Taissa, a central character in Acts 3 and 4, who thanks the Wanderer for saving her, is suddenly in a completely different role in Act 5 and acts aloof for no reason.' You’re the Wanderer, simply making their way downtown, moving fast, trying not to freeze to death in the Fractured Peaks of Estuar, the Eastern continent, and encounter Horadrim member Lorath Nair. Several years after the fallout of Reaper of Souls, the world is in bad shape. Meanwhile, you’re doing the same actions at level 50 that you were doing at level 30, with the loot moderately altering your gameplay in some ways and feeling incredibly mid in others. The monsters are incredibly detailed and provide great fodder for your frantic clicking (or button mashing, with controller support feeling quite good), while several bosses offer memorable mechanics and patterns. However, its various elevations are little more than button presses to go up or down automatically while the environments blend together during exploration despite their differing climates and cultures. The world is open and vast, with plenty of freedom, with just enough guidance to keep you on track. The aesthetic will overpower you with its emphasis on blood, gore, corpses and the world’s detritus, looking crisp and organic, and then deliver some low-res textures in cutscenes. It’s enjoyable in places, and uneven in others clear with its artistic vision of humanity struggling to survive amid ruin and forces beyond their control while the plot is already busy setting up the next paid expansion or two (which have been confirmed). That’s not to say that Diablo 4 is a bad game or not a good game. It’s Diablo, for both old gamers and new, and it’s fine. It’s edgy and macabre, but through a live-service filter, with a push towards socializing and monetizing the time many will no doubt sink into the game, chasing the dopamine rush of better loot.Īnd, it’s fine.

After years of development troubles, sexual harassment allegations against Activision Blizzard (which resulted in the firing of its game director and lead designer), and reports of crunch just to hit the Summer release, Diablo 4 is finally here.

Diablo 4 mobile only