In a recently released interview, Blizzard explains the open world of Diablo 4 and how it affects the story of the highly anticipated title.
Who speaks in the interview? Blizzard employees Rod Fergusson (General Manager) and Joe Shely (Game Director) spoke in an interview with the online magazine IGN about Diablo 4.
What kind of interview is it? IGN publishes excerpts from the interview on the YouTube channel of the magazine, featuring their discussions with Rod Fergusson and Joe Shely.
Just recently, a video of the interview revealed that Blizzard employees stated that Diablo 4 offers more challenges when players defeat powerful world bosses.
If you want to take a look at Diablo 4, we are embedding the gameplay trailer for the Druid, Sorceress, and Barbarian here:
The open world should showcase cool things without feeling like a task list
What does Blizzard say about the open world? Regarding the open world, Joe Shely says in the video it must showcase the different aspects of the game without turning the map into a task list. Players should not feel that they have to complete all 30 possible tasks visible on the map.
Moreover, it was essential for them when designing the map to make it clear whether a place has a coast, a chasm, a mountain, or similar features. Players should not wander around wondering, “How do I get down there?”
Furthermore, according to Rod Fergusson, the open world should allow a non-linear gameplay experience of the story and differ from games like “Zelda: Breath of the Wild.” Nevertheless, there should be a story that starts at a specific point and ends at another.
In between, however, players can choose the order in which they approach the story. Fergusson mentions that in Diablo 4, players can, for example, play Act 3 first after the prologue, and then Acts 1 and 2. When replaying the story, they can, therefore, change the order and start with their favorite section of the story.
What will fill the open world? Although the world of Diablo 4 should not feel like a task list, there will still be side quests and similar content.
However, according to Fergusson, it seems more important in the design of the open world that Diablo 4 should not have an open world where there is a lot of downtime. The ARPG wants to avoid typical open-world aspects like long traveling or activities like playing poker or fishing that we know from games like Assassin’s Creed, Red Dead Redemption 2, or Far Cry.
Additionally, Fergusson states that Diablo 4 aims to offer players the possibility to stop anywhere on the map at any time and engage in combat against monsters through the “density” in the map design.
During development, there was, however, a point where the map was too “dense,” which was subsequently toned down. Generally, they did not want players to have to travel miles to see “cool stuff,” but the entire map should offer interesting things.
Diablo 4 gets the best features of its predecessors – The head impresses fans with just one sentence
