My first impressions are meh. Feels a lot closer to D3/D:I than D2, that’s for sure. Hell it feels even closer to Lost Ark to some extent, due to map design and questing system. It’s not bad, the combat is fluid and the abilities do feel rather impactful. Hard to judge exactly fluid it is without exploring the endgame, but it’s better than the typical slowstarting ARPG. It has to pick up some pace later on though or it’ll be too slow.
The cinematics are typically nice so far but the cut scenes are a bit too frequent and annoying. The simplicity of D2s storytelling is much preferred to this, but it seems like a relic of the past ever since the D3 devs pooped all over that winning concept way back. Nowadays the antagonists (and protagonists) have to take up screen time as if they’re actual actors looking to market themselves instead of remaining enigmatic and authentic.
The graphics, while technically nice, are designwise a minor letdown. I prefer the artstyle of D2R, both in terms of world design but also (and particularly) when it comes to monsters and spell animations. The monsters seem too big and too unfamiliar quite simply, while the spells fall short by comparison. Hydra, firewall, Meteor, Blizzard to name a few all look significantly better in D2R and more in sync with the overall design. Whereas the D4 spells feel a bit out of place with the actual environment they’re in.
Oh and, don’t even get me started on the horrible inventory and equiptment UI which screams alpha mode, what’s up with that? Early screens of 2 years ago looked exactly like this no? They slapped “ALPHA” tag on it back then as a justification but ended up not changing anything? Not a dealbreaker per se but it definitely adds a P2W mobile feel to it á la D:I which is not ideal. Especially when they’re so clearly gunning for immersion with their attempted dark gothic atmosphere and highly desaturated colours.
The items look more bland than in D3 and very similar to D:I. Not only do they look boring, they are boring. Itemization was unfortunately never D4s selling point and the beta has thus far not convinced me of otherwise. I do however at least enjoy the ability to extract a legendary power and place it elsewhere, thus not locking it into a certain item slot. I can imagine it opens up at least some experimentation down the road. I’ll reserve final judgement for the itemization as a whole when I see it all come together at max level. But in the leveling experience it’s lacklustre, and I will probably just look for a green arrow while levling up though, much like I did in D3 and Lost Ark. At least Lost Ark had some sick animations though which carried the otherwise extremely boring leveling process.
I like that they are bringing back the talent trees, but my intial impression of them are rather lacklustre. Again though, hard to fully judge without seeing how it interacts with the paragon board on max level. I am a bit concerned about the amount of spells available, seems like we’re missing some. It sure feels good however to invest some points into abilities you want though while leveling. It makes that next level mean something more than just a means to an end, and consequently makes the leveling process a little less tedious.
Overall I’d say the game isn’t terrible by any means, and will probably be worthwhile to play through at least once. But this is not some Indie company hoping to make a good impression with their first title, this is Blizzard aiming to restore their place at the top of the ARPG throne with their extremely hyped fourth game (I don’t count the abomination that is D:I). I don’t get the feeling that they’re about to do just that, based on the limited information we have. I just doesn’t really stand out in any significant way.
I might be wrong and the game might end up being amazing, but all I can say is that as of this moment they had better prepared a mighty special endgame system ready for us at launch or we’re in for a rough start.
@ Muyu
On my first playthrough of D3 it felt extremely different to D2. D4 does not feel extremely different to D3 by comparison, rather the opposite.
You stink of casual
