Diablo 4 - Official Gameplay Trailer

I loved both Diablo 1 and 2, equally. They had different and common distinct traits and atmosphere that sets them apart and from other ARPGs.

I did not try Diablo 3 for the reason that it requires a constant online connection. This also seems to be the case for Diablo 4, which is a shame as it looks dark and moody (good in my book).

SirJames said:

Here's a 2 hour video of someone streaming the demo from Blizcon.

Click to expand...

It has already been streamed.


This video shows how conveniency affects gameplay. This player could not navigate anywhere without spamming the map key, despite the minimap.

This wont do any good to any sense of orientation he has and most importantly, crush potential to deliver an exploration game. Exploration must yield before conveniency.

Mithter Thibbs said:

and then with the Real-Money-Auction-House nonsense in the D3 launch.

Click to expand...

Non sense maybe but meeting the demand by players. There was a tremendous demand for an integrated auction house.

Two centuries of instutionalized double standard and the result.

A guy from this company would have come to say that players in spite of saying they wanted an auction actually did not want it and then players would have gone bust, especially the woke crowd, the go woke go broke crowd, would have pummetted the guy for telling them what they wanted.

Blizzard listened to their customers, delivered to expose players. Eventually, they did not want an auction house.

Listening to customers always a good thing except when it is not. When it is good, that is thanks to customers, when it is bad, it is because of the servant.

Hollywood stuff.

Looks amazing. I will definitely be trying it out. I hope they don't emphasize the multiplayer aspect too much, as I still play D3 from time to time, but it's almost always solo.

Maylander said:

Looks amazing. I will definitely be trying it out. I hope they don't emphasize the multiplayer aspect too much, as I still play D3 from time to time, but it's almost always solo.

Click to expand...

They said that as all Diablo games, solo is fully viable. They know a lot of people want to play solo. I hope that means you can be truly solo, and have no one walking around your open world.

danutz_plusplus said:

They said that as all Diablo games, solo is fully viable. They know a lot of people want to play solo. I hope that means you can be truly solo, and have no one walking around your open world.

Click to expand...

Yes, I would expect that to be the case, but the release is pretty far off. Also, solo might be possible without being viable - for example, in D3 you can pretty much forget the leaderboards unless you're willing to farm Paragon levels in groups. It's just so, so much faster.

D3 is, in other words, already skirting the border for me. I don't mind it, as GR100 is plenty for me, but if they lean even more in that direction in D4, I would be somewhat miffed.

danutz_plusplus said:

They said that as all Diablo games, solo is fully viable.

Click to expand...

So I can install it on my (nonexisting) laptop with already installed D1 and D2, then go to the no internet wilderness or an island then solo the game for decades no questions asked. Right?

Or I need at least freewifi Starbucks nearby. Unless I'm "practicing" D1 and D2, ofc.

If it requires Battle.net again and a constant online connection I'll pass thank you.

I finally bought D3 a few weeks ago and played it solo until the end...and remembered why I find such games tedious now. No real story or motivation, endless grind for better equipment, button mashing with OTT attacks...I used to play D1/2 with friend at LAN events, and that was fun, for a bit,... but even that became tedious and boring after while. But I doubt I am the target demographic, not enough hamster DNA in me ;-) Someone said reskinned D3, kind of looks like that, with slightly updated gfx. ...And how many times do you have to take Diablo down....?!

@booboo

I agree when I was younger I loved games like Diablo. Now that I'm older they lost their appeal. I probably have just become an grouchy old man. Now get off my lawns please.

Maylander said:

Yes, I would expect that to be the case, but the release is pretty far off. Also, solo might be possible without being viable - for example, in D3 you can pretty much forget the leaderboards unless you're willing to farm Paragon levels in groups. It's just so, so much faster.

Click to expand...

Leaderboards are already outside SP gameplay.

ChienAboyeur said:

This video shows how conveniency affects gameplay. This player could not navigate anywhere without spamming the map key, despite the minimap.

Click to expand...

I think getting lost is optional; you don't have to use the minimap.

This is clearly very early days. With any other developer, it might not be - but I bet it'll be at least a year before we'll see a release, and more likely two years.

So, apart from setting the tone and establishing the "vibe" - I don't think this trailer is particularly useful as an example of what the final game will be.

The cinematic trailer, however, surely ranks among the very best of all time - at least in my opinion. That was just perfect for a proper Diablo atmosphere.

With that said, I personally feel the archaic traditional isometric Action RPG has had its day.

I would much have preferred the Hellgate, Destiny, Anthem take on Diablo 4 - rather than yet another clone with what looks more like tweaks than anything like a true evolution of gameplay.

But it's Diablo - so I'd be kidding myself if I claimed I wasn't a little excited all the same.

BriefDArt said:

This is clearly very early days. With any other developer, it might not be - but I bet it'll be at least a year before we'll see a release, and more likely two years.

Click to expand...

They even stressed the message that it's so early that it's not even "blizzard soon".
I have a feeling that their hand was forced by the blunder of last year with Immortal, and this year with the China scandal.

I absolutely love the art style and how the game looks. The only thing that worries me, is if they choose to use the same itemization that Diablo 3 did. And that's what they currently have in the demo they showed off. But I hope it's just a temporary placeholder until they actually design a better itemization. Maybe I'm just kidding myself. But regardless, I'm sure it'll be a big improvement over Diablo 3. We'll see.

Diablo 3 legendaries are pretty cool, in my opinion - but they're not how I would do loot.

Then again, not a lot of developers are doing things the way I would be doing them

My problem with Diablo 3 was the over-reliance on set items for builds - and I hated the way you could change all skills on-the-fly and at will, because it ruined the strategy of builds and replayability.

The Season design is, in my opinion, a very poor substitute for proper build incentives - like you see in Path of Exile or Grim Dawn.

Don't even get me started on the DPS stick design of Diablo 3 skills.

Also, I'm probably the only person in the world that absolutely loved the concept of the real-money auction house.

I thought that was just about the smartest end-game and optimization incentive of all time.

Too bad they went and fucked it up.

BriefDArt said:

Diablo 3 legendaries are pretty cool, in my opinion - but they're not how I would do loot.

Then again, not a lot of developers are doing things the way I would be doing them

My problem with Diablo 3 was the over-reliance on set items for builds - and I hated the way you could change all skills on-the-fly and at will, because it ruined the strategy of builds and replayability.

Click to expand...

You'll be happy to hear they confirmed that in D4 sets will be a stepping stone to legendaries and mythic weapons. They admitted that sets being the most powerful really cut into your ability to mix-and-match different legendary items.

But as for fixing you into a build, they said skills (which are very similar to how they worked in D2) will be permanent. And talents, similar to WoW talents, will be respec-able. But they said that if you play enough, you should be able to maximize all skills. But you'll still need to choose 6 out of those, however many there will be.

BriefDArt said:

Don't even get me started on the DPS stick design of Diablo 3 skills.

Click to expand...

If you mean that every ability ultimately had its damage calculated off of your weapon, it seems that for the demo they showed off, that was still the case. That's why I strongly hope it's just a relic of needing something quick for the demo.

danutz_plusplus said:

You'll be happy to hear they confirmed that in D4 sets will be a stepping stone to legendaries and mythic weapons. They admitted that sets being the most powerful really cut into your ability to mix-and-match different legendary items.

Click to expand...

Yes, I did notice that. That's definitely a better approach.

But as for fixing you into a build, they said skills (which are very similar to how they worked in D2) will be permanent. And talents, similar to WoW talents, will be respec-able. But they said that if you play enough, you should be able to maximize all skills. But you'll still need to choose 6 out of those, however many there will be.

Click to expand...

What I want is just a proper incentive to play more than once with each character.

I was brought up with the old Rogue-likes - like Nethack and Moria.

As such, I love experimenting with builds - and I want them to feel meaningful and I want reasons to try more than once to come up with something original

If you mean that every ability ultimately had its damage calculated off of your weapon, it seems that for the demo they showed off, that was still the case. That's why I strongly hope it's just a relic of needing something quick for the demo.

Click to expand...

No, it's not just that.

The primary problem with DPS sticks in Diablo 3 is that weapons had no identity. You simply picked the weapon with the biggest number - and the actual skill animation would be identical.

I'm big into identifying with my character in these games. I always have a very specific vision for what weapons I prefer - and how I like to do combat.

So, I don't want to see my guy use a huge magical hammer when I'm actually wielding two daggers, you know?

Thankfully, I did notice that the Diablo 4 demo had specific weapon requirements for skills. For instance, I noticed a skill had "Slashing Weapon" as a requirement.

So, there's hope

Of course, I would go way, way beyond that for weapon identity. I don't want a long sword to feel like a bastard sword.

I want each and every sword to feel different - and to animate differently.

Sort of like Dark Souls does it - except Dark Souls has the most boring magical item design imaginable - not to mention a complete lack of unique skills.

Anthem is actually in the lead here - except it doesn't have nearly enough of what's good about it.

Hellgate London is another example of weapons each having a unique identity ON TOP of the magical properties.

@BriefDArt;
Hey, Welcome back!

I think we're on the same page with this one.

It's definitely a long way off, but just the reveal that it's a dark and gritty Diablo game is enough. From there we can predict a Blizzard game that has learned from Diablo 3's mistakes, but also will iterate on what's been working.

The first thing I think of is mythic dungeons / rift keys. Riftkeys were a turning point for Diablo3 endgame.WoW does the same thing and now mythic keystone dungeons are more popular than raids. We'll probably see this system make a return. I don't think they need players to pick a difficulty level at all. No 100 ranks of Torment, or whatever. Just difficulty tests and suitable dungeon keys.

I also think we'll see a world set up very much like a WoW expansion. Maybe 5 big zones full of rares which turn into world quest objectives at endgame, dungeons with meeting stones, world bosses/events, maybe small raids neatly divided into wings. Epic mount drops have always been highly sought after and can now be included.

I'm sure they'll have all of that down.

But you're right that there will be no evolution in gameplay and while I'd agree that "diablo should be diablo" I also think Blizzard should make a game that combines their addictive progression mechanics with some updated moment-to-moment gameplay with a camera that better lends itself to exploring the world and enjoying the view.

Have you played Remnant: From the Ashes? That was a fun little surprise. Got bored of it pretty quickly, but I'd like to see more games like it.

Thanks

Yeah, I tried Remnant briefly. It seemed interesting, but ultimately a little simplistic for my tastes.

Almost like an inferior Dark Souls - only with a superior coop mode. I also didn't care for the setting.

I might try it out again eventually.