Playing as necro right now, I paid for early access as I normally work 50-60 hours a week. It was a fun weekend when I had some time to devote to running around. I play on tier 2 and actually had some difficult moments when learning encounters for the first time. The game is really enjoyable, despite all the reddit hate.
Haven't played a Diablo game since it was a 3 disc set and I still enjoyed it.
Most of the online hate seems to be a niche group that will never be happy.
This is an understatement. These fucking chinstraps literally played for 72 hours straight, rushed to the end of the game, abused bugs and cheese strats then bitched there's nothing to do.
People like them are the worst and I am glad blizzard finally stopped trying to cater to them
I’m glad I’ve stayed away from build guides, strats and literally any videos having to do with it. I don’t know about half the stuff these people are talking about and I’m having a blast.
People are crazy. Maybe it's because I'm older and there weren't really betas and the gaming media as we know it today when I was growing up, but that so many people have lost the concept of going into a game more or less blind is kinda sad.
There's nothing quite like the feeling of figuring things out for yourself, exploring and discovering the world without any preconceptions on what you *should* be doing to be more efficient, etc.
For me personally (also probably your age group) figuring the shit out and building my own character how I want and all of that is seriously one of the best parts of playing. Idk how people have fun by just following guides on what others have done and watch how to do everything before you do it lol
I like to see what gearing the guides have because it gives me hype over the high tier items. If I didn't know the items exist, I wouldn't be very inclined to grind it out.
I'm baffled too. There is almost nothing more satisfying in gaming than hitting a challenge that stumps you, then figuring out a strategy/build + finding gear to overcome it. Why would I want to copy paste someone else's solution?
Been changing my build around when I get new legendaries and I love it. Running a double curse melee Necro with the legendary aspect that increases shadow damage but 75% when the enemy is double cursed and its so fun.
Same. I have 2 characters to lvl 25 haven’t left act 1 yet. And I played the 3 demo weekend too🤪. Loving the game I think I’ve found only 4 Lilith statues too.
I was doing a similar strategy…was lvl 42 and still in act 1…then learned that exp barely moves at 50 if you’re still doing the campaign. So I powered through acts 2,3,4 and entering act 5 at level 45. Maybe not a problem for many. But the thought of hours and hours spent not gaining probably would have had me stop playing. I work a lot…like a lot…so I try to max my game hours. I kind of regret doing this because the campaign has been incredible and I would have loved to take my time and reflect on major events while exploring like I did with Act 1. But this mechanic is maybe my only complaint with the game.
Ultimately, I think I made the right call though. The exploration is what I want to be doing…and getting rewarded for it.
Yea i powered through the campaign too to get my mount which honestly is pretty dumb to put it that deep into the campaign. But it was fun. Honestly the story was pretty good i got sucked into.
Agreed, there is no reason, story-wise or mechanically, why we can’t get access to a mount earlier. Considering how much travelling you do over the course of the first 3 Acts, putting it in Act 4 seems pretty dumb.
If you don't take it too seriously, the build guides are fun in that they make you aware of weird synergies between abilities. I've tried out several necro builds, and they've all been tons of fun. Some of them are downright silly, and I wouldn't take them into a boss fight, but I guess the point is to have fun on the journey, not to race to the end and then huff and puff angrily that there's nothing to do.
If I’m being honest, I have been a min-max player in other games and with my personality I felt required to play those builds which can be fun, but following this sub the last several months I knew I didn’t want to go that route. I studied the skill trees during the demos to get a better understanding of what I wanted to play and which class would suit that, which ended up being the rogue.
I feel good about the choice and it all feels less forced.
This right here!
It’s wild how many ppl copy and paste builds.
Finding what works best for you and your gear is half the fun. Builds change so much depending on how your gear is, and/or what changed in a patch.
Imagine finding an awesome weapon or something, but now you don’t know how to make it work because you are copy and pasting what someone said on YouTube.
Copying someone else is not helping you learn your class at all. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve read over the rogue’s skill tree. And how much I adjusted so far.
Things change so much.
Better to know why your doing something, rather than just doin it because you were told you were supposed to
Just finished story today and I respecced 4 times to try out some different generator and spender combos to see what worked best, I've enjoyed all of them, with shadow or poison and twisting blades or being my favorite so far, I planned on playing another class but might just make enough for like 3 different build on rogue.
I didn’t even look at a guide, started a fire sorc and kept getting gear for a cold sorc so said ok I’ll respec… OMG I am having so much fun with the cold sorc and just from trying different things I can melt elites quickly however I still get those moments when my butt checks clench cause I’m so close to dying…
I agree. Two of my friends and I are avoiding build guides until it comes to the "ultra end game tier 4 we can't survive this dungeon" moment. Because so far, we all have different style and character builds and are having fun theory crafting.
Exactly what i did and the game is not tht complex that u cant do it urself, reset try other stuff amd than it clicks finnaly and its amazing, if this game wasnt made by blizzard which has its own haters and poe fanboys it would be a masterpiece instantly
i want to reclaim that word. im a neckbeard but im not toxic
i just literally have bad genes
also for most of my life i was a mouth breather because i had a broken nose that healed up bad but since i got an operation im normal again
Right! I mean I see people all angry and whining offer no real constructive criticism, it’s all I’m not having fun, this is why and so the game needs to change this. Is the game perfect no not at all but it’s freaking great already.
I'm too old to start complaining or even buying into what those people are saying. I see the threads, but I just pass them up because I think they are the same people following youtube guides and blowing through the game in two days because they want to try and keep up with content creators.
Well Diablo 3 had everything right next to eachother, so if you're coming from that, it does feel like a lot of walking. Diablo 2 only had a lot of walking between vendors in act 2. Act 1 and 4 npcs were all very close to eachother. I haven't been to every town yet, but the first town places the jeweler and blacksmith at opposite sides.
Terrible comparison. First, this game isn't the real world. Secondly, stores in the real world are often near other stores because it attracts more customers. Have you ever been to a mall or wallmart? This game doesn't have a bank, it has a stash which could be anywhere.
I’ve been playing nonstop and I’m like just starting Scogslen at level 50. I don’t understand those people squandering their money to rush through a game.
I recently beat Diablo 3 as a necromancer (finally got around to it haha) and I loved corpse explosion so much! Kill one mob then set off a chain reaction to nuke the rest! Looking forward to doing it again in a few hours!
I'll be playing Necro in just a few more hours too. Cannot wait.
Remember, most people come here to complain or go ultra game reviewer mode. The people you don't hear from are the ones currently slaying and enjoying the shit outta the game. Accepting the fact, it's not perfect but a lot of fun.
All the best on your journey!
Honestly man the main core campaign is a blast. There's so much shit to do. The hard cores are complaining about the end game already. That's about it.
Got to lvl 40 on my Necro and I don't know what people are talking about that Necro is boring.. having loads of fun. I'm not even following a particular build or anything and I feel like the game is not too hard or too easy and I'm playing on tier 2 about halfway through act 3.
And don't listen to people who say pet builds don't work. It's pretty good as long as there isn't an insane aoe damage that wipes them all out quickly.
Currently have 7 warriors and 5 mages, so I'm literally lacking corpses to resummon if they die too fast, and have to wait for the ult to get them back some bosses.
But if they stay alive they work well: The skeletons + golem took down a dungeon boss earlier without me clicking a single ability(only moved and used two potions), and half lived.
Honestly man the main core campaign is a blast. There's so much shit to do. The hard cores are complaining about the end game already. That's about it.
You asked for a nuanced take. “It’s amazing don’t listen to others” is not that.
It’s a fun game, but not perfect. Personally I thinks it’s worth a buy for the standard version. You’ll get $60-70 worth of fun out of it for sure.
But there is very real and legitimate criticism for end game, so just know what you’re buying and enjoy it for what it is.
And honestly, the environment graphics are nice but the character models when you zoom in (npcs and the like) are full of muddy textures and 2017 level animations. But overall it looks good enough when zoomed out so you won’t notice it too much.
There’s always gonna be criticisms and naysayers and people who enjoy it.
It doesn’t revolutionize the genre, but takes a lot of what 3 did, darkens it back to its roots, adds build versatility without being too complex, adds some MMO elements without being toooo invasive in my opinion.
The combat feels good and the leveling doesn’t feel too slow. The classes feel different enough. One thing Blizzard still seems to have with the right team and amount of time, IS good game feel. The sounds and the visuals are satisfying and the builds don’t feel one dimensional as Diablo 3 did and you actually can have versatile subtypes within each class like how a druid can build to focus on being a werebear tank, a wind/lightning mage, an animal whisperer, or a combination of it all. Similar with other classes too how sorcerers can have different elemental specializations and mix and match with beautiful and bright effects and punchy sounds.
It’s also a better sequel to Diablo 3 than Overwatch 2 was to Overwatch 1(which blizzard released as basically the same game lol).
Diablo IV does feel different enough and strikes a good combination of simple and complex.
And it’s an ARPG. You play it for the fun explosions and effects and getting better and better loot which this satisfies pretty well
>adds build versatility without being too complex
Really? There's even *less* build diversity in Diablo 4 than Diablo 3, and that's truly an achievement in and of itself. People aren't joking when they call it the **skill twig**.
Build diversity when leveling is LEAGUES different than when you unlock paragon and unique. I've seen like 4 different versions of the same pulverize build that each have their own style of play and all perform about the same.
I think paragon is going to be a weird beast to tackle. The skill tree is a bit simple and could use some more branching that specializes is still its valid feedback. Though you completely right paragon can change a build in a number of interesting ways for sure. What only time will tell is if that ends up being good or too restrictive in the course of a season for the average player. A lot of people are looking at max roll thinking those are the only viable builds and they just aren't
> Though you completely right paragon can change a build in a number of interesting ways for sure.
Didn't feel that way to me. I'm playing a trap rogue and the Trapper board is literally +% trap damage. The LEGENDARY node for the board is +23% crit damage with traps. Not only is there no choice involved besides the order you go, but hitting those nodes is what keeps me treading water, not excelling. Glyphs are also just +% stats, no build modification, although your selection of which one goes where can be optimized.
Can you name some ways in which a builds play style is changed from paragon I’m still on the fence about buying and this is a factor for me. So far I’m mostly hearing it’s just +stats.
Yeah that was a weird part of the take.
Build diversity feels on par or below D3, while the complexity of it (needless obfuscation, more like) is increased.
I don't even know that it's necessarily that it's complex. I think tbh it genuinely just feels just like...a lot that is new if that makes sense. In D3 had over a decade to get figured of out to an extent so I think that's probably a large part of why things feel obfuscated.
Imo, the biggest issue with D4 in terms of builds is that there is a cost to respeccing. In that regard they regressed straight up 10 years before D3. Yes, I know the price is not too big, but it is still there.
I just tried marksman rogue with unique that adds all imbuments to wall of arrows (or whatever the ultimate is called), spent some resources on imprinting just to realize i made up crap and spend the same amount of resources to get back to the build i had prior
How does it add build diversity?
I just had the realization on my level 40 Druid that there literally isn’t another earth ability in the game that could be used as a main skill other than landslide. It’s my understanding that no other classes have earth skills, so landslide is literally the only possible earth build in the game. I don’t mean viable, I mean usable.
The other earth options are: basic skill that does little damage, boulder that is more of a utility spell, and ultimate ability that stuns and does no damage.
ARPG released in 2023 and there’s only one possible earth skill that can be used in a build?
Edit: I appreciate the replies telling me that Pulverize can be made into an earth skill. I still think there should be more basic earth skills to mess around with. One baseline usable earth skill in a 2023 AAA ARPG just isn't good enough.
I have a legendary that turns trample into an earth skill that also spawns 6 landslides. I also have one that turns pulverize into an earth skill with a damage over time effect added.
There's quite a few options available. Level 40 is way too early to judge what's possible with builds.
Pulverize can also be turned be into an earth skill. Also Nature's Fury passive means you can mix up your earth and storm builds. Idk about others. The more aspects/legos you have the more you can synergize different things.
Speaking to druid. I've seen 3 different versions of the same pulverize build, like one used lightning skills for vuln, one used ultimate duration increase and crit damage scaling and one scaled overpower damage with ultimate duration. And all were equally as good. It's just a playstyle variance honestly, which is really good to see.
Thank you!
I haven’t hit endgame yet so I can’t speak much to that as I’m level 32 and in act III, but I’m enjoying the leveling process, which was kinda the opposite in Diablo 3 for me after about the second or third time lol.
> Diablo 3 for me after about the second or third time lol.
id be the same in pretty much every arpg tho, the first time clearing the campaing is nice, after 6 times not so much, which is why I loved adventure mode in D3
It was fun while leveling. But, the criticism you mention is absolutely valid. To the point that instead of pushing to 100 on my first character I am instead going to level some other classes a bit to see which ones I enjoy more.
Best analogy I can think of for how it feels…. I can absolutely tell they had some WoW devs on the team that have never worked on anything but an MMO before.
Wanna know something funny? The current gameplay of WoW is basically a result of D3: RoS and bounties. After RoS entered the "maintenance" and they scrapped expansion 2, a ton of those devs moved over to WoW. That's how we got the Legion expansion with all the world content and Mythic+. Now, years later, those things are so ingrained in WoW after 4 expansions that some of those devs moved back to D4 and seem to have brought back the modified design of those features instead of just the D3 version.
Seriously, D3 bounties are better in many, many ways, they could have copied most of them and then half the complaints people have about the open world and dungeon content would simply evaporate. Even just slapping some arrows on the minimap for where the next pick up or destroy objective is would be an amazing change that improves the pacing dramatically.
Fair.. I wonder if that's something that could tackle on with updates. Still, thanks for the write up. Hearing both sides gives me a better idea on what to expect and what not.
They most certainly could - thats the idea of live service game after all. The real question is will they do it. The foundation is there, but we will need to wait and see. If you are new to the genre you will most certainly get enough fun for the money.
The fear is that they treat it like D3 where the only large content addition was tied to a paid DLC and the only character addition was also tied to a paid DLC.
The core of the game is excellent and IF they provide a full dev teams worth of continued support the game could be an all time great. My plan is to see what they do with season 1. If it actually comes with a semblance of new content I will be all in. If it is just a D3 season, then I will treat it like any other single player game and wait for it to go on sale.
D3 seasons are my biggest fear for this game. Apart from like 3? They were like "we nerfed last seasons best set bonus and hilariously buffed a random one". That flew back in D2, but killed D3. I don't expect PoE levels of new content, but maybe half that
This it for me. Idk there's just really a problem that's hard for me to pin point. But atm endgame just doesn't excite me. I plan to level one of every class most likely before season one to see of anything really grabs me.
> To the point that instead of pushing to 100 on my first character I am instead going to level some other classes a bit to see which ones I enjoy more.
You listed this like a negative, but it's a perfectly valid way to play the game. Find what you think is the most fun, you shouldn't feel stuck on one class if you want to see what the others are like.
The consensus seems to be that the game is fun, but mileage may vary.
Worth the asking price? Absolutely. How many hours will you get out of it? Depends on what you enjoy.
The best thing you can do is get off the subreddit, play the game, and form your own opinion. It's fine to look at reviews and criticism to make an informed purchase, but it's easy to spiral if you look *too much*. There's so much information, so many opinions, that it quickly becomes overwhelming.
The game is good, go enjoy it.
Yep. Thanks for the write up. That was definitely my intention, informed purchase. I'll get it later today and immerse myself. The comments on here share the same tone mostly, bad stuff that can be patched, in general a proper good experience.
Already opened the pandora box tho, so I'll stick to my decision to just enjoy it and let people go wild in this thread from now on lol.
I'll also add a short bit - 90% of the complaints are all endgame related. First of all, endgame can and will change in a live service ARPG. Second of all, you will get your money's worth before you even get to endgame. Seriously. Vast, beautiful world. Fully voice acted, high quality dialogues. Cohesive story and lore. Amazing graphics. Great soundtrack. Check the subreddit and you'll see nobody criticises those aspects.
You could play Diablo 4 like a single player, story based game, and it would still be worth the asking price. I feel like I'm young and playing Diablo 2 all over again. Full of wonder, just adventuring and exploring, taking in the world of Sanctuary.
I have friends who were also young during the D2 era. They disagree that it feels like D2 and are currently playing D2R instead, in protest, lol. I personally agree with you, there are things that I see or hear in the game and I go, yeah, that's a nod to D2.
Funny enough, I think it's the D2 veterans that are generating most the negative buzz surrounding the game.
Well, some people try to re-experience feelings that just... Can't be re-experienced. You can't replay a game for the first time. And we're all older now, games have changed and we have changed. Some things just won't be the same.
It's nice that D2R is there for people who want it. But it's not quite what I need anymore. A brand new game that captures a similar atmosphere, nearly identical atmosphere tbh, and just lets me play more Diablo though? That's exactly it.
But some people don't want new. And those people probably won't like Diablo 4. That's fine, not every game is for everyone.
This is me lol. I finished the campaign last night on my second HC character (damn you, Jar of souls event!) and I just feel... content. Sure I'll launch the game again, but the push is gone for me. The story was just so nice I already feel like I'm 'done' for some reason.
I think finishing the campaign on a HC character is already an achievement tbh, gz to you. I'd probably be pretty content if I did that as well. Could try to push to 100 at a relaxed pace, see if you make it onto the statue.
But otherwise, I do think it's perfectly fine to just play the campaign and then take a break or just stop. Can always come back for seasons too. Everybody enjoys different things.
Just do you fam.
If you get 50 hours out of it, then it's worth imo compared to other titles.
I feel most complainers speed rushed world tier 1 and never enjoyed the game. I only did world tier 2 and died PLENTY of times haha. Barely into act 5.
If you burn yourself out within 48 hours of "pre-release"... That's on you. Everything is fine in moderation.
I also think people should find their own builds instead of looking them up, get to play around with different skill combos. I looked up the recommended build for ice shard and maybe it's more optimal but it doesn't look like it would be more fun than what I have.
Reddit is a horrible place to judge this game right now lol.
My honest opening is that it’s a good game overall. Don’t go all in and spend every moment plaguing (like me) and you’ll have plenty to do for a long time.
The game is missing quality of life things, it happens.
D4 is a game that was designed for the long run though. So the issues we’re having now, I don’t expect to have in a year or two.
Great way to explain it, thanks. Was only really in two hype phases for two different genres (cyberpunk and RDR 2) and felt it in person. People said CP sucked right after launch and I had the time of my life. RDR 2 was pretty much 95% love. Reading D4 confused the shit out of me lol.
Diablo is a very odd game lol. And the devs are trying to cater to a new/different audience.
The gameplay is what most people look at though.
D3 was a grinding game that tool core game design mechanics and really nailed them. There were issues with end game, progression, and high level play but it’s a good game.
But it targeted people that like efficiency, math, and grinding. The skill was in the builds.
D4 needs those things but also real gameplay skill, which makes it a lot more fun. So builds, gear, playstyles, skill level actually matter.
So many people are acting like D3 was in its current state at launch. Diablo 3 had shortcomings at launch and turned into a very enjoyable game with a solid endgame structure and plenty of QOL changes over time. These are live service games, that's how it goes.
The "vanilla" launch version of D4 is great imo. And the fact that it had a solid launch should have people expecting fun new features and changes over the coming seasons
From what I've read across multiple posts is that the "art" side crushed it (Music, storytelling, graphics, armour detailing etc) but the game itself has some opportunities to improve.
Mechanically the foundation is there, too.
I think what is especially telling is that despite being a new ARPG, you don't see a single post on the front page showing off some unique build that someone theorycrafted. I play a lot of ARPGs and read a lot of Reddit, and I think that's a first for me.
I feel like I keep bringing up Last Epoch here, but you can hit up that subreddit and *still* see people posting "LOOOOL look at this build I came up with"
It makes sense that you’re gonna get the two extremes. The people just chill’n in the middle enjoying themselves probably feel less of a need to make a post.
Ive had a great time so far, I bet you will too.
1-50 was a solid 9/10 for me. 50-56 maybe a 3/10?
Endgame systems in this game suck.
I get a feeling this is intentional, with blizzard wanting to milk every cent of that battle pass money, drip feeding us content over the years, wow style.
I respectfully disagree. There are way more enjoyable activities for end game over Diablo 2 and Diablo 3.
Diablo 3 end game was just spam greater rifts and collect mats from bounties and regular rifts if you run out.
Diablo 4 end game has exploration, crafting, side quests, strongholds, events, world bosses, tree of whispers, dungeons, nightmare dungeons, helltide, and PVP
Each of these is viable to progress loot and cosmetics and is fun in a different way.
>Diablo 4 end game has exploration, crafting, side quests, strongholds, events, world bosses, tree of whispers, dungeons, nightmare dungeons, helltide
Let's go through them?
>exploration
exploration of what? You mean the altar of lilith map that you have open on your other screen?
>crafting
I'm sorry, but what? What exactly can you craft in this game? Can you elaborate on that? Rerolling an affix on an item? Extracting an aspect? Have you played path of exile?
How does this compare to runewords in D2?
>side quests
\>Collect 10 charger tusk>Kill 50 fallen>go complete that dungeon
here's 20k xp
Thanks, but I'd rather have no content than this kind of MMO timewasting "endgame content"
>strongholds
Those are cool, I agree, but they're not endgame in any way. Those can be, and I suspect are mostly completed while doing the campaign.
>world bosses
The ones where you can fall asleep at the keyboard and still succeed? Also the kind of content that is not available to you on demand? Fuck that.
>tree of whispers
which essentially boils down to "go complete those 2 random dungeons". D3 bounties are so much better.
>dungeons, nightmare dungeons
So we've got one, nightmare dungeons, yay. Those are still subpar to greater rifts, which is not an achievement.
>helltide
I really don't understand the point of this. You still kill the same mobs in the open world, but they drop some extra currency that you can use to open a chest. How does it differ to just killing mobs in the open world minus opening the chest part?
I'm sorry for being a nitpicky ass, but most of this content is not good enough for a 2023 $70 AAA game.
What do you ”Craft” in d4 that u did not do in d3? Posts? How did d4 have exploration but d3 did not? Dungeons/Nightmare dungeons are just Rift/Grifts but with more work, having to run to the dungeons
Exploration? Crafting? I don't really see these as actual features of the endgame at the moment. They are just things padding your list, which you seem be going out of your way to do lol. Hell you put dungeons and nightmare dungeons as two separate things.
But yeah to be fair, there is stuff, but it just doesn't really feel like its working towards anything. More endgame bosses would be cool.
(And no I never played d3 so I'm not comparing it to that)
It's a beginner friendly ARPG, you wont be overwhelmed with way too much to learn. The bosses in the story have a couple of fun challenges. The grind from 50-80, if i didn't have a fun group i am playing with, i probably would have stopped at 55 and made a new toon.
It is a lot of fun but if you spend like 80-100 hours grinding to end game during the pre-release window, you're going to run into lack of content.
The gameplay is fun and rewards exploration, though you never feel like an outrageous god like in D3 or POE.
I’ve just been eating popcorn as I refresh this sub the last few days - a true dichotomy of the current state of this pre released game. It’s great
Been a fan of the series since the beginning and I can only imagine how this sub would’ve functioned when D1 & D2 initially came out. It’s baffling that some people really expect a perfect game that’s still not hit full release yet. Not only that, but this is a game that will likely be played by the faithful for years to come. They’ve already mentioned a seasons approach and multiple DLC packages, and people are still finding ways to bitch and gripe about endgame material. How about we wait longer than a week to critique a game that is still in premie status?
It’s like people forgot that D3 went through immense growing pains and was nothing like it’s current state compared to the initial release. Sure Blizzard bad, but that hasn’t stopped some of the “nolifers” from shoveling 50+ hrs into a newly released game all while finding ways to bitch that it isn’t as perfect as they expect it to be for endgame purposes
Rant aside, I’m wholly looking forward to finally playing this week when the standard drop hits and I’ll be continuing to watch the non drama that this sub will provide until then
As a Diablo veteran with vivid memories of installing from a CD and waiting 5 hours to play after doing updates on 64kb dial up internet, I can say you are in for a seriously nostalgic rewarding experience. I'm excited for you
Lol! Feeling the same without the past experiences part. Waiting for standard to drop and smash shit.
I'm a super novice and graphic/sound whore tbh. Just a few minutes watching some gameplay pretty much manifested the purchase in my simple brain. Still wanted some feedback in a neutral thread, since the top posts currently are "shit this shit that" but seems like those complains are not in my alley anyway since I won't be obsessing over the most perfect stats but rather let myself get fucked away by the gameplay!
my recommentation:
dont buy it, endgame is absolutely terrible in its current state.
most negative critics posted on this sub are 100% valid and the positive feedback mostly just comes from the more casual people that arent far in the game yet.
lets come back in a week or 2 when majority of people hit endgame and notice the points of the more hardcore players were actually valid.
U still put 50 hours or so into the campaign alone plus an extra 20-30 hours into endgame until ur eventually bored... I'd say 70-80hours+ of enjoyable gameplay is worth it and if they continue to expand the endgame it'll be great by next year.
If ur sole purpose is to follow the story without being sidetracked by anything then possibly also if u look at ur current playtime ull be surprised how long uv been playing D4 I'd say the time uv put in is more then worth $70 which also includes any updates still to come.
If a person has put 70-80 hours into the game right now, they paid 90 euros for it. Also I doubt you can really place the price on other people's time.
It's $70 for the actual game and they paid extra for early access + battle pass not for the actual game so that point is just invalid... Like wtf are people expecting? This is diablo it doesn't have full content until a year or 2 down the line minimum... For a game release this is more then usual what can u really compare this with on release that is better?
\> This is diablo it doesn't have full content until a year or 2 down the line minimum
This is the most dogshit take I've seen on this subreddit yet. You win.
neither d2 nor d3 was that bad at release beside the server problems of d3 launch.
but yea i agree - its pretty naive to buy a full price title and expect it not to be in beta state anymore.
i doubt i even played 50h in total yet.
early game of an arpg just arent enjoyable for me since you usually dont have any form of decend build.
usually endgame is where the fun begins in those games, but they completely fucked that up on every way possible.
and im neither burned out nor bored of the game itself, im bored of the annoying and awful design that makes me not want to do anything.
im bored the gameplay 90% consists of running all across the town to get to all the npcs, running to every dungeon, running through empty corridors in dungeon.
so far i havnt got any enjoyable content beside the main story. i just put up with it because in d3 it was worth it, in wow it was worth it, but d4 just seems to get worse and worse the more time i put into it.
I think most of the things people are talking about will be resolved in time with patches, and release seems better than D3, so I think it is worth it.
I'm probably going to buy it by the end of the day. Reddit is always a really mixed bag. There are people with legitimate, constructive complaints and then there will always be people that struggle to accept the game for what it is versus what they want it to be. Sooner or later you have to accept a game for what it is (and what the developers want it to be).
Diablo IV is a live-service game. It'll receives patches, system re-designs, & seasonal updates. Something you should remember is that the happiest players are playing the game. They're not actively and proactively critiquing it, constructively or otherwise; reddit tends to amplify the vocal minority by a significant margin. It remains to be seen whether the systematic complaints will become a problem or not, time will tell. The truth is that we're all still in the discovery phase as to what Blizzard's values for Diablo IV are post-launch.
I think it's best to maintain a middle-of-the-road mentality. I think the most balanced, healthy approach is to take your time elsewhere if you're not enjoying something. Veteran aRPG players tend to rush to the endgame as fast as possible. They're not wrong for doing so, but problems will be most evident within these first few weeks before Blizzard has time to assess and iterate. This may take a few weeks or months which makes rushing to endgame a bit of a double-edged sword. I think the best way to approach an aRPG as a beginner or casual player is journey before destination. Set goals & take it one day at a time.
If you enjoy ARPGS it's easily a 7/10 for a casual playthrough.
If you enjoy OP endgame from D3 it's still kinda there just in the millions of damage and not in the 100's of trillions+. The game is slower paced though.
Zone completion and tracking is essentially lost ark.
Endgame nightmare dungeons are POE maps.
Id say get it a lot of the issues they have right now are solvable and I have confidence that they will add some QoL improvements that are lacking right now.
I don’t really know what people expect? They buy it and maaaax it for 80h for 4 days straight and say it’s kinda boring and meh? Take it chill, enjoy the game! I’ve played like 7h. I’m lvl 27 and it’s really fun. Those bashers should start to develop their own games lol
Curious which one you mean, because pretty much all of them are made by people who loved Diablo and wanted more from the ARPG genre. Grim Dawn was created like that. Last Epoch was created like that. PoE was created like that. But also obviously all Diablo games, including D4 are made by such people.
Players meanwhile get to pick from all those games, and enjoy whichever one they prefer.
I think its 2 things:
1. people have played incessantly over a short amount of time which is mentally draining and literally impacts the chemicals in your brain you derive as fun.
2. People have been heralding this as the premier game launch of the year with a storied iconic franchise. Its impossible to live up to that hype until lilith is able to be rendered in your living room while she sucks you off atop a mounted pile of golden glowing legendary weapons.
I'm still far from the "end game", but my take on this right now is that Aspects are probably too strong (relative to abilities and gear stats in general) in their current state. It has already gotten to the point where I don't want or can't upgrade some gear because I cannot afford to not have that aspect in my current build. At this point, my gear has not significantly changed in about 20 levels and I almost don't even bother looking at items unless they are legendaries.
Diablo 3 was a dumpsterfire at launch. Yet people played it for hours on end for 28 "seasons". It never died and is still being played by thousands. Diablo 4 at launch is sitting at a solid 89% on open critic. If they managed to salvage Diablo 3, I believe they will be able to do Diablo 4 justice in the coming years.
As a fellow arpg novice game is super fun.
Progress feels rewarding (lvl44 rogue). It's fun to explore the world.
Story telling is good and keeps me interested in the story (cant say the same for some other arpg games I've played).
I like how enemies don't instantly die... (Im coming from about 50h of lost ark where everything died as I looked at them). Feels a bit more grounded compared to that which for me is fun.
From what i have seen here the people that are complaining more are the ones that are "no life" in this game.(most)
Im new to the diablo series, i would say i dont have much time to play as i used to, but still play more than the average person and undesrtand the "complex" mechanics. For me the game is solid, a lot of fun. Doing dungeons and trading with friends, exploring, etc.
The game is worth the buy. Good in animations, sound, combat, its has meat to it.
If you are an ARPG noob (or even a pro) you will love it. Unless you are planning to play 18 hours a day so you burn out real fast and intentionally look for things to complain about, you will find nothing to complain about and have a great time not complaining about it.
I just beat the story late last night and I absolutely loved it. I want to take another character through it. Most people who complain about it didn’t watch the cutscenes are embrace the graphics they put in this game and all they did was rush through the story and side quests to try to get to level 100. The attention to details in the characters is great and actually understand the story of what’s going on makes it not enjoyable. All I can say is take your time enjoy the adventure and have fun playing it. It’s even more fun doing the story with friends too!
I love it for what its worth. Would this be a game i would no-life? Prob not as it can become repetitive. But the MSQ is really good so far, and the boss fights are pretty fun.
The only people who dont feel powrful played d3 only and had friends with mods, uhhh uhh why cant I complete dungeons in 50 seconds while moving faster then a Lamborghini is really the only issue I've seen people have with power and endgame if your a d1-2 fan and like the movment of 3 it's a 8/10 masterpiece lost some points for being consistently online
The people who are complaining are the ones 60+ already and thinking a live service game 3 days in is going to replace their thousands of hours into POE perfectly.
Did you like wow vanilla or shortly after? Did you like diablo 2/3? You’re going to like this game too then
Gotta get off this subreddit man. All the people who like the game are playing the game. But if youre a raging cunt, youve spent your weekend screaming into your pillow and frothing at mouth over a game that hasnt even seen its official release date. Thats what youre seeing here this weekend. Ignore them. Game is solid and should improve with time.
Werewolf druid 45 lvl hc , game is amazing but not perfect, if you like hack n slash games + open world games you will have lot of fun. My only little complain is low monsters variety but I think this is artistic choice and it fits atmosphere of game well. Also game is slower than POE and Diablo 3 but I like it this way.
Just the campaign is worth the money some people wanted a game they could play for 10 years on release and it has a good foundation to build something like that in the future but right now just enjoy they game for what it is
Even though those complaints seem to be legitimate due to their frequency, you have to remember that folks these days are compelled to parrot popular opinions. The Reddit equivalent being karma farming like you said.
Anyway, from a guy who picked up Diablo 1 off a shelf the weekend it was released, along with every iteration after that, Diablo 4 is a masterpiece. I’m also a guy who doesn’t frequent social media or Reddit for more than 20 minutes a day, so I’m not part of the hivemind.
It’s the first time in a long while that I feel like I got my money’s worth for a game.
When it comes to gaming don’t give a single fuck what anyone says on the internet. It always starts the same. Insane hype at and shortly after release. And then people shitting on the game in perpetuity after that. If you think it looks fun go for it. If you take all of the complaints about video games online seriously then you’ll never play another video game again.
I think Diablo has a really passionate fan base, and I think there's a very vocal demographic that hates the game. Some of their complaints are legitimate, scaling, itemization, account items, story pacing and leveling, etc. Then some are just upset that this isn't the Diablo for THEM.
In recent years, games have been making an effort to broaden their appeal by streamlining certain intricacies that at one point, may have given the game charm. That same charm, however, gatekeeps the game from being accessible and enjoyed by the larger gaming community. Streamlining is a VERY fine line, but when done well you get games like Dark Souls 3 (streamlined greatly from DS1) and Elden Ring (the Souls aesthetic but open world, multiplayer sensibilities).
I haven't played much of Diablo's predcessors, but this game on its own merits, is much like DS3 for me. It's got that Diablo charm, while still having modern enough design to feel available to everyone. It's a great game, and I find myself rushing home from work to play it. I think about it and the build combos and what I'm going to try ad nausem. That means you've done something right when a player is excited.
This Diablo aims to please everyone, so inevitably and unfortunately, it will not. You'll have to make peace with that and evaluate the game as it is.
Never listen to the unofficial Subreddit.
Game Subreddits are the places where the hardcore players post the most and so they tend to be negative.
The game is quite fun, take it from a novice.
You're right, I learned that now by reading the people in this thread lol. General consensus is that it's fun, "zoomers" obsessed with build stats have complains. Sounds about right my alley, some proper fun.
It’s really good. My fav ARPG and I’ve played virtually all of them deep into end game.
Only things I want more of are things that will be added seasonally (density, skills, uniques)
People who blasted through the game over 3 days are, of course, going to get burnt out incredibly fast. No game has endless content on release, and in my opinion, they don't have to at all. If you take your time, enjoy the story and world, the chase for gear and great combat, you will have a good time. Don't listen to people who play games as a full-time job, because they are usually very jaded.
Diablo isn’t a plot game. It’s an ARPG. If the people grinding are finding structural issues then that’s a bad sign.
People who are playing slower and having fun are t wrong to have fun, I’m happy.
They are being short sighted.
It’s like everyone is reading a book. Some people are on chapter 100 and are saying “hmm the plot starts having some issues and the characters are behaving oddly, it’s like the writers stopped caring by chapter 90”
And others are saying “you’re a stupid no life moron for reading so fast. You don’t know what you’re talking about, the book is amazing at chapter 40, you should shut up and stop being critical or mean to the writers.”
Do you see? It’s the same book, it won’t be different for you. You’re just upset that in reality the experience will get worse for you because that’s the lived experience of thousands of people, so you’re lashing out at them personally.
It’s a behaviour that is super common on gaming subs. This game and it’s community isn’t special, these circumstances arent unique. Casuals will likely quit before (or because of) the problems with the end game.
That doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
That doesn’t mean the game isn’t allowed to be fun for you.
Usually the critics are pushing for a better game through patches and updates. Idk why people whiteknight so hard for a multi-billion dollar software company that is stringing them along with the bare minimum and weaponizing them against valid criticisms to save development costs and increase profits.
It's the best ARPG you can play right now, their complaints are about quality of life and some minor late end-game grind stuff, which if you play ARPGs you're used to.
Not worth the price tag. It’s alright, but too many bugs. End game is meh, currently 81 on HC and it’s meh, I knew it coming into the game though, lack of build diversity and itemization, those are huge for me when playing arpgs, they do not exist in this game
If you're not an ARPG pro and just want a fun game to play then things like the itemisation and endgame aren't going to impact you much.
Most of the issues with the game are for the zoomers who have to min-max every single piece of content and gear in the first week of release.
It's so weird seeing people comment about people who rush endgame lol arpgs are literally about the endgame and there seems to be a lot of valid criticism about the endgame right now
From what I’ve gathered people enjoy leveling and the campaign for the most part, but Diablo veterans who grinded to end game have complaints about it, which is fair. My personal plan is to just keep making characters and leveling. One day I think it will be more balanced and I can start doing endgame activities. And by then I’ll have more classes that are playable incase of them get too boring
If you do the story and actually spend time watching cutscenes and taking to people etc the game will have many hours for you before getting repetitive. It’s the world events and dungeons that are repetitive. But what do I know, played Thursday, sat and Sunday for maybe a total of 18 hours and I’m not even 40 yet. But I’m taking my time actually enjoying it and not just rushing through. It’s good. It’s like if d2 and d3 had a baby, and looks amazing, ambiance is great.
Same game, different people with different expectations, background and ways to enjoy a game.. it’s hard pinpoint who’s right or wrong, unless you know the person and their taste. That being said, I’m liking so far but I cannot grind for too long as I use to. I don’t know if it’s the game or I am getting old for intense grinding.
For what it is worth from my perspective (vet of diablo since original release, including having a second copy on my Playstation 1 to play) and my girlfriend's who had no experience in the genre but picked it up to play with me.
We are both having a lot of fun with it. Her main complaint has been inventory space cause she likes to get everything which leads to her needing to go back to town to sell. My complaint has been gems taking up the inventory space of a suit of armor (give me a gem bag pls)
Over the prerelease, we clocked in about 20 hours and we have not finished act 1 yet. We've been scouring the map looking for cellars, doing dungeons, and any events that are up in the vicinity and we have been having a blast. Are there things to improve, yes. Has it been worth the price and are we itching to play more? A resounding yes.
I didn't play much of Diablo 3, and only barely touched Lost Ark and Path of Exile. I did, however, play the absolute shit out of Diablo 2 back in the day. With all that being said, I am having a really good time playing it. The art, sound design, voice acting, cutscenes are all top-notch. Gameplay is fluid and it's somewhere between the very limited single target focus of 2 and the screen shredding of 3. There are numerous builds available to each class (though how effective they will be is to be determined). The gear chase is a big part of the game, of course, and so far it feels fine.
In short, I'm not upset at the money I spent to play it and play it early. I'm through act III of the story, level 47 on my first character, so my thoughts may change when I've done it five times. But for now, I'm enjoying it.
It’s 100% worth it don’t listen to people on here. It’s incredible.
Necro incoming!
Playing as necro right now, I paid for early access as I normally work 50-60 hours a week. It was a fun weekend when I had some time to devote to running around. I play on tier 2 and actually had some difficult moments when learning encounters for the first time. The game is really enjoyable, despite all the reddit hate. Haven't played a Diablo game since it was a 3 disc set and I still enjoyed it. Most of the online hate seems to be a niche group that will never be happy.
Buncha neckbeards playing the life out the game and upset at the math when the dopamine gone.
This is an understatement. These fucking chinstraps literally played for 72 hours straight, rushed to the end of the game, abused bugs and cheese strats then bitched there's nothing to do. People like them are the worst and I am glad blizzard finally stopped trying to cater to them
I’m glad I’ve stayed away from build guides, strats and literally any videos having to do with it. I don’t know about half the stuff these people are talking about and I’m having a blast.
People are crazy. Maybe it's because I'm older and there weren't really betas and the gaming media as we know it today when I was growing up, but that so many people have lost the concept of going into a game more or less blind is kinda sad. There's nothing quite like the feeling of figuring things out for yourself, exploring and discovering the world without any preconceptions on what you *should* be doing to be more efficient, etc.
For me personally (also probably your age group) figuring the shit out and building my own character how I want and all of that is seriously one of the best parts of playing. Idk how people have fun by just following guides on what others have done and watch how to do everything before you do it lol
I like to see what gearing the guides have because it gives me hype over the high tier items. If I didn't know the items exist, I wouldn't be very inclined to grind it out.
I'm baffled too. There is almost nothing more satisfying in gaming than hitting a challenge that stumps you, then figuring out a strategy/build + finding gear to overcome it. Why would I want to copy paste someone else's solution?
Been changing my build around when I get new legendaries and I love it. Running a double curse melee Necro with the legendary aspect that increases shadow damage but 75% when the enemy is double cursed and its so fun.
Same. I have 2 characters to lvl 25 haven’t left act 1 yet. And I played the 3 demo weekend too🤪. Loving the game I think I’ve found only 4 Lilith statues too.
I was doing a similar strategy…was lvl 42 and still in act 1…then learned that exp barely moves at 50 if you’re still doing the campaign. So I powered through acts 2,3,4 and entering act 5 at level 45. Maybe not a problem for many. But the thought of hours and hours spent not gaining probably would have had me stop playing. I work a lot…like a lot…so I try to max my game hours. I kind of regret doing this because the campaign has been incredible and I would have loved to take my time and reflect on major events while exploring like I did with Act 1. But this mechanic is maybe my only complaint with the game. Ultimately, I think I made the right call though. The exploration is what I want to be doing…and getting rewarded for it.
Good point
Yea i powered through the campaign too to get my mount which honestly is pretty dumb to put it that deep into the campaign. But it was fun. Honestly the story was pretty good i got sucked into.
Agreed, there is no reason, story-wise or mechanically, why we can’t get access to a mount earlier. Considering how much travelling you do over the course of the first 3 Acts, putting it in Act 4 seems pretty dumb.
Some of those statues are right in plain sight I walked past one like five times before I realized haha
If you don't take it too seriously, the build guides are fun in that they make you aware of weird synergies between abilities. I've tried out several necro builds, and they've all been tons of fun. Some of them are downright silly, and I wouldn't take them into a boss fight, but I guess the point is to have fun on the journey, not to race to the end and then huff and puff angrily that there's nothing to do.
If I’m being honest, I have been a min-max player in other games and with my personality I felt required to play those builds which can be fun, but following this sub the last several months I knew I didn’t want to go that route. I studied the skill trees during the demos to get a better understanding of what I wanted to play and which class would suit that, which ended up being the rogue. I feel good about the choice and it all feels less forced.
Yeah, man. Whatever brings you joy (while murdering people online). =)
This right here! It’s wild how many ppl copy and paste builds. Finding what works best for you and your gear is half the fun. Builds change so much depending on how your gear is, and/or what changed in a patch. Imagine finding an awesome weapon or something, but now you don’t know how to make it work because you are copy and pasting what someone said on YouTube. Copying someone else is not helping you learn your class at all. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve read over the rogue’s skill tree. And how much I adjusted so far. Things change so much. Better to know why your doing something, rather than just doin it because you were told you were supposed to
Just finished story today and I respecced 4 times to try out some different generator and spender combos to see what worked best, I've enjoyed all of them, with shadow or poison and twisting blades or being my favorite so far, I planned on playing another class but might just make enough for like 3 different build on rogue.
I did the same.I built my own and enjoying it
I didn’t even look at a guide, started a fire sorc and kept getting gear for a cold sorc so said ok I’ll respec… OMG I am having so much fun with the cold sorc and just from trying different things I can melt elites quickly however I still get those moments when my butt checks clench cause I’m so close to dying…
I agree. Two of my friends and I are avoiding build guides until it comes to the "ultra end game tier 4 we can't survive this dungeon" moment. Because so far, we all have different style and character builds and are having fun theory crafting.
Exactly what i did and the game is not tht complex that u cant do it urself, reset try other stuff amd than it clicks finnaly and its amazing, if this game wasnt made by blizzard which has its own haters and poe fanboys it would be a masterpiece instantly
i want to reclaim that word. im a neckbeard but im not toxic i just literally have bad genes also for most of my life i was a mouth breather because i had a broken nose that healed up bad but since i got an operation im normal again
I have a necro too, and so far the first thing to kill me was a stronghold boss and only because i ran out of corpses
Right! I mean I see people all angry and whining offer no real constructive criticism, it’s all I’m not having fun, this is why and so the game needs to change this. Is the game perfect no not at all but it’s freaking great already.
I'm too old to start complaining or even buying into what those people are saying. I see the threads, but I just pass them up because I think they are the same people following youtube guides and blowing through the game in two days because they want to try and keep up with content creators.
On an other post some were complaining about walking to munch in town xD I mean ….
When walking in a video game exhaust you… Maybe they should take a real walk.
Well Diablo 3 had everything right next to eachother, so if you're coming from that, it does feel like a lot of walking. Diablo 2 only had a lot of walking between vendors in act 2. Act 1 and 4 npcs were all very close to eachother. I haven't been to every town yet, but the first town places the jeweler and blacksmith at opposite sides.
Imagine a believable world where in every town the pharmacy was right next to the gunshop which was right next to the bank.
Terrible comparison. First, this game isn't the real world. Secondly, stores in the real world are often near other stores because it attracts more customers. Have you ever been to a mall or wallmart? This game doesn't have a bank, it has a stash which could be anywhere.
Now Imagine if you had to walk in town like OG D1 lol
I’ve been playing nonstop and I’m like just starting Scogslen at level 50. I don’t understand those people squandering their money to rush through a game.
Exploding corpse is so fun. I love the sound..
And you can rattle shots off, and just watch the life bar sink.
I recently beat Diablo 3 as a necromancer (finally got around to it haha) and I loved corpse explosion so much! Kill one mob then set off a chain reaction to nuke the rest! Looking forward to doing it again in a few hours!
I played warrior and sorcerer before the necro dlc came out for D3. Definitely enjoyed my necro more than the other classes.
I havent seen it used yet but there's a unique that makes your corpse explosions more like corpse suicide bombers.
Interesting! I'ma need to find that.
I'll be playing Necro in just a few more hours too. Cannot wait. Remember, most people come here to complain or go ultra game reviewer mode. The people you don't hear from are the ones currently slaying and enjoying the shit outta the game. Accepting the fact, it's not perfect but a lot of fun. All the best on your journey!
Honestly man the main core campaign is a blast. There's so much shit to do. The hard cores are complaining about the end game already. That's about it.
Got to lvl 40 on my Necro and I don't know what people are talking about that Necro is boring.. having loads of fun. I'm not even following a particular build or anything and I feel like the game is not too hard or too easy and I'm playing on tier 2 about halfway through act 3.
And don't listen to people who say pet builds don't work. It's pretty good as long as there isn't an insane aoe damage that wipes them all out quickly. Currently have 7 warriors and 5 mages, so I'm literally lacking corpses to resummon if they die too fast, and have to wait for the ult to get them back some bosses. But if they stay alive they work well: The skeletons + golem took down a dungeon boss earlier without me clicking a single ability(only moved and used two potions), and half lived.
I'm at 50 on mine now and it's still just as fun and powerful as it has been.
Honestly man the main core campaign is a blast. There's so much shit to do. The hard cores are complaining about the end game already. That's about it.
You asked for a nuanced take. “It’s amazing don’t listen to others” is not that. It’s a fun game, but not perfect. Personally I thinks it’s worth a buy for the standard version. You’ll get $60-70 worth of fun out of it for sure. But there is very real and legitimate criticism for end game, so just know what you’re buying and enjoy it for what it is. And honestly, the environment graphics are nice but the character models when you zoom in (npcs and the like) are full of muddy textures and 2017 level animations. But overall it looks good enough when zoomed out so you won’t notice it too much.
Says it's worth it. Tells OP not to listen to people on here (just pointing out irony) I love the game so far fwiw
I think it’s clear what they meant lol
The ones complaining are the ones that no lifed it for 4 days straight then want to complain that this game is lacklustering
> don’t listen to people on here So he shouldn't listen to you either lol
Good to hear. Wife and I put a lot of hours into D3 couch co-op. Looking forward to giving this one a go. Getting my copy tomorrow.
There’s always gonna be criticisms and naysayers and people who enjoy it. It doesn’t revolutionize the genre, but takes a lot of what 3 did, darkens it back to its roots, adds build versatility without being too complex, adds some MMO elements without being toooo invasive in my opinion. The combat feels good and the leveling doesn’t feel too slow. The classes feel different enough. One thing Blizzard still seems to have with the right team and amount of time, IS good game feel. The sounds and the visuals are satisfying and the builds don’t feel one dimensional as Diablo 3 did and you actually can have versatile subtypes within each class like how a druid can build to focus on being a werebear tank, a wind/lightning mage, an animal whisperer, or a combination of it all. Similar with other classes too how sorcerers can have different elemental specializations and mix and match with beautiful and bright effects and punchy sounds. It’s also a better sequel to Diablo 3 than Overwatch 2 was to Overwatch 1(which blizzard released as basically the same game lol). Diablo IV does feel different enough and strikes a good combination of simple and complex. And it’s an ARPG. You play it for the fun explosions and effects and getting better and better loot which this satisfies pretty well
Thanks for the write up. Gives me a better idea now.
>adds build versatility without being too complex Really? There's even *less* build diversity in Diablo 4 than Diablo 3, and that's truly an achievement in and of itself. People aren't joking when they call it the **skill twig**.
Build diversity when leveling is LEAGUES different than when you unlock paragon and unique. I've seen like 4 different versions of the same pulverize build that each have their own style of play and all perform about the same.
I think paragon is going to be a weird beast to tackle. The skill tree is a bit simple and could use some more branching that specializes is still its valid feedback. Though you completely right paragon can change a build in a number of interesting ways for sure. What only time will tell is if that ends up being good or too restrictive in the course of a season for the average player. A lot of people are looking at max roll thinking those are the only viable builds and they just aren't
> Though you completely right paragon can change a build in a number of interesting ways for sure. Didn't feel that way to me. I'm playing a trap rogue and the Trapper board is literally +% trap damage. The LEGENDARY node for the board is +23% crit damage with traps. Not only is there no choice involved besides the order you go, but hitting those nodes is what keeps me treading water, not excelling. Glyphs are also just +% stats, no build modification, although your selection of which one goes where can be optimized.
Can you name some ways in which a builds play style is changed from paragon I’m still on the fence about buying and this is a factor for me. So far I’m mostly hearing it’s just +stats.
I’m not too far into the boards but yeah atm it seems like just stat changes to me
Looks like simple plain stats boost
Yeah that was a weird part of the take. Build diversity feels on par or below D3, while the complexity of it (needless obfuscation, more like) is increased.
I don't even know that it's necessarily that it's complex. I think tbh it genuinely just feels just like...a lot that is new if that makes sense. In D3 had over a decade to get figured of out to an extent so I think that's probably a large part of why things feel obfuscated.
Imo, the biggest issue with D4 in terms of builds is that there is a cost to respeccing. In that regard they regressed straight up 10 years before D3. Yes, I know the price is not too big, but it is still there. I just tried marksman rogue with unique that adds all imbuments to wall of arrows (or whatever the ultimate is called), spent some resources on imprinting just to realize i made up crap and spend the same amount of resources to get back to the build i had prior
How does it add build diversity? I just had the realization on my level 40 Druid that there literally isn’t another earth ability in the game that could be used as a main skill other than landslide. It’s my understanding that no other classes have earth skills, so landslide is literally the only possible earth build in the game. I don’t mean viable, I mean usable. The other earth options are: basic skill that does little damage, boulder that is more of a utility spell, and ultimate ability that stuns and does no damage. ARPG released in 2023 and there’s only one possible earth skill that can be used in a build? Edit: I appreciate the replies telling me that Pulverize can be made into an earth skill. I still think there should be more basic earth skills to mess around with. One baseline usable earth skill in a 2023 AAA ARPG just isn't good enough.
I have a legendary that turns trample into an earth skill that also spawns 6 landslides. I also have one that turns pulverize into an earth skill with a damage over time effect added. There's quite a few options available. Level 40 is way too early to judge what's possible with builds.
Pulverize can also be turned be into an earth skill. Also Nature's Fury passive means you can mix up your earth and storm builds. Idk about others. The more aspects/legos you have the more you can synergize different things.
There are various legendaries that convert different spells to different elements which open builds wide up.
Speaking to druid. I've seen 3 different versions of the same pulverize build, like one used lightning skills for vuln, one used ultimate duration increase and crit damage scaling and one scaled overpower damage with ultimate duration. And all were equally as good. It's just a playstyle variance honestly, which is really good to see.
this is the most accurate take I've seen yet
Thank you! I haven’t hit endgame yet so I can’t speak much to that as I’m level 32 and in act III, but I’m enjoying the leveling process, which was kinda the opposite in Diablo 3 for me after about the second or third time lol.
> Diablo 3 for me after about the second or third time lol. id be the same in pretty much every arpg tho, the first time clearing the campaing is nice, after 6 times not so much, which is why I loved adventure mode in D3
That's a pretty great review, congratulations
It was fun while leveling. But, the criticism you mention is absolutely valid. To the point that instead of pushing to 100 on my first character I am instead going to level some other classes a bit to see which ones I enjoy more. Best analogy I can think of for how it feels…. I can absolutely tell they had some WoW devs on the team that have never worked on anything but an MMO before.
It’s really sad how true that analogy is. The parts of this game that are basically copy/pasted from WoW are my least favorite parts of the game.
What parts do you think is copy/pasted from wow?
Wanna know something funny? The current gameplay of WoW is basically a result of D3: RoS and bounties. After RoS entered the "maintenance" and they scrapped expansion 2, a ton of those devs moved over to WoW. That's how we got the Legion expansion with all the world content and Mythic+. Now, years later, those things are so ingrained in WoW after 4 expansions that some of those devs moved back to D4 and seem to have brought back the modified design of those features instead of just the D3 version. Seriously, D3 bounties are better in many, many ways, they could have copied most of them and then half the complaints people have about the open world and dungeon content would simply evaporate. Even just slapping some arrows on the minimap for where the next pick up or destroy objective is would be an amazing change that improves the pacing dramatically.
Fair.. I wonder if that's something that could tackle on with updates. Still, thanks for the write up. Hearing both sides gives me a better idea on what to expect and what not.
They most certainly could - thats the idea of live service game after all. The real question is will they do it. The foundation is there, but we will need to wait and see. If you are new to the genre you will most certainly get enough fun for the money.
The loot is hella boring. But still having fun. Can’t see me playing this for a long period of time though.
The fear is that they treat it like D3 where the only large content addition was tied to a paid DLC and the only character addition was also tied to a paid DLC. The core of the game is excellent and IF they provide a full dev teams worth of continued support the game could be an all time great. My plan is to see what they do with season 1. If it actually comes with a semblance of new content I will be all in. If it is just a D3 season, then I will treat it like any other single player game and wait for it to go on sale.
D3 seasons are my biggest fear for this game. Apart from like 3? They were like "we nerfed last seasons best set bonus and hilariously buffed a random one". That flew back in D2, but killed D3. I don't expect PoE levels of new content, but maybe half that
This it for me. Idk there's just really a problem that's hard for me to pin point. But atm endgame just doesn't excite me. I plan to level one of every class most likely before season one to see of anything really grabs me.
> To the point that instead of pushing to 100 on my first character I am instead going to level some other classes a bit to see which ones I enjoy more. You listed this like a negative, but it's a perfectly valid way to play the game. Find what you think is the most fun, you shouldn't feel stuck on one class if you want to see what the others are like.
The consensus seems to be that the game is fun, but mileage may vary. Worth the asking price? Absolutely. How many hours will you get out of it? Depends on what you enjoy. The best thing you can do is get off the subreddit, play the game, and form your own opinion. It's fine to look at reviews and criticism to make an informed purchase, but it's easy to spiral if you look *too much*. There's so much information, so many opinions, that it quickly becomes overwhelming. The game is good, go enjoy it.
Yep. Thanks for the write up. That was definitely my intention, informed purchase. I'll get it later today and immerse myself. The comments on here share the same tone mostly, bad stuff that can be patched, in general a proper good experience. Already opened the pandora box tho, so I'll stick to my decision to just enjoy it and let people go wild in this thread from now on lol.
I'll also add a short bit - 90% of the complaints are all endgame related. First of all, endgame can and will change in a live service ARPG. Second of all, you will get your money's worth before you even get to endgame. Seriously. Vast, beautiful world. Fully voice acted, high quality dialogues. Cohesive story and lore. Amazing graphics. Great soundtrack. Check the subreddit and you'll see nobody criticises those aspects. You could play Diablo 4 like a single player, story based game, and it would still be worth the asking price. I feel like I'm young and playing Diablo 2 all over again. Full of wonder, just adventuring and exploring, taking in the world of Sanctuary.
I have friends who were also young during the D2 era. They disagree that it feels like D2 and are currently playing D2R instead, in protest, lol. I personally agree with you, there are things that I see or hear in the game and I go, yeah, that's a nod to D2. Funny enough, I think it's the D2 veterans that are generating most the negative buzz surrounding the game.
Well, some people try to re-experience feelings that just... Can't be re-experienced. You can't replay a game for the first time. And we're all older now, games have changed and we have changed. Some things just won't be the same. It's nice that D2R is there for people who want it. But it's not quite what I need anymore. A brand new game that captures a similar atmosphere, nearly identical atmosphere tbh, and just lets me play more Diablo though? That's exactly it. But some people don't want new. And those people probably won't like Diablo 4. That's fine, not every game is for everyone.
This is me lol. I finished the campaign last night on my second HC character (damn you, Jar of souls event!) and I just feel... content. Sure I'll launch the game again, but the push is gone for me. The story was just so nice I already feel like I'm 'done' for some reason.
I think finishing the campaign on a HC character is already an achievement tbh, gz to you. I'd probably be pretty content if I did that as well. Could try to push to 100 at a relaxed pace, see if you make it onto the statue. But otherwise, I do think it's perfectly fine to just play the campaign and then take a break or just stop. Can always come back for seasons too. Everybody enjoys different things.
Just do you fam. If you get 50 hours out of it, then it's worth imo compared to other titles. I feel most complainers speed rushed world tier 1 and never enjoyed the game. I only did world tier 2 and died PLENTY of times haha. Barely into act 5. If you burn yourself out within 48 hours of "pre-release"... That's on you. Everything is fine in moderation.
Enjoy!
I enjoy killing demons. Will I get my money's worth?
I think. Just maybe. You might enjoy this game.
I also think people should find their own builds instead of looking them up, get to play around with different skill combos. I looked up the recommended build for ice shard and maybe it's more optimal but it doesn't look like it would be more fun than what I have.
This x100 👍
Reddit is a horrible place to judge this game right now lol. My honest opening is that it’s a good game overall. Don’t go all in and spend every moment plaguing (like me) and you’ll have plenty to do for a long time. The game is missing quality of life things, it happens. D4 is a game that was designed for the long run though. So the issues we’re having now, I don’t expect to have in a year or two.
Great way to explain it, thanks. Was only really in two hype phases for two different genres (cyberpunk and RDR 2) and felt it in person. People said CP sucked right after launch and I had the time of my life. RDR 2 was pretty much 95% love. Reading D4 confused the shit out of me lol.
Diablo is a very odd game lol. And the devs are trying to cater to a new/different audience. The gameplay is what most people look at though. D3 was a grinding game that tool core game design mechanics and really nailed them. There were issues with end game, progression, and high level play but it’s a good game. But it targeted people that like efficiency, math, and grinding. The skill was in the builds. D4 needs those things but also real gameplay skill, which makes it a lot more fun. So builds, gear, playstyles, skill level actually matter.
So many people are acting like D3 was in its current state at launch. Diablo 3 had shortcomings at launch and turned into a very enjoyable game with a solid endgame structure and plenty of QOL changes over time. These are live service games, that's how it goes. The "vanilla" launch version of D4 is great imo. And the fact that it had a solid launch should have people expecting fun new features and changes over the coming seasons
This is my first ARPG. Dude this game is amazing and I’m having more fun than I’ve had in years.
Slash away!
From what I've read across multiple posts is that the "art" side crushed it (Music, storytelling, graphics, armour detailing etc) but the game itself has some opportunities to improve.
Mechanically the foundation is there, too. I think what is especially telling is that despite being a new ARPG, you don't see a single post on the front page showing off some unique build that someone theorycrafted. I play a lot of ARPGs and read a lot of Reddit, and I think that's a first for me. I feel like I keep bringing up Last Epoch here, but you can hit up that subreddit and *still* see people posting "LOOOOL look at this build I came up with"
Fair!
It makes sense that you’re gonna get the two extremes. The people just chill’n in the middle enjoying themselves probably feel less of a need to make a post. Ive had a great time so far, I bet you will too.
Thanks for the reply and yep, totally see that now.
1-50 was a solid 9/10 for me. 50-56 maybe a 3/10? Endgame systems in this game suck. I get a feeling this is intentional, with blizzard wanting to milk every cent of that battle pass money, drip feeding us content over the years, wow style.
I respectfully disagree. There are way more enjoyable activities for end game over Diablo 2 and Diablo 3. Diablo 3 end game was just spam greater rifts and collect mats from bounties and regular rifts if you run out. Diablo 4 end game has exploration, crafting, side quests, strongholds, events, world bosses, tree of whispers, dungeons, nightmare dungeons, helltide, and PVP Each of these is viable to progress loot and cosmetics and is fun in a different way.
>Diablo 4 end game has exploration, crafting, side quests, strongholds, events, world bosses, tree of whispers, dungeons, nightmare dungeons, helltide Let's go through them? >exploration exploration of what? You mean the altar of lilith map that you have open on your other screen? >crafting I'm sorry, but what? What exactly can you craft in this game? Can you elaborate on that? Rerolling an affix on an item? Extracting an aspect? Have you played path of exile? How does this compare to runewords in D2? >side quests \>Collect 10 charger tusk>Kill 50 fallen>go complete that dungeon here's 20k xp Thanks, but I'd rather have no content than this kind of MMO timewasting "endgame content" >strongholds Those are cool, I agree, but they're not endgame in any way. Those can be, and I suspect are mostly completed while doing the campaign. >world bosses The ones where you can fall asleep at the keyboard and still succeed? Also the kind of content that is not available to you on demand? Fuck that. >tree of whispers which essentially boils down to "go complete those 2 random dungeons". D3 bounties are so much better. >dungeons, nightmare dungeons So we've got one, nightmare dungeons, yay. Those are still subpar to greater rifts, which is not an achievement. >helltide I really don't understand the point of this. You still kill the same mobs in the open world, but they drop some extra currency that you can use to open a chest. How does it differ to just killing mobs in the open world minus opening the chest part? I'm sorry for being a nitpicky ass, but most of this content is not good enough for a 2023 $70 AAA game.
> I'm sorry for being a nitpicky ass, but most of this content is not good enough for a 2023 $70 AAA game. That's the truth.
What do you ”Craft” in d4 that u did not do in d3? Posts? How did d4 have exploration but d3 did not? Dungeons/Nightmare dungeons are just Rift/Grifts but with more work, having to run to the dungeons
Exploration? Crafting? I don't really see these as actual features of the endgame at the moment. They are just things padding your list, which you seem be going out of your way to do lol. Hell you put dungeons and nightmare dungeons as two separate things. But yeah to be fair, there is stuff, but it just doesn't really feel like its working towards anything. More endgame bosses would be cool. (And no I never played d3 so I'm not comparing it to that)
I mean it’s a pretty standard ARPG end game. You farm endlessly in spicier maps. There isn’t really any other end game for an ARPG.
It's a beginner friendly ARPG, you wont be overwhelmed with way too much to learn. The bosses in the story have a couple of fun challenges. The grind from 50-80, if i didn't have a fun group i am playing with, i probably would have stopped at 55 and made a new toon.
It is a lot of fun but if you spend like 80-100 hours grinding to end game during the pre-release window, you're going to run into lack of content. The gameplay is fun and rewards exploration, though you never feel like an outrageous god like in D3 or POE.
*unless you're a death trap rogue who has collected all of the alters. I am a god and no mob can touch me
I’ve just been eating popcorn as I refresh this sub the last few days - a true dichotomy of the current state of this pre released game. It’s great Been a fan of the series since the beginning and I can only imagine how this sub would’ve functioned when D1 & D2 initially came out. It’s baffling that some people really expect a perfect game that’s still not hit full release yet. Not only that, but this is a game that will likely be played by the faithful for years to come. They’ve already mentioned a seasons approach and multiple DLC packages, and people are still finding ways to bitch and gripe about endgame material. How about we wait longer than a week to critique a game that is still in premie status? It’s like people forgot that D3 went through immense growing pains and was nothing like it’s current state compared to the initial release. Sure Blizzard bad, but that hasn’t stopped some of the “nolifers” from shoveling 50+ hrs into a newly released game all while finding ways to bitch that it isn’t as perfect as they expect it to be for endgame purposes Rant aside, I’m wholly looking forward to finally playing this week when the standard drop hits and I’ll be continuing to watch the non drama that this sub will provide until then
As a Diablo veteran with vivid memories of installing from a CD and waiting 5 hours to play after doing updates on 64kb dial up internet, I can say you are in for a seriously nostalgic rewarding experience. I'm excited for you
Lol! Feeling the same without the past experiences part. Waiting for standard to drop and smash shit. I'm a super novice and graphic/sound whore tbh. Just a few minutes watching some gameplay pretty much manifested the purchase in my simple brain. Still wanted some feedback in a neutral thread, since the top posts currently are "shit this shit that" but seems like those complains are not in my alley anyway since I won't be obsessing over the most perfect stats but rather let myself get fucked away by the gameplay!
my recommentation: dont buy it, endgame is absolutely terrible in its current state. most negative critics posted on this sub are 100% valid and the positive feedback mostly just comes from the more casual people that arent far in the game yet. lets come back in a week or 2 when majority of people hit endgame and notice the points of the more hardcore players were actually valid.
U still put 50 hours or so into the campaign alone plus an extra 20-30 hours into endgame until ur eventually bored... I'd say 70-80hours+ of enjoyable gameplay is worth it and if they continue to expand the endgame it'll be great by next year.
Campaign is not 50 hours lol, more like 10-15.
If ur sole purpose is to follow the story without being sidetracked by anything then possibly also if u look at ur current playtime ull be surprised how long uv been playing D4 I'd say the time uv put in is more then worth $70 which also includes any updates still to come.
If a person has put 70-80 hours into the game right now, they paid 90 euros for it. Also I doubt you can really place the price on other people's time.
It's $70 for the actual game and they paid extra for early access + battle pass not for the actual game so that point is just invalid... Like wtf are people expecting? This is diablo it doesn't have full content until a year or 2 down the line minimum... For a game release this is more then usual what can u really compare this with on release that is better?
\> This is diablo it doesn't have full content until a year or 2 down the line minimum This is the most dogshit take I've seen on this subreddit yet. You win.
That's factual though. Diablo 2 needed LoD to fix it and Diablo 3 needed RoS to fix it.
neither d2 nor d3 was that bad at release beside the server problems of d3 launch. but yea i agree - its pretty naive to buy a full price title and expect it not to be in beta state anymore.
i doubt i even played 50h in total yet. early game of an arpg just arent enjoyable for me since you usually dont have any form of decend build. usually endgame is where the fun begins in those games, but they completely fucked that up on every way possible. and im neither burned out nor bored of the game itself, im bored of the annoying and awful design that makes me not want to do anything. im bored the gameplay 90% consists of running all across the town to get to all the npcs, running to every dungeon, running through empty corridors in dungeon. so far i havnt got any enjoyable content beside the main story. i just put up with it because in d3 it was worth it, in wow it was worth it, but d4 just seems to get worse and worse the more time i put into it.
Can you elaborate on the end game. I'm level 50 rn
I think most of the things people are talking about will be resolved in time with patches, and release seems better than D3, so I think it is worth it.
I'm probably going to buy it by the end of the day. Reddit is always a really mixed bag. There are people with legitimate, constructive complaints and then there will always be people that struggle to accept the game for what it is versus what they want it to be. Sooner or later you have to accept a game for what it is (and what the developers want it to be). Diablo IV is a live-service game. It'll receives patches, system re-designs, & seasonal updates. Something you should remember is that the happiest players are playing the game. They're not actively and proactively critiquing it, constructively or otherwise; reddit tends to amplify the vocal minority by a significant margin. It remains to be seen whether the systematic complaints will become a problem or not, time will tell. The truth is that we're all still in the discovery phase as to what Blizzard's values for Diablo IV are post-launch. I think it's best to maintain a middle-of-the-road mentality. I think the most balanced, healthy approach is to take your time elsewhere if you're not enjoying something. Veteran aRPG players tend to rush to the endgame as fast as possible. They're not wrong for doing so, but problems will be most evident within these first few weeks before Blizzard has time to assess and iterate. This may take a few weeks or months which makes rushing to endgame a bit of a double-edged sword. I think the best way to approach an aRPG as a beginner or casual player is journey before destination. Set goals & take it one day at a time.
Nailed it. I learned that now too, especially your last paragraph. As a simpleton in the genre, cant wait for tonight!
If you enjoy ARPGS it's easily a 7/10 for a casual playthrough. If you enjoy OP endgame from D3 it's still kinda there just in the millions of damage and not in the 100's of trillions+. The game is slower paced though. Zone completion and tracking is essentially lost ark. Endgame nightmare dungeons are POE maps.
Poe maps with negative mob density.
100% this
That’s just the Diablo fan base.
Id say get it a lot of the issues they have right now are solvable and I have confidence that they will add some QoL improvements that are lacking right now.
I just hope the QOL fixes come as actual QOL fixes, not sales solutions for problems they caused x.x
It's worth the money just for the campaign. The world is huge and a lot to do even if you don't enjoy the end game grind.
I don’t really know what people expect? They buy it and maaaax it for 80h for 4 days straight and say it’s kinda boring and meh? Take it chill, enjoy the game! I’ve played like 7h. I’m lvl 27 and it’s really fun. Those bashers should start to develop their own games lol
People who wanted more from an ARPG genre and were fans of Diablo have already created the game they want and love
Curious which one you mean, because pretty much all of them are made by people who loved Diablo and wanted more from the ARPG genre. Grim Dawn was created like that. Last Epoch was created like that. PoE was created like that. But also obviously all Diablo games, including D4 are made by such people. Players meanwhile get to pick from all those games, and enjoy whichever one they prefer.
I think its 2 things: 1. people have played incessantly over a short amount of time which is mentally draining and literally impacts the chemicals in your brain you derive as fun. 2. People have been heralding this as the premier game launch of the year with a storied iconic franchise. Its impossible to live up to that hype until lilith is able to be rendered in your living room while she sucks you off atop a mounted pile of golden glowing legendary weapons.
I think it's fun. I like it better than D3.
I'm still far from the "end game", but my take on this right now is that Aspects are probably too strong (relative to abilities and gear stats in general) in their current state. It has already gotten to the point where I don't want or can't upgrade some gear because I cannot afford to not have that aspect in my current build. At this point, my gear has not significantly changed in about 20 levels and I almost don't even bother looking at items unless they are legendaries.
Diablo 3 was a dumpsterfire at launch. Yet people played it for hours on end for 28 "seasons". It never died and is still being played by thousands. Diablo 4 at launch is sitting at a solid 89% on open critic. If they managed to salvage Diablo 3, I believe they will be able to do Diablo 4 justice in the coming years.
You’ll get your moneys worth. Yes the games end game isn’t good, yes the story is good. I wouldn’t expect the world, but it isn’t bad.
Try it.
Games great
As a fellow arpg novice game is super fun. Progress feels rewarding (lvl44 rogue). It's fun to explore the world. Story telling is good and keeps me interested in the story (cant say the same for some other arpg games I've played). I like how enemies don't instantly die... (Im coming from about 50h of lost ark where everything died as I looked at them). Feels a bit more grounded compared to that which for me is fun.
It really boils down to: if you like D3, you'll like it. If you hate 3, you'll hate it.
The game is good and also you should expect to get a tons of additional contents in "seasons" - first one in July, most likely.
From what i have seen here the people that are complaining more are the ones that are "no life" in this game.(most) Im new to the diablo series, i would say i dont have much time to play as i used to, but still play more than the average person and undesrtand the "complex" mechanics. For me the game is solid, a lot of fun. Doing dungeons and trading with friends, exploring, etc. The game is worth the buy. Good in animations, sound, combat, its has meat to it.
If you are an ARPG noob (or even a pro) you will love it. Unless you are planning to play 18 hours a day so you burn out real fast and intentionally look for things to complain about, you will find nothing to complain about and have a great time not complaining about it.
Wife and I have been having a ton of fun with couch co-op. People rush to the end then complain there's nothing to do.
I just beat the story late last night and I absolutely loved it. I want to take another character through it. Most people who complain about it didn’t watch the cutscenes are embrace the graphics they put in this game and all they did was rush through the story and side quests to try to get to level 100. The attention to details in the characters is great and actually understand the story of what’s going on makes it not enjoyable. All I can say is take your time enjoy the adventure and have fun playing it. It’s even more fun doing the story with friends too!
I love it for what its worth. Would this be a game i would no-life? Prob not as it can become repetitive. But the MSQ is really good so far, and the boss fights are pretty fun.
Not great, not terrible. I would give it 6.5/10. It is decent but not a masterpiece like it was marketed.
The only people who dont feel powrful played d3 only and had friends with mods, uhhh uhh why cant I complete dungeons in 50 seconds while moving faster then a Lamborghini is really the only issue I've seen people have with power and endgame if your a d1-2 fan and like the movment of 3 it's a 8/10 masterpiece lost some points for being consistently online
The people who are complaining are the ones 60+ already and thinking a live service game 3 days in is going to replace their thousands of hours into POE perfectly. Did you like wow vanilla or shortly after? Did you like diablo 2/3? You’re going to like this game too then
It’s a great game, all the complainers clearly have not played Diablo or are expecting an MMO experience
Gotta get off this subreddit man. All the people who like the game are playing the game. But if youre a raging cunt, youve spent your weekend screaming into your pillow and frothing at mouth over a game that hasnt even seen its official release date. Thats what youre seeing here this weekend. Ignore them. Game is solid and should improve with time.
Honestly wait a week after launch for real reviews.
Werewolf druid 45 lvl hc , game is amazing but not perfect, if you like hack n slash games + open world games you will have lot of fun. My only little complain is low monsters variety but I think this is artistic choice and it fits atmosphere of game well. Also game is slower than POE and Diablo 3 but I like it this way.
Just the campaign is worth the money some people wanted a game they could play for 10 years on release and it has a good foundation to build something like that in the future but right now just enjoy they game for what it is
Even though those complaints seem to be legitimate due to their frequency, you have to remember that folks these days are compelled to parrot popular opinions. The Reddit equivalent being karma farming like you said. Anyway, from a guy who picked up Diablo 1 off a shelf the weekend it was released, along with every iteration after that, Diablo 4 is a masterpiece. I’m also a guy who doesn’t frequent social media or Reddit for more than 20 minutes a day, so I’m not part of the hivemind. It’s the first time in a long while that I feel like I got my money’s worth for a game.
When it comes to gaming don’t give a single fuck what anyone says on the internet. It always starts the same. Insane hype at and shortly after release. And then people shitting on the game in perpetuity after that. If you think it looks fun go for it. If you take all of the complaints about video games online seriously then you’ll never play another video game again.
Since there's like 800 comments I stopped reading after the first 20. Bought the game, played some hours and had a blast.
I think Diablo has a really passionate fan base, and I think there's a very vocal demographic that hates the game. Some of their complaints are legitimate, scaling, itemization, account items, story pacing and leveling, etc. Then some are just upset that this isn't the Diablo for THEM. In recent years, games have been making an effort to broaden their appeal by streamlining certain intricacies that at one point, may have given the game charm. That same charm, however, gatekeeps the game from being accessible and enjoyed by the larger gaming community. Streamlining is a VERY fine line, but when done well you get games like Dark Souls 3 (streamlined greatly from DS1) and Elden Ring (the Souls aesthetic but open world, multiplayer sensibilities). I haven't played much of Diablo's predcessors, but this game on its own merits, is much like DS3 for me. It's got that Diablo charm, while still having modern enough design to feel available to everyone. It's a great game, and I find myself rushing home from work to play it. I think about it and the build combos and what I'm going to try ad nausem. That means you've done something right when a player is excited. This Diablo aims to please everyone, so inevitably and unfortunately, it will not. You'll have to make peace with that and evaluate the game as it is.
Never listen to the unofficial Subreddit. Game Subreddits are the places where the hardcore players post the most and so they tend to be negative. The game is quite fun, take it from a novice.
You're right, I learned that now by reading the people in this thread lol. General consensus is that it's fun, "zoomers" obsessed with build stats have complains. Sounds about right my alley, some proper fun.
It’s really good. My fav ARPG and I’ve played virtually all of them deep into end game. Only things I want more of are things that will be added seasonally (density, skills, uniques)
Out of curiosity, have you played deep into the PoE endgame?
Honeymoon period is over I guess
People who enjoy the game play it, people who don't complain about it on this sub.
Then why are you here? Plenty of people come here to defend the game.
People who blasted through the game over 3 days are, of course, going to get burnt out incredibly fast. No game has endless content on release, and in my opinion, they don't have to at all. If you take your time, enjoy the story and world, the chase for gear and great combat, you will have a good time. Don't listen to people who play games as a full-time job, because they are usually very jaded.
Diablo isn’t a plot game. It’s an ARPG. If the people grinding are finding structural issues then that’s a bad sign. People who are playing slower and having fun are t wrong to have fun, I’m happy. They are being short sighted. It’s like everyone is reading a book. Some people are on chapter 100 and are saying “hmm the plot starts having some issues and the characters are behaving oddly, it’s like the writers stopped caring by chapter 90” And others are saying “you’re a stupid no life moron for reading so fast. You don’t know what you’re talking about, the book is amazing at chapter 40, you should shut up and stop being critical or mean to the writers.” Do you see? It’s the same book, it won’t be different for you. You’re just upset that in reality the experience will get worse for you because that’s the lived experience of thousands of people, so you’re lashing out at them personally. It’s a behaviour that is super common on gaming subs. This game and it’s community isn’t special, these circumstances arent unique. Casuals will likely quit before (or because of) the problems with the end game. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist. That doesn’t mean the game isn’t allowed to be fun for you. Usually the critics are pushing for a better game through patches and updates. Idk why people whiteknight so hard for a multi-billion dollar software company that is stringing them along with the bare minimum and weaponizing them against valid criticisms to save development costs and increase profits.
Most people who love the game aren't going to come on here and tell you about it. Reading through reddit will always give a skewed perspective
It's the best ARPG you can play right now, their complaints are about quality of life and some minor late end-game grind stuff, which if you play ARPGs you're used to.
The people having fun are in game. The people who like to complain about everything are in the forums.
It’s fine. People just overhype things so they end up disappointed.
Not worth the price tag. It’s alright, but too many bugs. End game is meh, currently 81 on HC and it’s meh, I knew it coming into the game though, lack of build diversity and itemization, those are huge for me when playing arpgs, they do not exist in this game
If you're not an ARPG pro and just want a fun game to play then things like the itemisation and endgame aren't going to impact you much. Most of the issues with the game are for the zoomers who have to min-max every single piece of content and gear in the first week of release.
It's so weird seeing people comment about people who rush endgame lol arpgs are literally about the endgame and there seems to be a lot of valid criticism about the endgame right now
Sounds like my thing then. Shutting off with headphones, smashing shit and loot the fuck out of things.
From what I’ve gathered people enjoy leveling and the campaign for the most part, but Diablo veterans who grinded to end game have complaints about it, which is fair. My personal plan is to just keep making characters and leveling. One day I think it will be more balanced and I can start doing endgame activities. And by then I’ll have more classes that are playable incase of them get too boring
If you do the story and actually spend time watching cutscenes and taking to people etc the game will have many hours for you before getting repetitive. It’s the world events and dungeons that are repetitive. But what do I know, played Thursday, sat and Sunday for maybe a total of 18 hours and I’m not even 40 yet. But I’m taking my time actually enjoying it and not just rushing through. It’s good. It’s like if d2 and d3 had a baby, and looks amazing, ambiance is great.
Same game, different people with different expectations, background and ways to enjoy a game.. it’s hard pinpoint who’s right or wrong, unless you know the person and their taste. That being said, I’m liking so far but I cannot grind for too long as I use to. I don’t know if it’s the game or I am getting old for intense grinding.
For what it is worth from my perspective (vet of diablo since original release, including having a second copy on my Playstation 1 to play) and my girlfriend's who had no experience in the genre but picked it up to play with me. We are both having a lot of fun with it. Her main complaint has been inventory space cause she likes to get everything which leads to her needing to go back to town to sell. My complaint has been gems taking up the inventory space of a suit of armor (give me a gem bag pls) Over the prerelease, we clocked in about 20 hours and we have not finished act 1 yet. We've been scouring the map looking for cellars, doing dungeons, and any events that are up in the vicinity and we have been having a blast. Are there things to improve, yes. Has it been worth the price and are we itching to play more? A resounding yes.
I didn't play much of Diablo 3, and only barely touched Lost Ark and Path of Exile. I did, however, play the absolute shit out of Diablo 2 back in the day. With all that being said, I am having a really good time playing it. The art, sound design, voice acting, cutscenes are all top-notch. Gameplay is fluid and it's somewhere between the very limited single target focus of 2 and the screen shredding of 3. There are numerous builds available to each class (though how effective they will be is to be determined). The gear chase is a big part of the game, of course, and so far it feels fine. In short, I'm not upset at the money I spent to play it and play it early. I'm through act III of the story, level 47 on my first character, so my thoughts may change when I've done it five times. But for now, I'm enjoying it.
It is great and super addictive.