Every Diablo game has always started either in a small village or camped enclosure in a temperate-climated area, and I’ve always associated mountainous snowy areas with late-game progression (Arreat). Like we’ve come to associate desert areas with Act 2 in at least 2 games.
This time we’re starting on a mountain, and my sense of Diablo progression is thrown off. I hope there is enough environmental difference in the other areas, I don’t want the entire game to look the same.
It’ll throw your sense off even more when there’s no strict order to do following areas in either (but it should hopefully give variety to future play-throughs, change things up a bit)
Indeed, I’m not a fan of random story progression. But as long as there are no areas like that godawful ZK Library in Immortal, it can’t be too bad.
I get it. It doesn’t look like the story is going to be totally all over the place, just several story arcs that all lead to their own conclusions, before leading to the climax
D1 starts in Tristram, but the story is the important part that keeps the plot in there (sort of like Dark or Stranger things, the whole story is related to a single town and that’s it)
D2 starts in the Rogue Camp, that’s not a town, you’re a Wanderer/Traveller, there’s no town in there (maybe the expansion, Act5, but that’s different cause the storyline is mostly/mainly about thwarting a Siege)
D3 does not start in a village/town either, you start on a “path” towards Tristram (it’s close but not in it). The other acts (2, 3, 4, 5) are related to things happening in towns/strongholds, but again, you’re not “noble”, you came in (and earned) your place
D4 starts near a village (Nevesk) and you “breeze” through it to get to the first (and main) town
It’s fine, think of yourself like a traveller/wanderer, not uncommon for these kinds of games 
i just hope sooner or later we’ll revisit tristram (not the meph-wolf vision of it only). diablo doesn’t feel like home, without.
only thing worse than a diablo game without tristram, is a diablo game without cain or diablo.
(yes i just said a huuuge part or actually all of d3 sux, if you ever wondered. get over it, after all deep inside we all know it doesn’t belong. they should retcon it as a bad dream, as in soap operas - dallas d3. wake up, discover d2 is just over, cain is still here, and there starts d4, d3 never happened but in your silly mind, and damn to deepest hell all whimsynothing nonsense. sigh, how i’d like that)
Have you been living under a rock?
Lol I was wondering the same thing 
Its not a Diablo game without a Tristram cameo.
The way people twist themselves in knots to complain about this game is wild. “WE NEVER STARTED ON A MOUNTAIN BEFORE!!! HOW CAN THIS EVEN BE A DIABLO GAME!!@???@!?#”
Does not feel strange at all… you’re on your way somewhere, mephisto kills your horse and the adventure begins.
I do not think Tristram is even standing at this point.
Just wait until you learn you can complete Act III before Act I
what if they skip the cave start part and just us showing up in the town and get bill cosby’d and taken to the barn an wake up etc
1st place you go is a small village so this is all a bit silly.
WoW starts the dwarf on a mountain in snowy area.
In this game, we’re fighting stuff from hell. So it seems as though a lot is reversed in terms of starting areas and ending areas. I wouldn’t think hell would be frozen over, but you never know in these times…
Your sense of progression depends on the look of the area around you? i mean to an extent yes, when you are litterally in hell etc, but otherwise? no.
D3 does start in New Tristram, a small village. That “path” is exactly 10 steps away from the front gate to New Tristram. Diablo 3, unlike Diablo 2 actually explains how you arrived at the starting small town and shows you arriving there and explains why you journeyed there in the first place.
And in Diablo 4 you are traveling towards the small hamlet. Mephisto killing your horse doesn’t really change anything.
NO, the problem with starting on a mountain is that the area is kind of boring. It is white everywhere with nothing to really break up the stark scenery. It isn’t particularly foreboding or interesting. There really isn’t anything going on and there isn’t a lot of environmental story telling because of the snow.
In other games the player was already drawn into the world so arriving at a snowy plain with nothing going on isn’t too much of a problem. The player doesn’t need anything interesting to look at by that point. But when the first area the player sees is a boring flat white expanse it doesn’t work.
Fractured Peaks could be like Survival mode in Witcher 3 where you lose health if you don’t keep your strength up and get someplace warm occasionally.
Yeah, I’m sure that would be popular 