So I waited with my full review.
I am aware noone from Blizzard really cares about forum so consider this as selftherapy for myslef and some random gibberish to read for people who are bored in work.
I am also aware many of my points were already stated. Yet one more time never hurts.
Pros.
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I really liked campaing, yeah I really did. From my side it was best campaing from all aRPG I have ever played (every Diablo, Titan Quest, PoE). Not story it-self, but first introduction to open world, random sidequests (that nun quest exorcism, nailed guy etc)
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I also like graphic and darker theme.
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Overall my first playthru was really good and I enjoy it a lost. first 1-80 was 8/10.
Sadly Cons follow. Game has many flaws and need to polish many and many things but there are few crucial problem which stoped me from enjoying this game more than few days every seasson. I think two most important things in aRPG is gearing your class and gameloop to obtain it. I want to talk about this, bcs i think D4 failed in both
- Itemization. Its just awefull. Literary worst I´ve ever seen in any aRPG and by far. Everything is bad with it.
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There are just few uniques and even fewer interesting ones.
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There are none low lvl uniques who can spicy or change your exp process with alts.
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There are few build defining/interesting/game altering uniques or aspects
(I would love if every aspect and uniques don´t directly boost your stats but rather change how your skills works etc.
So “dmg if have barrier” boring and I hate it
“one extra charge for frost nova” its ok
“pull enemies when teleport” is perfect).
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Lots and lots of affixes where 1/3 is useless fillers and only reasson to have them is to slow your gearing process. 1/3 is copy paste dmg vs XY etc they are all same and it only depends what class you have and again their only purpose is to slower you down. 1/3 mandatory affix and every class with every build has to take them.
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No loot filter.
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Awefull UI of items.
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Upgrading items. When you enter WT4 you will always use max upgrade so it only add one more boring step and it only make comparing items much harder.
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No craft
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Absurd amount of money needed to reroll item
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Guarantee 925 from WB and duriel - so every other source of loot is obsolete.
When some or maybe most of this isn´t that bad by itself combination of all made every interaction with gear really miserable experience.
You need to collect every trash you drop (with exception when aiming for 925, in that case you collect nothing outside bosses), than you need to closely and slowly inspect every item (bcs bad UI) than you throw away like 99,9% items (thx to absurd number of affixes) than you have to inspect even more to compare if it would be better AFTER upgrade.
In the end you have to get through thousands of item before you get anyting good… Its tedious and boring and I just hate it with passion.
- Gameloop.
I think exp process now is a bit to fast now but overall I don´t have problem with that.
even casual gamer can hit 100 in a week or two. So we can probably agree in term of gameloop we are talking about lvl 100 with halfdecent gear like 3/4.
At that point you can do 2 things.
- NMD
- you can progress glyps, thats good.
- You don´t get loot there, bcs things I mentioned in itemization (chance for decent 925 is close to 0).
- Runs themself are not plesant for me bcs:
- objectives- I really don´t think there are more than 5-10% players who like to do them, it was interesting in campaign but thats it.
- Still backtracking
- Density- its much better than before. But I would like much more if its even more mobs. I think its better to fight 20 mobs with 100 dmg than 2 mobs with 1000 dmg. Yeah I am a enjoyer of D3 (sue m efor that). But i think its more interesting to fight 4-5 elite pack with affixes combination, than 1 pack.
- Open world (Duriel)
its probably one of the most boring gameloop I´ve every did. Everything you do is super ez and non rewarding. First you have to farm materiál and that is time gated, its also super ez (boring after while) and bcs how loot worsk you don´t get anything from that except some gold and ticket for duriel.
Duriel it self is either super ez fight or even easier if you have S tier build. It is also hard forced to do in group.
In the end both things are not fun to play. I would probably like to play NMD if no obj + some carrot at the end of NMD.
Only carrot now is Ubers or god 925 from Duriel, but I can´t and won´t force myself to farm materials. I would love to have that items, but process to have a chance for that is just not fun for me.
Seasson 3.
They talked a lot about how S3 will change everything. So I waited.
Have to admit, its so far best thing D4 delivered…. But.
Lots of changes (ressistance, some QoL, etc) should have been in game at release. Its not lifeservices if game is lacking some bassice feature or has broken 1 of 2 mandatory def stats. I won´t give Blizzard any credit for it.
There were no real changes in itemization or gameloop (except that duriel and if you forget hype from „I can get shakko now“ its worse loop then before.
One thing I was hyped about was removing obj from NMD. That was pure lie, In most of my dung I still had to do that, and there were like 1-2 where they removed it. And it is my biggest disappointment in s3.
Vampiric theme and blood harvest is really really good. I think Blood harvest is best content I play in D4. Really well done (sadly its irrelevant at 100).
So my rating for D4 is journalist 8/10 (that means 1 seasson to level 60). Story was ok, graphics is good, first few hours with builds are fun.
My rating as experienced aRPG player (considering I really care only about endgame) is solid 6/10.
Considering its Diablo… from Blizzard… with all their money, experiences and time they had for developing it. They attitude with solving exploits, bugs, MTX politics, pricing etc… I think they delivered MVP game… minimal viable product… Bcs of that they deserved.
4/10 overall.
I will still probably play every seasson till I tried every class. I will buy DLs only after it will be out for a while and only if they will fix itemization and gameloop.
Thx for reminder I will edit it. I somehow still count pre-seasson like seasson 1…