First let me say that the amount of detail in this game is astounding. The entire world feels carefully handcrafted. I like the story campaign and the side quests; the voice acting is as stellar as Blizzard’s voice acting always is. I really enjoy a lot about it. There’s lots to do and explore in the world.
And note that I have no problem with the game’s tone being bleak; it’s a Diablo game, everything in Sanctuary is horrible and everyone’s constantly being murdered. Death and blood and demons and horrors, I have no problem with.
But the color scheme of this game is just so, so gray and depressing. I realize that they were going for a darker, grittier tone than before, but… that wasn’t necessarily a good choice. D2 and D3 managed to have color while still feeling dark and evil. D4? Everywhere I go, it’s the same depressing, desaturated colors: pale gray, pale brown, pale green, pale yellow, with occasional “bright” spots of pale red and pale blue. I can’t tell by looking at the terrain if I’m in Scosglen or Hawezar. Dry Steppes and Kehjistan look exactly the same as each other. Fractured Peaks at least has the white of snow, but usually you have a zone like that as a bleak contrast to the other, more colorful areas. Hell was by far the most colorful area of the game!
I’m generally a completist with games like this; I want to tick every box and find every altar and complete every dungeon, but I started thinking about the slog it would be, given that I don’t like looking at this game. I doubt there’s any chance at this point that Blizzard will make changes to reduce how visually depressing and bleak the game looks.