The story in Diablo has always been kind of compelling because in all the Diablo games the story, which revolves around hell, is pretty damn dark and morbid and there are plenty of gross out moments along the way. Each time they come up with a new game I always wonder how they are going to possibly be able to top the story that they have built up to now but with Diablo 4? I think it is the best story they have made up to this point, and in my mind, that is really saying something.
The introduction of Lilith, the main antagonist in the game, is one that we don't really understand at the start of the game. It is just presumed that she is evil incarnate but that changes as the game goes on and I will admit that there were certain points that I was actually hoping she was going to win. It is a thing kind of how the Joker's motivations start to make a lot of sense and how Thanos had some great points in their respective movies.
This is very rare for me, but I found myself actually looking forward to many of the cutscenes when they would happen and this is the opposite of how I feel in most games. The final segments where they have some sort of epic battle going on, well I wont spoil it but that has to be some of the most fantastic cinematics I have ever seen in any game, ever. It's even better than most of the films I have seen.
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If you know, you know
By the time it was all said and done I was disappointed that there wasn't more to the story and since they don't just chug out new Diablo games like EA does with the sports games, I know it will be many years before we get another addition to this story handed out to us.
I'll leave the rest of it alone because I don't want to ruin the surprise for any would-be players out there but I'll just say that it is very rare that a story in a game gets to me and makes me think after it is over, but this one was so incredible that I am actually looking forward to starting another toon and going through the entire story again.
Here's some changes I am going to make with my 2nd playthrough and maybe you can apply it to your own style if you end up getting this game. While I will go into greater depth about this in the future, I'll summarize by saying that of all the games that I currently have paid for on my PS5, Diablo 4 is, without question, the best bang for the buck that I have done....and there is still so much more to do as well.
So, when you are going through the campaign here are some considerations:
You really shouldn't waste your time on customizing your gear when you are below level 50. Gear drops so often and is almost always better than what you are currently wearing so really tweaking the individual stats becomes a complete waste of time just half and hour to an hour later
Adjust the difficulty level as you go along. I kind of regret not having done this because unless something really stupid happened like I didn't realize I was standing in poison, I only died a handful of times the entire campaign. I absolutely annihilated the final boss of the entire game despite playing on the "hard" setting.
you should really transition out of the "normal" difficulty as soon as you have a grasp on the controls - which aren't very difficult to begin with
play around with all the skill types, especially the core skills. Once you start customizing gear to apply to those damage types, it can be really time-consuming and if you haven't taken the time to get to know what each of them are all about, of course they are going to seem dramatically weaker when you first use them and don't know anything about them and don't have any custom gear that boosts them.
That's all I really have to say about that because even though I kind of breezed through all the bosses (which is in stark contrast to POE2) I still enjoyed the ride immensely. The fact that the main map is still mostly unexplored means that I have a ton more content to go through and I am in no way even close to having "finished the game."
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once again, if you know, you know
I hesitated when it came time to actually press the button to pay $50 for this game, even though I was drunk at the time. It has turned into one of the best gaming "investments" that I have ever made. I can totally see myself getting a hundred hours or more out of this game and that is before we even start to talk about figuring out how to be strategic in multiplayer.
If you are waiting for this to go on special, you might be waiting for a while yet. They just released a new DLC add on and if history serves me as a benchmark, that means that Blizzard is happy with the buys they are getting now and see no need to discount it further. Diablo 2 remake only recently started to feature a discount and that wasn't even a new game. So if you have $50 and love gaming, I feel as though this is one of the best gaming decisions that you can make.
And I have only just brushed the surface of all that this game has to offer.