I remember the feeling of playing Diablo (yes the first one) as a kid for the first time. It was unlike anything I had played to that point. Since then, I've put 1000s of hours into the franchise across the various games and expansions. With all that in mind, Diablo 4 is easily the best game of the series. If you see all the complaining on Reddit about "X thing sux" or "I hate y thing" ignore it. The game is not perfect, and some systems can be improved, but it is a brilliant game. It re-ignited similar feeling as the first, which is saying a lot given my age difference.
My Progress
I beat the final boss at level 45 and completed the Capstone dungeon at ~46 to unlock Nightmare mode. I'm having a blast running around doing events and Helltides while under-leveled. The items that drop have jumped up in power, which feels a lot like Diablo 2 when moving from Normal to Nightmare. The immediate power boost feels excellent.
I haven't even opened up the Paragon board yet! I whole new level of customization and power to look forward to. I also haven't done a Stronghold, but they sound fun.
I'm playing a rogue named Sneaks. What a BAMF this guy is!
I knew I wanted a dagger-wielding assassin, but early on I had to go with bows and crossbows. The early skills and the items I found just made a ranged character much easier to pilot. I'd say around level 15 I found my first good dagger, refunded my skills, and never looked back.
My build focuses on Flurry and poison; however, instead of being a glass cannon, I've invested into lots of different mechanics to control enemies and make myself tougher. I'm guessing that's partly why I was able to do some content early.
My general gameplan:
- Imbue daggers with poison
- Roll into the mob of demons and flurry. This stacks a ton of poison and stuns them.
- I spend a second or two dealing massive AOE damage (flurry) and then drop a poison trap.
- Poison trap goes off, which knocks them down and yes, applies more poison.
At that point, most mob groups are gutted. For harder mobs, I can tank a lot of damage due to some passives and aspects, but if things get too hairy, I can use concealment: the reason I picked Rogue.
Concealment lets you go invisible, walk through mobs, and based on your passives heal and do more damage. Importantly, it also buys time for your cooldowns to reset you can repeat the general gameplan as many times as needed.
- While hidden I'm healing for a ton per second
- When I reveal myself I do massive guaranteed critical damage and drop stun grenades.
I've always mained ranged characters, but this guy is so satisfying to play. I played sorceress and necromancer in the open beta weekend events, and they were solid, but this is a whole other level of fun.
I can't talk about progress without mentioning my bad ass mount! That Ashava trophy horn is massive and awesome. I'm pretty sure I got the horse armor because I bought the game 1 hour before it was officially released, which counted as pre-sale. Nice!
The large, open world demands a method of moving around quickly. The horse feels good to pilot and even has a few skills to use while mounted.
Currently, my next main goal is to get to level 50 and start looking at the Paragon board. I have no idea what it looks like or what I'm going to do with it, but I'm excited. I also want to work in the Ultimate skill that summons a copy of yourself. I think I have enough defensive skills/stats to drop Dark Shroud (the #2 skill in the skill bar).
General Review
The story is A+. So good I don't want to spoil anything for you, but some of the later cutscenes are just phenomenal. The characters (including villains) have much more depth and motivation than past games where "I dunno they're just evil" was the extent of their depth.
The skill system is really solid. I was able to play around with lots of different builds while leveling up. At the same time, the gradually increasing refund costs (as you level up) encouraged me to make a decision and invest in my character. I could still easily afford to respec my entire character and go back to using bows if I wanted, but I'm not tempted to save two sets of gear to swap back and forth everytime I find a slightly better weapon. Given that I'll be trying out seasonal play, I'll just roll another character if I want a completely different build.
I have read comments about a lack of skill variety. However, realize that these are people who ran through the game 24/7 until there was no more content left. At the highest difficulty, sure, not all builds may be viable. For your first play through of the story, just play what you want. When you get to Torment ultra try-hard dungeons, you can respec. Also, Blizzard can easily patch and rebalance skill strength.
The items have been a lot of fun. Legendary gear gives you really strong affects that can drastically enhance your build. Right now, for example, one of my legendaries causes me to throw stun grenades whenever I evade. Another makes my flurry fire blades in 360 instead of 180 degrees. Then you realize there are items above legendary...then you realize there are items above that! Amazing.
People bitching about too many combinations of "dead +X% damage given Y status effect" may have a point. I think several of them can be collapsed, but at the same time, it makes finding just the right item feel really great. I haven't started doing a lot of item upgrading yet, because major upgrades are still falling regularly, but I know you have some control over what affixes you get.
Conclusion
For the people who want this game to replace their real lives and have unlimited build diversity and content, I don't know what to say. That can't be the measuring stick of a game. This game has been worth every penny, and I've only played to nightmare with a single character. Diablo is a series well known for its replay value, and D4 will be no exception.
I'm having a blast and highly recommend it to anyone who even kind of likes ARPGs.