Diablo 4, cross-platform, now in beta

The Game Room
501

AIUI it’s mostly PVP, farming cosmetics and alts, and Uber-Lillith? As I said, not things I value.

After hitting 60, I finished the renown grind, and found and finished a few interesting storylines I missed on earlier play.

I’ve done some co-op play and it just doesn’t work appreciably better or different than solo IMHO, so that’s not much help.

And again, PVP is right out.

Oh well, it was good enough, and paid for by WoW gold, but while fun to play, and looking wonderful, it feels like a vehicle to sell expansions and microtransactions.

502

I’m level 56 and struggling to enjoy it. We play periodically but lately we’re watching Star Trek.

Honestly I thought D3’s endgame was boring and repetitive with the endless rifts. This feels at least that bad and I’m not even leveled yet.

I do enjoy the Helltide events and the side quests.

503

I’m playing a Sorcerer right now, I think I’m level 62-63, somewhere like that. I’m doing seasonal play and my entire goal is to get all of the rewards before the season is over. I am having zero problems with the Sorcerer… I am running a Chain Lightning build with no basic skills and just destroy everything. Between it and Crackling Energy, I am just shocking, stunning, and killing things without any problems. I don’t feel all that squishy either, between my Flame Shield and Barrier I am tough enough to take on content quite a bit higher than me without problems (I am doing Nightmare dungeons at 70+). I’m not quite ready for WT4 yet, but I feel close. Also, the build has a ton of mobility so it makes it easy to avoid damage as much as mitigate it, and both Flame Shield and Teleport break me out of crowd control. If anyone wants to see what I’m doing, it’s basically this, with only slight tweaks for my own preference:

My main on Eternal (Necro) is only 60, but he’s more fun and the game is easier with him. I created the Sorcerer for a change of pace, but really he mostly exists just to get stuff for my Necro. Once the season ends, I’m not sure how much or even if I’ll really play my Sorcerer anymore. It’s fun enough, but the Necro was what hooked me in beta and it’s still my first love.

I am not burnt out or bored with the game yet, but I think that’s partly due to the fact that I don’t play it incessantly. I play it for a couple of hours a few days a week. I play enough to make progress but not enough to get tired of it.

Will I play it forever? Probably not. I am doing seasonal play because when I bought the game, the version included one Battle Pass, and I like the cosmetics from it, so I’m doing my best to earn it all before it’s gone. I’ll probably avoid seasonal play in the future. It doesn’t seem like it’s adding that much content, I don’t dig the idea of starting from scratch with a new character (at least not too many times), and I don’t like chasing a carrot with a ticking clock. I want to go after carrots on my own time. And I don’t expect to buy a new Battle Pass every 3 months either. I’m sure at some point I’ll feel like I’ve done all I care to in the game and stop.

I do feel like I got or will get my money’s worth though, so I’m a happy customer.

504

Max level content is the same thing you’ve been doing since lvl 50.

505

Make of it what you will:

Diablo 4 peaked at 6,750,114 players on June 30, 2023, and on average it maintains a peak of 42,621 concurrent active players each day . - SOURCE

506

Even my husband lost interest. Maybe Season 2?

507

Given how Blizzard has done with all this I wouldn’t hold my breath. They’ve lost 99.4% of their players from their peak (maybe more by now). It will take a lot to come back from that. I sincerely hope they do but I have no faith they will.

508

I still play. It’s fun.

:man_shrugging:

509

I haven’t touched it since the day BG3 came out and can’t see any reason to fire it up while that game has its grip on me.

510

So, I went back and forced myself to level past 70, to try tier 4 (since all the content jumped to 75 the last time I did that, it was a painful and pointless effort trying at 68 when I would just miss/fail due to level difference), and it did help with the feeling of being OP, by going too far in the other direction. Because the only useful content right now is nightmare dungeons, which for teir 4 requires 21+, and all the sigils I created took me straight into conflict with 78-79 enemies, which of course, made me auto fail all over again.

-sigh-

So I spent some time thinking about DIablo 4, and how it made me feel. Was I having fun? Did I want to do more? Was I looking forward to the inevitable paid DLC? And I realized that the game made me feel two things: nostalgically amused, and disappointed.

The first is probably the obvious one. Everything about D4 feels like a ode to the old days, it feels exactly like D1-D3 - the trying out of different builds, the eyeballing each piece of gear as it dropped looking for upgrades, the stockpiling of gems to cram together, the “uh-oh” as you realized you were low on potions, the in-jokes / callbacks to those who had played earlier iterations. Sure it had much more modern graphics and effects, and a veneer of crafting, but it felt exactly the same as the games of the past.

Which is the -exact- reason for the disappointment. When the prior games came out, it was an age where you might not have another major release in a year (by anyone!), so you played the hell out the game, enjoying every little bit. Or you played on ever harder difficulties for bragging rights with your friends, or to squeeeeeeeze out that one or two extra points by praying to RNGesus for that -one- drop. It didn’t make a lick of difference if nothing else changed, because it was all about level, points, and gear.

But I’m not, and I think overall, few gamers are, like that anymore. More modern games make a big deal about choice, even if it’s almost always an illusion. You get to pick who (or if) you romance someone, who your companions along the way will be, who will survive, which ending and or/morality you strive for. Games like Mass Effect, Skyrim, Cyberpunk 2077 all make these elements, illusional or not, a key element of the players willingness to do the grind again.

D4 - none of that. No matter what you do, at most you can chose to do or not do side story quests. You have ZERO illusion of choice. And it’s probably appropriate for a Crapsack word like Sanctuary, where even god-like beings continue to fail and fall by the legions. But for me, it makes everything I do feel pointless.

So, yeah. I don’t regret buying or playing the game, but I can’t see myself bothering with any of the future seasons, or even grinding to 100. Will I buy any story dlc? Even if I’m paying for it with WoW, I’m not even sure I’ll do that. It’s not that D4’s style is absolutely wrong, but I feel it’s a huge missed opportunity to bring the game to a new level, and instead it feels more like an amazing re-master, being released at premium price.

511

It seems Blizzard is only making the game worse. I guess as player numbers dwindle they will milk those remaining for all they are worth:

512

Haven’t played in months. We thought about doing the new season but neither of us were enthused. Don’t know how they dropped the ball so hard on this one. I don’t even really understand why I don’t find it fun. I played the hell out of D3 off and on for years. What is the actual difference with this one?

513

I will say that the end game is nothing more than a grind. I had a lot of fun building up toward it and going through the story quests, and leveling up my characters. But at a certain point the only thing that’s left is spamming dungeons over and over again. Sure, there are other events you can get involved in but those that are worth doing are sparse and time-locked, and get tedious as well.

Blizzard’s answer to the issue is seasonal play, but I only did Season 1 because the game package I had initially purchased when I bought the game included one season unlock. And it was okay to do once, though the need to grind and complete all of the objectives before the season ended to unlock every reward (which I managed to do) made the game feel like a job and gave real Diablo Immortal feelings (which isn’t a good thing). I have had no interest in doing it again.

I still go back and play now and then, because I own the game and the actual combat can be really fun, it just doesn’t engage me for very long.

The over-the-top microtransactions are so optional they don’t bother me. I have multiple horse models and armors and stuff already, I don’t need another one. If someone wants to drop that kind of cash on something so silly bless their heart, I hope they enjoy it.

514

I liked this game when it came out but one day I was just “ok I’m done” and I’ve had zero desire to pick it back up again.

515

It might be worth another look soon (maybe):

Full Title: Blizzard just revived Diablo 4 with a list of changes so massive that it’s practically a new game

516

This gives me hope, thank you for that.

517

I had read the linked article earlier and it sure looks like the itemization is improved, which is a help.

But I’m not sure I’ll be back. Grind the RNG was terrible, granted, and left you felt you had played hours for nothing, but the lack of agency still leaves me feeling that while a very faithful continuation of the Diablo storyline, it isn’t the game for me anymore.

It reminds me of some long time players of the Warhammer 40k franchise. You can only do so many years of pyrrhic victories and glorious defeats before you feel there is no point in how WELL you do either.

Speaking from the perspective of the Lore, rather than being an awesome badass on the tabletop / CRPG / painter / etc.

518

It’s killing me…I very recently read an article that showed players kinda want the grind. It’s weird but they (mostly) do. Some people just want to bang shit out over and over again. That dopamine hit as they get a little better each time I guess.

I don’t get it but it seems popular.

Sorry I have no cite…I did just read this, I will keep looking. (the dopamine but was my addition, not in the article I mentioned)

I don’t like it but no one asked me.

519

It doesn’t seem unlikely to me, heck I still play WoW after all, but if, as a distinction, I’m grinding Gold or Reputation, I get the hit because each action makes a verifiable improvement.

Constantly doing something that gives me a (minute!) chance at getting an improvement (raiding in WoW for the Best In Slot item), or hoping for the perfect fit item in almost any game, is more akin to gambling to me, with equally poor results.

So it probably all has to do with the underlying personalities. The all-in vs the slow and steady. And I’m in the slow and steady group. Especially, because like in all such persistent games, to keep the base coming back to gamble, you have to release new rewards! So those BiS items will be surpassed, in the next big patch, DLC, expansion, or what have you. So it’s even more futile to me, especially as I don’t care about bragging rights to my group of friends or blog.

But to quote a terrible favorite of a movie “But gold will ALWAYS be gold!”

520

Exactly. I feel like you’re grinding for lootboxes here with a tiny chance of the box having something useful, and the rest of the time it’s garbage you sell for useless coin, because pretty quickly in this game you end up with literally millions of gold pieces and nothing to spend it on.

Funny enough, in this game gold will always be gold, but gold often doesn’t get you anything.

I hate to say it but Diablo Immortal had a lot more to it. You had warbands and clans with real goals. I was part of a solid community in that game. The big problem is that it’s a massive pay to win nightmare. As much as grinding for a chance at a tiny upgrade might suck, what’s worse is when you replace that grinding with paying real cash (to the tune of thousands of dollars for the dedicated people) for lootboxes instead.

If you were to take out pieces of the two games and put them together you could have the best Diablo game ever. Sadly, we have what we have.