When Diablo 3 released 11 years ago, it was a mess.
Put aside the action role-playing game’s infamous server problems at launch—a product of the series going online-only for the first time—the game itself had fundamental issues. At core was its ill-conceived and universally reviled real-money auction house, which changed the thrust of the series’ loot hunt from “look at this badass helm I got from killing an elite demon” to “look at these practical pants I bought from an in-game spreadsheet for $2.99 USD.” Difficulty and balance were all over the place, and, perhaps worst of all to long-time Diablo fans, the previous games’ dark horror aesthetic was replaced with a more colorful, cartoony vibe.
Two years and a management shakeup later, we got the Reaper of Souls expansion, which completely revamped Diablo 3’s loot and endgame, giving us the game we should have had from the beginning. Art direction notwithstanding, Diablo 3 ended up in a good place, and I played a ton of it, largely due to its genre-leading combat. (Lest we forget, Diablo 2 also had a game-changing expansion in Lord of Destruction.)
Other than seasonal content drops, that was all we got from the franchise until the release of last year’s Diablo Immortal, a mobile-first free-to-play MMO that seemed hell-bent on breaking new ground in the trade of predatory microtransactions. The fanbase was, shall we say, less than pleased with Immortal’s announcement at Blizzcon 2018, and it was (justifiably) apoplectic upon its release.
All this is to say that Diablo 4, which releases on June 6, has the Diablo faithful nervous. Is the game complete? Will we have to wait a year or more for Blizzard to “fix” it? Hell, is it even “real”? Or is it, like Immortal, a seemingly elaborate money-extraction scheme disguised as a game? Will the game’s live-service focus screw with players’ enjoyment and try to whisper sweet nothings about microtransactions at every turn?
I have answers to most, but not all, of these questions. And while I still have concerns, questions, and quibbles, this Diablo fan is breathing a (qualified) sigh of relief.
Dark, dirty, evil
Perhaps the most irksome change Diablo 3 introduced to the series was the shift to a lighter, friendlier aesthetic. It was still a game about slaughtering demons by the truckload, of course, but it took at least one too many visual cues from World of Warcraft.
Diablo 4 brings back the horror. In both visuals and tone, it’s dark, violent, and brutal. It’s evil in the best possible way. Its color palettes are muted and mostly brown and red, but that’s not a bad thing here—it fits the setting. If there’s one unqualified success in Diablo 4, it’s the game’s environments and art design.
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Come for the fun, stay because you got stuck in the mud.
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This isn’t even a post-battle scene. These grisly remains are just set dressing.
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The grim fields of Scosglen.
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Moody lighting and cool architecture.
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Yeesh, what happened here?
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Beta players will be familiar with the frigid environs of the Fractured Peaks.
Diablo 4’s story is similarly dark, starting and ending with absolutely gorgeous—and squirm-inducing—CGI cinematics. The game wants you to feel the dread of a world being caught up, once again, in the eternal battle between angels and demons. The tone is more grounded than that of Diablo 3. Gone are the Saturday-morning-cartoon villains taunting you throughout the game; instead, we get a more mature, nuanced story.
