Diablo 4 opens with a thoroughly gripping intro. A scene that draws the player in, in a way that Blizzard has become uniquely good at doing. Immediately, players are thrown into a world that’s rich with gothic character and storylines that harken back to the gaming classics that were Diablo and Diablo 2. The storytelling has clearly been bolstered and the world is full of the kind of multi-layered fantasy structure, that three lacked. At set up, it feels like, once again, we are going to be wrapped in an adventure we will talk about for years to come. There are dozens of options when it comes to character development and combat is highly customisable depending on what the player feels like doing, the cut scenes are magnificent, the costumes resplendent and then there is nothing.
Rat trap gaming
From World of Warcraft to the previous instalments of Diablo, Blizzard’s principle skills have over the past few decades, been in drawing players in and getting them to play more, whether they are liking it or not and Diablo 4 makes full use of those skills. Hours and hours of lavish-looking dungeons offer the kind of bland, minimal challenge of the music selection on pop radio. The idea here isn’t to get you to love it, it’s just to get you playing it, nonstop, forever and using your hard earned cash to buy the armour pieces that might finally make you feel fulfilled.
Creating a character is exciting because you know that each choice you make influences your combat styles and shapes the future game, and the first few battles are thrilling as you get to grips with what your character can do, but just a few hours down the line, the game feels like you are sitting at a slot machine, routinely going through the same motions over and over again.
It’s an odd feeling given the enormous effort that has gone into worldbuilding. You will marvel at the scenery, and be astounded by the soundscapes even as you plod wearily from battle to battle to battle to battle. Usually, with Blizzard games, the grind to level your character (and it is always called “the grind”) results in access to some phenomenal and well-thought-out end-game content, but this time that is simply lacking.
Review bombing
To counteract all of this, developers released a patch that only seems to have nerfed characters, making them deal less and take more damage, something gamers have said only bloats the content without enriching it. And these were gamers who were already unhappy. Given the cost of the game (a staggering R1700 on PS4 or R1350 on PC), people did not expect the microtransactions that litter the game to be as costly as they are. Cosmetics in the set can cost almost R600 and this will only work on one character.
Is it any wonder then, that the game came out to largely positive reviews from gaming publications whose reviewers are forced to play 20 or 30 hours and then file their thoughts, and is now being review bombed by gamers to the point where at the time of publishing it ranks a lowly 2 out of 5?
Diablo 4 is gloss. A shiny, empty, Blizzard experience cranked up to 11, and people fell for it, because in the first few hours it looks like it might be great. There is a lot to recommend the game from the worldbuilding to audio to the gorgeous armour sets, but none of that makes up for the boring and repetitive gameplay backed up by an extortionate monetisation experience. Baldur’s Gate 3 has proven we no longer need to put up with this sort of thing. There are too many good games out there to be wasting your money here.
