Beta Observations and suggestions

Console Discussion
1

Firstly I want to say that it was obvious that the staff developing this put a lot of time and effort in to this and deserve ample praise for what Diablo 4 is. Regardless of the issues I have or the suggestions that follow they have built a strong foundation and their dedication was evident.

Story:
While I commend the way that it was attempted to tie the story of the previous game to this one by having us meet an older version of a character we knew as a young man in Diablo 3, it feels as if we have lost someting in between.
Diablo 1: Characters are a bunch of randoms who face a terrible evil and are forever changed. (Yes this was later retconned)
Diablo 2: Scarred veterans of the first battle with Diablo threaten a new set of randoms leading to an eventual showdown with the 3 Prime Evils.
Diablo 3: Following the events of Diablo 2 the destruction of the Sacred Worldstone, which was used to modulate the powers of humanity results in the powers of the Nephilim re-immerging in a select few at a time of great need. These few are able to work together to defeat The Prime Evil an all powerful being created by merging the souls of all 7 evils into one being within the body of the offspring of Diablo thereby making him the dominate personality.
Diablo 4: More randoms face off againts a seemily less signifcant threat, and oh by the way the re-immergence of the Nephilim was just a flash in the pan it seems.
This is disappointing if anything we should see traces of the re-imergence of the Nephilim so that the story remains congruant. Knowing this is only a small slice of the final game I could be wrong on this but never the less this is what the game left me questioning story wise.

Game Balance:
Unfortunately as a working adult I didnt have enought time to thoroughly play multiple classes but I leveled a Barb all the way and did the main story and some dungeons, as well as some play with both Sorceress and Druid. It was obvious that the developers focused on the idea of Co-op and it felt like the idea of someone playing alone was left out. I had extreme difficulty as my Barb defeatimg any of the game bosses even mini-bosses caused trouble and would require multiple potions to defeat alone, even at max level with decent gear. This needs to be addressed in some way as it kills the fun if you can’t get people to group up with you. Both the Sorc and Druid felt significanlty more powerful as I played them. This goes back to the basic power fantasy, it should feel just as epic to play a lone barbarian warrior as it does with a full party.

Ascetics:
On the issue of the fantasy, and not to disparage different body types but as a fairly burly guy of germanic bloodline I do not play games to play an overweight guy with a hairy back. That’s my real life. If someone wants to play that fine by all means they should be able to but some form of sliders for body / body hair or the ability to select from all body and face types would be appreciated. Maybe someone wants to play a skinny Barb or a large Sorcerer etc. Also as stated in other suggeations I’ve seen some of the voice actors dont seem to match up. Once again some more options would help like the availability to choose any of the already precorded voices for a character. In the end this whole section really comes down to facilitating the fantasy of the player through a more robust customization. using already available assets and some tweaking.

Que Times / Always Online (MMO Style)
This is primarily a problem of what I believe was the point of both beta weekends. A stress test of all the server systems. Frankly they’re not yet up to par. On multiple occassions after waiting between 20 minutes to an hour I got through the ques only to have the connection time out while loading. I’m sure that Blizzard are looking at this and I hope they improve so as to avoid a fiasco like D3’s launch. Another thing I personally believe the developers should look at is offline play. I as well as many in the community dislike required always online games. Don’t get me wrong MMO’s have their place and I understand the drive and desire for the seasonal type content necessitating some form of online connection I’m even OK with the OPTIONAL monitization of season content if reasonably priced and done well, but sometimes I need a solitary experience or a Co-Op run uninterrupted by 12 year olds doing their best Dark Souls expert impressions “Git Gud!” BS.

As I said at the start I respect the dev’s and their work and the above is souly my opinion whit some sugested tweaks that could be implemented over time. Thanks to the dev team for giving us as the fan community to see your vision and progress. Diablo has been a staple in some of our lives for more than 20 years. We look forward to the final product.

2

I have been playing diablo games since the release of diablo 1 and im disappointed in several areas in this beta like when legendary/orange gear drops the affects are like half hearted and feel underwhelming diablo 3 had it much better and when one would drop the drop affect was about perfect. Another thing the skill shrines need to last a few seconds longer as well as youre ultimate ability. As far as the abilities on yellow and especially orange gear desperately needs reworked asap as in diablo 3 the added affects where cool and made skills and spells have cool affects and skills ect. You guys should add more tiers spells or skills ect. This should be game of the decade not to mention game of the year but i was board and unempressed enough multi times i logged off to play path of exile which i finally started playing in between betas for this game and i also think buying power should be added just not gamble like diablo immortal and just have the effects blocked ect in pvp which i hate anyhow but people like me that work all the time need such boosts or equipment and im so sick of streamers and people who dont work and play all the time ruining games getting devs to make changes or nurffs ect when the majority dose not agree with them and those of us who work dont actually have time to write reviews so its always the streamers or non workers ect that get listened too. You also should add helpers/npc like diablo 2 butt give them and or mounts GOOD skill trees ect and the dark settings like diabo 2 are ok but everything including mobs are grey and boring this is to much like diablo immortal boring and not even close to open world which should be more like elden ring open world and the slower play stile is boring as well but dont ever add gambeling to pay for power like diabo immortal its so bad its evil and made me quit playing and it was boring as well. I pre ordred the best version of the game but im absolutely so unbelievably dissapointed in this game as it currently is i actually log out several times to play other games and that should never happen especially on a beta test with limited time to play. I know i wont get listened too but i had to at least try to voice my opinions ect mobs are also too grey ect they need lots of different colors since everything else is so black white and grey its depressing and boring

3

I find myself curious about whether the Nephalem will be acknowledged in this game. I suspect it won’t be ignored. I also suspect it isn’t something we’ll learn about in Act I. I try to withhold judgments of this nature when I don’t have the complete product.

Barbarians definitely feel underpowered in early game. The devs addressed this, which leads me to think the Barbarian (and probably the Druid, which also felt underpowered) probably don’t have a broad power curve like the Rogue or Necromancer, but more of a power spike in later game. This said, I felt nearly zero threat at any point in 1-25 with either the Sorceror or Necromancer. They were just bulldozing everything. I don’t personally want them nerfed; I want the other classes to feel that powerful, as the power fantasy is an important part of the experience to me. Bone Spear + minions + Corpse Explosion makes the Necromancer an absolute beast.

A bit more customization on the characters would be appreciated. I personally don’t like that certain hairstyles are locked to certain classes, and not every Druid needs to look like either a pro wrestler or a Scandinavian who’s bulking up for a long winter.