KitGuru Games: Diablo 4 had a good launch but can Blizzard sustain it?

We’re almost a month into Diablo 4 and at this point, we’ve had the chance to fully digest the game. With the honeymoon phase now over, we now have our final thoughts on the game as a whole, from the campaign to the endgame.

In the weeks since Diablo 4 launched, a lot has changed. While the game’s launch weekend went ahead with minimal issues, we did notice some issues creeping up after the initial launch. While I have not ever been disconnected while playing the game, I have encountered random log-in issues on initial start-up, as well as some stuttering and rubber banding at points, particularly when there are other players exploring close by.

While these moments have stood out to me, I haven’t encountered anything game breaking, nor have I had to deal with any disconnect issues while actively playing the game. Others weren’t so lucky though and I particularly feel for those who lost their hardcore characters due to dying during a loading screen, or after getting disconnected from the game.

There have been a few major balance changes to Diablo 4 since early access began for ultimate and deluxe edition buyers. A round of nerfs were quickly put in place between early access and the official launch day on the 2^nd of June. However, a meta has clearly formed, with each class now having a ‘go to’ build. For sorcerers, you are likely focusing on Ice Shards and Blizzard, while Rogues are either focusing on Death Trap or Twisted Blades. The Bone Spear build appears to be the strongest for Necromancers, Druids can dominate with Tornado or Storm focused builds and Barbarians are cruising through dungeons like they are Beyblade arenas with Whirlwind builds.

I have two characters above level 50 at this point and one close to level 40. While I started off with a Barbarian, I eventually deleted it and started again as a Necromancer, where I quickly became very powerful with a summon-focused build with corpse explosion. While I was having fun with the necromancer, I was itching to respec into something that required a little more complexity to run. Instead, I went in another direction and started a Lightning Sorc build, which ended up being my main character and the one I finished the campaign with – at World Tier 2 no less.

The campaign in Diablo 4 is excellent. Blizzard’s story telling has really evolved since Diablo 3 and the cutscenes are better than ever too. Each act of the campaign was highly memorable with defining story moments but depending on your build and how much additional grinding you do, you will hit hard points on World Tier 2, where you may need to step away and reassess gear or unlock a few extra skill points to comfortably overcome certain bosses.

The story in Diablo 4 largely centres on Lilith and her invasion of Sanctuary. You spend most of the campaign tracking her down and attempting to figure out her end goal. Along the way, you meet Mephisto, who offers to help you stop Lilith. Eventually, there is a big showdown, with Lilith being the final boss. You won’t fight Diablo in this Diablo game (yet, anyway).

I’ve dumbed down the plot a lot here to save on time and keep spoilers to a minimum. Ultimately, I found the campaign to be very engaging, the dialogue is very well written and the cutscenes are Blizzard’s best to date. A good number of side quests are similarly well written but unfortunately, due to the sheer number of them, they do turn into a chore, as you will need to play them to finish earning all your renown. Earning enough Renown in each region of the map will unlock extra potions for you to use, additional skill points, more paragon points and other perks. The extra potions and skill points will unlock for all your future characters too, so you can start an alternate character with a bit of a progression boost.

The campaign won’t take you to every continent on the map, so you’ll still want to be doing some side content and some renown tasks alongside the campaign. The downside to this is it can be a slower way to play the game, and a lot of Diablo players do want to smash through content in the most efficient way possible in order to gain the power needed to take on the hardest content in the game. I would personally recommend just taking the extra time during the campaign to explore and do additional content as you level.

While I enjoyed the game in World Tier 2, the world of Sanctuary really opens up once you complete your first Capstone Dungeon and switch over to World Tier 3. Here, you’ll have access to Hell Tides, which spawn in random parts of the map every hour or so. For a limited time, these areas of the map spawn harder enemies and some bosses. You can use Hell Tides to grind through groups of mobs to earn the points needed to unlock chests with greater chance of finding new rare and legendary gear. You also get access to Nightmare Dungeons starting in World Tier 3 and by this point in the game, you may even be confident enough to venture over to the PvP areas of the map.

After unlocking all of this with my lightning sorcerer, I started a Twisted Blades Rogue using the skip campaign option. If you skip the campaign, you start at level 1 and just simply begin exploring Sanctuary. For levelling, I relied on dungeons and world events. What I quickly learned was that the Twisted Blades Rogue is in a whole new league compared to my lightning sorcerer. I was clearing content much faster than before and while I did need to go through a lot of potions to stay alive early on, I eventually put considerable investment into defence and now, my Rogue is fairly tanky in World Tier 3.

As much as I enjoyed doing the Diablo 4 campaign on my Sorcerer, the Rogue build I am currently using is by far the most enjoyable way to play the game for me so far and I feel like I’m just barely scratching the surface of its potential now at Level 57.

At this point, I have enough knowledge and experience playing the game that I really want to try diving in on a Barbarian or a Druid. There are also a number of other builds for the classes I’ve already played that I want to try. However, with the way seasons are structured, I’m at a point where I am discouraged from starting a new character.

The Diablo 4 Battle Pass is tied to your seasonal character and you’ll need to make one in order to unlock all of the content within it. Seasons will bring additional story quests and new modifiers and abilities to play around with during a limited window of three months.

Personally, I think the Battle Pass should be tweaked to allow for progress from ‘Eternal’ characters. Not everyone is going to be interested in starting a fresh character every few months to unlock cosmetics they might want. They should want to participate in seasons based on the new content and the experience of putting your game knowledge to the test and trying completely new build ideas.

We have yet to see Blizzard’s full plan for Diablo 4’s first season, but I am confident that we’re going to see interesting changes introduced pretty early on and the new content will be worth starting a seasonal character for, even if you don’t make it all the way to level 100. At the end of a season, you’ll have the option to transfer your character to the eternal realm so you can continue to use them.

It is my personal hope that some of the lesser-used abilities in the game will see some reworks over new seasons. Right now, you don’t tend to see a lot of Blood Necromancers, Fire Sorcerers, or ranged-focused Rogue’s running around. Seasons should be used as an opportunity to shake up the meta, so I hope that is a priority for Blizzard as it plans future updates.

With seasons requiring new characters, I’ve also heard that we’ll need to grind renown points again to get all of the unlocks. I truly hope this is not the case and if it is, I hope it is something that Blizzard can pivot on. The renown grind is tolerable if you are playing the game at your own pace and also enjoying the campaign, but in seasons, you are playing up against a countdown. In that context, most of the renown tasks will boil down to annoying chores that hinder progress.

At this point if I were to score Diablo 4, I would give it a 9/10 for its campaign and an 8/10 overall. There are improvements that can be made here and after some additional balancing and a couple of new seasons of content, my score for the overall game should increase.

I don’t plan on taking a break from Diablo 4 anytime soon. I still want to experience all the classes, there are a ton of different builds I want to try and there is plenty of content I have not yet seen. The game is off to a great start and there are already plans for expansions, in addition to regular seasonal updates. The game has nothing but a bright future ahead.

In future expansions, I hope we not only get new campaign content but also some new classes. We don’t know what classes Blizzard plans to bring over to Diablo 4 just yet but I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for the return of the Monk class.

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KitGuru Says: Have many of you played Diablo 4 since launch? What do you think of the game so far?

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