Read in our Diablo 4 review why we loved the game and why it's our favorite game in the series. We were so impressed and overwhelmed that it took three people to write this review!
It's finally here: over ten years after the release of Diablo 3 in 2012, we finally get to enjoy the newest game in the legendary ARPG series. After the divisive launch of Diablo 3, its subsequent resurgence with Reaper of Souls and the controversial release of Diablo Immortal, the series has been up-and-down in the last decade. But, good news folks: Diablo is fully back now.
| Release Date: | June 5, 2023 |
| Platform: | PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One & PC |
| Developer: | Blizzard |
| Genre: | Action RPG |
| Price: | $69.99 / €69.99 / £59.99 |
Diablo 4 Review: Gameplay, Visuals & Live-Service
Reviewing a game like Diablo 4 is a big task. So we split this duty up among three of our writers: Lukas Ballat starts by talking about the gameplay in Diablo 4, Faris Delalic goes into the technical and audiovisual aspects and Jon Ramuz examines the live-service elements.
We cap it off with our personal verdicts and our final ratings for the game.
Gameplay
To start our Diablo 4 review off, let’s take a look at the gameplay and everything it entails. So, first things first: movement and combat.
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Movement & Combat
Movement in Diablo 4 is really smooth no matter if you use a controller or mouse and keyboard. Actually, movement with a controller feels awesome since you can directly control your character and activating your abilities with the controller buttons can be more intuitive than having to use the number keys on your keyboard, especially for new players.
However, Diablo veterans will probably still prefer MnK and some classes just feel better this way. Talking about a ranged Rouge build in particular, quickly aiming your ranged skills and evade-dashing is much easier with a mouse.
A great addition in Diablo 4 are the mounts. Yes, you heard that right, you can finally ride a mount in a Diablo game. Considering the open world in D4 is massive, a mount makes it much easier to get to the next quest marker, boss arena, or just explore every last bit of Sanctuary. But be warned, you have to unlock mounts first by completing a specific quest that isn’t available until later in the game.
If you've never played any Diablo before, you should check out Diablo 4:
So, movement is as smooth as ever and got a huge upgrade by implementing mounts for the first time, but what about the combat?
Well, we don’t have anything bad to say here either. While Diablo 3 was too colorful and simplified in terms of character building, it did one thing right; the combat. And that is exactly what D4 took over from its predecessor.
Diablo 4 feels more like an exhilirating action-game than ever before. Our Barbarian would rip through enemies, whirling around like a tornado, while the Rogue would rain down arrows from the back while dashing through several enemies applying status effects that then can be triggered by specific skills of ourselves or another character.
D4’s combat system is action-packed to the brim, easy to control and a ton of fun. As soon as you find your preferred set of skills, the fights will have a really nice flow to it.
Looting and Levelling
What is Diablo all about? Exactly, looting and levelling!
Of course, Diablo 4 also has a campaign with an actually captivating story and awesome cutscenes, but in the end what keeps us entertained is finding better loot and maxing out our character.
As far as levelling goes, you can level up your character until you hit level 100. Every new level will grant you one skill point that you can then use to unlock new skills or talents or upgrade the ones you have already unlocked. However, at level 50 the new Paragon Board will become available, which grants you almost endless possibilities to strengthen, alter or tweak your character build.
Thankfully, respeccing is possible in D4. You can just reset single skill points at any time by spending a specific amount of gold. Respeccing will get more expensive the higher your character level is, but especially in the beginning it is basically free, so you can freely experiment with several skills and talents until you find your preferred build.
But a good build obviously can’t be achieved with only skills, talents and Paragon points, it relies heavily on the right equipment. And this is where loot comes into play. As always, we get loot for basically every action we do in Diablo 4: Killing enemies, destroying random stuff on the map like tree stumps, opening chests, completing quests, world events or world bosses.
Loot is again categorized in different qualities, namely Normal, Magic, Rare and Legendary. Unique items will start to drop at higher difficulties, set items are not available in D4. So apart from the missing set items, everything is basically business as usual.
Legendary items are very rare finds and come with legendary affixes that can also be extracted and Rare items can be upgraded to Legendary ones by imprinting aspects.
The most important change about the looting in Diablo 4, however, is the system behind the drops. Smart Loot is returning, which means you have a higher chance to get loot specific to the class you are playing. Certain loot also has a higher chance to drop from specific enemy types.
This doesn’t mean that you need to farm one boss to have a chance on one specific drop, it means that e.g., crossbows in general are more likely to drop from skeletons, while other items might have a higher chance to drop from werewolves etc.
The looting system in D4 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it adds a few small changes that we liked a lot. Especially removing set items turned out to be a great decision, because now the build variety is so much bigger.
In Diablo 3, everyone was just farming towards a specific set and then better stats on the set parts, in D4 players can’t do that anymore so they have to find a good combination of legendaries and can even craft their own ones. More variety is always welcome!
Classes & Builds
At launch, Diablo 4 will feature five distinct classes: Barbarian, Sorcerer, Rogue, Necromancer and Druid. None of these classes is completely new, the Barb, Sorc and Necro were all available in D3 as well and the Rogue and Druid were in D2. Those classes pretty much cover most of the mechanics players are looking for.
The Barb obviously is the strong, dual-wielding berserker, bashing everything with impactful melee attacks, while the Sorcerer is using elemental magic from the distance to deal huge damage but also offers defensive spells.
The Druid uses primal magic and can turn either into a werewolf or a werebear, offering buffs to other players and being pretty tanky. The Necromancer can be skilled in two directions, a powerful solo guy dealing damage with corpse explosions and other blood magic skills, or he can raise his own little army of skeletons and golems.
Quite similarly, the Rogue also has two main builds, melee or ranged. As a melee assassin you rely on your daggers and swift, hard-hitting attacks quickly jumping in and out of combat, while with a ranged build you wield a bow or crossbow letting arrows rain on your enemies.
We had a ton of fun with all classes, however, some of them, like the Druid, are more fun to play in a group and less in solo play. Since Diablo 4 is a Game as a Service, it will receive new content every few months and we are sure that more classes will be added in the future – the Paladin would be an obvious choice.
Find out what class you want to play here:
Quests
Okay. Let's talk about quests. Don’t worry, we will not spoil anything here. The quest system in Diablo 4 works a bit differently from Diablo 3. In Diablo 3 you had to follow the main quest and go from one mission to another.
However, in Diablo 4 we can choose between several main quests right from the start. Every region in D4 has its own main questline and there is no specific order to them. We don’t have to start with the main quest in Fractured Peaks (the first region the game starts in), but we could theoretically just make our way to Scosglen or the Dry Steppes and start the main quest of that region.
While the quests have certain level requirements, they are fairly low and their difficulty will always scale with your character level, so you can’t really overlevel for any quest. Each mission boss will always be a challenge, even if you come back to the quest later. Especially the main quests are very well done.
They always tell a captivating story and never get too repetitive, while the bosses at the end of each questline are truly unique and have special mechanics that make fighting them even more entertaining. We particularly enjoyed the dungeon design for the main quests. These are among the highlights of the game and consistently offer exciting and unique setpieces.
As for the side quests, there are a TON of them. Every town or camp has several NPCs with side quests and sometimes you will even randomly stumble over them in the open world.
However, the scope of those side quests differs a lot. Some only require you to travel to a certain spot on the map and perform one specific action and that’s it. Others are typical fetch quests (kill x amount of ghouls and collect their hearts) and some of them tell their own stories and will actually have their own little questline.
So yes, not every side quest is equally fun, but they all grant XP and loot as a reward, so it’s still well worth just picking them up and completing them on your way to the next world event or main quest. After all, they might guide you to areas you would have never explored otherwise or unlock further side quests after completion.
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Graphics & Performance
ARPGs are always somewhat limited in their visual identity, due to the isometric camera creating a lot of distance between you and the action. And Diablo 4 is no exception there, offering an instantly recognizable and familiar feeling – at least on first glance.
Atmosphere
In the beginning, it all feels just like those games we've played for over 20 years now. However, the game quickly manages to subvert these expectations, as Blizzard really flexed their technical and artistic muscles here. Diablo 4 is the most beautiful and visually impressive ARPG to date.
The atmosphere is stunning throughout the game. Already in the first area, the icy Fractured Peaks, you feel the technical leap from a game like Diablo 3. The environments are dense with detail, beautifully rendered, and deliciously garnished with weather effects, a day-night cycle and a huge array of diverse areas. A particular highlight here are the hub towns in each area, which are all wonderfully designed.
Every region is completely distinct from one another, in visual identity, vibe and tone. The swampy, bug-hot Scosglen immediately feels a lot more oppressive and hostile than the open Peaks, colored in pastel blue.
A particular highlight were the Dry Steppes, where lifeless fields of dead grass give way to a gorgeous beach, before transitioning into a hell-like series of caves. In harmony with the great soundtrack, Diablo 4 ends up being an absolute looker and an atmospheric powerhouse.
Visual Fidelity
The action, however, doesn't feel quite like the same leap forward. It all looks good on this front too, especially when the game builds on the genre's strengths and lets a lot happen on screen. But if you expect a visual and sensorial firework like similar games offer it, a Lost Ark for example, you might be a bit disappointed. Particularly huge attacks like the ultimate attacks feel like a letdown in that regard.
This is not to say that you don't get your fair share of spectacle and visual feasts. Diablo 4 is quite impressive in this regard, not just thanks to it's strong art design and high production values. The developers are also bringing you in much closer to the action this time.
Cutscenes
That doesn't necessarily affect gameplay too much, as the zoomable camera is cool, but makes fights even more chaotic and confusing than they already are. Where this new approach works really well though is in the storytelling.
While a lot of it still happens in glorified monologues from the classic isometric perspective, Diablo 4 actually features proper in-game cutscenes. Wow! Admittedly, calling this an innovation feels somewhat ridiculous. But it does manage to make D4 feel like a big step forward.
These sequences don't always hold up to Blizzard's world class standard for their CGI cinematics (which are once again amazing here), we were surprised by the fidelity of the in-game models and environments and the strong sense for how the scenes are directed.
UI
One visual aspect where we feel like Blizzard missed the mark is the UI. While the whole game calls back to the edgy, grimdark vibe of the first two Diablo titles, the menus do so to an almost comical degree. They look blocky and are so tinged in hell-infused edginess that it somehow manages to stick out like a sore thumb.
Many old-school fans will surely appreciate Diablo 2 being evoked here. But it feels like they overshot massively. Every menu in the game also feels overly complex and unintuitive. Even after many hours of playing the game, navigating it still didn't feel smooth and easy going.
Performance
We tested Diablo 4 on a review build on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X and are happy to report that all versions sport this visual fidelity and run perfectly well at a smooth 60 FPS. Of course, the PC Version looks a tad bit sharper and more detailed. But even on consoles, Diablo 4 is a beautiful and technically well-polished game. However, there were some issues related to the multiplayer part of the game.
Diablo As A GaaS
If you hadn’t already heard, Diablo IV is going to be a GaaS (Game as a Service). But what does this mean? And how is it different from previous Diablo games?
Live-Service
If you aren’t familiar with live-service games, let’s start there. In these games, new content is released every “season”, and usually with an accompanying Battle Pass. All the launch content is therefore just the beginning, with the real bulk of the game being produced and experienced over time.
It was once the case that only multiplayer games used the seasonal live-service model, but now all games are beginning to adopt it. Largely because it’s one of the most effective ways to sell microtransactions.
Now, some of you might remember that Diablo 3 already had seasons, which were introduced in patch 2.1, but these were clearly an afterthought and did not affect the design of the world. The real difference with Diablo 4 is that the live-service model is baked into the system; you have to be online to play, the open world is a shared social place, and an in-game shop will be available at launch.
After that brief description, many of you are probably already fretting over Diablo IV. But while there are lots of scary buzzwords in there like “microtransactions” and “Battle Pass”, we don’t expect the GaaS model to be too detrimental for most users. We’ll discuss each aspect of the GaaS model below.
Seasons & Events
At the core of GaaS game design lies the concept of making everything feel “live” and “current”. Developers want to give players a sense of being part of a dynamic culture; one month all the community are wearing a certain type of skin, and the next month they might all be focused on an exciting new activity.
When this is successfully pulled off it helps foster an out-of-game community, but when it’s not, it comes off as an excuse to sell more skins.
We’re going to be perfectly honest with you here, in the review copy of the game we could not see what the first season or set of events would look like, so we can’t judge Blizzard one way or the other.
But given how much content was available to us in the base game alone, we can at least say one thing: you aren’t being sold half a game if you choose not to engage with the new seasonal content. The launch version of Diablo 4 will give you hundreds of hours of content by itself, easily.
This is a part of the review we might return to after 3 or 4 seasons of Diablo 4, to see how well the new seasonal content was produced. But we don’t think those opposed to the GaaS format should be put off by the existence of seasons, if anything we see the post-launch content as a benefit to those who are ravenous for even more Diablo to play. Remember, the actual story content each season will be free, and the Battle Pass is only cosmetic.
A Shared World
We have a lot more sympathy for those who are concerned by the shared world element of this GaaS model. Because unlike Seasons and Battle Passes, you can’t opt out of this system.
For those that didn’t play the beta and aren’t sure what we’re on about: other random players will appear in your world. They will appear in settlements and in the open world during public events. They can’t directly hurt you in any way (except in the PvP-focused Fields of Hatred), but it still creates issues. We’ll briefly discuss both of those scenarios below.
Lots of players being in the same settlement together definitely produced performance issues. There’s no way of avoiding or dressing up this issue, it was simply quite janky (especially if multiple players were using the Necromancer and always had an army of undead around them).
And it all feels a bit pointless. You can’t meaningfully interact with other players, as the game simply doesn’t have that many options for social expression besides a basic set of emotes. And while more players make the town feel busy, NPCs could have fulfilled this role.
We should also mention, during the first betas, traversing between areas also caused lags and rubberbanding, which was very annoying. This seems to have been fixed since the Server Slam, but we can’t completely verify it for the release version until the game is out.
So, what about public events? These are small skirmishes that occur in the open world, with random players temporarily teaming up and working together. Thankfully they don’t produce performance issues in the way shared settlements do, but they aren’t anything to write home about. It’s quite nice to have public events that are more accessible than the shared World Bosses, but they aren’t groundbreaking, they’re just okay.
In-Game Shop & Cosmetics
In the review copy of the game, we couldn’t access the store. So, as with seasons, we will return to this aspect of Diablo 4 and review it again in the near future.
Our only fear with cosmetics is that they will keep all the best stuff in the store and won't give us anything cool in the main game. We don’t know whether it will actually transpire this way, but it’s almost always the case when a game has an in-game store. The best we can realistically hope for is that they produce awesome stuff for the base game, but then even more stuff on that level for the shop.
Time will tell.
Our Verdicts
Faris (PC & Xbox Series X, Only Played Diablo 3 Before)
Diablo 4 doesn’t reinvent the ARPG wheel. If you’ve played games in this genre before, this one will be instantly familiar to you. But there’s no denying that it is a damn good one of those.
Blizzard’s extremely high production values and deft design acumen shines through in every aspect of Diablo 4. It’s a joy to go through this new open world, which strings you along seamlessly and tirelessly, making you burn through hours on hours without stop.
Personally, the open world is what I got the most joy from. Especially the art design is a knockout. Sanctuary is gorgeous and I loved coming into a new region and seeing what unique flavors it will have to offer.
One big negative point for me are the class-specific aspect rewards for dungeons, which discouraged me from engaging with most of them. Still the different activities and types of content worked wonderfully in tandem to keep you engaged and wanting to push forward and explore this world. Seamlessly joining up with other players to complete events and World Bosses was super fun and a welcome breath of fresh air as well.
I greatly enjoyed my time with Diablo 4. And even though I played through the (admittedly not very good) beginning of the game six times already, I can’t wait to go back in and start fresh upon release.
Jon (PS5, Only Played Diablo 3 Significantly)
Nothing in here surprised me, and to friends who hadn’t played, I found myself describing it as “everything you would expect from a Diablo sequel”. But I always meant it in a positive way.
The game is well-produced, with zero glaring issues, and it does everything I want in a Diablo game. I enjoyed building my character, co-op was easy to hop into, and the gameplay loop was compelling enough to keep me grinding for long periods of time. The only thing holding me back from a top score was the class balance, which was far from perfect.
The balance team at Blizzard will continue to work on the classes, so I don’t want to be too harsh here, but for the sake of transparency you should know that there was literally zero reason to play a Barb or a Druid in early versions of the game.
Lukas (PC, Played Every Diablo apart from D1, even Diablo Immortal)
After playing the two Betas, Server Slam and the review build, I can definitely say: I LOVE DIABLO 4!
Blizzard managed to pick exactly the right mechanics of every past Diablo, add some new spice and combine it to an almost perfect game. Taking the darker, grittier vibes of Diablo 1 and the more complex character build/skill system of Diablo 2 without making it too frustrating and mixing all of that with the smooth, action-packed gameplay of Diablo 3 just worked out perfectly.
What surprised me most, however, was the new shared world. So far, I only knew that from Diablo Immortal and wasn’t too much of a fan, but Diablo 4 somehow managed to change that. I am mostly a solo player when it comes to Diablo games, but I really like the world events and world bosses.
The shared world to me felt more like a nice addition that you can enjoy if you want to, but you don’t have to. It’s not like there are always hundreds of other players running around your screen, at least when you’re outside the hubs.
So, the main game with its great campaign, nice looting and combat mechanics and tons and tons of mostly fun side quests is great and will keep me busy for months. If the post launch content can keep up with what we have seen so far, I am sure Diablo 4 will entertain its fans for years to come.