Players are gradually abandoning Diablo 4 after a few months of existence, and unfortunately for those who have already explored this game, it’s understandable. I’m one of the fans of the Diablo franchise. I loved D1, an excellent title. D2, legendary. D3, a bit disappointing but enjoyable; I played it for hundreds of hours.
I was eagerly awaiting this latest installment in the series, but unfortunately, I’m one of the disappointed players. I’ve expressed in several messages all the good things about Diablo 4, and there are many, but too many issues spoil the game’s experience and the fun of this title.
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The item algorithm is way too basic. Many attributes are pointless, lacking coherence, limited customization, and interesting attributes from other Diablo games are completely absent in D4.
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There’s no joy in looting; all items are identical.
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There’s no incremental item evolution; there are only 2 loot levels: Sacred and Ancestral, which are uninteresting (There should be at least 6 or 7 categories and colors of items).
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Item customization is painful.
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There’s no diversity in loot: no Runes, Charms, Jewels, or powerful items.
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No bind-on-equip items.
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There are very few unique items.
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The Codex is poorly designed, and Aspects should be looted separately.
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The Skill Tree lacks excitement, customization, and depth.
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Leveling is lengthy, and character building is cumbersome due to excessive constraints.
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Once you reach level 100, there’s no further progression, which is frustrating.
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There are too few visually distinct dungeons, resulting in a feeling of repetitiveness.
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Dungeons lack creativity in their design.
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There are no iconic dungeons like D2 or D3’s “Palace” or “Arcane Sanctuary.”
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Nightmare Dungeon Emblems are cumbersome for many reasons.
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Hell Tides are too basic and lack depth.
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The game relies too heavily on generic algorithms, dehumanizing the overall experience.
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Once you’ve explored the map, there are no surprises, hidden places, or secrets. The vast map is underutilized.
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There are no activities to engage in once the game is explored: no bounty boards for missions with different difficulty levels, no areas to liberate, no “Rifts,” and more.
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Class and build balancing seems uneven.
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Too many one-shot deaths for level 100 characters.
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Too many types of “Sanctuaries” are missing, and those present are too short.
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Too many trips back to town.
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A basic inventory system, with awkward mixtures like “Emblems” and Potions.
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No Armory.
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No crafting system or mechanism.
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Poorly designed Gems.
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The bestiary is extremely lacking.
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The game is too focused on “Seasons.”
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The worst part is that this list isn’t even exhaustive! Someone on a forum said, “This game reeks of laziness,” and in some ways, I agree. The combat is good, and the presentation is impeccable, no doubt about that. However, the game is generic in so many aspects. For example, they used a simple and basic algorithm for items.
Now I’d like to understand a few things.
- How could this company entrust such an iconic franchise to amateurs?
- Without intending to disrespect, it’s evident that these individuals have limited experience in this type of game, and they clearly haven’t played much of the previous versions or other competing titles—otherwise, the numerous current criticisms wouldn’t exist.
- How did an experienced company like Blizzard let so many conceptual flaws slip through?
- It’s as if there’s no one responsible for quality, no testers or consultants capable of pointing out glaring weaknesses in the game.
- How did the father of the modern ARPG, with nearly 30 years of hindsight, do worse than all the previous titles?
Diablo 3 had already gone in a bad direction on many fronts; the loot wasn’t great, not very diverse, and the end-game was disastrous (not to mention many other aspects of the game).
Despite that, over time (and with an expansion), they introduced Ancient and Prime items to improve things a bit.
The Rift system managed to salvage the end-game. Sure, this last point relies heavily on a single algorithm’s recursion, but these rifts, with a mix of all the game’s dungeons and Legendary Gems, provided players, regardless of their level, with a compatible challenge and a reason to keep having fun and progressing for thousands of hours.
The Diablo 3 team made mistakes but learned from them and introduced significant improvements.
Today, who can explain to me how Diablo 4’s game designers made the same mistakes, but worse? At this point, isn’t it just a level of incompetence at 90?
Aside from interesting Paragon levels and solid combat mechanics, the game doesn’t bring anything new. I believe it’s necessary to have a solid gamer experience (thousands of hours played) in D1, D2, D3, TitanQuest, PoE, Grim Dawn, and similar titles to extract the essence of the genre and then impose your personal touch to become the new standard.
What happened? How did Blizzard, this great and innovative company, so filled with exceptional talent, the same company that gave us incredible titles like Starcraft, Warcraft, WoW, Diablo, fall so low today?
Tell me.