Diablo IV - The Real Official Thread

One thing's for sure:
I'm breaking out the popcorn for Blizzcon.

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As soon as I get into an apartment, I'ma get some Grim Dawn time too. Miss that game
 
I played a lot of Grim Dawn. The dual classes were a huge negative to me. As were needing a dozen different resistances. Drop rates were also very poor for quality items.

I played PoE for a bit but it just didn't feel right. The graphics were sub-par, at least at the time I tried it.
 
Love Path of Exile. I want to do an ARPG game, PoE it is. Hands down. I've tried Grim Dawn and...it feels fine, but I really don't want to put in the effort on learning a new skill and item system.
 
Yep, that looks awesome and in-line with the series this time. They had so much contempt for the players' opinions of D3 that doubled down and added Whimsyshire to the game as a big fuck-you.

The problem with D3 seemed to be that they started with a development group that thought they needed to rescue the series, as though D2 wasn't widely regarded as the best ARPG of all time. What that really meant was "how much WoW design can I cram into this Diablo game?" And I guess that shouldn't have been surprising with a WoW dev who didn't like D2 at the helm. They told us we didn't actually like playing D2, justified their streamlined design by saying people didn't like skill trees, etc...and then they launched the game with the normal-nightmare-hell-inferno model like that was the only way to make an ARPG. Most elements of D3 smacked of being pushed out the door after one too many re-design decisions ("just ship it and we'll fix it later").

So if there is an actual design vision for D4 and it's starting with "let's get back to D2 fundamentals" then it could be really good.
 
JESUS CHRIST the gameplay looked like shit. i didnt see anything that looked better than diablo 3. the cinematic was awesome, i was all hyped and shit, 3/4 stiff after that one. then the gameplay rolls and i got blue balled. a barbarian leaping into some fucking wolves from diablo 3
 
Yep, that looks awesome and in-line with the series this time. They had so much contempt for the players' opinions of D3 that doubled down and added Whimsyshire to the game as a big fuck-you.

The problem with D3 seemed to be that they started with a development group that thought they needed to rescue the series, as though D2 wasn't widely regarded as the best ARPG of all time. What that really meant was "how much WoW design can I cram into this Diablo game?" And I guess that shouldn't have been surprising with a WoW dev who didn't like D2 at the helm. They told us we didn't actually like playing D2, justified their streamlined design by saying people didn't like skill trees, etc...and then they launched the game with the normal-nightmare-hell-inferno model like that was the only way to make an ARPG. Most elements of D3 smacked of being pushed out the door after one too many re-design decisions ("just ship it and we'll fix it later").

So if there is an actual design vision for D4 and it's starting with "let's get back to D2 fundamentals" then it could be really good.
Indeed, as I mentioned earlier Blizzard's contempt for its own player base and telling us what we do and don't actually like has been going on for a long time.
 
Looks like more Diablo 3 which is okay...I guess. D3 was fun (at least after the expansion) but with all the other loot-based dungeon crawlers that have come in the years this doesn't really do anything to get me overly excited. I do like the over-all look of everything though.
 
Shouldn't this be called Diabla 4, on account of its a lady devil? What is this bullshit?
 
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JESUS CHRIST the gameplay looked like shit. i didnt see anything that looked better than diablo 3. the cinematic was awesome, i was all hyped and shit, 3/4 stiff after that one. then the gameplay rolls and i got blue balled. a barbarian leaping into some fucking wolves from diablo 3

Agreed, looked quite unpolished to me. Very disappointed but it is too early to judge, I guess.
 
Well, at least they announced it and threw out some gameplay. It's probably very rushed, all things considered. Looks very very early, and looks.. decent?



Shame it's probably a ways out. Poe and GD til then, I guess.
 
JESUS CHRIST the gameplay looked like shit. i didnt see anything that looked better than diablo 3. the cinematic was awesome, i was all hyped and shit, 3/4 stiff after that one. then the gameplay rolls and i got blue balled. a barbarian leaping into some fucking wolves from diablo 3

No.
 
Looks fucking cool to me *shrug.* I know it's popular to hate on Diablo now, so I guess it won't be well liked.
 
Looks OK to me. Kinda disappointed there are only three classes. Too for me to say I'll buy it, but I'm interested.
 
I know lots of people love the classic ISO diablo formula - and I played the shit out of Diablo 1 and 2 for sure, but I would not have hated Blizzard if they'd changed it up and done a FPS looter-shooter Diablo. Because that gap in the market is what the first Borderlands picked up and ran with.
 
Looks OK to me. Kinda disappointed there are only three classes. Too for me to say I'll buy it, but I'm interested.

Traditionally Diablo has 4 classes. I don't think the 4th has been announced yet. Were still a long way off. But it will probably be some type of Rogue type character.
 
They confirmed five classes but didn't say what the other two are yet as far as I know.
 
I thought both the cinematic trailer and gameplay trailer were great. I'm pretty excited and that doesn't happen to me often these days.
 
I think it looks more sinister and the direction D3 should have gone. So I like that aspect... and maybe it's too early to form a full opinion...

but... I was pretty disappointed in the gameplay trailer... it seemed... empty? like a lot of effects/stuff were missing? i didn't see much in the way of "effects" for spells and stuff, and what i did see didn't look all that great.. it also didn't seem to have the "oh god i'm getting overwhelmed by insane enemies" feel .. it just seemed like there was no pressure to the gameplay

Again, this was a small and early enough glimpse I could very well be wrong, though.

Super glad to see the art direction go darker though. I hope they stay true to that. The more sinister/evil, the better.
 
I think it looks more sinister and the direction D3 should have gone. So I like that aspect... and maybe it's too early to form a full opinion...

but... I was pretty disappointed in the gameplay trailer... it seemed... empty? like a lot of effects/stuff were missing? i didn't see much in the way of "effects" for spells and stuff, and what i did see didn't look all that great.. it also didn't seem to have the "oh god i'm getting overwhelmed by insane enemies" feel .. it just seemed like there was no pressure to the gameplay

Again, this was a small and early enough glimpse I could very well be wrong, though.

Super glad to see the art direction go darker though. I hope they stay true to that. The more sinister/evil, the better.

It did look empty, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and attribute that to the fact it is an early build. If it releases with that few enemies then it will be underwhelming.
 
This is the art style they should have gone with for D3. Yes there is still a minor hint of the "WoW-ification" from the engine, but it's minimal - from what we've seen so far this is exactly the kind of look that fans of the series wanted.

This game is going to be very successful. D2 is still seen as one of the greatest games of all time, and gently pulling the nostalgia strings in a true sequel is a guaranteed hit.

From the leaked Barb video the skill system still seems to be the simplified D3-type, I thought they would have riffed PoE a bit. That said it's probably still a work in progress so all we can do now is wait. In 13 days we get the PoE 4.0.0 announcement. This is a great time for players who like top down hack and slash action rpgs.
 
The game play trailer looks very brown. I wouldn't mind more color.
 
Traditionally Diablo has 4 classes. I don't think the 4th has been announced yet. Were still a long way off. But it will probably be some type of Rogue type character.

Traditionally?
Diablo I had 3 classes (and no Blizzard made expansions).
Diablo II started with 5 and then added 2 more (Lord of Destruction) for a total of 7.
Diablo III also started with 5 classes and then added one (RoS) and then another one (Necromancer expansion) for a total of 7.

There hasn't been any Diablo game with exactly 4 classes. I would expect that there will be at least 5 and that is likely the precise amount. If they have more than 5 to start it will for sure max out at seven. But I'd say it's VERY unlikely that the starting roster will exceed 6. My bet would be 5 or 6 heavily weighted to 5.
What they will be is anyone's guess, but there have been rumors (since before the D4 announcement) that Druid, Barbarian, Sorceress (all confirmed), and Necromancer (not confirmed) would be among them. Likely the 5th if they are trying to be classic (which it appears they are) will be some sort of Paladin/Crusader or similar or Amazon/DH/Rogue (like you stated). Any of those 3 will likely vie for the 4th and 5th spots, with a chance at all 3 being included for 6.

EDIT: Confirmed multiple times that D4 will ship with 5 classes. My conjecture is officially pointless.
 
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Is it just me or does gameplay graphics look underwhelming? Especially given that this wont be out for few years, I expected more in terms of graphic fidelity.
 
I'm the one of the biggest haters on this forum. I still say fuck actiblizzard. I was telling my GF the other night because she asked me about D4 rumors. I told her "They would have to do a toal U turn from D3 and return to their roots for me to pay attention". I gotta say this seems pretty fucking legit to me coming from someone who hated D3. I still don't trust them not to fuck this up but time will tell. This is the direction they need to take this.
 
I expected it to be a bit more graphically impressive....apart from animations, doesn't seem like a massive improvement over D3.
 
check out Diablo.com, little bit more information on there, some extra skills, and details about the world. Evidently it's a bit more open world this time around so the mounts are necessary.
 
I think the graphics look good, just need to fix up the lighting an occlusion a bit to make stuff pop, clearly this is an alpha and they're years away.
 
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