First of all, if there are any misspelled words or phrases excuse me, I am not a native english speaker. Second this is meant to purely be a review and
intended for people to read and look at (even better if someone who worked on this game, gets to see it, I KNOW that is however very unlikely.) Otherwise enjoy my personal review of Diablo 4. This review is meant as a read not an interactive debate per se. I wont go into a debate wheter or not something is good or bad, these are just my personal observations and opinions of the game.
Before I start, I have played D2 LoD, D2R, PoE and D3 and enjoyed all of them, so when it comes to these I feel at least somewhat knowledgeable when it comes to those types of ARPGs. I followed the quarterly updates pretty much ever since they started and read through them whenever they posted new ones. When I bought the base game and played through it I was enjoying the open world and side quest aspects of Diablo 4, after all I love those in single player RPGs so of course I enjoy those features here. I never was someone who tried to go to lvl 99 in D2 or get 4k+ paragon in D3. I am happy with my 90 Poison Nova necro in D2 and I typically love to get to the 2 - 2.5k paragon mark in D3. So to me getting to level 100 isn’t something that I am particulary interested in.
Now that I have 2 characters, Rogue lvl 77 and Necro lvl 75 both on the WT4 Tormernt difficulty I would say, that to me this game feels almost incomplete.
When I started the game, (first character was a rogue) I felt confused by the fact that the affixes felt so unnecesserly complicated. Before the entire dmg “bucket” formula was explained, I was confused as to why my sacred (at that time) Bow with dmg to distant enemies - marksman skill dmg - core skill dmg - imbue dmg did less damage overall than a sacred crossbow that had vlnb dmg - crit dmg plus main stat on it. The bow, although having more conditional dmg affixes was geared towards my poison imbue penetrating shot rogue, yet the crossbow cleared faster. I wont go into a debate about item affixes or what not this is just an observation I made.
Overall I am pleased with the game. I get my “money worth” out of it and enjoy logging in and playing Nightmare dungeons and doing the helltide. But I am taken back by the fact that simple Quality of life features that existed in previous titles is just simply missing in this one.
A searchbar function within the stash - the small stash tab limit - clunky horse riding - loot filters (I know… debatable) - a map overlay - event tracker - group finders for dungeons/NM dungeons - group/all chat - completing objectives (bring X object to Y place and Z passage opens) being more important then hack’n’slash in dungeons
and so on.
Most of those should have been play tested not by us but by the people activly working on this game. Going through my small stash tab trying to find THE ONE offensive aspect I currently need is really taking me out of this game, when you had a searchbar function in your previous title D3.
Diablo 4 feels like a fresh new experience for people that did enjoy previous similar ARPGs. The combat (again from the perspective of a Rogue and Necro) feel good and impectful. The slower but more atmospheric combat is a welcomed change of pace from D3 however adding a bit more mobility or rather fluidity wouldnt hurt this experience either. Diablo 4 feels like it took certain aspects that where popular in previous titles and introduced them back in this one. However it did not base its core on those previous titles but rather on new features such as being MMO and having a fixed instanced world (both of which I do welcome as a new change and am not against), seemingly forgetting about QoL from previous titles. (i.E enchanters being able with a button click to show you WHAT affixes you can roll on that type of gear, personal stash IF your stash tabs are limited).
Thank you for reading my personal and honest review of Diablo 4 and this bible that I have written. I hope you have a good day and enjoy!