Disclaimer, I preemptively made a post before this, but it wasn’t as well thought out. Here is my revised version
After playing for ~35 hours this weekend, and getting each class to 25 as well as beating the story with them, I wanted to provide my feedback.
Diablo 4 is pretty damn good already. I had a ton of fun, and already can’t wait for next weekend to play again in the open beta. Hell, I can’t wait for JUNE!!! Thank you to the whole team who has worked so hard on this game. It really shows! However, I did want to provide feedback on things I noticed during my time with the beta.
There’s a bunch of other things I want to talk about in this post, but I will try to keep feedback to what we know as opposed to speculation, so my feedback will be limited to what I noticed in the beta ONLY (minus my last talking point at the end - sorry couldn’t help it, lol).
Map Overlay
I would love a map overlay option. A map that is over the screen as you play, kind of like what Diablo 2 and PoE has. It can even be a togglable option in settings for those that don’t like it. Map overlays help map navigation tremendously. Instead of relying on the small minimap or having to stop running to view the larger map, it can be right on screen at all times. This allows us to play longer and spend less time stopping to open the map.
Text Search in Skill Tree
I would love to have a text search in the skill tree. Currently, we can filter by skill tag, but it would also be a nice addition to type in the skill in a text bar and have it highlight on the map (so similar to how clicking on tags work). The skill tree is kind of hard to navigate as is, and being able to quickly find the skill I want to spend a skill point in will again, allow me more time to play the game, and less time navigating through the tree.
Better Grouping for World Events
Currently if you are in a clan (or just have a larger group of friends) and want to do a world boss with more than 4 of your members, you are pretty much out of luck UNLESS one of the additional clan members just happens to be in the same instance as you. It would be nice to form larger groups of people, as I can see world bosses being a fun clan event.
Dungeons
Currently, dungeons feel very “samey”. I completed all the dungeons, some of them multiple times as I was grinding levels. There’s a lot to unpack with them. While I am aware that there will be “Nightmare Dungeons” that will add affixes to dungeons, I think the base dungeon issues will only carry over to them, and not “save” them from these issues.
Dungeon objectives are sometimes tedious and long, overstaying their welcome. I am no stranger to grind, in fact I welcome it, but backtracking through empty corridors after killing all the enemies in the direction you were originally going is frankly, kind of dull feeling. There were times I went the wrong way to the Dungeon’s locked door, and had to back track all the way back around to collect one pedestal, back to the locked Dungeon door, then back to find another one. Additionally, in some dungeons there were a several long objectives in a row before you could even reach the boss.
Here are some suggestions for dungeons:
- Allow us to carry more than 1 pedestal/box/whatever at a time.
- Instead of “kill all monsters”, maybe it can be changed to “kill a % of monsters”, OR reduce the number of monsters we have to kill. They can sometimes be really far spread out, and it’s easy to lose interest when you are hunting the last few, ESPECIALLY when you have to back track.
- Increase base monster density, or allow monsters to respawn one time after being killed. Allowing them to respawn one time helps with the issue of empty corridor backtracking, but also doesn’t destroy the fantasy of clearing a dungeon, as they will not come back after a second time (they can even be seen as “reinforcements”).
We Need a Reason to Want to Get Powerful
Ok so here is my speculation post. I fully admit I have no idea what is coming with the official end game release, but one thing I do know is that as players, we need a reason to want to get powerful. I am sort of worried that pushing Nightmare Dungeons will amount to nothing more than pushing GRs in Diablo 3 - which already gets stale VERY quickly. There is no reason to push GRs other than getting your name on a leaderboard (and being able to carry a few more bloodshards/level gems). That will not retain players. If Nightmare Dungeons are the main content we are supposed to perusing in end game, then we should be rewarded the higher we go. And not just by being able to level glyphs higher.
However, if Nightmare Dungeons are just a power check/glyph leveling mechanic, I would like to see other rewarding end game content that REQUIRES us to min-max. Something like Uber bosses (outside of world tier bosses) that you really need to perfect you character to beat. And if we beat them, we should be rewarded with something EXTRA cool. Maybe a very unique world boss cosmetic, or some trophy items that can only be obtained by beating them.
Player retention is built around chase, drive, and the want for something. We need meaningful and rewarding things to do in order for us to want to play and min-max to get more powerful. Reward us for all the time we spend playing!
That’s it for now. Let me say again, Diablo 4 is AMAZING so far. Can’t wait to see how the game progresses season to season. It’s certainly a great canvas for whatever is to come.