Notes
Combat
moving to a more 3-dimensional form, involving the ability to climb & jump
ledges and cast spells up/down. This is directly in line with where I expected
the genre to move to (see: Darksiders Genesis
or Riot's ARPG, which all are looking at jumping and climbing). Why? It is
probably the single easiest idea to make your gameplay look cool and fun,
because map assets in Diablo III (and Grim Dawn) were already 3D, just a question of
drawing and coding that terrain into something pathable. The question that
determines success amongst these competitors is how well this mechanic will be
integrated with the combat. Just having an "oh I can climb up and jump off
things" isn't going to make your game more fun by itself. This also draws
another inference: Diablo IV is unlikely
going to copy Path of Exile's
algorithmic level generation, so it will probably simulate "random map
generation" as Diablo III did, with just a few hand-drawn variants.
Edit: With more information I have learned there is a kind of dodge step, similar to the short dodge of Bloodborne. I think this is great. The question, similar to the climbing function, is how well this is going to be implemented into the game. A dodge step tacked on for no reason does nothing for the game on its own.
On the
contrary, the one thing I definitely did not expect - MOUNTS. There are several
directions I see this, some good, some not so good. The good is that you can
expect much more of an "open world" experience - not a true open
world (still sticking to a 4-player instance) but a huge enough map that mounts
would be warranted. The bad is that I can already see the mount skin MTX, lol.
Classes and
abilities are a clear nod back to Diablo II:
Sorcerer, Barbarian, and the Druid. This is a standard Blizzard marketing move.
They show the "nostalgic" aspects of the game first, then if there's new things that weren't in the previous games they will reveal it closer to release. All classes definitely have more
mobility than before, which is an expected but positive aspect, as you can see
how varying mobility between classes in Diablo
III affected clear speeds (and therefore game balance). I'm personally
excited for the Druid as that was my main back in Diablo
II and the Sorcerer will hopefully scratch the Wizard addiction I gained in Diablo III. Overall Blizzard tends to do an
amazing job with class design and I'm not worried about this.
(Diablo II had 5 classes on release + 2 more in the expansion. Diablo III had 5 classes on release + 1 more in the expansion + 1 more as a bonus DLC. So you can expect roughly 5 classes out of Diablo IV.)
Enemies
look better than in any Diablo installment previously - this is one of the things
other ARPGs (looking at you, Path of Exile) really need to take from Diablo III and hopefully they can also look at
IV for inspiration. The first clear idea
is they are a lot bigger in general. This sounds really simplistic but it gets the impact devs are looking for. If you want dark fantasy, if you want to get creepy, scary demons, you
want to think big - like Monster Hunter
kind of big. Previous games did not do this because of technical limitations,
but this should no longer be the case. Additionally, at 2:04 you can see what
appears to be a demon summoning circle that activates when stepped on. This looks like it
could be a mini-boss mechanic: possibly you could "summon" by
activating the circle, and then kill whatever spawns for more loot. It's a bit of
a stretch but here's to hoping there's a kind of cool interaction in there.
Did not see
a return to the light radius mechanic from Diablo
I and II. I expected this for a
lot of reasons but I'm still mildly disappointed. I definitely get the feel Diablo IV will be a game about exploration,
and it can be admittedly annoying to explore a world with limited visibility all the time. Edit: new information shows that there IS a light radius in Diablo IV, but looks like a Titan-Quest-style light radius, ie: only occurs at night, does nothing to hide foes and thus is absolutely meaningless to actual gameplay. So my analysis remains the same.
Also did
not see a focus on environment like Diablo III did, with the exception of chests. I am disappointed
with this. When I played really poorly-rated ARPGs like Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor-Martyr and Warhammer Chaosbane, I found the infrequency
of environmental objects made the levels more boring (amongst other things). Diablo III might have overdone it (creating
objects with little practical relevance to the game), but Path of Exile and Grim Dawn get this right as they have things like chests,
troves, strongboxes, traps, or even something as mild as pots or urns to
destroy for nothing. The poorly-rated ARPGs were consistently threadbare in
comparison. One developer I follow on Twitter described the level design as
"unfinished" - I do hope that is the case.
Story &
art style. Many seem impressed from the trailers, applauding it for a true
return to the dark art style of the first two games and a familiar final boss
in Lilith. I concur, but I also think it was less original than expected.
Random dark mage comes out of nowhere and manages to summon a demon lord with
the power of plot magic? Bandits stumble upon the ritual and are conveniently
used as human sacrifices? Definitely seen tropes like these in random short
comics or DnD roleplays. The story also needs to connect back to Diablo III: Reaper of Soul's ending, which
will be a challenge.
Opinions
& Predictions
I expect a
game that is going to be driven heavily by interactive combat, an effective grimdark
story, and a well-put-together dark fantasy world. Every game has to craft
their own niche and Diablo knows not to
compete against Path of Exile in terms of replayability or seasonal content. They will instead stick with what they did well in Diablo III while improving on common
complaints the game had in the past.
The
question then is how this is going to be executed. Blizzard would do well to
avoid tired plot devices that have been sticking around since the beginning of
the franchise. The "I have nightmares of the future" used in the
gameplay trailer is a classic overdone one, as is the dark cultist summoning
demons rightfully be far too difficult for him/her. While not normally an
important factor to game success in general, the story and lore that has become
central to the Diablo identity makes it
crucial.
As far as
gameplay itself goes, Blizzard should draw upon games like Path of Exile and Grim Dawn, with their complicated systems (such as GD's critical hits) as a
starting point for evolving their own build designs. Diablo II was extremely complex (some of
the math has actually never been reverse engineered despite being over 15 years old) but Diablo III just 'dumbed down'
everything in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience. This is a wrong
strategy. A casual fraction of the audience will not engage with the any
formulas you adopt even if they are heavily simplified, but the
hardcore audience will, and a simplified system does nothing for those players.
Next, new aspects of the game Blizzard is introducing, such as mounts and
mobility, should be well-integrated with the rest of the game from a mechanical
and lore perspective: What happens to horses when you dismount? Are they even
horses (or magically summoned spirits)? Could players ride non-horse
creatures? And of course, Blizzard should also apply due diligence in the
aspects Diablo is famous for: quality
enemy design, interactive and dark level design, and polished classes and
abilities with clean high fantasy aspects.
But the
most important and worrying issue of all is the release date. Diablo IV honestly looks like a very unfinished game, and Blizzard's other content this year is…lacking, to say the
least. Will Overwatch 2 and regular Warcraft and Hearthstone
releases be able to keep up Blizzard cash flow for the next 3-5 years while IV remains in development? And if not, what
other ideas does Blizzard have up their sleeve? It's hard to imagine, but I
daresay if they don't have an answer to these questions, we may not even make
it to release date.
