With the upcoming expansion Lord of Hatred, Diablo 4 will receive a new area, a second new class, and numerous changes, including to the endgame. Blizzard recently released new images and information showing that Diablo 4 will become more challenging and colorful. Fans are reminded of its predecessor.
What changes in Diablo 4:
- On March 5, Blizzard introduced the Warlock as a new class for Diablo 4 along with some insights into the upcoming content.
- However, the video and some screenshots show significantly brighter colors than what players have been used to in Diablo 4. The game is meant to be dark and grim to stay true to its roots.
- The Diablo expert wudijo also received info in an interview that Diablo 4 will have new torment levels with Lord of Hatred – up to torment 12 (YouTube). Currently, torment 4 is the maximum.
What does this have to do with Diablo 3? One of the major criticisms of Diablo 3 was that the game appears way too colorful for such a dark world. Particularly the – actually rather cynically designed – world of Whimsyshire with unicorns and rainbows was responsible for this.
In contrast, Diablo 4 was planned as a step back into a dark world. However, users on Reddit now point out that at least the new map Skovos, its enemies, and the skills of the Warlock appear significantly more colorful, no longer “washed out” and grey.
The torment levels are also starting to resemble the system of Diablo 3. There, the highest difficulty is torment 16, which was introduced years after release. Similarly, the development is now proceeding with Diablo 4:
- The game originally started only with torment as the highest difficulty.
- Currently, torment 4 is the maximum that you can play.
- With Lord of Hatred, the challenge will be raised to up to torment 12.
Hundreds of users now see a step back to Diablo 3, but not necessarily a bad one. Together with the current development of Diablo 2, this could be a win for everyone.
“This is the right move”
The debate about how good Diablo 2 and 3 were, as well as whether Diablo 4 is going the right way, has been ongoing longer than the current latest installment of the series. The community is divided, and every opinion is represented somewhere – especially since there are still millions of players playing Diablo 3.
Accordingly, the changes shown in Diablo 4 have sparked many discussions. Some support the step, while others are strictly against it. However, in a thread, user carmen_ohio mentions an important point regarding the approach of Diablo 4 to its direct predecessor:
They are continuing to develop Diablo 2: Resurrected, so this is the right move. Turn Diablo 4 into a renewed version of Diablo 3 to make D3 fans happy, and make Diablo 2 fans happy by continuing to develop the game. Win-win for everyone.
carmen_ohio on Reddit
Just a few weeks earlier, Blizzard had surprised with the shadow drop of the Warlock for Diablo 2 – yes, the class has appeared in both games and is also coming to Diablo Immortal.
Together with the Warlock, a whole expansion has been released that improves the endgame and even turns ancient Easter eggs into sudden super-farming methods. At the same time, the vanilla version remains playable for all purists.
Especially the latest three installments of the main series, Diablo 2, 3, and 4, have long sparked debate in the community over which of the games had the best mechanics and deserves to be called the king of the series – especially since many newcomers have only started with Diablo 4: “Diablo 4 is the best Diablo so far” – fan asks how good Diablo 2 really was, gets hundreds of answers
