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Introduction

This is one of those posts where I’d start with something like, “Let’s be Frank” but Frank’s retired, so, to put it bluntly, Diablo 4 is my first Diablo game…ever. And to drive that home, unless there’s a Diablo 5 that tops this, it’ll probably be the only Diablo game that I play, ever.

That’s a tough pill to swallow for any Diablo fans out there, but I promise it’s not because I didn’t like this game. In fact, the game is amazing! In all honesty, I’ve never had this much fun with a game like Diablo 4.

I believe, before we proceed, we should go through the various ways this game was pitched to me until, inevitably, someone else got it for me😜.

Diablo 4 – Pitch #1:

The first time I really spoke to someone about Diablo was what piqued my interest. This was back in, high school (maybe). Instead of listening to the teacher we sat together in the back of the room with my friend aggressively trying to convince me of this series’ awesomeness. He described it as a dungeon crawling looter where you run around killing everything in sight and taking all the gold you could carry.

Sounds pretty cool, but the closest thing I could relate it to at the time was Borderlands or RuneScape. He immediately refuted the comparison to Borderlands which turned me off since I enjoyed that game.

Instead, he said it was loosely comparable to RuneScape – that it was similar in mechanics but completely different in how the game was executed. I took this for what it was, and we never talked about it again. This was mostly because I could never get behind RuneScape’s top-down camera settings.

Diablo 4 – Pitch #2:

This was years later, much more recently in fact. This friend was a bit more tactful in his approach. He went into detail discussing how aspects of the game reminded him of more than just RuneScape. For example, he told me that the looting is like Destiny with tiered weaponry and equipment. That the combat was comparable to Dynasty Warriors but with an open world and less fodder enemies. But what caught my eye the most was when he mentioned dungeon crawling and event bosses. I’m a sucker for a good dungeon crawl with worthwhile loot. I was on the cusp of just buying the game outright, but the top-down camera angle was still holding me back. Then in came pitch #3.

Diablo 4 – Pitch #3:

This was while I was away in Rochester for the 2^nd time and this person was thorough to say the least.

He went into detail on the classes, abilities, weaponry, armor, the bosses. He really gave me the works! If there’s one thing that you better know about me at this point, I love to have options, and I love to customize things. I want to be able to play something and it feel like my experience is my own, even if hundreds of thousands of other people are going through the same thing. But above all of this, above all the reassurance about the camera angle, and even the customizability, he said one word and I was sold: Necromancer.

Any game that lets me summon the dead to do my bidding is something that I want to have. My plan from there was to return home from Rochester pt. II and buy the game immediately. Unbeknownst to me, our little friend from Pitch #2 was way ahead of me. He purchased the game AND downloaded it for me, what a guy!

First Impressions

I would say it was the first or second night back where I booted up the game and got things rolling. I made myself a voluptuous female necromancer named Bells, summoned a few skelly boys, and got to killing. It wasn’t long before I realized that I was killing things way, WAY too easily. The world difficulty was set to easy, since it was my first Diablo game, but it proved to be a cake walk. One quick difficulty change later and things felt much better.

Or at least that’s what I would like to say. I exited the first main city (Kyovashad) to an event and was immediately curb-stomped by the behemoth of a boss. Being fair, the event was 2-3 levels above me, and I was still a bit overconfident. This was the first of many times that I would die in Diablo 4. However, like in all games that I’ve played, death, is but an obstacle for progress.

And progress I did. Through many dungeons and events, I can confidently say that I know when to fight🔪🔪🔪, and when to run for my sad pathetic life🏃‍♂️💨

Basic Mechanics:

Now that I’ve spilt the beans on my playthrough, let’s talk a little on the mechanics. As I’ve mentioned this game is played with a top-down point of view. This means that the camera is always at some angle directly above your character. I dislike this this because it gives me flashbacks to League of Legends (a game that I despise). While this initially seemed like a con, it proves useful with the mobs of enemies that you’ll encounter. These enemies come from all directions, and I do mean ALL. With a bird’s eye view, you’re able to determine the best approach to handle most combat related situations.

Speaking of combat, which comes in many forms, you will encounter a myriad of enemies. Some of these enemies are imbued with “elemental” powers that sill drastically impact how you handle them. Here is a few examples: corrosive enemies have a puddle of acid surrounding them that does damage over time (DOT) to anyone nearby. Or lightning imbued enemies that do electric area of effect (AOE) attacks when they teleport. You will encounter much more than just these two so it’d be smart to count your ducks before picking a fight you may not win.

The final mechanic I feel necessary to discuss is Diablo 4’s Hardcore mode. While I have not partaken (yet) it includes harder enemies & better loot, but at the risk of losing everything upon death. Yes, I mean everything. If you die, the game deletes your character and ANY progress/weapons/items etc. with it. With that in mind, lets discuss some pros and cons about Diablo 4.

Pros & Cons:

Pros

Let’s get right to one of my favorite parts: those juicy skill trees. As of writing this I’ve only played the Necromancer and Sorcerer. Both of which have abilities that just shred enemies apart. I can only imagine how creative the other classes are. As a Level 28 Necromancer I’ve invested a good amount into Blood and Dark skills. The bone abilities didn’t impress me very much, so I’ve avoided them (at least for now). I’ve opted for reaper skeletons in favor of their corpse creation ability. With my mage skeletons I decided it best to forgo them to increase damage to vulnerable enemies. As far as the golem…well, I’m still trying to figure out how to summon it. We’ll get there eventually.

Another aspect of Diablo 4 I’ve really enjoyed is freely exploring the map with no restrictions other than my level. The open world in this game is massive, like super massive. But I don’t usually care about an expansive world if there’s nothing for me to do in it. And that, that right there, is where Diablo 4 does something that not many open world games do: make the open world interesting. With live events and other players, and dungeons SO MANY DUNGEONS there is a lot to engage with.

All of this contributes greatly in making things feels noticeably less barren. I can move from town to town taking the same paths multiple times and find something new to do with each pass. These live events, in my opinion, save the game from one of its biggest flaws: slow movement.

Cons

That’s right, I said it. On the flip side of everything I love about Diablo 4, I cannot stand slow transportation. With a measly dodge that pushing you forward a tiny bit and has a 6-7 second cooldown it is mind-numbing at best. Yes, I’m aware of the horses, but now I have to mount/dismount to enter dungeons, engage enemies, and interact with events. It creates a half-solution where a new problem is introduced.

What’s that, fast travel you say? What about all the dungeons that end up being 50% in between two fast travel locations? I still have to run to those. All I’m saying here is that maybe a sprint button, or something that makes me move faster out of combat.

😤😔 This is nitpicking at most, so don’t take it seriously. As I said before, Diablo does seem to counteract this by placing events all around cleared areas, so it isn’t horrible. It could just be better, that’s all.

Takeaways:

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this game so far. While I still haven’t tried out that hardcore mode, I look forward to building up a bloody necromancer that sends waves of blood and eventually trying out some of those bone abilities that I’ve been ignoring. Maybe eventually I’ll find a horse that loves me and my undead ways. Hopefully then it won’t be such a pain to get around.

But for now I will stubbornly walk everywhere, dodging absolutely nothing just to speed up a tiny bit #nohorselife.