So I’ve never played a Diablo game before, or I actually have, but years ago, back when Diablo 3 came out. But that experience was short lived, lasting mere hours and I didn’t really get what the genre or game was about and wasn’t interested enough in learning.
Now in 2023, Diablo 4 was getting a lot of hype, the reviews are high…looked to me a bit average to my eyes, but what do I know? it at least looks different than any other games I play.
So maybe, I thought to myself, I just wasn’t getting “it”, by just watching gameplay footage. Maybe, it’s a really solid and fun game to play and not watch necessarily watch. So I took a chance and got it.
What is this?
I don’t know how Diablo games are supposed to start. I don’t have the nostalgia to lean back on. I don’t have a reference point to say whether this is good or bad, but are you supposed to start the game as a random adventurer, just showing up in the snow to some random village where people are trying to eat you?
I don’t understand why, me, some random adventurer is thrust into some main story, as well as me being this super-demonic-necromancer and nobody seems to think anything of, all the while the land is being invaded by demons? weird coincidence? why aren’t they making the connection? they seem to be really religious, so I think it would be reasonable to presume that showing up as gaunt, ghastly, demonic looking shadow of a man, with an army of skeletons behind me, would have raised a few more eyebrows.
But now I’m just being entrusted to pursue the most powerful being, trying to destroy the world? just seems so odd…but anyway.
Am I playing this right?
So I start in the snow with a dagger, no abilities, hmm ok…quickly that sorts itself out and I start getting attribute points and more skills. Didn’t notice at first some generated a resource and others are a spender, but that didn’t seem to really matter as most things appeared to be dying quickly anyway.
I started on Adventurer, because I feared not knowing anything about Diablo or the genre could leave me in regret facing overbearing/powerful foes, but that seemed to be a gross overestimation of the challenges the game would present me with going forward.
I felt like most of my abilities were easily wiping out foes. Aoe effects/spells seemed grossly overpowered, killing everything in mere seconds, leaving me questioning whether I’m actually playing. The only thing that seemed to present any challenge was a few initial bosses, as I got my bearings with the game and this really fat guy that would appear randomly and almost one shot me, finally figuring out that I could get him stuck on a pier of terrain and defeat him as he couldn’t move.
This wasn’t making any sense to me. Is this what it is supposed to feel like or was it just far too easy? so I created two other classes, barbarian and rogue and found the experience to be relatively the same, but just a tiny bit more challenging. So I switched back to my Necro at about 30 to level 2, expecting again to find myself biting off more than I could chew…but no, feels the same. Blasting down enemies in roughly the same exact ways, aoe doing massive damage to foes and running out of the stuff on the ground with bosses or kiting around…which I think is the intended way you’re expected to beat them?
I find myself feeling like, no matter what I do, where I go, whatever the dungeon is or the how the mobs or terrain changes, I am essentially fighting the same way, experiencing the same sort of combat and gameplay, without really any variety. I feel like I am farming resources across one big map and multiple dungeons, other than the cutscenes and story, I don’t feel like I’m doing much of anything…the gear changes and the story progresses but I feel the experience stays the same.
What’s the point of all these items/drops?
So, I thought to myself that with all that is dropping that this would be an important aspect of gameplay, constantly having to swap out gear. In reality, once I started acquiring the legendaries I found would best maximize my build, I didn’t really see a point in swapping anything out anymore.
Other than the slots I didn’t have a legendary in already, what’s the point of all these blues and yellows? should I sell them? junk them at the blacksmith? I junked mostly everything yellow in the beginning I didn’t need and sold the blues for money, thinking I would probably need a balance of money and materials, but once I upgraded my legendaries and regardless of them being far lower level than the new items that were dropping, I never felt like my power was necessarily weakening, and like I needed to change out anything I had equipped.
I also didn’t feel it was necessary to add slots to anything, It’s expensive anyway and I don’t’ even think I have the materials to do that. I added different aspects to gear, which I recently figured out, but it’s not like I needed it, everything is melting away at such quick speed it’s almost comical. I killed these bosses or whatever, so fast at times, they even didn’t even have a chance to finish their lines, is that working as intended?
Closing comments
I have to say, this is one of the strangest feelings I’ve ever had playing a video game. Having no prior experience with this genre before, I don’t know how things are supposed to live or die. I don’t get what the “fun” aspect of the game is necessarily, is it clearing dungeons? is it changing out gear and trying different builds constantly? do I just not know what to do with my yellow and blues that I haven’t figured out yet?
I honestly do not know if I am playing this game right, because I don’t really feel like I am playing more than I am clicking around and using limited, but very powerful spells that don’t require much thinking or strategy…at least not yet.
At level 45, I’m questioning whether to continue or just chalk this up as a unique experience, because I don’t know at what level or what point the game becomes challenging or interesting and I don’t know if there are things I am not doing or aware of that make the game more engaging. Because for me at this point, I feel like I am kind of just wondering around, killing things with relative ease and only in danger in very short, situational moments and the characters feel far too powerful for the content.
But maybe that’s what it’s supposed to feel like, is this Diablo?