Diablo 4

EoinHef

Got in tonight after a 17 minute queue, that was according to the queue indicator before I went for a shower anyway. Came back and I was in.

Got a sorcerer to level 10, then decided to restart with a druid.

Have to say it initially feels like a game they could have released 5 years after Diablo 3 but here we are 10+ years later.

The initial experience is the most bog standard go here, kill things start in a game ever, although some of the cutscenes are high quality at least.

In the end most people don't play Diablo for the campaign, it's for end game and loot so this beta was never really gonna matter to much imo.

nix

Minor Spoilers below i guess? I'm talking about my experience with the beta but no details on the story itself, just my take aways from playing.

I played through the beta today, leveled a Sorc, it was either that or a barb as i wanted to spoil the game as little as possible before the release and those two have been in it for the last two diablo games so they will play the same as usual im sure. And i plan on playing a Necro at launch..

That is if i do get it at launch, depends on if im playing anything else at the time i guess..

The game looks good sure, but honestly it just felt like i was playing a much darker version of Lost ark with the herb/ore gathering thats in it and the MMO like giant server, loads of people running around you that you will probably never interact with.. See what the end game brings to that aspect i guess.. How the zone was also was surprising, in Diablo 2 and 3 act 1 is set in Tristram, so they're very similar, in this it didnt feel like Tristram at all, it felt more like act 5 was in D3.. Maybe thats what they're gonna do here this time around.. Maybe end up in Tristram at the end? 😁

Gameplay wise, its pretty much exactly what you would expect, usual stuff, the end mini bosses in the dungeons are a bit tougher than the usual. Not so much nuke and run like before, they have attacks/mechanics similar to those of a dungeon boss in WoW, they had them in the Diablo games before sure but its alot more like WoW now i felt..

The biggest change i felt in all was how the story telling played out, it has A LOT of cut scenes and a lot more heavily dramatised than usual, theres so much of it in fact it kind of halts the usual pacing of the game. Thats what i liked about the Diablo's before, there was story there sure, but they done a good job of weaving it into the gameplay, now they have cranked up the dialogue and cut scenes, and for me it started to grate. They also managed to introduce the first annoying character in a Diablo game ever, when you hear pots and pans jangling you will know of who i speak. But yeah, not enjoying the story telling so far, im likely just being picky though.. New People to Diablo or those who just play through Diablo for the story and then stop will likely love it..

Anyway, got through act 1 and hit lvl 20 so have secured the open beta rewards for launch. I dont usually play betas so ill knock it on the head until June..

Andrew76

Is there anyway to compare loot before you pick it up? Thought you could just mouse over it on PC but how to do that on PS5?

Dcully

Played a few classes for few levels then a rogue to 20 but thats enough for me.

I enjoyed my time to a point, i dont play arpg games for story or lore i play for endgame grind and going crazy build crafting and its here where i have doubts about D4.

No doubt it will be a good enjoyable campaign but its that al important endgame that the devs have consistently refused to talk about that concerns me.

Other leading arpg games like poe and last epoch have superb endgame, it will take time after launch to get anywhere near these two for endgame content.

I reckon like D3 they are going for the casual crowd and thats fine.

Combat is fun,graphics and animations excellent , it an mmo-light ish which is reflected in the world, lots of roaming around and the mob density is really low compared to a traditional arpg.

I will buy for sure but not for endgame yet, hopefully in the future and with seasons.

Dcully

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120399021#Comment_120399021

Oddly for me as someone who is playing arpg games for over 25 years on pc with mouse and keyboard i recently started playing Last Epoch with a controller and it works great.

D4 also works great with controller but i didnt see a way to compare items on the ground with your equipped item.

Last Epoch displays it when you walk hear it.

Andrew76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120401783#Comment_120401783

No worries so, thanks. Yeah playing with a game pad was surprisingly good I thought. Like you said, it looks and sounds great and combat is fun. Outside of dungeons I found moving about painfully slow, probably the mount would help with that but I didn’t get far enough to get one. Tried a Druid for a few levels then switched to a sorcerer using mostly ice spells which was fun. Think I only got to level 12 or so before giving up though, I remembered why I stopped playing D3 - I got tired of the procedurally generated dungeons all looking the same so gave up a while after finishing the main campaign, D4 is more of the same it seems. Maybe that’s a staple of the genre so it’s just not for me anymore (can’t remember if Grim Dawn was the same as I thought that was good fun).

Edit: Now you have me watching review videos for Last Epoch. 😂

Dcully

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120401910#Comment_120401910

Seriously Last Epoch is brilliant, endgame is soooo well done.

I played it at various stages through development and its now in a great state 0.9f i believe so not too far off version 1.0 but they game has totally transformed from the first year or so.

Zizaran and ZiggyD have recent videos about the game which will inform you better than i can here.

[i would link but dont want to go OT to much in this thread :)]

I agree about D3 looking so samey with repeated tilesets etc.

Path of Exile needs too much of a time commitment for me personally and D3 is waay too casual to enjoy longterm.

I find Last Epoch sits perfectly in the middle for me, not as complex or as punishing as poe in terms of making your build respeccing etc but still complex enough.

Its my goto arpg these days and will be for a long time i feel.

super_furry

Having played Diablo 3 to death on the Switch, the series seems like the perfect distraction game - I spent hours playing it while watching TV. No Switch version this time out so I'm hoping to get it working on the Steam Deck.

Niska

Really enjoyed the weekend (well after the Friday launch). Played on Series X, PS5 and PC.

Friday night was all the wrong WoW nostalgia - 90+ minute queues, lag, rubber-banding, unexpected server kicks.

Saturday and Sunday were great - barely and queue times and mostly stable (just one crash).

Cross-platform multiplayer worked well - Discord for voice chat

(Aside - playing the same game on Series X and Ps5, and back again, I really noticed how much more I prefer the Dualsense to the Series X controller)

Game play it was a blast. Very MMO lite. Just wanted to keep playing and exploring. Almost certainly gonna preorder now - but will wait to see if there's any announcement on the Microsoft - Activision deal.

ketchupmessi63

I played necro and reached lvl 18, but was never in danger of falling in love with the game... Aside from the itemization (granted - the most important aspect of these games), everything else felt far too much like D3 for my taste, just with a brown/grey filter over it. What made D2 so iconic is how every single hit we land on whichever monster feels somehow "earned." Not so in D3 and D4 (apparently) - I just press a button and an AoE attack fills the screen with numbers and detached body parts. It gets old a lot faster this way.

I do believe that the final product will be a good game, though I don't see it dethroning PoE as the best example of the genre thus far or D2 as the go-to nostalgia title

Niska

There will be one more beta before launch - a server slam on the weekend May 12th-14th.

Mostly same as before, but with some class updates bhased on previous beta feedback / observations.

Same rewards, plus one extra if you manage to defeat the world boss, Ashava (who will spawn more often this time)

https://diablo4.blizzard.com/en-us/server-slam

El Gato De Negocios

I played Diablo 3 on the PS 4 when I got the console first 7 or 8 years ago and it absolutely fuckin wrecked my hands / wrists. My old man body cannot handle button bashers anymore.

brady12

10 hour free trial and cross save great for likes me who didn't get play it . Pity it's same weekend as spider-man 2 but i will make time for it and if i like it can get it on steam and use save on pc/ deck. any tips for which class pick for playing on my own ?

DeSelby83

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121264360#Comment_121264360

I found the necromancer pretty fun when playing solo. Lots of skeleton buddies and exploding corpses

_CreeD_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121264360#Comment_121264360

The current version, esp with a Season 2 character and the vampire power additions, is fairly easy so you won't go wrong with any. I went with a ball-lightning Sorceror this time and it's insanely powerful and encourages fast moving gameplay. You basically build to being a running/teleporting hula-hoop of electric death :)

EoinHef

So got this for Christmas for PS5, was looking forward to it.

I'm 15hrs in and it's eh OK so far, they don't seem to have really pushed the boat out gameplay wise. Very much in line with what Diablo 3 did imo.

I'll hold off on further opinion until I hit end game as that's what these games are about

Tonight though, the network lag or framerate drops have been mental, first character is a barbarian and everytime I try dash/leap I get a stutter, rally noticeable and tbh annoying, had it last night too for the hour I was on.

Anyone know a fix for that on PS5?

I am using the PS4 Cross gen edition which allows a free upgrade to PS5 version and also attempts to download the PS4 version when I turn on the console🤦

But it's definitely the PS5 version of the game I'm playing

_CreeD_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121555839#Comment_121555839

Try disabling Cross-Play. That's been an issue since day-1 with congestion. If nothing else it will reduce the peering load.

The campaign is mediocre at best but the game mechanics for event/dungeon play are miles above D3 imho. There's a LOT of build diversity that you may not have been introduced to yet in the the paragon board, min-maxing aspects vs. skills etc. The game can be fun up to lvl 50 but really comes into it's own from there, really from Tier3 on (and I am not a fan of games that take ages to get to the good stuff but when you have done it once you can fast track to that point pretty quickly with any new character). Also the renown things (esp. Altars of Lilith) now carry over fully to any character, previously it was some and not all, so when you have some time to kill focus on completing those on ONE character. This will unlock them for all so you'll get some nice Skill point and then paragon point buffs among others automatically that really help new games.

Niska

If you have Prime, you can get a cosmetic mount set with Prime Gaming (you'll need to link your batle Net account with the Pirme account:

https://gaming.amazon.com/deaths-burden/dp/amzn1.pg.item.26014ed2-e8f2-485f-9c24-df7724a4c435?ingress=amzn&ref_=SM_DiabloIV_S01_D06_CRWN

(They give free Diablo iV items monthly - including a 5 tier boost at the start of the last two seasons).

EoinHef

Finished the campaign and got level 50 tonight, have to say its felt like a pretty average experience so far.

Maybe because im playing as barbarian, there's so many abilities that are so similar to previous games.

I'll do the level 50 world tier dungeon tomorrow, think that let's me up World Tier to 3. Then see about world map events, I've done one or two but not fully succeeded in any.

Also have to wonder why there isn't pets that can pick up gold for you, it's a backward step for the game not having that. Annoying as I'm using bleed barb, so often leave enemies behind to bleed to death so miss the gold.