For a month now, you can play Diablo 4. MeinMMO reflects on the release, the criticism, and shows what Blizzard still has in store for the ARPG.
The 1st month in Diablo 4:
- Diablo 4 was released on June 2 in Early Access and on June 6 for all players on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.
- Millions of players worldwide have since played, leveled up, and killed demons. The first player even reached level 100 after just 46 hours.
- Blizzard itself published a statistic 10 days after release that shows: the Butcher alone had already claimed 5 million players.
What was well received? Upon release, there was great praise for Diablo 4. Especially the gameplay and the different playstyles of the 5 classes brought much joy. Diablo 4 delighted the community with its mix of modern and classic features from the Diablo predecessors.
It seems that especially casual players are thrilled, who have taken their time for the game:
- The story and campaign are considered excellent, especially by Diablo standards
- those who don’t play 18 hours a day have enough to do as well
- The difficulty level seems just right, harder than Diablo 3, but not as unfair as Diablo 1 or 2
The most interesting story around the release was how the MMO streamer Asmongold exaggerated and ended up in the hospital. Most players, however, are interested in tips and tricks for the game, especially builds for their classes. You will find our Tier List with the best builds in Diablo 4 on MeinMMO:
What was poorly received? In particular, frequent players complained relatively early about a lack of endgame content. At first, this only affected players who wanted to optimize everything in just a few days.
By now, there is a somewhat more detailed critique that addresses several aspects of the game:
- Players still feel that endgame content needs more variety. You can find an overview of endgame content in Diablo 4 from us.
- Control effects from opponents are too strong and urgently need adjustment.
- The class balancing is still not ideal, with build diversity in the high-end area very limited. This is also confirmed by our colleague André Baumgartner from GameStar, who already has 2 characters at level 100.
Additionally, there are smaller demands for quality improvements such as more space, especially for gems, or fixes for annoying bugs. The news that crossplay is enabled appears in chat about every few seconds.
In my conclusion after the test, little has changed. Diablo 4 plays excellently, even though I now agree with many ideas from the community:
Diablo 4: Many improvements, Season 1 and expansions in the future
What has been improved? Since the release, Blizzard has been diligently working on improvements and adjustments. Initially, there were mainly many nerfs. In a conversation, the developers explained, why nerfs are “for the best of the game”.
Overall, the dungeons have been adjusted to be relatively similar, so farming should be reasonably equal everywhere. Classes also have only a few differences in power outside of the high-end area.
A very large adjustment to the balance for all classes, as well as many quality improvements, were already introduced in the first major patch a few weeks after release. In addition to buffs and more pleasant nightmare dungeons, there were over 60 bug fixes:
What comes next? We already know that Season 1 will start between mid and late July. A specific date and more information should be provided in the next dev update on July 6 at 8:00 PM German time. You will find all of that on MeinMMO.
What will specifically be included in Season 1 is still unknown. However, we do know what seasons are generally supposed to bring:
- new legendary aspects
- special mechanics for the season
- new story quests that are standalone and not related to the main story
- a battle pass
You don’t necessarily have to create a new character for a new season and old characters will not be deleted either. However, to play the Battle Pass, you will need a new seasonal character.
Seasons are expected to be released roughly every 3 months. Blizzard has also confirmed that expansions for Diablo 4 will be coming. These will continue the main story and are expected to include new classes. One of them is already very likely:
Diablo 4 still lacks one class to be complete – And it’s the one you wish for
