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Thoughts on Diablo 4?
I've been playing ARPGs since Diablo 1 and have over a thousand hours in PoE, was wondering what everyone thought of D4?
I think the slower gameplay is a fun change of pace and that the legendary affix system is an elegant solution to always making drops interesting.
Surprisingly, as much as I didn't really care for D3, it's game feel was excellent. D4 has taken an odd step back in that regard. In D3 when you bashed an enemy to death with a barbarian they flew across the stage, or melted into a pile of goo if from poison. D4 everything feels kinda bland visually during combat.
Excited to see what end game is like, still only level 35 so we'll see how this so scales later on.
Thoughts?
Previous discussion thread can be found here.
Ah woops. Does Tildes have a search I should have used?
No worries. Search box is in the top right corner.
I'm on mobile, looks like I needed to click into the sidebar to see the search
I'm enjoying it; the Necro's abilities feel appropriately messy, but at level 45 I'm not sure what more there is to do. Every combat is walking up close to the enemy, basic attack until resource full, core attack until resource empty, pop ult when there's an enemy that doesn't melt before my swarm. For bosses, occasionally resummon my minions.
I'm just not entirely certain that the loop of getting better gear to do that cycle slightly better will keep me enjoying the game. But I don't think that's a fault of the game; maybe some dopamine-triggering circuit in my brain has burned out on the idea of getting better loot if it doesn't fundamentally give me something new to learn? Incremental upgrades are boring now.
I poured tons of hours into D1 through D3 when they were released. Diablo has been one of my favourite franchises for a long time.
Despite my misgivings due to things I explain below, I tried the D4 beta anyway and just couldn't get interested in it. I only put a few hours into the Saturday morning.
I think it's a part of changing tastes, but I've also been put off a lot of games with the increasing monetization "strategies" large companies are packing into their games.
Every year the bar is pushed a little further, the new AAA games coming out have more and more psychological engagement mechanics (FOMO, live service models, recurring seasons, in game currencies and price strategies designed to try to get you to buy more in game cash, outright gambling). I find it very off-putting and I try to vote with my dollar, but then hear that Diablo 4 is blizzards fastest selling game ever, and on top of that, actiblizz treats their employees like garbage, outright engendering a culture of harrassment and abuse for woman working there. As far as I know, nothing really came from those allegations. All that is helping me realize that maybe mainstream gaming isn't for me as much anymore.
I'm not judging anyone who does like it, after all what kind of entertainment hasn't been touched by shitty behaviour, but it's all too much for me.
Anyway, I suggest perhaps looking to smaller developers, doing things further out on the edge of gaming, you may find something more there to your tastes? Worth a look anyway :)
Torchlight II with the "Synergies" mod on Steam Workshop is still my favorite ARPG style of play to date. Diablo 3 on the Playstation is alway a fun game to play couch co-op with my wife, but when I want some true insanity, I still load up Synergies on Elite difficulty and try to stay alive while my screen continually explodes with awesomeness.
Do you enjoy other ARPGs? Or is this a common feeling you get with the genre
Back in the day I loved D2. I had hundreds if not thousands of hours in it. It's possible that I'm just looking for different things these days? There's nothing wrong with D4, but the core gameplay loop doesn't thrill.
Same boat. I think overall it's a great game that I'm happy to have in my collection and one that is fun to play, but I basically got it to hang out with my friends since we all have families, and I'm historically the one to get burnt out on ARPG gameplay loops the quickest as I enjoy open world and multiplayer PvP games more. I'll continue to play it so I can do something with them, but grinding for gear isn't something I find particularly enjoyable. Hoping that Season 1 will bring some extra flair or something to work towards.
I guess I feel like it's just another rehash of a rehash of a rehash.
Is there anything that feels new?
As someone who skipped D3, there's a lot of things that fall under "metaprogression" as compared to D2. Your tenth hardcore character will be much more powerful than your first, because there's shrines all over the place that give permanent stat boosts to all characters in a "realm" (hardcore or softcore... I mean "Eternal.") There's no need for equipment mules anymore, your stash is cross-character so you can start each fresh new run much better equipped. A lot of the rough edges have been sanded away, and I think it's pleasant. I don't have anything negative to say about D4; it just didn't capture my fancy. It doesn't really feel like the formula has changed in 20 years.
Also an ARPG player since D2 here, also with thousands of hours in PoE.
I don't like the endgame. I've gotten 3 characters to 50+ (2 of them in WT4), and it's just kinda... lame? Itemization is boring, upgrades are boring (everything is just +% more damage), and you build is just done by the mid 50s. It also feels like the game forces so much tedium between killing monsters.
I dunno, I'll probably come back to check out season 1, but I've largely lost interest. It did however remind me that I've got a couple hundred divines lying around in Crucible league, so I've been playing on PoB for the past couple days trying to make something dumb work.