Diablo 4 review – the devil is in the detail

Diablo 4 – the mother of all demons (pic: Blizzard)

After more than a decade there’s finally a new Diablo game but will it be enough to please both new players and the demands of veterans?

The concept of the looter shooter seems like a very modern concept, but its roots go deep into video game history. When Borderlands helped to popularise the concept in 2009 it was drawing on decades of experience with dungeon crawlers, a genre that traces its roots all the way back to tabletop gaming and yet to this day is best exemplified by the Diablo series.

Originally a PC focused title, and one of a select few action games that seemed like it could only work with a keyboard and mouse, Diablo only became a recognisable name for console gamers with the third entry, all the way back in 2012. With its push for always-online connectivity and microtransaction-based auction houses, the game was successful but controversial, with the more recent mobile game Diablo Immortal even more so.

The Diablo fanbase has a reputation for being fractious and unruly and that’s certainly been the case in the lead up to Diablo 4’s release, especially given Blizzard’s highly suspicious approach to reviews. They wiped everyone’s save progress five days before the review embargo, meaning no one that has slept in the last week has had much time with the endgame. Plus, the in-game shop isn’t live yet – so we only have Blizzard’s word that it won’t turn into another auction house disaster.

Whether Blizzard is purposefully trying to hide something is hard to say but it doesn’t seem that way, as the beta generally went well and the final game, or as much of it as is available prior to launch, is very good. No-one will be shocked to find it doesn’t reinvent the wheel but given that most fans have been desperate for Blizzard to get back to the golden era of Diablo 1 and 2 it’s surprising they’ve changed as much as they have.

If you don’t already know, you could easily guess one of Diablo 4’s main new features based on current trends, with the game introducing a new open world approach and Destiny style public events. It can still be enjoyed as a single-player game but Diablo 4 pushes itself as not just a co-op experience but almost an MMO, with a persistent world filled with other players coming and going. Or at least that’s what we’re told; like we said, the game has been mostly offline during the review period.

According to tradition a dungeon crawler has little or no story and that’s always been largely true of Diablo, but not this entry. This time round you’re dealing with the resurrection of the demon Lilith (based on the same mythological figure as Marvel’s Midnight Suns), with whom you become linked after an attempt to sacrifice you goes wrong.

The script shines with Blizzard’s love for fantasy cliches but it is more nuanced than usual for the series, with a surprisingly complex portrayal for Lilith that actually manages to humanise her to a degree. However, the game is also unbearably grimdark, with so little hope or humour exhibited by the script that it almost enters the realm of self-parody.

The new open world structure creates a successful illusion of exploring a single interconnected land, instead of entirely separate maps. The visuals are a mixed bag though, as while they look good from a distance, while zoomed out, when they zoom in for a cut scene the character models seem disappointingly basic.

Diablo 4 – the graphics are a little disappointing (pic: Blizzard)

In terms of combat there’s less surprises, with the underlining hack ‘n’ slash action still very similar to Diablo 3. There is an attempt to allow a greater degree of customisation to your abilities though, with up to six available at any one time and, unlike Diablo 3, no limits on what they are or how you unlock more. This freedom means you’re bound to make mistakes, but you can respec your character at any time for a fee – although this can start to get very expensive once you get past level 20.

Skills are only part of the equation and finding cool new loot is just as much a motivator as completing the story. Legendary weapons are what you’re really looking for at the end of a dungeon crawl, although a new element called Aspects, also obtained by entering dungeons, allows you to essentially create your own by combining them with rare gear. This lessens the random element and reduces the need to complete the same dungeons again and again.

There’s a lot of good stuff in Diablo 4, and this is a more interesting and ambitious game than Diablo 3 was at launch, but there’s still a sense that, no matter how many powers and abilities you unlock, the combat is still mindlessly hypnotic. Skill is required and yet it’s very easy to get into an almost daydream-like state as you slaughter demons by the dozen in the search for the next skill point or piece of loot.

Long-time fans will recognise and welcome that subconscious playstyle, as you’re caught in the game’s gameplay loop with no desire to escape from it. Then you find out five hours have passed and you begin to question what you were doing the whole time. Diablo 4 is a game without end, not just in terms of the standard endgame content, which has you challenging the game again and again at higher levels, but the whole sense that it is has now fully embraced its status as a live service title – Fornite but as an action role-playing game.

Of course, Fortnite is free and Diablo 4 very much is not. That’s going to seem extra galling once Blizzard switch on the in-game shop and everyone gets to see how expensive everything is. You also increasingly get the sense that the whole story campaign is really just a prologue for the real game, when the live service mask comes off and you’re no longer playing to see what happens next but purely for the loot and the desire to be a completionist.

If you’re a series fan then Diablo 4 does everything it should and more. The tone is bleak and hopeless, just as fans like it; the combat is nuanced but somehow vapid at the same time; and there’s a never-ending stream of loot to quest for, that will keep you going all the way to Diablo 5 – or at least the first, inevitable, expansion.

Rather than betraying the formula of the series, Diablo 4 perfects it to an almost worrying degree of slickness. It’s Diablo to the nth degree and that’s both its most appealing aspect and its most off-putting.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £69.99
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Developer: Blizzard Team 3 and Blizzard Albany
Release Date: 5th June 2023
Age Rating: 18

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After more than a decade there’s finally a new Diablo game but will it be enough to please both new players and the demands of veterans?