Diablo IV

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Who else is playing the beta weekend?

Man, this is dark.

I had forgotten that there's no paladin type available on launch, given that the scholar in the opening cinematic seems intended to evoke Tyrael as he appears in Diablo III.

Playing a Criss Angel-looking sorcerer who, based on his tattoos, is either intent on keeping something out or keeping something else inside his body.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I played for a few minutes, but I don’t know how much time I’ll have to play it going forward

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I'm at level 7 in the time I got to play today. Shooting for 20 for the wolf pup. Personally I am really enjoying it. It feels very Diablo, and with the open shared world; it has some of those things that feel a little bit MMOish, but not, in my opinion, intrusively. That means there are some new aspects to do and find. It will likely be my primary game for a good long while.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Unless it's in Diablo Immortal, I think this is the first time we've seen the point of view of cultists in this franchise, which feels long overdue, as does the early betrayal.

 

[Mad_Jack]

Geez, those games have changed a lot... The only one I've ever played seriously was the first one.

(I started playing it again for a while on Steam, but it was one of those old games that used to end up resizing my desktop when I closed the game and made me have to go and put all my icons back the way they were.)

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Just hit level 15. Opinion is still very high. I am really enjoying my time.

 

[schneeland]

I haven't pre-ordered (I generally don't, but in this case I was also specifically sceptical because of ActiBlizz's more recent titles), but what I have seen so far seems promising (I'm not big on the MMO shared world part, but since it seems limited to cities it is probably bearable). And the two friends I regularly play with are quite positive about the game. So chances I will buy it not too long after launch have significantly increased of this beta.

 

[Kilimanjaro]

Level 25 rogue and level 7 barbarian. Lots of different areas to explore. Doing mostly different quests my second time through. That world boss is brutal. Don’t know if I’ll try that again tonight or not.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not big on the MMO shared world part, but since it seems limited to cities it is probably bearable

My wife and I occasionally see other people out in the outside world. I'm not sure if that's a beta bug or if there are other circumstances where you can interact with other people, like for outdoor events and bosses.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Also, the Church of the Light loonies are definitely going to turn on us at some point.

The Slavic vibe and the sad music are an interesting new flavor for this series. I miss the Diablo guitars, but this is extremely effective.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Reached level 21 tonight and got through the Black Lake storyline and a sorcerer-exclusive side quest I'd picked up at some point.

I wasn't one of those people who raged at Diablo III for being too cartoony -- I'm still not sure what the objections were, honestly -- but Diablo IV is great. Very much looking forward to the full release this summer.

Oh, and the cruddy titles -- "initial casualty" and "early voyager" -- are a lot better than they seem, because titles actually provide an adjective and a known to use independently of each other. It looks like it's possible to gain about 100 of each through achievements challenges in the game, so there will be a lot of variety in what people use.

 

[Haplo781]

Verdict:

Pretty good. Will not be giving any money to Activision.

 

[Waterbizkit]

So I've liked every installment of the series to date, and I've got friends I game with regularly I know will be getting this because they like the series even more than I do. I suspect it'll be good...

I just don't know if I can bring myself to give Activision/Blizzard any money. They're pretty awful companies, not that it's easy to find a company that isn't awful. Time will tell if I have the strength of will to hold off or just give in once most of the people I game with inevitably start playing the game.

 

[Maxperson]

Who else is playing the beta weekend?

Man, this is dark.

I had forgotten that there's no paladin type available on launch, given that the scholar in the opening cinematic seems intended to evoke Tyrael as he appears in Diablo III.

Playing a Criss Angel-looking sorcerer who, based on his tattoos, is either intent on keeping something out or keeping something else inside his body.

I've been playing a fair amount and just hit level 18. It's a lot of fun. It seems like a mix of Diablo II and III.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The awful people at the development level for Activision/Blizzard have mostly left the company at this point, whether to "retire" or to start their own game companies or whatever. The vast majority of the people at the dev level are the grunts and they were victims of those folks, not the perpetrators.

The awful people at the publisher level, like Bobby Kotick, are still there, putting everyone in the strange position of rooting against anti-trust mechanisms, since it looks like it'll take Microsoft purchasing Activision/Blizzard to root out the gross people at that tier.

 

[Maxperson]

Verdict:

Pretty good. Will not be giving any money to Activision.

I bought it with WoW gold.

 

[Scribe]

Verdict:

Pretty good. Will not be giving any money to Activision.

So I've liked every installment of the series to date, and I've got friends I game with regularly I know will be getting this because they like the series even more than I do. I suspect it'll be good...

I just don't know if I can bring myself to give Activision/Blizzard any money. They're pretty awful companies, not that it's easy to find a company that isn't awful. Time will tell if I have the strength of will to hold off or just give in once most of the people I game with inevitably start playing the game.

Darn. I had wiped my hands of Blizz at the tail end of Classic TBC, and have no intent of giving them another dollar.

Was hoping this wasnt good, but I guess I'll miss out.

 

[Haplo781]

The awful people at the development level for Activision/Blizzard have mostly left the company at this point, whether to "retire" or to start their own game companies or whatever. The vast majority of the people at the dev level are the grunts and they were victims of those folks, not the perpetrators.

The awful people at the publisher level, like Bobby Kotick, are still there, putting everyone in the strange position of rooting against anti-trust mechanisms, since it looks like it'll take Microsoft purchasing Activision/Blizzard to root out the gross people at that tier.

Microsoft have no plans to fire Kotick.

 

[Aldarc]

Also, the Church of the Light loonies are definitely going to turn on us at some point.

As soon as I saw Prava, I recognized her as the woman from the release date trailer:

Spoiler

The Slavic vibe and the sad music are an interesting new flavor for this series. I miss the Diablo guitars, but this is extremely effective.

There were already some Slavic vibes with the Diablo 3 Monks, who had Slavic accents, were from Ivogrod, and whose religious leader was called the Patriarchs. But there was a sort of Eastern European Orthodoxy meets Eastern Asian Buddhism in that class.

 

[schneeland]

After a lot of hype in my friend circle and with a free Sunday evening, I hopped on the train and pre-ordered to join the early beta.
I played a (frost) sorcerer up to level 22, completed the main quest and also a handful of side quests, and have to concur that the general impression is good. I'm still not big on the shared world part, but since it's mostly noticeable in cities, it's mostly an inconvenience.
Atmosphere and music were fine, although I feel they are overcompensating a bit w.r.t. blood, gore and dead bodies on spikes.
Based on impressions from the first act, I would say that the storytelling and dialogs are not exactly great, but it's not nearly as bad as Diablo 3. We'll have to see how things develop in later acts, though.
Visuals are generally good and frame rates were smooth for me, except for cities, but that might be a server issue (it good noticeably more pronounced when people people were flocking in for the last hours yesterday afternoon). I would prefer the zoom factor to be a bit smaller, but I guess they want some of their enemies to really fill most of the screen.
Gameplay is fine and was fun for most of the roughly 8 hours I played. I have heard from people playing barbarians that those were less fun, but for my sorcerer the challenge level felt fine. Spells are solid, though only frost nova felt like it had real punch (blizzard felt weaker than it was; frost armor and ice blades were ok). Controls are good with an XBox controller - I hear some complaints from people playing with mouse and keyboard, though. Evading attacks is definitely recommended if you don't want to get smashed by very large hammers, cleaved by equally sized axes or pierced by slightly smaller swords. The one thing I'm not fully sold on is your environment auto-leveling with you. So a) even if you later go back to the starting area, you are challenged just like you were when you cleared that area first time and don't mop the floor with your enemies, and b) you might be level 20, but see a level 5 character hitting enemies harder than you.
All in all, I look forward to play this game with friends when it comes out in summer. I don't think it will end up occupying the same spot in my gaming heart as the first two parts, but it looks like this is going to be a fun game.