First Impressions: Diablo IV

There are no major spoilers in this review.

It's been 11 years since Diablo III was released as a shallow, cartoony mess, and 9 years since Blizzard turned it into something worth playing long-term with an expansion pack. Diablo IV arrives in a new era where Blizzard games are no longer an auto-preorder because of a string of misfires (the overly monetized mobile version of Diablo, the Warcraft 3 remake that was broken out of the box, killing Overwatch 1 then dropping development on the only features of Overwatch 2 that made it different from 1, and the general ickiness of monetization and battle passes).

I purchased Diablo 4 with reservations, but reasoned that I would get at least enough entertainment out of it to warrant the high cost. And so far, I'm having a great time -- I haven't played Overwatch 2 since.

Diablo 4 returns to the dark mood of the first two games in the series while retaining many of the more enjoyable, accessible features from Diablo 3. The gameplay loop is satisfying and the story is serviceable without inducing cringes. Graphics and sound are perfect.

The classes I've played (sorcerer and rogue) have a good amount of depth and customization even though the skill trees feel a little shallow. The game is challenging, even on normal mode, forcing a little more thought into the way you build out your character. My only nitpick is that there's a noticeable amount of rubberbanding when trying to maneuver around corners and clicking in just the wrong spot.

For many people, a game like this doesn't truly begin until you've beaten the story mode once and progressed to higher difficulty levels. My main character is only level 43 right now, so I can't guarantee that the experience won't go sour once I hit 50 (I'm still only on Act II in the normal mode). Blizzard has plenty of room to mess things up with seasons, battle passes, and monetization, but for now, I'm happy with my purchase and looking forward to trying out every class.