Diablo IV Review – A Time Sink Worth Investing (XBX)

Diablo IV is a massive game that’s filled with lots of angry demons, and activities that one can do in its first attempt at an open world experience. It is easily a game that lives up to its previous titles, and it also is a game that can easily get you engaged to its systems if you are a fan of action role playing games. It’s been a long wait since the last major Diablo title was released back in 2012. However, the wait is simply worth it, and the direction that Diablo IV adapted feels right at home for a game that’s known for slaying demons and progressing your character to become as powerful as they can be.

There are many aspects that Diablo IV nails down, and it is simply the game to play in 2023. Once you put enough hours into the game, you may get heavily distracted from the real world, and what do you know; it’s 2 AM in the morning and it felt like only three hours passed by. That’s because the game has so much content and mechanics that’s designed to keep you engaged in its system. Whether it’s trying to get the next big item upgrade, doing various quests or dungeon runs for leveling, or exploring its massive world, Diablo IV seems like it was designed to be played for a long time.

You can play Diablo IV on Battle.net, Playstation 4 & 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X & S. The price for the standard edition is $69.99 USD.

Story – Falls Quite Short

The story is simply the least interesting thing of the game. While it does do a good job at getting the player immersed into its world in the first few acts of the campaign, it does fall short after that.

There won’t be too many interesting plot moments going on, but it does do a decent job at explaining some of the intentions of the enemies you’ll be fighting in this lengthy campaign. These plot elements did make this whole typical demon invasion on humanity theme a little more interesting.

Lilith is certainly one of the more memorable characters due to how mysterious she is, and some of your friendly allies are also rather likeable due to how courageous they are. You will also meet some familiar faces if you were a fan of the previous Diablo titles. But as cool some of these characters are, it’s still not enough to make Diablo IV’s story something you’ll remember in the long term.

Gameplay – The Campaign is Epic

Despite the game not having an engaging story, the campaign on the other hand, is certainly a remarkable experience. The game does a great job at making the players going through different types of locations, fighting all sorts of demons, and of course, bumping into many boss fights which are all fun to fight.

Throughout my journey, the campaign felt like it took me around less than 20 hours while playing on World Tier II: Veteran difficulty. Keep in mind, I did do some side dungeons and quests for leveling and trying to find better items for my Sorcerer.

For some context, I participated some of the early betas!

The best part of the gameplay comes from the combat. It just feels satisfying to kill demons, and the spells are visually stunning to look at. As a Sorcerer user, I believe the Deep Freeze ability is probably the most stylish spell that the Sorcerer can use, and it’s always gratifying to the eyes when it’s being activated.

Throughout the campaign, the game is certainly is not shy at throwing hordes of monsters at you, and it always feels amazing when you survive through them. But there are times where the game does change up the pace a bit, so the player doesn’t feel too exhausted from the combat sections.

Rares Are Back in Business

On top of that, the game’s itemization is rather reminiscent to classic Diablo II. Before the Lord of Destruction expansion, classic Diablo II’s big chase items were Rare items which are generally color coded as yellow text. In Diablo IV, it’s no different.

During my time in the campaign, it seemed like I was more excited when I found a Rare item over a Legendary item which is color coded as orange. But the Rare items also have the possibility to roll certain modifiers that can really be worth keeping. You can also upgrade them into Legendaries too which is one of the higher tier of items you can find in Diablo IV.

The campaign also allows the player to do many side activities just to progress their character better. There are many side dungeons that offer special bonuses that you craft them on your items to increase your character’s offensive or defensive powers. The game also has some random events that can potentially give you better loot or more crafting materials.

The Endgame – So Much To Do

When you are done with the campaign, you are now at the endgame. This is the stage where you truly experience the game at its fullest. Diablo IV is a time sink, and there will be so many endgame activities that one can do before they truly see the potential of their character’s strength.

The first endgame activity one should do is the Tree of Whispers which are basically bounties. You do them, you get experience and loot that can be beneficial to you. There are also many side dungeons that the game has and it’s good to do them for the aspect upgrades. These dungeons are also correlated to another endgame activity.

A Sorcerer tackling a Nightmare Dungeon.

The Nightmare Dungeons were my personal favorite endgame activity to do. They basically spice up some of the dungeons you can get access to around the world, and have interesting modifiers to them like how enemies can do more damage or there might be a random lighting that’ll struck you and you have to take cover when that happens. There are many different types of unique twists the game will do to add challenge to the dungeon. It always does make it feel refreshing even though you may bump into that same dungeon again while hunting or crafting the Nightmare Sigils.

Prepare to Theory Craft…

They are also extremely rewarding when you beat them because they reward you points to level up your Paragon glyphs. These glyphs are related to Paragon system which is only unlocked when your character reaches to 50. It’s basically another tree of passive upgrades you use to enhance your build.

It’s the section that’s going to make players sit and think how they want to approach their build, and it does require some brainstorming to take full advantage of it.

During my time with the campaign, I didn’t spend too much time looking at the skill tree extensively. But when I was trying to progress and improve my character, I definitely had to spend more time on it to optimize my build to survive the harder content.

I also had to correlate my skill selections to synergize the game’s Paragon system. Basically, the Paragon system will be one of the things players will need to do when they are not in combat. It’s going to be an important aspect of making your build thrives for the later stages of the endgame activities.

Keep Slaying & Looting

There are also World Bosses events which these boss monsters are extremely large in scale and tough to kill. They are fun to do for a social event, but it is easily the weakest endgame activity as far as efficiency goes. The World Bosses can take a while to kill, and the loot can also potentially not be great too.

An encounter with the infamous Butcher.

The Helltide events will take a random location of the open world, and basically give players an hour to fight challenging monster to farm some exclusive crafting materials that can allow players to upgrade their precious items.

The endgame of Diablo IV is simply going to test you whether you understand the game’s system to its fullest. There is many things to do, and if you’re the one that truly enjoys wanting to deck out your character as much as you can, Diablo IV will keep you hooked for a long time.

Graphics & Audio – Mostly Quality

Graphically, the game is acceptable enough for a game with high production value. Diablo IV isn’t entirely designed for the current consoles in mind, so it’s not going to take advantage of the horsepower of those systems, but it still is a game that does have a lot of pretty attention of detail throughout its world. Whether you explore the many ruined dungeons or exploring the exterior environments, the artists put a lot of effort in making this world feel real.

The game absolutely shows its best if you do bump into any areas while the game’s world is raining. It is rather cool to look at the areas around while they are wet.

The audio is overall well presented. Spells sounds punchy, the monsters sound terrifying, and the voice acting is also top notch. The only time that the sound department is lacking is the music. The music is mostly consists of ambient tracks as you explore the world of Diablo IV. While the musical pieces are not bad; most of them are rather forgettable especially compared to the soundtracks of Diablo I and II.

This Diablo IV review was played on the Xbox Series X.