Hello Ladies, gentlemen and those of a non-binary or trans nature, my name is Daibhi, and I’m incredibly sorry this is a day late, but the review for Diablo IV is what you came to see. In this review, I’ll tell you the good, the bad, the downright ugly and most importantly, whether this game is worth shelling out for.
Before I start though, I have an apology of sorts to make for my absence. I haven’t been around to entertain you with my trademark sarcastic wit about videogames for a while due to my poor health. I lost a lot of important people to me shortly after my last article on here, and my mental health dropped violently. I’d be lying to and deceiving you if I said I was 100% better than I was a year ago at the bottom of the pit my emotions were in, but its fair to say that the black dog has been told to do one. At least for now, I’m okay. I’m getting the support that I need, and it’s fair to say that Gavin (the gaffer, so-to-speak) has been incredibly supportive. So before I get into this, I’d just like to say a gigantic thank you to Gavin. Moving on…
What is Diablo IV?
Diablo IV is a RPG developed by the clever buggers at Blizzard Entertainment, and is the fourth instalment in the incredibly successful Diablo series. We got our hands on the beta in March, and the game finally hit game shops shelves and digital stores on the fifth of June, or for those who pre-ordered the game, on the first of June. It was released on both PS4 and PS5, PC and Xbox (both one and the Series consoles). At the time of writing this review, the game has become Blizzard’s fastest-selling game (which when you considered they’re the people behind Overwatch and World of Warcraft, is really saying something.
The plot- Major Spoilers Ahead!
I’m not going to waste my word count by going over the lore of the game, because frankly, I’d be here all day and Gavin would yell at me for missing out some of the minor plot details of the previous three games. I’ll just give you a halfway decent plot summary instead and hope that some of this makes sense to you. You play as a character called “the wanderer” (cue that song by Dion). You can be one of five classes of character, and I’ll explain that in the gameplay section. You’re drugged by villagers who have all been corrupted by the demon Lilith, and you are force-fed petals of her blood, creating a connection to her. You escape and meet Lorath Nahr, one of the last Horadrim around after the events of Diablo 3, who explains a prophecy about Lilith and ultimately, how to kill her. A character called Inarious belives that he alone can kill her, so that he can return to heaven. From there, you’re on a wild ride of lore, dark fantasy, betrayal and an edge-of-your seat experience.
The Gameplay
Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye. This is where this game’s best strengths and worst weaknesses lie. So we’ll start with the bad bits before I tell you about the good stuff. This is largely because I believe you should at least play this game, and I want to end this review on a positive note.
Firstly, there are major latency issues with the opening two hours of gameplay, which really can feel discombobulating, and to be frank, shouldn’t be in a game that costs this much to buy. I really did expect better from Blizzard, considering how their previous games have turned out. It really does take you out of the game far too much. It’s repetitive, exposition heavy, and if you’ve played the previous games, the first two hours will make you wish that you could skip it.
Secondly, the proverbial elephant in the room and the permanent pain in my arse: No, not your mum, Microtransactions. I was extremely disappointed by quite how many options there are to buy things with real money to make the game easier to complete. Blizzard will tell you that they only monetized cosmetic items and a season pass, but when you realise that certain dungeons work better for you if you’re wearing a certain colour or cosmetic item, this feels like a sneaky way to shoehorn them into game where the game would be fine without them. It’s not ridiculously aggressive, and certainly not as bad as Diablo Immortal, but to be honest with you, I’d rather the microtransactions felt more optional.
The last negative point is how serious this game really feels. This game is almost begging with you to take it seriously, following us all taking the piss out of its older brother, Diablo 3. It’s serious to the point of melodrama, and the beautiful colours and graphics represent that. The atmosphere brought by the soundtrack is austere, grim and at times downright oppressive. To be fair, the soundtrack will probably get nominated for a golden joystick. However, considering the penny-arcade nature of this game, it’s probably laying on the melodrama a bit too thick.
Now for the good bits. Firstly, the gameplay is superb. Everything to do with your character, from clothing to combat styles are completely customisable in a way that harkens back to the first two games, but with major improvements. Whilst the world of Diablo IV is really bloody grim, the combat styles and how to master them seems like a good ray of hope. The sort of customisable options you get are impressive, albeit I think they could have worked better locked away for a few more hours. I really wanted to play and earn this, as opposed to the vegas-style slot-machine nature of unlocking them. This isn’t Forza Horizon, I expect better than that.
The graphics in this game are absolutely astonishing too, once you get past the first couple of hours. This is where I think a good portion of the game’s budget went. Everything from how the sky is coloured, to how certain things are shaded, right down to your character looks, is beautifully represented and animated to perfection. Due to the nature of this game, there’s a lot of deep reds, dark greens, a million different shades of grey, and the game really does push the proverbial boat out on this part. If you’re not sure due to the negatives whether you should get this game, at least play the game to marvel at the graphics. They have truly gone next-level on this one, and it shows.
£70? Really?
During these trying times, with the cost-of-living crisis going on, I’m not entirely sure whether shelling out 70 smackeroonies on this game is actually worth it. There are far too many latency issues and bugs in the game for me to quantify that sort of cash, but I’d definitely fork out about £40 for it. Fortunately, for my good self, The Hub paid for me to play this game, and I can tell you that it really is a return-to-form for the Diablo series as a whole, but with monetisation being a thing and even more money if you want a season pass, this feels less like a AAA videogame and more like an exercise in drawing money out of videogamers slowly. So, my advice is to get the game soon, but to wait until the game ends up on a sale either at your nearest games shop or on your preferred online digital store.
Conclusion
Whilst Diablo IV is genuinely a brilliant videogame, with stunning graphics, great gameplay and an amazing storyline, it’s buggy at times, the latency is a real issue and the microtransactions cause this game to not score as highly with me as it would have done without. The price point is also a major issue, as I feel that it gatekeeps a very good game from the poorer among us in the gaming community. It’s aggressively loaded with microtransactions in a very sneaky way, and it feels as if the developers were trying to make money out of gamers as opposed to giving us a complete AAA game. It’s overpriced for what it is, but a rollicking good time can be had, even if the game is far too serious for its own good. All in all, this game gets 7 Joysticks out of 10 for me.
Thanks for reading this, and being patient with me. Next up is a retrospective on Jurassic World Evolution, followed by reviews of the Rally DLC for Forza Horizon 5, and Sniper Elite 5.
For the Gamerhub, I’ve been Daibhi, and you are all legends.
