Diablo IV Review

Diablo, as a franchise, is up there with the best of the best when it comes to action role-playing games (ARPGs). The king of the genre. A lot of that heritage, however, comes from the earlier iterations in the franchise - games like Diablo and Diablo II that were considered to be some of the greatest games ever made. In recent years though, Diablo has found itself in a bit of a quandary, as the ARPG field has gotten more and more competitive. Games like Path of Exile and, to a lesser extent, Torchlight, have surged to the top of the tree, while Diablo seemed to be stuck in the past a touch. Diablo IV appears to be Blizzard's answer to some of those questions raised.

Diablo IV sees you jump into the shoes of an unwitting wanderer, trekking across the world Sanctuary as the battle between its two creators hots up, thanks to the return of Lilith, the daughter of Mephisto. You’ll battle across five regions, made up of a wide variety of biomes, as you attempt to put an end to Lilith and her uprising. Perhaps one of the best things about Diablo across its entire existence has been its lore and story, and Diablo IV continues that tradition in fine fashion. The world is just a joy to get lost in. In fact, thanks to some truly iconic dungeons, in terms of aesthetics and all-new in-game cutscenes, Diablo IV is Blizzard at the top of its game. Better than any of its competitors, and the best in the series. While incredibly lengthy, Diablo IV’s story does more than enough to see you from beginning to end, intrigued to see which way the tale weaves.

Unlike previous entries though, Diablo IV is an open-world game, clearly taking inspiration from POE, but don't let that fool you - the story-related dungeons are still as iconic and as self-contained as they've ever been. Beyond that, with hundreds of side quests and optional dungeons too, you'll never be short of things to do. And that’s before we talk about the post-game content, open-world recurring events, and world bosses you can take down. In fact, the post-game content, that ranges from Whisper and Helltide events, to Capstone and Nightmare dungeons, offers more than enough reason to keep building out your character past the level 50 soft-cap (levels 50 to 100 in Diablo IV lean into the game’s Paragon boards, which can truly make your character infinitely more powerful). From a delivery perspective, it’s hard to really fault the content Blizzard throws your way, offering both quantity and variety.

One of Diablo IV’s biggest hang-ups is that it takes a while to get going, but when it does, it really falls into a rhythm. That said, after a certain point, when you’ve unlocked all the abilities that you’re happy with, the game can begin to feel a little static and one-note. The truth is, however, that when you’re fully kitted out with how you want your build to shape up, some of the other RPG mechanics truly come into play and elevate the game to a new level.

Being able to destroy legendaries and retain their legendary abilities (known as ‘Aspects’), which you can then slot into other bits of gear, mean that you can tailor your character even further - and these aren’t just some generic stat boosts either, these aspects grant new passive abilities and skills. Diablo IV boasts some impressive depth if you really get into the nuts and bolts of the RPG mechanics, something that is necessary if you want to tackle the game solo on World Tier 2 (Veteran).

Diablo IV isn’t without its issues though. While some of the bosses are interesting and challenging, Blizzard’s solution to more than a few of Diablo IV’s boss fights is to spam you with homing projectile attacks or overwhelming you with a never-ending supply of mobs as part of the boss fight itself, or, more often than not, both at the same time. If anything, it just feels like an artificial way to make a boss fight more difficult, rather than more interesting. Frequently, I spent most of those boss fights running in circles around the arena waiting for my abilities to cool down. It felt more like a Benny Hill sketch as opposed to an epic dungeon-crawler boss fight. In the early game, the boss fights can feel a little unbalanced too, whether they’re main quest bosses or optional dungeon bosses, until you’ve unlocked multiple abilities, weapons that regen health, more potion capacity, equipment gifting more dodges, and lean into the aforementioned Aspects and Codexes of Power.

On top of all of that, there’s some frankly bizarre design choices, like the game’s stun mechanic, which can instantly kill you if you’re in the middle of a mob, and proves immensely frustrating. Add into that enemies that jump from off-screen, and some foes with bubble shields that nuke any kind of range build you’ve made, and sometimes you’re left scratching your head how these made it into the final product. Luckily, the game does make it very accessible to respec your character - say from a rogue archer to a rogue dual-wielder - but that can get very expensive quickly. I’m still not 100% sold on having one dodge ability every five seconds either, as it makes the game feel archaic in some respects - although you can get gear that gives you more, which I recommend keeping hold of. 

Fortunately, from a technical perspective, we really only encountered one bug, a bug that deprived us of the ability to attack, with only a full reboot fixing it. Other than that and a few connection issues, the game actually runs pretty great, with no frame-rate issues anywhere to be seen, something that can usually hamper ARPGs, especially when the screen is chock full of enemies.

Other than that, a lot of what makes Diablo IV a smooth experience are the quality of life additions that many will take for granted. Small things like the sort function not only sorting our inventory by type, but by strength as well, are incredibly appreciated and cut down on that classic ARPG faff. Blizzard have also put a great deal of care and attention into players that want to try a new character too with persistent unlocks (like healing potion capacity upgrades and once you’ve unlocked the mount, it stays unlocked for all character), storage and gold that works across all your characters, and there’s even the ability to skip the campaign entirely if you’ve already completed it once. It’s certainly an area that Blizzard have doubled down on, and it makes Diablo IV all the better for it.

While Diablo IV might not set any new standards in the genre, it’s a thoroughly well-crafted ARPG, with plenty of depth, a pretty phenomenal game world, and some addictive gameplay. With an absolute ton of content, Diablo IV is a game you could get lost in for months, and thanks to the game’s new online persistent open-world, there’s always something to sink your teeth into. Sure, it may feel a little archaic and repetitive at times, and some of the boss fights are exercises in overwhelming the player more than anything else, but Diablo IV is a fun ride, with some incredible depth in its RPG mechanics.