Diablo 4

Role-playing slasher/action with an isometric third-person camera, a game-as-a-service, and an online looter. It brings back the classic elements of the Diablo series — dark visual style, sound design, thrilling gear grind in hundreds of dungeons and fortresses, unchanging character builds — and introduces innovations such as a fully open world, world events and bosses, player-versus-player battles.

Fifty years have passed since the end of Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls, but Sanctuary has yet to recover from the angel Malthael's extermination of half of humanity. By chance, Lilith has returned — the demoness of succubi and daughter of Mephisto, plunging the world into even greater decline and despair. Her influence is felt everywhere — she breeds hopelessness in the minds of people and awakens the darkest feelings in their hearts. Only a brave nephalem hero can reclaim Sanctuary from the hordes of monsters spawned by Lilith, the daughter of the demon of Hatred, Mephisto, embodying all the evil and cruel aspects of humanity, ready to be reborn.

Diablo 4 revealed many details about the creation of Sanctuary. Long ago, an endless war was waged between Heaven and Hell. Some participants understood its futility. The archangel Inarius and the demoness Lilith gathered the followers of the renegades, stole the Worldstone, and created a new world — Sanctuary. It became a quiet haven, peaceful from endless strife and war, hidden from the sight of powerful forces.

From the union of good and evil came the nephalem — unprecedented beings capable of rivaling anyone with their power. Fearing the loss of control or the revelation of Sanctuary, its lord Inarius and his allies decided to destroy the nephalem. Lilith opposed this, and war flared up again between angels and demons. Inarius won and imprisoned Lilith beyond the world, while the Worldstone was altered so that the Nephalem slowly weakened until they turned into ordinary mortals who populated Sanctuary.

The peace did not last long — when this secluded refuge was discovered in Heaven and Hell, a prolonged War of Sin erupted, with both sides attempting to annihilate humanity. Sanctuary endured, but its protector Inarius was captured by one of the Prime Evils — Mephisto, while Heaven and Hell continued to secretly influence the inhabitants, triggering the chain of events of Diablo.

Over the past fifty years, several significant events have occurred. Inarius freed himself from Mephisto's captivity and returned to the world of mortals, where he led the Cathedral of Light — a religious movement aimed at protecting the minds of mortals from the influence of evil and demons, and also gathered a personal army of the Order of the Penitent Knights. Trained in combat and magical skills, they are capable of expelling the forces of evil with fire and sword.

The Triune of the Prime Evils has not yet fully restored itself in Hell, but has partially regained its essence. Part of the storyline will feature a black wolf — the form Mephisto has taken. The order of the Horadrim, which stood against Evil, has fallen apart, Tyrael has left Sanctuary, and without his leadership, no new recruits were gathered. The Horadrim that players remember or will meet have become frail old men.

The world of mortals teems with monsters, the undead, and demons, but even without them, humanity struggles. By the time Diablo 4 begins, the world of humans has fallen into complete decline, and human life only vaguely resembles the old days. The clash between the returning Inarius and Lilith is inevitable. Sanctuary stands on the brink of total destruction, and only the awakening of the nephalem can protect it.

The story starts with a small prologue, where the player sees firsthand that their main task is to destroy Lilith, whose demonic influence seems to have consumed the entire world. Wishing to gain support, the hero finds Inarius, but the archangel lord rejects the help of some nameless hero. He then confronts Lilith, but standing against the mother of Sanctuary is not so easy. In the end, Inarius and Lilith find each other, but with the help of Mephisto, the hero eliminates the threat emanating from them.

The writers of Diablo 4 have delivered a story that is not as simple as it first seems. The narrative is still linear from beginning to end, but it is well-crafted, capable of captivating, and filled with vibrant characters. There are many of them, almost all with backstories, motivations, and roles in the plot, and some grow as individuals throughout the game. Hopelessness has become the main theme of the narrative. From time to time, unexpected twists occur, and the most significant of them change the perception of what is happening.

The world of characters is revealed through staged scenes on the engine with numerous dialogues (there is no full dialogue system) and high-quality CGI cutscenes, while the music adds emotion. The pacing of the plot slows down while the hero runs back and forth on the main quests, but it is picked up by multilayered side quests that are well-developed and connected to the main plot or lore, mentioning other characters or previously completed quests. However, this does not apply to the considerable number of other activities on the map.

Diablo 4 features a vast, almost seamless open world made up of 5 unique biomes, differing in landscape, style, and roster of opponents:

The game world is well-developed, filled with numerous objects and destructible elements, and the cities and storyline locations have received the best detailing, including objects and interiors. It is so large that a pet is needed for movement. Fast travel has been removed, leaving waypoints in cities and key locations, meaning at significant distances. To reach dungeons and other activities — on foot or on a mount.

There are hundreds of dungeons and catacombs, each assembled differently (except for storyline ones), several cities, and small settlements. There are references to events from previous games everywhere, ruins and relics that echo past battles.

The open world of Diablo 4 is divided into regions according to the acts of the story, and immediately after the prologue, it is open for free play, allowing players to head to Skosglen or the Dry Steppes. It is impossible to completely avoid the campaign, which consists of 5 acts and a prologue; the game will force players to go through the main plot points one way or another. As before, the storyline campaign is merely a kind of prologue to the main game, namely seasonal events, world bosses, and cool endgame rewards.

The famous “Diablo formula” still works: we run around the world, slicing enemies, keeping an eye on health, fury, or mana, collecting the gear that drops from them, making the hero even stronger. The experience points we accumulate along the way are spent on active abilities and passive perks. The game features dozens of hero parameters, interlinked with abilities and gear, their quality and level of enhancement: base stats, main and critical damage, primary and secondary defense, numerous buffs and debuffs, chances for various types of damage, damage bonuses from different sources — bleeding, fire, and poison, among other factors.

There are indeed innovations that should be noted. "Dodge" has appeared, allowing players to jump to the side without the need to frantically move the mouse. "Lucky Hit" will give a damage bonus to the basic attack or ability, or extend its duration. "Overwhelming Damage" will crush the enemy with bonus damage beyond the basic attack. "Fortification" accumulates over health and reduces all incoming damage, while "Barrier" absorbs it, preventing health from depleting prematurely.

All of this creates a vast space for build crafting, allowing characters to be tailored to different play styles and tactics. For the first time in the series, Diablo 4 allows players to use multiple builds simultaneously, automatically switching between them based on skill usage. Thus, after chopping down enemies with a dagger or sword, players can immediately switch to a bow or crossbow, beginning to use the skill tied to them. This allows for adaptation to any combat situations and changing the fighting style depending on the enemies and weapons in the set.

Compared to previous games in the series, Diablo 4 features many small changes: a weather system that turns the world into impassable mud; a compact inventory that combines all units of weapons and armor into just one slot; a reduced combat pace to the level of Diablo 2 ; new types of items and updated old ones; more deadly bosses capable of slowing down and stunning heroes.

Each class in Diablo 4 has a unique mechanic unlocked after reaching a certain level, such as the "Book of the Dead" for the Necromancer or "Arsenal" for the Barbarian. When creating a character at the start of a new game, you can edit his appearance in the editor (body shape, facial features, hairstyles, tattoos, and more).

Main attributes include Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Will, and automatically grow with the character's level increase (up to level 50), affecting all aspects. After reaching level 50, players start earning Paragon points and filling the Paragon board.

The skill tree is divided into 7 clusters. Initially, basic skills and their upgrades are available. As more points are invested in the tree, a cluster with core skills and their upgrades, as well as defensive perks, opens up. After that, unique class abilities and mastery skills can be unlocked, enhancing specific hero attributes. By investing 23 and 33 points, the player gains access to ultimate skills and key passive abilities. Depending on how he spends his upgrade points, various character builds are obtained; however, the hero can be respec'd at any time.

Diablo 4 has acquired all the features of the games-as-a-service genre, combining proven elements from Diablo 3 and MMORPG, and still does not work without a constant internet connection. All activities and content in it are interconnected both with each other and with single-player and multiplayer ways of playing.

Players can complete the campaign, explore the world, capture fortresses, and clear dungeons of monsters alone. The same activities are carried out by 6 to 8 other players in the game world, and they can cross paths on the map. In cities, the number can reach up to 20: they have become hub locations for social activities — finding companions and trading items. Active interaction is not necessary if you do not want to, gameplay is designed for cooperative actions but does not pressure it.

Story events, fortresses, and dungeons are private, meaning they are intended only for the player (if playing alone) or their group (in cooperative mode). This is how Blizzard preserves the individual experience of story progression and protects it from random players. Network events, such as battles with world bosses, are designed for a party of up to 12 players and take place in separate PvE and PvP zones on the world map. They are known as "Fields of Hatred," recognizable by the change of picturesque visuals to a light red hue. Those wishing to fight each other must mark themselves with blood. Otherwise, they can engage in PvE.

Over the years of its development, Diablo 4 has received dozens of updates, adding new regions, acts of the main storyline and seasonal stories, characters, gameplay features, numerous and diverse activities, elements, and individual game mechanics. Listing all online activities and endgame content makes no sense — the game offers hundreds and even thousands of hours of engaging gameplay.