Diablo 4 was finally officially presented at BlizzCon 2019. Many fans are now asking: What will Diablo 4 look like? What will it offer? How will it play? We show you what we already know about it.
The announcement of Diablo 4 has caused a lot of joy online, but also some concerns. Will Diablo 4 be as good as fans hope? Will the wait be worth it?
In many places, including here on MeinMMO, fans are wondering whether Diablo 4 will meet their expectations. To answer at least some of your questions, we have compiled everything about the gameplay that is already known.
Gameplay and Trailer
for Diablo 4
This is shown in the trailer: At BlizzCon 2019, two trailers for Diablo 4 were presented. The first trailer showed a cinematic featuring Lilith, the daughter of Mephisto and the antagonist of Diablo 4.
The gameplay trailer, on the other hand, shows first scenes of the classes and their skills, the story, and the dungeons of Diablo 4:
Live and demo gameplay: Right after the presentation of Diablo 4, a demo could be played directly at BlizzCon. Many streamers spread this directly through their streams.
Some sites also had the opportunity for a hands-on for Diablo 4 and have already given initial assessments of the new ARPG. Here you can find more images and videos of the gameplay:
- First 4K screenshots of Diablo 4 directly from Blizzard
- Some streamers have already shown gameplay from BlizzCon and subsequently published it on YouTube
Diablo 4 features a Shared Open World for the first time
What does Shared Open World mean? Unlike in previous titles, you will share part of the world of Diablo 4 with other players. Only dungeons and the story campaign are “private content”, meaning they are instanced for you or your group.
However, Diablo 4 offers cities as social hubs where you can meet players, inspect them, trade with them, or invite them to groups. If part of the world is unlocked through the campaign, it will be “open”, meaning shared with other players. Specifically, this means:
- You “share” the world with other players, but are usually alone
- There is open PvP in certain areas if you want to participate
- World bosses appear as public events and require many players to be defeated – initial testers mentioned twelve or more players
- Diablo 4 will be more like an MMO, similar to Lost Ark
- Because of the “open world”, there are no loading screens between areas of a region
Classes and Leveling – How does Diablo 4 play?
These classes are available: Diablo 4 will have five classes at launch. Three classes have already been introduced: Sorceress, Barbarian, and Druid.
With the Druid, one of the community’s favorite classes from Diablo 2 returns to the universe. From previous gameplay videos and interviews, several abilities and features are already known:
- Druids can shapeshift and cast nature magic
- Sorceresses master elements like ice and fire
- Barbarians receive an “arsenal” that allows them to equip 4 weapons simultaneously
Which the two classes that are still to come will be is currently only speculated:
This is how you level up in Diablo 4: Diablo 4 will be a classic dungeon crawler adventure. Although you share the overworld with other players, you will spend most of the time crawling through dungeons or the campaign alone.
On the way to the maximum level of 40, you will learn new skills and talents repeatedly. Some things are new in Diablo 4:
- Talents and rune words return and allow you to customize characters – talents can be redistributed
- For each level, there is one or more skill points to learn new skills or upgrade old ones (up to skill level 15)
- Each class has 25-26 skills in 6 categories: Generators, Consumers, Class-Specific, Mastery (companions for Druids), and Ultimate
- Skills can be assigned to any key by default.
Loot, Content, and Endgame of Diablo 4
This is how the loot works: At BlizzCon 2019, Blizzard also explained the loot system of Diablo 4. It works similarly to the predecessors. It is built around legendary items:
- Legendary items change or enhance skills
- Sets will not be as powerful as in Diablo 3
- There will again be “ancient” versions of legendary and set items
- Legendary items will drop less frequently than in Diablo 3
- The strongest items are “mythical” legendaries (only one can be equipped)
In addition, Diablo 4 will again have a crafting system. This, however, is rather focused on improving and modifying loot and is intended to play a role even in the endgame.
You can always find the best loot, whether you’re out solo or in a group. Every playstyle can maximize their character’s potential.
This is the content Diablo 4 offers: The story of Diablo 4 is told in a non-linear campaign. You can choose at any time which part of the story you want to tackle next and whether you want to do something else in between.
A large part of the content consists of dungeons. Dungeons are instanced areas that can be “outdoor” or “indoor”. Each dungeon can have events and “quests” that make it trickier but also promise more loot.
If you want to test your builds, you can roam the open world, join public events, or compete against other players in the PvP areas.
What does the endgame look like? The most important and largest part of the endgame in Diablo 4 is expected to be key dungeons. These are dungeons that become more powerful versions based on certain keys.
- Key dungeons scale up, even in the endgame, providing a constant challenge. Details on this content:
- Keys drop randomly from other activities and are for a specific dungeon
- Hundreds of dungeons are expected to serve as key dungeons in the endgame
- Keys grant dungeons affixes that affect the enemies, the player, or the environment (e.g., invisible enemies or a lightning column chasing the player)
- Affixes are known before entering the dungeon – this way, players can specifically build a build for that dungeon
Crossplay between PC, PS4, and Xbox One
On which platforms will Diablo 4 be released? Diablo 4 has officially been announced for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It is possible that Diablo 4 will even support crossplay – at least Blizzard likes this idea.
It is still unknown whether there will be significant differences in gameplay between the platforms. A version for the Nintendo Switch has also not yet been announced.
Why no information about PS5 and Xbox Scarlett? Even during BlizzCon 2019, it was known that both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Scarlett would be released. Nevertheless, Diablo 4 was not announced for either.
According to lead system designer David Kim, this is because the team has been developing Diablo 4 for years. For PS4 and Xbox One, it is known that development can be done for them – for PS5 and Scarlett, it was still unclear.
However, a version for PS5 and Xbox Scarlett is not ruled out and is even quite likely.
Are you already excited about Diablo 4? Or are you going to wait to see what will be announced in the future?
