Overall, I had temendous fun playing Diablo 4 over the weekend. I don’t regret pre-ordering the game and I’m looking forward to sinking a lot of hours into it this summer and rest of the year. I wanted to highlight some recommendations for improvements as mainly a solo player of the franchise.
Full single player experience
I really appreciate the developers’ attempt to evolve the style of the franchise, but I believe that a full single player experience option is a must for a Diablo game. Best case scenario would be a Solo Self-found mode as they do in Path of Exile (great oppurtunity for an additional leaderboard), but the option to create private solo games such as in Diablo 3 is also perfectly fine in my books. I was open to trying the multiplayer this weekend, but can confirm that I prefer my games without bumping into random players adding more VFX on my screen in the middle of an event or fight.
- I am perfectly fine with this mode missing out on features such as world bosses and more.
- A big plus of an offline mode would be the addition of the ability to pause the game at any moment’s time. Additionally, it would be great to be able to pause the game during cutscenes and cinematics (regardless of online/offline)
- Granting the ability to remap the left DPAD button would be appreciated in this mode. This is a prime button for either a menu or something I find myself pressing often.
Controls
Controls felt great on PS5 and even a step up over Diablo 2 remastered and Diablo 3.
- I quite enjoyed the pervasive lock target between encounters and used it for most of my playtime. I do believe it can be tweaked slightly since I sometimes found myself unable to interact with objects in the world such as doors or loots due to my target locked on an enemy offscreen. Perhaps reducing the radius a bit would help?
User interface
I personally like the UI a lot, but some minor improvements could be made.
- Remove the text “use the wheel to open chat”
- Consistency for NPC dialogue: ability to choose between the bubble above head, text box at bottom of screen or in chat (or a mix). I found that the text changing as the NPCs were entering/existing line of sight in my screen quite jarring.
*Skill assignment: inconsistency between regular menu and full screen simply confused me.
Thank you and keep up the great work!