Diablo 4: The Newest Entry in the Legendary Dungeon-Crawling Action RPG
Diablo 4, the latest installment of the popular dungeon crawler, was released on Tuesday, June 6. According to developer Blizzard Entertainment, it’s already the company’s fastest-selling game. Players will fight against the horde of monsters controlled by Lilith, the daughter of Mephisto, one of the Great Evils, and called the « mother » of Sanctuary, the world in which the Diablo series takes place. The game is bigger and darker than previous games, which is a much-needed upgrade to its dungeon-crawler formula.
Sanctuary is split into large regions that are then divided into smaller zones. Zones generally have open areas filled with monsters, as well as different towns and encampments where players can interact with merchants or find side quests. Quests in the game are abundant and will send you to the far reaches of Sanctuary. Some will require killing a number of enemies in the wild, while others are focused on taking down bosses found in dungeons. Dungeons are scattered throughout the regions, some of which take a few minutes to clear, while others may take up to 15 minutes or more.
The Darker Tone of Diablo 4
As remarkable as Diablo 4 is, the review build experienced did have some issues that could frustrate players. Targeting itself can be a little cumbersome, especially from a distance, as auto-targeting doesn’t always pick the ideal enemy to attack. Arguably the most frustrating aspect of playing the game was the lack of a basic attack button. For some reason, Blizzard felt it would be better to have players use a skill as the default attack. This means if you have a fancy sword or a giant scythe, the default attack would be whatever initial skill you picked, instead of you swinging your weapon that you have equipped.
Diablo 4 does many things right to elevate the series. It offers a lot of content to keep players occupied for long periods of time, but it doesn’t do so without meaning. The game also returns to the dark tone of the original game but amplifies it for the modern audience. The visuals in Diablo 4 help elevate the darker tone with cinematic sequences zooming in on the characters to give a close-up view of the horror rather than the distant viewpoint used throughout the game.
Keywords: Diablo 4, dungeon crawler, Sanctuary, Lilith, Mephisto, dungeon-crawling action RPG, monsters, bosses, targeting, basic attack button, dark tone, visuals.
