It has been a little while since we got some news for Diablo 4, and that might be a good thing because, as we can recall, the last news before this one ended up on a positive note. The trend seems to continue, with developers sharing some of their plans for the game.
First things first, the new gameplay videos are fantastic
Before we get into what developers had to say about their plans for the game, let us quickly comment on the new gameplay videos that were shared. If you haven’t checked them out yourself, we highly suggest you do that, as it will get you even more eager to wait for that Diablo 4 release in 2023.
In the new gameplay videos, we can see a few character creations and a little bit of gameplay as well. Our favorite has to be the sorcerer character creation, as it shows all the crazy options that the game has. Of course, the character customization still comes with presets, which is kind of expected from a blizzard game, but nevertheless, it is much better than anyone expected.
When it comes to the gameplay, it seems that the developers learned something from the Diablo: Immortal pay-to-win backlash, as the Rogue dungeon video shows that there is some positioning and strategy needed, and not everything can be done by just running mindlessly through the dungeon. This might be due to the character’s gear in the video, but we hope that mindless clearing is not a thing until your character is fully-kitted.
Image Credit | Blizzard
Quick info about the developer’s plans
The Game Director, Joey Shely, and Diablo General Manager Rod Fergusson had quite a lot to share about Diablo 4. Everyone wants to hear that the Diablo 4 monetization plans are still, as they said before, as they have not mentioned any pay-to-win systems. We all know that this can change at the last minute, as it did with Diablo: Immortal, but let’s hope that it will not.
While the devs discussed a lot of info, one of the things that really surprised us is that Diablo 4 will not be region locked. This means that you will be able to meet up with someone who is on the other continent, and you will even be able to play with them if you are on different platforms.
One thing that we are not that big fans of is their ideology of “locking in” character progression by increasing the costs of changing specs later in the game. While players will have the option to respect, putting a huge in-game payment behind it is not what makes characters unique, it just makes the system annoying. They could learn something from World of Warcraft Shadowlands and the covenant system that had this same ideology.
If you are someone who likes making alts, then the great news is that you will only have to complete the main story in Diablo 4 once and not more than that, which is great. Something that can be very annoying in games like this is when you are forced to go through the same story repeatedly, especially with seasonal characters, and we are glad they are changing that.
Last but not least, Blizzard always has some sort of shenanigans when crossing their games with cosmetics, and we are extremely glad they decided to avoid any of that with the Diablo 4 launch. It seems like a minor thing, but it will definitely make the game more immersive, especially when the developers decided to return to the darker roots with Diablo 4 compared to Diablo 3’s brighter atmosphere.
