It doesn’t even let you do that until you reach level 8, and while I understand that its in service to the art of buildcrafting, it means many players may not even see or experience all the available skills. ![]() Disappointingly, Diablo IV maintains the heavily restrictive skill system that only allows you to equip 6 at a time from the huge amount on offer. You don’t control your stats, which jump up with each level gained, but you do decide which skills to unlock, upgrade or assign. I hope you can turn this off somehow in the full release, as I’m just not a fan of seeing other people charging around the world with silly names and sillier titles.Īs in previous games, your primary concern is killing, looting, and levelling up. Diablo IV leans closer towards an MMO set up, with you sharing the world with other adventurers as you do in Diablo: Immortal, which for me at least subtracts from the whole “lone wanderer in a hopeless world” theme. Something else that brings the world to life, though perhaps not in quite as welcome a way, is other players. They bring the world to life, though, adding a touch of beauty to an otherwise grim place. If they’re not battling against the harsh winter winds, they’re being ripped apart by wargs and werewolves, or catching a stray fireball in the face from my brutal but clumsy Sorcerer. There’s also wildlife everywhere, which more than once led me to postulate on the life expectancy of, say, a helpless deer or bunny in this world. It’s an effectively provocative art style, and Blizzard have lost none of their touch. Everywhere you go there’s decay dead bodies lay bloated and forgotten, buildings reduced to embers simmer in the gloom, and evil lurks beneath the veil of every shadow. Atmosphere runs down the walls in shiny rivulets, winds howl and rain lashes the bloodied mud. The story is pulling no punches, and looks set to burrow deeply into the macabre lore of the universe. ![]() In the first few minutes your horse is eviscerated by an unseen terror, and by the end of the first hour you’ll have witnessed some pretty gruesome, maybe even shocking violence. But in Diablo IV, Blizzard are leaning heavily into the Gothic horror themes of the universe. Only the Wanderer can hope to stand against them, aided by a handful of crestfallen and desperate heroes. Reawakened by an ancient cult, Lilith has raised an army of demons that are sweeping across Sanctuary. There’s no sign of Diablo or his siblings this time around (at least, not yet), and instead the big bad is Lilith, Daughter of Hatred (Mephisto is her dad, apparently), a powerful prime evil credited with the creation of Sanctuary itself. Once more the world of Sanctuary is imperilled by the forces of Evil. The UI and inventory screens have been overhauled unidentified items are out, as is Adventure Mode, but the skill tree is vaster and more intimidating than ever – and I count that one as a positive. ![]() For a start, the game-changing combat roll introduced in the console version of Diablo 3 is now an evade move on a 5-second cooldown, which is still useful but seems arbitrarily restrictive. There have been many changes to the formula though, not all of them good. While we’ve yet to see exactly how they’ll monetize Diablo IV – and they surely will, one way or another – one thing we can be assured of is that Blizzard are, quite simply, still the best at this genre. Diablo 3 is one of my favourite games, full stop, but the mobile iteration of the franchise, Diablo Immortal, left a sour taste in my mouth thanks to Activision-Blizzard’s predatory free-to-play model. I had my reservations going into the Diablo IV early access beta.
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