Worth: $18.00
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Intro:
… gorgeous to behold, glorious to hear and utterly compelling to play …
The Diablo series has been with us in one form or another since 1997. The original Diablo blew ‘90s gamers’ socks off with great alacrity, but the franchise really found its feet in the bygone year of 2000 with Diablo II. Brimming with dark menace, tasty loot and malevolent monsters, Diablo II perfected the dungeon crawler formula and has been pretty much the standard by which ARPGs (Action Role Playing Games) have been judged ever since.
Diablo’s third entry didn’t drop until 2012 and the launch was, to put it extremely mildly, less than ideal. However, Blizzard managed to course-correct and eventually delivered a solid, streamlined and colourful game. In fact, perhaps they over delivered. Because, while Diablo III was slick and engaging, it also felt like a Young Adult version of previous games, swapping the muted colour palette for one that veered into garish territory and simplifying gameplay to the point where it sometimes felt like the bloody thing played itself.
This brings us up to the present day and the launch of the latest mainline entry, Diablo IV, which is a fascinating look at how tone and aesthetic can make a seismic impact on a work of art.
Oh, and it’s a pretty bloody great ARPG to boot.
Diablo IV tells the tale of the player-generated Wanderer, a character who (at launch) is either a Barbarian, Sorcerer, Druid, Rogue or Necromancer. Thirty years have passed since the events of Diablo III, and the realm of Sanctuary is once again threatened by the presence of a great evil. This time around it’s Lilith, the demonic daughter of Mephisto, who is causing a ruckus and it’s up to you to assist the various pockets of humanity in pushing back this darkness.
As generic a plot as that sounds, it’s really in the delivery that Diablo IV excels. See, this tale is no longer hued in bright reds, yellows and electric blues. This time around, Diablo has returned to its murky-coloured roots, delivering a tale steeped in mud and blood, taking place across vistas of rotting vegetation, barren wastelands and yawning, eldritch dungeons.
The sense of morality is much more in keeping with grimdark fantasy from authors like George R. R. Martin, Joe Abercrombie, Steven Erikson or Glen Cook, with murky motivations and complex characters in plentiful supply. Sure, Lilith is a hideous manifestation of evil, but she’s also one of the creators of Sanctuary, basically a mother to mankind. And yes, angels are involved, but they’re all quite arrogant and self-centred, hardly a living embodiment of the light. If you’re engaged with a story where even the angels are kinda dickish… You know you’re in for a dark old time.
Of course, being that Diablo IV is an ARPG, many people won’t give a tinker’s cuss about the story at all, focusing instead on the action part of the acronym. Happily, Diablo IV delivers on the promise of easy-to-pick-up, hard to master, endlessly customisable combat, with each class offering a vastly different gaming experience. Don’t get us wrong, you’ll always be delving into dungeons, fighting vast hordes of enemies, and picking through the loot at the end of encounters, but the difference in how the game feels between a berserking Barbarian and an elemental magic-wielding sorceress is night and day. Whether you’re just hanging around for the 15-30 odd hours of the campaign or are one of those Diablo tragics who will be digging into endgame dungeons and world bosses, Diablo IV offers an embarrassment of riches in terms of content.
That’s not to suggest Diablo IV is a perfect title, mind you. Although the map is vast in scale and there is an aesthetic variety of environments, there’s no real meaningful sense of exploration. You’ll unlock new fast travel points, interact with new towns and settlements, and end up doing the same few activity types as everywhere else. It’s rare to stumble upon anything truly unique or shocking. In short, Elden Ring this ain’t. So, if you’re not attuned to the semi-repetitive rhythms of an ARPG you may find yourself a trifle baffled as to the appeal.
There’s also a certain lack of innovation and risk taking, best exemplified by the rather cautious dungeon structure and boss design. Now, there’s nothing wrong with either of these elements per se, but there’s little to distinguish them from previous Diablo entries other than better graphics and more gore. The thing is, though, this is the launch state of a brand new quasi-live service game, so these quibbles will likely no longer be relevant a few months down the line. And to be clear, what Blizzard has served up here is genuinely impressive. A meaty campaign with loads of jaw-dropping moments, five classes to play, all of which offer vastly different gameplay experiences, a meaty endgame with numerous challenging activities and an overall package that seems to be running smoothly and with only minor hitches at launch. Compared to the launches of other multiplayer heavy-hitters like Destiny or The Division, Diablo IV has birthed itself into this world with an almost demonic efficiency.
So, here’s the thing, Diablo IV is essentially a game of two parts. There’s the sprawling, engaging and exciting campaign, and there’s the ever-changing endgame. The former is fantastic, but the latter is still in its early stages. So, rather than give a half-baked assessment of what might be, we’re going to check back in with the game in July when the first of the seasonal content launches. That said, there’s plenty here already and if you’re a fan of the series or dark fantasy in general, if you like ARPGs and mincing monsters in dungeons with your mates, or if you straight up just want to live the power fantasy of being a grizzled bad arse in a bleak world that reeks of dung, mud and blood, then Diablo IV is an easy choice. It’s gorgeous to behold, glorious to hear and utterly compelling to play, a confident and timely update for a revered series and easily one of the best games of 2023.
