March 17 through 19 saw an early access beta for Diablo IV being launched in June 2023. This review is my non-technical, average gamer review. I am not a professional, and not a hard-core gamer. I am a casual, lets have fun and see what we see kind of gamer. Here is my early access review.
My initial reaction to Diablo IV (D4) is that is is new and shiny. Granted my specs exceed the recommended requirements by a lot so I am able to run the game on max settings. Yes, the fans were running and things were warm enough that the cat wanted to sleep above the computer, but it wasn’t any worse than any of the newer graphic and video heavy games that I have experienced in the last year.
The look of the world is very dark, gothic and apocalyptic in an old world style. The level of detail is incredible. The cut scenes are immersive and more individualized then any other game, that is multiplayer, that I have seen. I don’t play them all, so this is from my collective of games.
The cinematics are exceptionally graphic, which if you are not a fan of blood, look away and don’t look back. However, for their graphic nature the story they tell is important to setting up the scene and the story. Though I have to say that I resonated with the villain in a way that I can’t say I have felt the need to do in any game. Usually the bad guy is really the bad guy. However, in this one I am left feeling a little torn as it’s hard to see the villain as the villain beyond the nasty death scenes that play out.
You will make your own judgements as you play through the game. The tortured spirits/aspects/Angels aside the story is sound and I can’t wait to see more of it as we were only able to get through what would take you to about level 23-25 (that’s all that was available to us to play in early access). I can’t say that the story isn’t predictable, but it’s immersive and you feel like you are part of something within the game, which I have missed.
There is a humor that wraps a bit into the darkness of the story. Now this could be my own dark humor drawing things out that aren’t necessarily there, but I found a few funny parts where I found myself going “of course we are going to go down in the dark cellar to perform and exorcism” and giving a bit of a chuckle.
For it’s predictability due to it being the 4th installment of a Diablo story, it was still very enjoyable, immersive and entertaining. The side stories and quests tie in well with the main story regardless of if you do them right away or not. However, I would recommend that you do them as some are worth a fair bit of experience which helps in leveling.
My husband (DM_Sundevil) and I, completed Act I (which was what we were given in beta) before hitting level 25 because we did most (not all) of the side quests and little extras.
While the first day of beta was the typical plague of bugs, wait times and other issues, it actually played really smoothly for most of what I watched before I was able to get in myself. Yes, ques were a bit silly, but it was beta and as the weekend progressed they got this under control.
Now if only my own internet stability didn’t contribute to the disconnection problems it would have likely meant a couple of characters to level 25 or at least 20. As it was our connection was plagued with instability throughout the weekend. Tech is coming Wednesday to see what might have been the issue, but likely it’s farther from our home than they can fix. We shall see, we don’t have too many options of providers (like) most, so we just keep putting in requests for fixes. It always seems to happen around the fall and spring AND when either a new game launches or there is a beta I want to participate in. Over all we lost about 4 hours of productive gaming and the inability to stream after 1:30 Saturday. Not a lot, but enough to shut us down early Friday and Saturday.
The game itself is very immersive and the environment, in particular, is dynamic and very exciting to be in. The way the things in the environment react to spell effects is the most unique I have witnessed. Granted I don’t play every game that comes out, but of the few I have played in the last little while, this is one that I noticed when trees moved in reaction to blast effects. Snow moved in a way that powder, crystal type snow moves. When monsters appeared they displaced parts of the environment as they should.
It was nice to play with that type of environmental visuals. Things looked realistic from a fantasy perspective. The dungeons were beautifully rendered. I got lost in a few due to the multiple doors and hallways. It was nice to be challenged like that instead of just pathing easily through.
I enjoyed the way the world leveled with you. While we only played on the normal level, we still felt challenged by some of the boss fights until we started to understand the mechanics and how our own characters worked. Nothing was too easy though, at least from my perspective. Death did occur, usually due to a lag spike or me not pushing the right key (button) to trigger something that I needed to trigger.
Something unique to D4 is the limited customization that you are able to do with your character. It’s nice to have this ability to create something just a little more unique to you while playing instead of just the cookie cutter model. While many people are complaining there isn’t enough customization, some is better than none, in my opinion.
Overall, I had fun playing in the early access beta. The game felt polished enough that I am sad it wasn’t just continuing. The story is interesting enough to make you want to find out what happens next.
I am looking forward to trying out a few of the other classes during the limited time I have during the open beta. Unfortunately, life events are taking up a bunch of time during that one which runs from March 24 through March 26. But it will still be fun to try the Druid class.
The Adams-Schlag Family 