MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus is looking forward to Diablo IV like a child looks forward to Christmas. However, with every moment of joy, the worry grows, as the future of the entire genre may depend on this ARPG. Fans have been craving fresh, usable hack and slays for years.
“Looting and leveling – that must be included in a game.” A wise man said that, whose damn earworm buzzes in my head every time I play Diablo or another hack and slay.
Because damn it, Trant is right. A really good game doesn’t need much to be entertaining. If I can improve my character and bash those nasty mops better, I’m happy.
No other game does this as well as Diablo. No wonder, since Diablo invented loot in video games. Huge “loot explosions” or secret loot caves throw around dopamine as if it’s candy during Carnival.
Finally, Diablo IV is coming – a game that fans and I have been waiting for for over 10 years. Diablo 3 was released back in May 2012. How eagerly loot nerds wish for a sequel was easily seen in the emotional outburst when Diablo Immortal was announced.
This is no surprise. Since Diablo 3, there have been few action RPGs that can satisfy this thirst for loot in a gratifying way.
In me is a deep love for role-playing games, which I enjoy in entertaining ARPGs and dungeon crawlers. Since my youth, I have been a fan of hack and slays, starting with Sacred and Dungeon Siege, and I have early on embraced the Diablo series with its dark gothic style. Diablo 4 is definitely my highlight for 2023.
Hardly any good, large ARPG in the last 7 years
When I revised our list of alternatives to Diablo at the beginning of 2023, I noticed: almost all the games we recommend are either really old or do not have absolute top ratings.
Of course, I would never recommend you rubbish, but the problem is: there simply aren’t many good and contemporary alternatives to Diablo. The best alternatives from the list are ranked by ratings on Steam:
- Torchlight 1 from 2009
- Torchlight 2 from 2012
- The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing from 2013
- Grim Dawn from 2016
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is considered particularly innovative. Here is the trailer:
Even the biggest Diablo competitor, the free Path of Exile, was released back in October 2013. That was almost 10 years ago. Looking at the newer releases, they all languish somewhere around “balanced” ratings – or worse.
The acclaimed Wolcen, for example, fell back down on Steam very quickly, after initially being very well received. ARPG fans have grasped at every thread and hoped they would receive the next Diablo. But they didn’t.
Among the “newer games,” Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr performs the best, but it was also released in 2018 and has 75% positive votes just about qualifying as “mostly positive.”
The most successful may still be Minecraft Dungeons, but its playful appearance simply doesn’t appeal to every “hack and loot” fan. Most action RPGs of late have been at best okay, but no blockbusters anymore.
People who should know better are failing
The worst part of all this is that many studios apparently recognize the potential. Gearbox, which published Torchlight 1 and 2, released a third part in 2020 – but from a different development team.
Torchlight 3 was miserable and disappointed fans of the series immensely. In contrast, the original creator of the series designed a new, small game with “Hob” and gained significantly better reviews.
And then Blizzard came around with Diablo Immortal. I want to be clear: The gameplay of Diablo Immortal makes it the best “game like Diablo” in at least 7 years, maybe longer. It’s fun, engaging, feels rewarding, and brings action.
But for those who really love ARPGs, there’s a lot of grinding. In Diablo Immortal, however, there were certain limits on the grind, which could be partially – not entirely – circumvented with money. Not a good approach and a shame for such a damn solid structure. Because I wish that Diablo 4 adopts the gameplay concepts of Immortal:
Normally, indie games and AA productions fill in where big publishers fail and provide fans with new content. But even that hasn’t happened here. Looking at Vikings – Wolves of Midgard, Last Epoch, or Wolcen, it’s clear that there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
For me, that’s a very bad sign, as it reminds me of my not-so-secret video game love that has left me several times.
The latest trailer for Diablo 4 really grabbed me – hopefully, the level in the game stays consistent:
I have seen a genre quietly die
Real-time strategy games are my passion and would probably still be my top genre today if there were current, good representatives. For I have experienced exactly what the ARPG genre is currently heading towards: a drought so intense that no good games are being delivered anymore.
The only RTS series that was consistently continued at some point is Age of Empires. And even here, the third part was controversial, and I uninstalled the fourth after 2 weeks.
For many years, there have been no new real-time strategy games, at least no notable AAA productions. The best RTS for me remains Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War from 2004, and the RTS with the most potential is basically an indie clone of Command & Conquer.
ARPGs are not at the same point as strategy games yet. On the one hand, hack and slays appeal to a much larger group than the full-time nerds who love RTS. On the other hand, games like Diablo have continually evolved and improved.
Strategy games have almost always declined in quality with sequels or could maybe just hold the quality of the first part, see Stronghold. Compared to the Diablo series, the gameplay of Diablo 3 today is simply worlds better than that of Diablo 1.
Diablo 4 must be good – and so far, everything looks like it will work out:
There are already first reports on Diablo 4, including from my colleagues at GameStar and GamePro. Everything I know about the game so far pleases me thoroughly. The classes all have deep gameplay with unique skills and builds, visually I finally have a nice, dark flair again, and the story already grips me.
But Diablo 4 still has to prove that it will truly be good. That will only be seen after the release. Diablo 4 is so important because it can keep the genre alive. I don’t want to see another genre die that I like – I’m not Jürgen:
I have a superpower: I can kill games, and Marvel’s Avengers is my new victim
