Out of nowhere, the first tests of Diablo 4 have suddenly appeared. Just before the anticipated announcement for the release date, testers are officially (and legally) sharing what they like and dislike. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus has reviewed the tests and summarizes the key details for you.
The first testers were allowed to check out Diablo 4 for a few hours and finally talk about it officially. After some players praised Diablo 4 during the closed beta, even though they weren’t supposed to, there are now voices from professional testers.
At 5:00 PM on December 7, 2022, the embargo apparently lifted, and a lot of new tests went online. We checked out what our sister sites and colleagues, like Twitch streamer Maurice Weber, think of Diablo 4:
- Here you can find the preview test of Diablo 4 on GameStar (Plus article)
- Here you can find the preview test of Diablo 4 on GamePro
According to initial assessments, Diablo 4 is performing quite positively. Almost all features of the hack’n’slay genre are well received by the testers. We summarize the most important positive points here – and classify what doesn’t look so good.
You can find all information about Diablo 4 in our collection article here. You can see the gameplay trailer for the release period here:
1. Classes impress with unique gameplay
The biggest praise went to the gameplay of Diablo 4. Each class comes with different abilities, a special class mechanic, and ultimate skills, as you may know them from Diablo Immortal. Stephan Zielke from GamePro writes:
Fights feel very impactful even with low-level abilities, and you can feel the weight of each blow. The hammer of the Ancient, already known from Diablo 3, for example, not only shakes the ground but also bends all trees in the vicinity to the side, and dirt flies in all directions while enemies leave only bloody spots behind if they are directly in the impact zone.
Maurice Weber also praises the gameplay, stating that after 10 hours he really didn’t want to stop playing. Diablo 4 will have 5 classes at release, of which 3 were playable in the test: Rogue, Barbarian, and Sorceress.
Here you can see gameplay of Sorceress, Barbarian, and Druid – which was not playable in the test:
What we still don’t know much about is the Paragon system. This is reportedly supposed to be available from level 50, and you can apparently skill mainly passive bonuses that further strengthen your character. However, this system was likely not available in the tests and has been changed several times in the past.
2. The world is as dark as promised
Diablo 4 is supposed to become darker again after Diablo 3 literally brought rainbows and unicorns and was generally considered “too colorful”. What can be seen in the pictures are dark dungeons and a bleak atmosphere in impoverished villages and lonely mountain regions.
Our colleagues write about bloody battles where Blizzard is apparently not skimping on guts and the like. Special effects are said to be particularly well executed:
If a goatman is frozen, it doesn’t just stand around covered in hoarfrost. It is completely frozen in ice and has sharp spikes pointing in one direction, shaped by the wind. If I let my hunter trap a fallen enemy in a poison trap, the acid can painfully turn that demon into a skeleton.
Fabiano Uslenghi on GameStar.de
Other media, such as Polygon from the USA, agree that the world has become dark again. And not in a way that is simply “edgy,” but coherent:
Blizzard spoke for a while about bringing “darkness” back to the Diablo franchise. When I first heard this, I feared that the studio would overcorrect with a game that is oddly edgy and “over the top.” Instead, Diablo 4 feels dark and medieval in a realistic, almost disturbing way that surely relates to Blizzard’s reference material.
Blizzard has previously announced that they want to focus more on making the world as immersive as possible and not overloaded with effects. For example, the usual color coding for special enemies is absent.
3. Story and antagonist are more present than before
The main antagonist of Diablo 4 will be Lilith, the Daughter of Hatred and Mother of Sanctuary. You will probably meet her fairly early in the game. However, the testers were not allowed to reveal too much about the story yet.
It was said that the antagonist appears repeatedly, whether through cutscenes, shrines, or followers. The black-and-white thinking typically known from Diablo is also said not to be as strongly present anymore.
Lilith is the creator of Sanctuary, the world you find yourself in Diablo. She is therefore the “mother” of the world and is revered as such. This leads to “situations where characters have to grapple morally and emotionally quite a bit,” unlike before when Diablo, Mephisto, and their siblings undoubtedly represented the evil to be fought.
Golem praises the freedom that Diablo 4 allows players. You can play the campaign as you please, not having to “stoically follow a path” but can change as it suits you.
You can find everything you need to know about Lilith on MeinMMO here. In the first reveal trailer, the Daughter of Hatred introduces herself directly:
4. Items are customizable like in Diablo Immortal
Legendary items in Diablo 4 receive “aspects,” special legendary affixes, but unlike in Diablo 3, you don’t have to wear the corresponding items or stash them in Kanai’s Cube; you can simply transfer their power to other items.
If you find a legendary item that you don’t need, you can take it to the Occultist, a new NPC already present in Diablo Immortal. They will strip the item of its power and give you its aspect as an item in your inventory.
With this item, you can then enchant another item – even a rare one, which, according to GameStar, will then become legendary. The system works similarly to the essence transfer in Diablo Immortal.
The difference is that you can only transfer the effect once. However, if you find an aspect in a dungeon, it will be entered in the “Codex of Power” and will be available to you permanently.
By the way, the comparison to earlier Diablo titles also was made in the US magazine IGN. The conclusion states:
Ultimately, Diablo 4 feels like a passively pumped-up version of Diablo 2, which I think is the best-case scenario for the game. It doesn’t ignore Diablo 3 – there are clear borrowings from its best features – but in terms of tone and presentation, it leans much more heavily towards Diablo 2.
Nevertheless, [Diablo 4] will be a huge game by any definition: the initial campaign will, according to my time in Act 1, cover about 50 hours plus the endgame content that Blizzard is particularly focusing on and that we have not seen yet […]
The Diablo chief Rod Fergusson promised this impression already earlier in an interview:
5. New feature: The strongholds
Strongholds are a new feature in Diablo 4, where you are supposed to liberate certain areas from evil. You will then have teleport points, merchants, or other rewards available there.
Testers praised strongholds for their variety and flair. For instance, GamePro describes three different events that all play out differently:
- drive out a vampire clan from an occupied castle
- save a burning village where succubi want to found a cult
- a village where new dungeons open up in the cellars after fighting a demon
How many of these strongholds there will ultimately be is still unknown. However, you will need to conquer them in order to explore the entire world and unlock everything later.
2 things that are annoying: Dungeons and (false) grind
In the tests, two elements scored rather poorly: Dungeons and the open world, the latter of which was supposed to be one of the major features of Diablo 4. It is primarily criticized that the dungeons tend to repeat themselves.
It is mentioned, for example: puzzles and layout constantly repeat themselves here. They always play out the same way, you fight against a handful of enemies, open a door, kill a boss, and that’s it. Similar dungeons already exist in Diablo Immortal, which also offer little variety.
By the way, Diablo 4 promises over 150 different dungeons. I myself had predicted a while ago that such repetitive tasks would occur:
Regarding the grind and the open world, GamePro mainly criticizes how the endgame should proceed. It says:
If you want to unlock further skill and Paragon points after level 100, you must increase your fame in an area. You gain fame for exploring the map and completing side quests.
There is also a crafting system, for which you are supposed to farm herbs and ores in the open world. How well that fits into Diablo or how much grind there will ultimately be remains to be seen. According to an interview with the developers, many aspects are still being adjusted, including this.
It is said that the first beta will allegedly start soon, and the release has also been leaked. Whether the leaked release in June 2023 will be confirmed remains to be seen. Concrete data is expected at the latest during the Game Awards on December 8, marking the start of Diablo 4.
I am personally very much looking forward to playing extensively. Even though my hopes for Diablo 4 may be very different from those you have for the game:
