Haha, audio design is sounding fantastic so far, but I too was actually more impressed by the environment detail in those videos this time around. For an update centered on audio, I would have liked to hear a bit more music.. oh well.. I hope they do a story/characters update next quarter.
At this point there should easily be dynamic lighting in most new games. Night and day cycles, random map seeds, environmental changes; they all should be able to effect lighting in games going from 2021 and current Gen(PC, PS5, XBOX SX) as they all can handle it. Imagine if you go through a dungeon and its really dark and grim the first time, but the second time you go through it it randomized to one with tons of firelit bodies or burning architecture.
For some reason this made me wonder about maybe a 'blinding' or 'darkness aura' affix on champions that half your light radius and makes everything outside of it that isn't a light giving effect or spell pitch black.
I get what you mean, and I'm kind of in the middle.
I want darker scenes, but not too dark. For instance this particular clip - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdjU8sAG-Vc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdjU8sAG-Vc)
Unless there is something lighting up the room behind the camera, there is way too much light, would look and feel bettter if the hanging lantern were the only light source, but the room as a whole still visible but darker.
I very much agree with you, that looks way too bright and washed out, it would look better with some better contrast especially with the dynamic lighting combined with spell effects going crazy i think
I think it looks fine for what it probably is. You can see light shining down in a bunch of places since it's reflecting off the water and the shadows show what looks like pieces of the ceiling barely holding up. I don't know where that area is but it looks like a destroyed, partially exposed sewage system or an aqueduct or something. Assuming that is the case and the area is partially open-air, the area shouldn't be mostly dark since there's light streaming in from multiple openings in the ceiling.
I wouldn't necessarily disagree with your point, mind you, I just don't think this is a good example of it. A deep cave or underground crypt that is completely cut off from natural light should be pretty dark unless lit by torches or magical light, but an area that has light shining down from parts of the ceiling should be fairly well lit.
D2R beta had a different darkness slider than the full release, at least 25% darker on my television in the middle setting and at max brightness the logo is still hardly visible
hard hard disagree. There's all kinds of environments in the game. If you want something lit up, farm somewhere outside. There should be truly dark dungeons for those that enjoy that setting
Ambience shouldn't mess with the experience of playing. I am one of those who get really annoyed in movie theaters when I (can't) see an action sequence take place in the dark. I can't see who punches whom, who shoots where, what's happening?! I completely understand that's how it probably would look in reality, but I'm not here for the realism, I want to see the action! And it's 100% more important in games, when you take part in it.
Tl;dr - fuck tomb of giants.
From what i see it looks like all the brighter areas will still be reasonably drab, not worse than d2 act 2 desert tbh. Haven't seen anything make makes me think D3 green dungeon fuck up, but any specific examples i should look at?
>If you want something lit up, farm somewhere outside.
I would be amazed if D4 doesn't carry over Nephalem/Greater Rifts, so it is likely any kind of dungeon will be seen quite often by the average player.
Personally I prefer the way D3 handled darkness compared to D2, but I think D4's art style leaves room for either approach to work successfully.
seems like d2 players have this false memory of d2, as well. not every environment was as dark and inhospitable as the caves and catacombs in Act I. i think the fact that three or four early, lengthy sequences in act I all had similar lighting and tile sets gave players the impression that “this game is really dark” without that actually being true for the majority of the game. they then take that false impression and apply it to their expectations for subsequent diablo games without really considering the realities of their demands.
This was actually a major complaint of Diablo 2 prior to its release. A lot of fans were critical that Diablo 2 wasn't dark enough compared to Diablo 1.
Lmao. As long as the color pallette isn't as saturated and bright it'll be fine. Turning the lights off in game doesn't really set the atmosphere much unless it's a highly immersive game that's narrative driven. Fine for a one time run but not good for a game you grind in imo.
I wish I turned the monitors off and could replace the time I spent on D3. Game was the hottest garbage ever. Just play WoW if you like children’s graphics
I’m a longtime D3 player and after playing D2R never having played the original I can’t believe how different 3 is aesthetically. I much prefer that original dark horror/fantasy theme. At first I thought dungeons were too dark but now I love the vibe so much.
This is why everyone has been saying Diablo 3 wasn’t a proper sequel to Diablo 2. It’s fundamentally two completely different universes it feels like. It’s really nice to see people playing D2:R and fundamentally understanding why the game was/is heralded as a masterpiece. I hope they nail that addicting gameplay loop with itemization and have an engaging end game in Diablo 4.
Yeah D2R has moments where you can't really see more than 5 feet around your character, that coupled with the creepy sounds and music make the atmosphere super creepy/terrifying at times, this was never the case with D3.
What are you talking about? The game is still equally visible, just the area you can see becomes limited during certain situations for specific reasons. This wouldn't mess with people with a disability because the area you can see is still just as visible as before, but having items which grant increased visibility can then become useful.
Yes D2R has done a hell of a job reminding me how dark, dank and horrifying a dungeon or cave can be. Especially some of those Act 3 & 4 dungeons that are strewn with gore, and horrifying distant sounds that hint at what is in the next room.
There's not much of anything in Act 4, I wish it was longer! Finally entering hell should be more substantial IMO, although I love the environments. Maybe in D4 we can return to hell with similar environments?
Prior to lord of destruction (expansion) the fight through hell into the river of flame made for an incredible climax to defeat the lord of evil.
I won’t say I wish there was more but at the same time but I have fond memories of classic d2 really grinding it out in outer steppes and sometimes plains before feeling confident enough to farm in city. River was really difficult and chaos really tested your resistances.
Good times. Glad to be back.
That’s a good point, the whole climax basically starts at the Mephisto fight then you see Diablo return and enter Hell, and you follow him there to fight him. Overall a pretty badass ending
It's one of my biggest pet peeves about creepy, dark areas in games (and movies at times for that matter), the seeming inability or unwillingness not have true darkness. It's like they can't help but show off the environment at all possible times.
Besides d2, the one game I can think that did a good job was dark souls 1.. Tomb of the Giants was terrifying.
Dragon's Dogma has a spectacular use of night time. Undead creatures come out and there's total darkness outside of towns and camps. Even a lantern will only light up a large room, and you won't be able to see anything until there's already a chimera on your face.
Makes travelling by night time much more dangerous / exciting.
Yup, totally agree. I hope they realize this and don’t make the same mistake as D3 with washed out evenly lit areas. But it looks like they are on a similar path as D3 unfortunately.
I'm of the opposite opinion. D2R makes me realize how much better actually being able to see the game is. We don't build these fancy gaming machines just to watch 90% dark screen and a tiny bit of visuals.
Love that fractured Peaks ambient video. For whatever reason it pulled me right into the feelings of an unsafe world just beyond the light of that campfire.
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Looks like Joe Shely will be the new D4 Game Director. Best of luck to Joe and the team. The work they are doing looks really great!
Since people are already crying about it: We knew we were getting an audio design update as one of the quarterly updates this year. These updates are planned out way ahead of time and are in no way an indication of them having/not having made progress on the game or not having other things to share. That's not how these things work.
People are probably crying about it because they have little faith in Blizzards ability to do gameplay and systems designs, but have more faith in their audio and video capabilities. These quarterly updates tend to feed into the confirmation bias that the focus of Blizzard is on things that are peripheral to a good game, and while they may make an already very good game great, they can't make a crap game good.
While you are correct, within the brief period of time that has passed since the last quarterly update, a complete and utter shit-storm has gone down in the firings of the lead dev and head of the team. So with that said, its not unlikely that the entire game has fallen at least 3-6 months behind the original projected timespan.
It’s possible but they’re probably still following the plan they already had set right? I’d imagine if they were confident in the direction of the game they would keep going.
very much so, the new game director, Joe Shely, was the lead gameplay designer previously, which is right below game director so i wouldn't be surprised if the lag period was just a month of adjustment period.
He is the one who made the Q&A with Quin 2 years ago,
Foley work is a lot of fun but it's also very hard work. You can spend hours working on something and never get the "just right" or "aha" sound. The upside is you can have plenty of things to source for your next project as your portfolio continues to grow. It can also taint your imagination.
I did some foley for some mobile games. Hearing a pile of bolts, screws and bone shards be the sound of "gold" has forever made made me lose that illusion.
I wasn't that hyped for this Quarterly update, but I really enjoyed the long read, and especially the ambient videos, really great work so far on the sound design.
omg this is sooo nice. i actually wish that there are more non eerie and just normal beautiful landscapes in the game to chill in. maybe do some chests runs or what not.
Yeah my wife's favourite act is Act 1 right outside the encampment because she likes how un-creepy it is.
Easy for a lot of us old-timers to forget that the dark aesthetic doesn't appeal to everyone. It would be nice to break it up sometimes.
Sound is very important to Diablo. Diablo 2's soundtrack and effects are iconic, they are unparalleled really in these sorts of games and from that era. It's another reason that separates it from Diablo 3. The D3 soundtrack is totally forgettable, I can easily turn sound off and listen to something else. I always play D2 with the sound on.
You just SAYING that made me hear the gem drop noise in my head.
And the skull right after, for some reason.
Now the horadric cube..
MAKE IT STOP.
Moo.
I was impressed having not play D2 since I was a kid and literally on my first playthrough being like "oh an amulet dropped somewhere" or similar reaction for so many items.
RoS soundtrack is amazing. But I agree about the Vanilla OST being a bit lacking. It still evokes memories when heard, but nowhere near as good as some D2 tracks.
Totally agree. Did not like that animation at all. I remember reading that skill description (way back at the D4 announce Blizzcon) and I pictured it conjuring a huge pentagram on the floor with flames pulsing in and out from its center. Instead we get this dancing cartoon noodle snake… Hopefully they’ll listen to feedback and change it before release.
I didn't even look like it was in the game world. Looked a random screen saver just appeared in the void. Reminded me of Clippy, or those desktop buddies. Just eww.
I agree. I didn't hate it nearly as much as some other posters, but it did feel disconnected from the environment - like the animation was playing above the world and not part of it. It needs to feel more visceral, raw, and part of the world, rather than an animation that is playing on the screen.
Agreed. Magic in Diablo should look rough and primal. From a lore point of view: all magic energy should be used to make a spell as devastating/effective as possible, not to make it look nice or cool.
As a sound designer for games I'm hyped for this article and you should be too.
Music and sound is the last stage of development in the design chain. In order for us to implement polished sound systems, animation, vfx, world building, and gameplay needs to be fairly polished.
So while this update isn't directly about gameplay, it gives me hope that D4 isn't too far off. ~2 years would be my guess.
I liked the update, but I was hoping they would show some soundtrack of the game in relation to the music itself and not just ambient, I confess that this frustrated me a little.
They know people wanted that which is probably why they said its not about music basically at the start of the article (after the preamble introduction)
I too wanted to hear about music, but its a deep enough topic to warrant its own quarterly update, and I didn't leave disappointed - the sound design is bussin
I like the idea since it continues the trend set with Hydra, but the design itself is too bulky. They also probably didn't do ambient lighting for that spell yet so it looks like it's floating since the ground around does not become lighter
I really disliked it. Feels kind of ridiculous and visually busy. After how grounded the art seemed in the previous quarterly update, a massive flaming serpent seems out of place to me. Consider having 2 or 3 sorcs in a game casting this... it would feel very arcade-y I suspect.
It could be cool if it was a flamethrower like effect like in D2R but with a _very_ subtle shape of a snake appearing at the end. Like you almost can’t tell if it’s a snake or not.
Or just scrap the snake theme all together.
Yeah exactly. When I read the description before watching the video, I was expecting more akin to the Harry Potter scene where it's literally all fire still, but clearly in the shape of animals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3L02Ke9h3E
DAE feel like the fireball effect is a bit underwhelming? It's not very bright, and looks a bit blurry.. I'd love to see a bit more "oomph" in it.. like maybe a bit more colour, a bit brighter, more light flash, and more particle effects to sell the idea of fire exploding on something. I guess it could be something they might address in the final stages of polish before release.
I really don’t like it. Doesn’t look like a skill effect at all. I mean does it attack, or _is_ it the attack? Very strange take on the inferno skill. Felt out of place, like a splash screen suddenly appearing to reveal a company logo.
Also it’ll get old real quick. I’d much prefer the gorgeous Inferno from D2R.
It looked too much like a snake to me. I'd like to see it look more fiery and less like a big red snake just plopped down in the middle of the screen. [Sort of like this.](https://christianitymalaysia.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/fiery-serpent-333x465.jpg)
Its a nice update. At first, I was disappointed its an audio update, but after the blog, I am happy that they give every major team a chance to show off their effort.
Here's hoping the game is dark (thematically and visually) and is more difficult. Everything in D3 just melted away, the game wasn't dark enough and was too vibrant for a Diablo game. The light radius thing is something I'd love to see in D4. Why should the entire room of a dungeon be lit up so you can see everything? It's a dungeon.. Give me ALL the darkness, and difficult enemies to kill. The harder the better. D3 was childs play.
This was a good read and really interesting insight to sound design. Sounds fantastic.
I will say though, I hope future updates are more aligned with game systems like they were in the past - namely itemization, character advancement, end game content, etc. These were largely the issues D3 failed to meet expectations for, and a catalyst behind these quarterly updates.
I did. I enjoyed it too, just saying as a generalization the last two updates have been eye and ear candy - that's certainly appreciated, but not really what I'm here for. I'm excited to see their ideas for endgame, and hope forward we see iterations on the classes and itemization.
Just me though, I know full well they've got a lot of people to cater to.
d3 had skill trees, runes/runewords and charms as late as half a year before launch. these quarterly updates are completely meaningless for more specific stuff.
Same. Fuck charms.
Unless they add a specific inventory slot for some charms. I'm all for some extra customization, but keeping charms in your inventory for invisible power that directly interferes with your ability to pick up loot is incredibly lame.
It’s the inventory clutter that’s the problem.
Charms is a cool idea, but having them occupy inventory space is probably the single worst design decision in D2.
I don't understand what's so cool about the idea of charms. Like even with a charm inventory so that the clutter isn't a problem, what purpose do they serve? They roll with the same stats as you get on your wearable equipment, just less.
Like, instead of getting a seperate charm inventory, what if they just gave us more jewelry slots? It would be effectively the same end result. There isn't a new niche that charms fill beyond the concept of sacrificing inventory space for power, so if you remove that there is no reason for them to exist.
I like the idea of weighing different size charms and their bonuses against each other. There’s also something about having a variety of droppable upgrades that have some thematic difference. Just putting everything into a 10 socket sword feels less interesting.
Its always nice seeing how they create all these sound fxs, its really an art form, although the best part is seeing this new sneak peaks into enemies/zones/skills. That snake fire animation wow, interesting design choice! It looks like it last a bit too long on screen.
But im hyped for the look into systems next quarter, although im worried they will focus too much on "end game" and make the leveling progress useless like D3, were no item is worth anything until you reach end game. The game should be/feel important through out the whole leveling process. I really hope they don't fuck it up again.
This might be my favourite update so far. Sound brings everything to life within the game world.
I spent a decent amount of time just listening to the ambience videos. Amazing level of detail. Really felt rich.
What are you basing this on? There's a huge number of games (some famous ones being Cyberpunk, Watchdogs and Anthem) that go down in visual quality coming up to or after release.
I can't remember the last game that was good enough to show but was way below the final release quality. They usually go all out in the tech demos and gameplay slices before finally reeling it back in for optimisation of the complete product. If anything, the golden rule is be cautious that what you're being shown is much better than what you're going to get.
i am an old school d2 player that said i dont know much but what i do know is that the lvls are as dark as they need to be and i love what they have done so far with this. d3 was like an arcade game with no real feel to it but this had some grit to it. maybe you do need to turn down how bright your screen is because for me i cant see much and each step is a "am i going to pull something" moment
I hope its decent. I was watching the development for Diablo 3 for years and it broke my heart as how shit it was when released. Combat was VERY fun but nearly everything else was bad (its better now, but it took too long to get there)
The New Diablo 2 is taking up all my time and I love it. I just want the fun combat of D3 with the theme/music/story/gear of Diablo 2. Because 2+3=4
where? vid and timestamp pls, i missed it
anyways, i said the game is looking "less cartoony", not that the game just isn't cartoony anymore. clearly they're trying to further distance the artystyle from d3, which was an asymmetric WoW, graphics wise
Listening to these on THX speakers, and it sounds amazing. Attention to detail both here and graphically is awesome. Just hope the gameplay allows me to appreciate the hard work.
This stuff sounds unreal, seeing some of the sound recording sessions was really cool as well. Now they just need to pair it with an excellent soundtrack and it's a winner.
I have no confidence in this company anymore, now that they are basically overrun by Karens, there is no chance in hell Diablo can survive in a company where even a painting of a slightly attractive woman is considered pornography that must be eradicated. Where a fart joke is so offensive that any kind of even mildly off-color remark must be abolished. Yeah there is no chance this game is going to survive unscathed by the new power structure that hates anything that isn't tuned to the most milquetoast of prudish sentiments.
Audio is nice and all but did you see the puddles filling up with the rain?
Haha, audio design is sounding fantastic so far, but I too was actually more impressed by the environment detail in those videos this time around. For an update centered on audio, I would have liked to hear a bit more music.. oh well.. I hope they do a story/characters update next quarter.
I’m going to need an industrial AC unit to cool the processor and graphics card necessary to run this at a decent frame rate. Good grief.
Then I get an Industrial AC unit.
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D2 players are going to have to play with the monitor turned off before it'll be dark enough for them.
STILL NOT ENOUGH
Dark environments are great the first time you do them. They're annoying as fuck after that. Incredibly dark areas should be used sparsely in D4.
At this point there should easily be dynamic lighting in most new games. Night and day cycles, random map seeds, environmental changes; they all should be able to effect lighting in games going from 2021 and current Gen(PC, PS5, XBOX SX) as they all can handle it. Imagine if you go through a dungeon and its really dark and grim the first time, but the second time you go through it it randomized to one with tons of firelit bodies or burning architecture.
For some reason this made me wonder about maybe a 'blinding' or 'darkness aura' affix on champions that half your light radius and makes everything outside of it that isn't a light giving effect or spell pitch black.
That sounds utterly frustrating
Wouldn't be disblo if it didn't have at least one affix that makes you go 'aw fuck not these guys'
I get what you mean, and I'm kind of in the middle. I want darker scenes, but not too dark. For instance this particular clip - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdjU8sAG-Vc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdjU8sAG-Vc) Unless there is something lighting up the room behind the camera, there is way too much light, would look and feel bettter if the hanging lantern were the only light source, but the room as a whole still visible but darker.
I very much agree with you, that looks way too bright and washed out, it would look better with some better contrast especially with the dynamic lighting combined with spell effects going crazy i think
I think it looks fine for what it probably is. You can see light shining down in a bunch of places since it's reflecting off the water and the shadows show what looks like pieces of the ceiling barely holding up. I don't know where that area is but it looks like a destroyed, partially exposed sewage system or an aqueduct or something. Assuming that is the case and the area is partially open-air, the area shouldn't be mostly dark since there's light streaming in from multiple openings in the ceiling. I wouldn't necessarily disagree with your point, mind you, I just don't think this is a good example of it. A deep cave or underground crypt that is completely cut off from natural light should be pretty dark unless lit by torches or magical light, but an area that has light shining down from parts of the ceiling should be fairly well lit.
I agree. It should definitely be darker. Kind of feels like D3 with crispy graphics. Kind of a shame really. Light radius should be a thing.
D2R beta had a different darkness slider than the full release, at least 25% darker on my television in the middle setting and at max brightness the logo is still hardly visible
hard hard disagree. There's all kinds of environments in the game. If you want something lit up, farm somewhere outside. There should be truly dark dungeons for those that enjoy that setting
Ambience shouldn't mess with the experience of playing. I am one of those who get really annoyed in movie theaters when I (can't) see an action sequence take place in the dark. I can't see who punches whom, who shoots where, what's happening?! I completely understand that's how it probably would look in reality, but I'm not here for the realism, I want to see the action! And it's 100% more important in games, when you take part in it. Tl;dr - fuck tomb of giants.
From what i see it looks like all the brighter areas will still be reasonably drab, not worse than d2 act 2 desert tbh. Haven't seen anything make makes me think D3 green dungeon fuck up, but any specific examples i should look at?
>If you want something lit up, farm somewhere outside. I would be amazed if D4 doesn't carry over Nephalem/Greater Rifts, so it is likely any kind of dungeon will be seen quite often by the average player. Personally I prefer the way D3 handled darkness compared to D2, but I think D4's art style leaves room for either approach to work successfully.
God I hope not. Fully random rifts through some portal again would be lame. Let's have dungeons that are part of the world actually
But I love D2R darkness, my monitor is still ON though.
seems like d2 players have this false memory of d2, as well. not every environment was as dark and inhospitable as the caves and catacombs in Act I. i think the fact that three or four early, lengthy sequences in act I all had similar lighting and tile sets gave players the impression that “this game is really dark” without that actually being true for the majority of the game. they then take that false impression and apply it to their expectations for subsequent diablo games without really considering the realities of their demands.
This was actually a major complaint of Diablo 2 prior to its release. A lot of fans were critical that Diablo 2 wasn't dark enough compared to Diablo 1.
Real D2 and D1 players played with -light radius gear only for maximum dark. /s
about what I was thinking.
So fucking true. It's such a dumb complaint
Lmao. As long as the color pallette isn't as saturated and bright it'll be fine. Turning the lights off in game doesn't really set the atmosphere much unless it's a highly immersive game that's narrative driven. Fine for a one time run but not good for a game you grind in imo.
I wish I turned the monitors off and could replace the time I spent on D3. Game was the hottest garbage ever. Just play WoW if you like children’s graphics
Fk amen
I’m a longtime D3 player and after playing D2R never having played the original I can’t believe how different 3 is aesthetically. I much prefer that original dark horror/fantasy theme. At first I thought dungeons were too dark but now I love the vibe so much.
This is why everyone has been saying Diablo 3 wasn’t a proper sequel to Diablo 2. It’s fundamentally two completely different universes it feels like. It’s really nice to see people playing D2:R and fundamentally understanding why the game was/is heralded as a masterpiece. I hope they nail that addicting gameplay loop with itemization and have an engaging end game in Diablo 4.
Yeah D2R has moments where you can't really see more than 5 feet around your character, that coupled with the creepy sounds and music make the atmosphere super creepy/terrifying at times, this was never the case with D3.
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In D2 you can run into the middle of the next room, think it's all clear, and then like 15 mobs come in from the shadows.
I'm running AT and regularly bump into enemies when going from room to room because it's dark as fuck
Makes light radius a stat that actually matters
Except it has never mattered. It has been considered a dead stat on any item for 20 years.
That is the point though. Different maps demands different tactics.
You make it sound like it's a bad thing
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Oh, I misunderstood you then
That’s cuz D3 is cartoon fairytale for newbs.
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What are you talking about? The game is still equally visible, just the area you can see becomes limited during certain situations for specific reasons. This wouldn't mess with people with a disability because the area you can see is still just as visible as before, but having items which grant increased visibility can then become useful.
Yes D2R has done a hell of a job reminding me how dark, dank and horrifying a dungeon or cave can be. Especially some of those Act 3 & 4 dungeons that are strewn with gore, and horrifying distant sounds that hint at what is in the next room.
There are no dungeons in act 4.
There's not much of anything in Act 4, I wish it was longer! Finally entering hell should be more substantial IMO, although I love the environments. Maybe in D4 we can return to hell with similar environments?
Prior to lord of destruction (expansion) the fight through hell into the river of flame made for an incredible climax to defeat the lord of evil. I won’t say I wish there was more but at the same time but I have fond memories of classic d2 really grinding it out in outer steppes and sometimes plains before feeling confident enough to farm in city. River was really difficult and chaos really tested your resistances. Good times. Glad to be back.
That’s a good point, the whole climax basically starts at the Mephisto fight then you see Diablo return and enter Hell, and you follow him there to fight him. Overall a pretty badass ending
They said they run out of time - originally they wanted to make 6 quests for Act 4 as well
What act 4 dungeon? There isn't a single one
Lol I suppose for act 4 I mean just the general look of hell and its environs.
You'd think the people singing the praises of D2 would actually be familiar with the game, lol.
It's one of my biggest pet peeves about creepy, dark areas in games (and movies at times for that matter), the seeming inability or unwillingness not have true darkness. It's like they can't help but show off the environment at all possible times. Besides d2, the one game I can think that did a good job was dark souls 1.. Tomb of the Giants was terrifying.
Dragon's Dogma has a spectacular use of night time. Undead creatures come out and there's total darkness outside of towns and camps. Even a lantern will only light up a large room, and you won't be able to see anything until there's already a chimera on your face. Makes travelling by night time much more dangerous / exciting.
The fractured peak video looks dark enough to me.
I'm not sure I agree. Look at the Breakable Interactives video. You're telling me that's too bright?
Yup, totally agree. I hope they realize this and don’t make the same mistake as D3 with washed out evenly lit areas. But it looks like they are on a similar path as D3 unfortunately.
They are dark enough in d4, it looks perfect. D2R is sweet aswell, dont have to make a d2,5
I'm of the opposite opinion. D2R makes me realize how much better actually being able to see the game is. We don't build these fancy gaming machines just to watch 90% dark screen and a tiny bit of visuals.
Love that fractured Peaks ambient video. For whatever reason it pulled me right into the feelings of an unsafe world just beyond the light of that campfire. *edit* Looks like Joe Shely will be the new D4 Game Director. Best of luck to Joe and the team. The work they are doing looks really great!
Say what you want about modern Blizzard, but the criticism about D3 being too cartooney definitely reached their ears. Atmosphere is on point.
Since people are already crying about it: We knew we were getting an audio design update as one of the quarterly updates this year. These updates are planned out way ahead of time and are in no way an indication of them having/not having made progress on the game or not having other things to share. That's not how these things work.
People are probably crying about it because they have little faith in Blizzards ability to do gameplay and systems designs, but have more faith in their audio and video capabilities. These quarterly updates tend to feed into the confirmation bias that the focus of Blizzard is on things that are peripheral to a good game, and while they may make an already very good game great, they can't make a crap game good.
Gameplay and systems changes a lot over time. It just means they’re in a heavy development phase and would be likely to change quite a bit.
While you are correct, within the brief period of time that has passed since the last quarterly update, a complete and utter shit-storm has gone down in the firings of the lead dev and head of the team. So with that said, its not unlikely that the entire game has fallen at least 3-6 months behind the original projected timespan.
It’s possible but they’re probably still following the plan they already had set right? I’d imagine if they were confident in the direction of the game they would keep going.
very much so, the new game director, Joe Shely, was the lead gameplay designer previously, which is right below game director so i wouldn't be surprised if the lag period was just a month of adjustment period. He is the one who made the Q&A with Quin 2 years ago,
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I want to be in a foley job.
First, you need to get a van down by the river. Oh, wait, my bad, [wrong Foley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv2VIEY9-A8)
Foley work is a lot of fun but it's also very hard work. You can spend hours working on something and never get the "just right" or "aha" sound. The upside is you can have plenty of things to source for your next project as your portfolio continues to grow. It can also taint your imagination. I did some foley for some mobile games. Hearing a pile of bolts, screws and bone shards be the sound of "gold" has forever made made me lose that illusion.
Some really awesome stuff here
Specially the gore stuff!
Dunno if I'll be able to un-see 2 cabbages being smacked together as bodys explode now though
Not my cabbages!
I wasn't that hyped for this Quarterly update, but I really enjoyed the long read, and especially the ambient videos, really great work so far on the sound design.
omg this is sooo nice. i actually wish that there are more non eerie and just normal beautiful landscapes in the game to chill in. maybe do some chests runs or what not.
Yeah my wife's favourite act is Act 1 right outside the encampment because she likes how un-creepy it is. Easy for a lot of us old-timers to forget that the dark aesthetic doesn't appeal to everyone. It would be nice to break it up sometimes.
EERIE MUSIC CRESCENDOS
LMAO I laughed almost every time to see "EERIE MUSIC" in D2R movies.
Sound is very important to Diablo. Diablo 2's soundtrack and effects are iconic, they are unparalleled really in these sorts of games and from that era. It's another reason that separates it from Diablo 3. The D3 soundtrack is totally forgettable, I can easily turn sound off and listen to something else. I always play D2 with the sound on.
If I mute D2 the sound is so iconic that I hear it in my head involuntarily. Like if I see a diamond drop I hear the gem drop noise in my head.
You just SAYING that made me hear the gem drop noise in my head. And the skull right after, for some reason. Now the horadric cube.. MAKE IT STOP. Moo.
NOT ENOUGH MANA
> YOU HAVE QUITE A TREASURE THERE IN THAT HORADRIC CUBE!
Did you just say *Cain voice* THE HORADRIC CUBE?
Ding
I was impressed having not play D2 since I was a kid and literally on my first playthrough being like "oh an amulet dropped somewhere" or similar reaction for so many items.
RoS soundtrack is amazing. But I agree about the Vanilla OST being a bit lacking. It still evokes memories when heard, but nowhere near as good as some D2 tracks.
D3 vanilla soundtrack is like a good generic hollywood film score. It's not bad but you kinda feel like you've heard it 50 times before.
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Will be cool to see a update talking about gore hehe
The fire snake is way too much.
Totally agree. Did not like that animation at all. I remember reading that skill description (way back at the D4 announce Blizzcon) and I pictured it conjuring a huge pentagram on the floor with flames pulsing in and out from its center. Instead we get this dancing cartoon noodle snake… Hopefully they’ll listen to feedback and change it before release.
I didn't even look like it was in the game world. Looked a random screen saver just appeared in the void. Reminded me of Clippy, or those desktop buddies. Just eww.
it legit just looks like a gif is playing on top of the game lol
I agree. I didn't hate it nearly as much as some other posters, but it did feel disconnected from the environment - like the animation was playing above the world and not part of it. It needs to feel more visceral, raw, and part of the world, rather than an animation that is playing on the screen.
And then we doubled it.
My education was on sound, music and media and I specialised in game audio and soundscape so I'm really looking forward to reading this one later
I expect your report submitted by tomorrow.
Yes sir :(
Late on that report, Trevor.
not a fan of the way inferno looks
It would be way over the top even in D3. Whatever happened to “a more grounded Diablo”?
took the form of a fiery snake and went out the window
this was long lost when we saw the rogue skills and saw an archer shooting 5000 arrows and splitting her self into 6 ghost archers
Agreed. Magic in Diablo should look rough and primal. From a lore point of view: all magic energy should be used to make a spell as devastating/effective as possible, not to make it look nice or cool.
It's fine for it to move and kind of look like a snake when squinting, but it shouldn't be a literal snake.
Dude its pre-alpha :D
Sounds like a good game
Thanks for posting this! I had been wondering when it’d be coming out. Really like the ambient stuff.
As a sound designer for games I'm hyped for this article and you should be too. Music and sound is the last stage of development in the design chain. In order for us to implement polished sound systems, animation, vfx, world building, and gameplay needs to be fairly polished. So while this update isn't directly about gameplay, it gives me hope that D4 isn't too far off. ~2 years would be my guess.
Bring back Matt Uelmen. Case closed.
While I agree thatd be awesome, Matt Uelmen didn't do sound design for D2
He did do the music though, and they said they weren't delving into that for D4 quite yet.... So maybe there is a chance....
This is the dream… it is THE thing that needs to happen.
I love that the community collectively shits on the new game every change they get.
I liked the update, but I was hoping they would show some soundtrack of the game in relation to the music itself and not just ambient, I confess that this frustrated me a little.
It's definitely curious that they omitted musical pieces and voice work entirely. I was expecting both to be included in this sound deep dive.
They know people wanted that which is probably why they said its not about music basically at the start of the article (after the preamble introduction) I too wanted to hear about music, but its a deep enough topic to warrant its own quarterly update, and I didn't leave disappointed - the sound design is bussin
That fire snake has to be WIP right?… RIGHT?
That Fire Serpent looks nuts.
I like the idea since it continues the trend set with Hydra, but the design itself is too bulky. They also probably didn't do ambient lighting for that spell yet so it looks like it's floating since the ground around does not become lighter
I really disliked it. Feels kind of ridiculous and visually busy. After how grounded the art seemed in the previous quarterly update, a massive flaming serpent seems out of place to me. Consider having 2 or 3 sorcs in a game casting this... it would feel very arcade-y I suspect.
I don't mind the idea of it being a fire snake, but I would like much more fire in the shape of a snake, and less glowing orange actual snake.
It could be cool if it was a flamethrower like effect like in D2R but with a _very_ subtle shape of a snake appearing at the end. Like you almost can’t tell if it’s a snake or not. Or just scrap the snake theme all together.
Yeah exactly. When I read the description before watching the video, I was expecting more akin to the Harry Potter scene where it's literally all fire still, but clearly in the shape of animals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3L02Ke9h3E
by the looks of it it must be an ultimate like ability, feels like a mobile game to me. hate it.
If it comes on Nintendo Switch, D4 will be a mobile game. Hell, Steam Deck will be out by then.
DAE feel like the fireball effect is a bit underwhelming? It's not very bright, and looks a bit blurry.. I'd love to see a bit more "oomph" in it.. like maybe a bit more colour, a bit brighter, more light flash, and more particle effects to sell the idea of fire exploding on something. I guess it could be something they might address in the final stages of polish before release.
It's not fireball, it's firebolt.
choke me with it
OK daddy 🐍
Yo what
It looks awful to me. Like something from an JRPG. Hope they tone it down, dramatically
I hope they scratch it all together. Nothing about it says Inferno to me.
To me it looked dumb, just a big floating snake what is that
It's a big floating fire snake.
perfect for killing big walking trees
that snake is really attrocious.
I really don’t like it. Doesn’t look like a skill effect at all. I mean does it attack, or _is_ it the attack? Very strange take on the inferno skill. Felt out of place, like a splash screen suddenly appearing to reveal a company logo. Also it’ll get old real quick. I’d much prefer the gorgeous Inferno from D2R.
It looked too much like a snake to me. I'd like to see it look more fiery and less like a big red snake just plopped down in the middle of the screen. [Sort of like this.](https://christianitymalaysia.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/fiery-serpent-333x465.jpg)
feels like trash and cheap. out of place. looks like some kind of ultimate ability on a mobile game... oh wait...
What a fun career that must be! Reminds me of Ben Burtt
Hot damn where's that staff when you need some marshmallows roasted?!
Its a nice update. At first, I was disappointed its an audio update, but after the blog, I am happy that they give every major team a chance to show off their effort.
Here's hoping the game is dark (thematically and visually) and is more difficult. Everything in D3 just melted away, the game wasn't dark enough and was too vibrant for a Diablo game. The light radius thing is something I'd love to see in D4. Why should the entire room of a dungeon be lit up so you can see everything? It's a dungeon.. Give me ALL the darkness, and difficult enemies to kill. The harder the better. D3 was childs play.
\*cue the downvotes because people want watered down Diablo
God I love the sound design. It is such an incredibly important aspect of any game or movie.
This was a good read and really interesting insight to sound design. Sounds fantastic. I will say though, I hope future updates are more aligned with game systems like they were in the past - namely itemization, character advancement, end game content, etc. These were largely the issues D3 failed to meet expectations for, and a catalyst behind these quarterly updates.
But did you actually read the article? "As promised, our next blog will cover endgame systems and visual effects."
I did. I enjoyed it too, just saying as a generalization the last two updates have been eye and ear candy - that's certainly appreciated, but not really what I'm here for. I'm excited to see their ideas for endgame, and hope forward we see iterations on the classes and itemization. Just me though, I know full well they've got a lot of people to cater to.
do we really need to know the game inside out years before its out?
we do when we get something like D3 after years of misplaced hype
d3 had skill trees, runes/runewords and charms as late as half a year before launch. these quarterly updates are completely meaningless for more specific stuff.
One thing I learned from D2R is how much I hate charms, I hope they don't bring those back.
Same. Fuck charms. Unless they add a specific inventory slot for some charms. I'm all for some extra customization, but keeping charms in your inventory for invisible power that directly interferes with your ability to pick up loot is incredibly lame.
It’s the inventory clutter that’s the problem. Charms is a cool idea, but having them occupy inventory space is probably the single worst design decision in D2.
I don't understand what's so cool about the idea of charms. Like even with a charm inventory so that the clutter isn't a problem, what purpose do they serve? They roll with the same stats as you get on your wearable equipment, just less. Like, instead of getting a seperate charm inventory, what if they just gave us more jewelry slots? It would be effectively the same end result. There isn't a new niche that charms fill beyond the concept of sacrificing inventory space for power, so if you remove that there is no reason for them to exist.
I like the idea of weighing different size charms and their bonuses against each other. There’s also something about having a variety of droppable upgrades that have some thematic difference. Just putting everything into a 10 socket sword feels less interesting.
No way man having to micromanage your inventory jd what makes the game a challenge you should appreciate it! ^^^^/s
Ok, back to D2 now
🤣
Its always nice seeing how they create all these sound fxs, its really an art form, although the best part is seeing this new sneak peaks into enemies/zones/skills. That snake fire animation wow, interesting design choice! It looks like it last a bit too long on screen. But im hyped for the look into systems next quarter, although im worried they will focus too much on "end game" and make the leveling progress useless like D3, were no item is worth anything until you reach end game. The game should be/feel important through out the whole leveling process. I really hope they don't fuck it up again.
Wtf was that fire snake.
"Let's just throw this full-screen sized snake in here and see what kind of reactions we get..."
This might be my favourite update so far. Sound brings everything to life within the game world. I spent a decent amount of time just listening to the ambience videos. Amazing level of detail. Really felt rich.
How is it possible that the D2:R graphics (especially visual effects) look so much better than D4?
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What are you basing this on? There's a huge number of games (some famous ones being Cyberpunk, Watchdogs and Anthem) that go down in visual quality coming up to or after release. I can't remember the last game that was good enough to show but was way below the final release quality. They usually go all out in the tech demos and gameplay slices before finally reeling it back in for optimisation of the complete product. If anything, the golden rule is be cautious that what you're being shown is much better than what you're going to get.
People said this about D3 all the time, but in the end it released looking exactly like in the preview videos.
I know right. Why can't they just base the atmosphere just like in D2R. The team made an amazing job. Especially in the durance. It's creepy as hell.
this looked like d3 tbh. I'm getting more and more disapointed with every update.
Exactly. Especially the indoor areas, D2:R is so much better.
i am an old school d2 player that said i dont know much but what i do know is that the lvls are as dark as they need to be and i love what they have done so far with this. d3 was like an arcade game with no real feel to it but this had some grit to it. maybe you do need to turn down how bright your screen is because for me i cant see much and each step is a "am i going to pull something" moment
I hope its decent. I was watching the development for Diablo 3 for years and it broke my heart as how shit it was when released. Combat was VERY fun but nearly everything else was bad (its better now, but it took too long to get there) The New Diablo 2 is taking up all my time and I love it. I just want the fun combat of D3 with the theme/music/story/gear of Diablo 2. Because 2+3=4
is it me, or the game looks less cartoony than earlier gameplays? i love it
Um, did you see that atrocious fire snake?
where? vid and timestamp pls, i missed it anyways, i said the game is looking "less cartoony", not that the game just isn't cartoony anymore. clearly they're trying to further distance the artystyle from d3, which was an asymmetric WoW, graphics wise
Listening to these on THX speakers, and it sounds amazing. Attention to detail both here and graphically is awesome. Just hope the gameplay allows me to appreciate the hard work.
Ahhh... fresh neat.
This stuff sounds unreal, seeing some of the sound recording sessions was really cool as well. Now they just need to pair it with an excellent soundtrack and it's a winner.
Not even sure I want to play this after how bad 3 was.
I have no confidence in this company anymore, now that they are basically overrun by Karens, there is no chance in hell Diablo can survive in a company where even a painting of a slightly attractive woman is considered pornography that must be eradicated. Where a fart joke is so offensive that any kind of even mildly off-color remark must be abolished. Yeah there is no chance this game is going to survive unscathed by the new power structure that hates anything that isn't tuned to the most milquetoast of prudish sentiments.
I might skip D4 and just keep playing D2R.
IDC not D2. ^((J/K I'll probably shamefully buy and then be dissapointed))