By diversity I think he means in character building/progression. What happens when you gain a level? How much character building customization is there? There are cards that provide passives, right? How many cards can you have slotted. Is the only significant choice character-build-wise the weapon you select? Are there stats?
The developers stated they went extremely lite on rpg-mechanics because they wanted this game to be about player skill, and not diluted with a rpg system.
The question is - is this a fun action game with lite rpg elements, or is it an arpg like Van Helsing, Torchlight, Diablo 2, PoE, etc that has character classes and heavy character building with stats, etc?
Plenty of people on this site like non-rpg games like Dishonored, Bioshock, and Zelda or whatever AAA garbage comes out, so an action game with lite rpg elements isn't going to turn many off here. But are there people such as myself who do not like games with no significant character building who could by it mistakenly thinking it actually has significant character building?
Also, how is the loot drops compared to Van Helsing, Torchlight, Diablo 2, PoE, etc?
No, he clearly mentioned diversity in combat after talking about how weapons feel similar to one another, and that surely isn't right, since the game has special attacks tied to each different weapon type, and each weapon type actually play rather differently, it's not a question of doing more or less damage, and having more or less speed, they actually attack rather differently, and you have to use different strategies depending on your weapon choice.
But regarding character customization, like I posted elsewhere here on RPGWatch, no, this game doesn't have a menu for you to add points to your character attributes. Instead, with each level you usually gain more health, new abilities/slots, and/or new equipment, and you end up customizing and improving your character with your items.
Also, there are no classes. By customizing your character, and using different weapon types and outfits, you end up with characters that feels from different classes (a character with a melee weapon, and a character with a certain ranged weapon, feel nothing alike, and have different special attacks; like selecting a warrior, and a ranger, in another game), but that's not a choice you make on the menu, this is done by equipment choices, and crafting.
But before I once again mention how some of the customization works, let me start by replying to your comment of: «Plenty of people on this site like non-rpg games like Dishonored, Bioshock, and Zelda or whatever AAA garbage comes out, so an action game with lite rpg elements isn't going to turn many off here. But are there people such as myself who do not like games with no significant character building who could by it mistakenly thinking it actually has significant character building?».
First, I don't about you, but I play games that I find fun, and entertain me. That's what an hobby is supposed to do. Usually, these are RPGs, it's my favourite genre, and it has been for the past 30+ years of gaming, that's why I'm here, but I don't exclusively play RPGs, and there are certainly games outside of the genre that I find equally entertaining, and worthwhile. With that comment you are basically implied that any game that doesn't have deep RPG mechanics is crap, and patronized the tastes of other fellow RPGWatch members who play those games. And you know, I'm not a fan of recent Zelda games, but calling it a non-RPG, and AAA garbage, is a bit too much, don't you think?
So, since your enjoyment of video games is so dependent on menus, and you only play RPGs with deep mechanics and "significant character building", probably this game isn't for you, since it's a bit more on the action-side of things, since combat is faster-paced.
But you know what: I certainly don't feel this game provides, in any way, less gameplay options, or less "significant character building" than, say, Van Helsing or Torchlight. In those games if you have two players that, for their characters, they select a different character class, but equip a melee weapon, and you basically end up having two characters that play very similar to one another, usually with just different spells between them.
You can achieve a more different gameplay experience with this game, while not having an option to select different character classes. Even two characters that use different melee weapons (say, a sword, and a rapier) play rather differently.
There are several types of items that are used to customize your character. I'll exclude from the list paints, that provide merely cosmetic effects.
The demon powers are the equivalent to spells, and as you level up you get, at least, two active slots (at least that's what I currently have; you can change the demon powers in the active slots at any time). These demon powers you can get by random drops, crafting, or as a reward for levelling up, and many also have random prefixes/suffixes (like Diablo, and other games) that change their main effects. These demon powers consume "overdrive", which is the equivalent to mana. There are offensive and defensive demon powers, from cool attacks such as projectiles and fire beams, to defensive powers that provide shields, damage deflection, … .
The cards provide passive skills/abilities, and go from adding extra damage/health, to adding elemental effects to your attacks, vampirism (stealing health), and much more. The cards have levels, and also, like every other item in the game, there are prefixes that change the base stats (for the cards there are less types, I believe besides the normal cards there are 2 types: one of those is "divine", but there's at least another one, which I'm not recalling). You can improve a card by using crafting (for example, you can use 3 cards of the same type and level to craft a card with a higher level, or you can add other abilites/effects to the cards using different crafting recipes). Currently, I believe I have 4 card slots (or is it 5?
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The outfits, besides providing different types of armour, increasing attributes, and other abilities/effects, also change the way you gain "overdrive" (which is the resource that is consumed by the demon powers), so different outfits mean different combat styles/options.
Weapons are worthy of mention, because each weapon type has special attacks tied to it, and change the gameplay experience more than usual for this kind of game.
Generically speaking of loot drops, the game is very rich on it. There's many different item types, with different stats/levels, all items have prefixes/suffixes, that change the base stats, you can get many items from random drops, chests, you gain an item for each level you gain, you can use crafting (in this game, it's called transmutation) to improve items, combine items (you can combine, for example, cards or demon spells with weapons, and add a number of passive effects/attributes to weapons/outfits), add extra attributes to items (besides the above items, there are also stones that add certain attributes to other items).
Items have also a certain level of rarity, like other games of the genre. There are normal items, uncommon items, rare items, legendary items, and more.
After 12+ hours, with a character that is, I believe, on level 22, I still haven't found certain weapon types (apparently the game even has lightsabers).
From what I gather from other players on Steam, people are really enjoying the loot system, and like Diablo they keep playing the game in order to level up their characters, and getting better, rare or legendary items (there are people with hundreds of hours now).
One cool thing the developers added recently for the online mode (which I still haven't used) is bounties and treasure map drops. These kind of scrolls have certain objectives, for great rewards, and feature a code that you can share with other players, so they can add these to their games (and these can be played in the offline mode as well). So that's another type of drop, and another thing done to extend the lifespan of the game.
Overall, I've been really enjoying the game, and usually I'm not easy to please when it comes to A-RPGs (I dropped Diablo III after just a few hours, because I was having no fun at all with the game).
Hopefully, more impressions/videos will surface (or maybe a demo?), so that people can get a good idea of what the game is about, and how much fun it is to play.
That should solve this issue, right?