of the concept art and screenshots. Still, though I’d enjoyed my time with DII, I didn’t really see myself picking up the fourth installment. Even as launch day approached, my stance didn’t really shift. Street Fighter 6 had just dropped, and I could feel my fire for fighting games reigniting, so I figured I’d be grinding in the lab for awhile.
Turns out I figured wrong.
What a shock.
At the time of this writing, I’ve put approximately 62 hours into Diablo IV, having just finished the campaign with a level 53 Barbarian and begun my journey into the endgame, and if I have to say anything — anything at all about this game, it’s that I was not prepared for how absolutely addictive it was going to be. I mean that in the most glowing of ways, too. Despite a bit of an initial slow start to unlock the co-op (the whole reason I purchased the game), I quickly found myself enthralled not just with the world, but the story — something I couldn’t necessarily say about Diablo II.
After what is possibly one of the coolest opening cinematics I’ve seen in a game, the story almost immediately gets to work establishing the very gray moral backdrop of Sanctuary and its inhabitants. Obviously, anyone familiar with the series won’t find this too much of a revelation on its own, but where Diablo IV really elevates itself is through its main antagonist, Lilith: the Mother of Sanctuary and daughter of Mephisto, one of the Prime Evils of the franchise. I don’t want to get too far into the weeds of the story’s nit and grit, so I’ll just say this: Lilith very, very quickly became one of my favorite characters in a dark fantasy story, maybe ever. Like Dracula in Netflix’s Castlevania series, Blizzard has crafted something special with Lilith, an antagonist who challenges the player character not only physically, but ideologically, too, in ways that most narratives — fantasy or otherwise — rarely attempt. And while I admittedly shook my head in frustration at some of the story choices later on, I ultimately walked away from the campaign not only satisfied as a player, but as a writer, too. I went into the game expecting a suitably grimdark but ultimately predictable heroic journey of Good v Evil… and man, it’s refreshing to be proven wrong.
But, what’s a great story without a solid game to back it up? Well, still a great story, obviously, but Diablo IV also brings to bear an excellent action-RPG formula that, while it can become a bit passive (depending on your build), forms the addictive backbone of the game as you slaughter hordes of enemies in an endless quest for that new shiny piece of loot to further enhance your demon-punching prowess.
There are 5 classes (for now): Barbarian, Necromancer, Druid, Rogue, and Sorcerer, and while I haven’t put too much time into the other classes besides my main Barbarian, they all seem to have a solid kit and a lot of options for players to find their play-style. Yes, you could do your research and look up the best meta-builds for your chosen character — or you could not, follow your own path, and still have a grand time. And if there’s anything that I love most about DIV as a game, it’s how wonderfully accessible it is. Even with the buckets of stat data to consider and the insanity that is the Paragon Boards, none of it has ever felt like a brick wall to my enjoyment; rather, it’s just another tool at your disposal to make the experience your own, alongside the surprisingly fun character creator (you can finally pick a gender for all classes), and god-sent transmog system, which allows you to change the look/color of your weapons and armor regardless of their default design, to ensure you’re always slaying in style.
And slay you shall, thanks to the game’s surprisingly fair difficulty. Enemies stay locked to your current level (except for Strongholds, where they go up by 2) no matter where you go, and with Sanctuary being an open-world map, that means you can explore at your leisure without the threat of stumbling across some absolute unit 10 levels your senior who just flatlines you. It’s a refreshing change of pace from other RPGs I’ve played, and the freedom you have — whether that be exploring, fighting, customizing your character, etc — feels next-level, both for the franchise and the genre. Because as much as I adore the proliferation of the Soulsborne genre, it can get exhausting when every action-RPG seems intent on grinding your bones to dust and Same-Day delivering your happiness to Hell.
It feels strange to call Diablo IV — a nightmarish, blood-soaked grimdark fantasy — “relaxing”, but there’s no better way I can describe it. The higher World Tiers (basically the game’s difficulty system/endgame scenarios) propose tougher challenges where things like gear stats and wise Paragon Board pathing really matter, but the game doesn’t force you into it, and it doesn’t feel half-baked when it comes to its front half either. The campaign is a solid length, especially as you pad out the journey with side quests, dungeons, and map exploration, and had I decided to stop after the credits rolled, it would have been with satisfaction. But the game is so magnetic, so alluring, that I want to keep playing. I want to take my Barbarian as far as she can go, tackle the toughest challenges and find all Sanctuary has to offer. I want to try the other characters (and with the upcoming Seasonal content, there’s plenty of incentive), and get my friends involved. I don’t want to stop playing this game until there’s absolutely nothing else left for me to do.
Will I actualize any of this? Maybe, maybe not. Life is a thing after all. But the fact that I haven’t even considered putting it down says enough — especially since I very rarely finish games anymore, even ones I enjoy. Like Resident Evil 3 Remake and Elden Ring before it, Diablo IV has entered the upper echelon of my gaming pantheon. A gorgeously bleak, morally complex, and surprisingly accessible game, Diablo IV represents a high point — not just for the series, but for the genre as a whole.
So come on in. Hell has never been this inviting before.
Originally published at Whims to Words on June 28th, 2023
Author’s Note — 9/27/2023
Since the original posting on my old blog, I’ve put a total of 151 hours into this game, with (3) total characters under my belt and (most of) the first season tucked away, too. While I’ve had some mixed feelings about the Season of the Malignant (mostly in how Blizzard chose to execute it) my opinion remains largely unchanged overall. As mentioned above, it’s rare for me to finish a game anymore, let alone offload 100+ hours into it, so much merit must be given to Diablo IV. I’m interested to see if Season 2 (vampires!) makes any crucial changes to its operations — not having to make a new character again would be great, so I can continue leveling my Necromancer and not miss out on new content. But, even if I walk away from it altogether, Diablo IV will have ended its run on a terribly high mark — no so-so handling of additional content can dent the absolutely prime experience the main game offers.
