I seriously wanted to really get into Diablo IV when it first launched back in June. Despite getting a code from Blizzard for the Battle.net version around launch, I was elbow deep in Final Fantasy XVI at the time, working on that review. Yet when I finally settled down to play - it just did not click for me like I expected it would.
Part of this was my sheer inexperience with the legendary ARPG series. I've written before who I was basically a Diablo noob when I picked up Diablo II: Resurrected, and that is still somewhat true when I created my first Diablo IV character - a Necromancer.
Yet, after spending a month watching my friends have fun in Diablo IV while I was finishing up Summer Games Fest and FFXVI coverage, the game didn't quite click with me. I tried a Sorcerer (which was right before one of the major nerfs) and I had more fun, but still, it just didn't last.
Part of it is simple for me: after spending so long each day at my computer, the last thing I want to do is spend even more time in the same chair. This isn't Diablo IV specific, it's really any game nowadays. I play the majority of Final Fantasy XIV on my PlayStation 5 in my bed, for example.
Games like EVE Online I've spent the past few months playing many hours on my MacBook Air M2 or my Steam Deck rather than sitting at my gaming rig for hours on end after work. It's a weird complaint, and I totally get that I have it easy compared to some - I used to be in and out of metal storage sheds in the middle of the Vegas July heat as my job, I totally get this is easier by comparison. But, it's still something that I deal with, which I've talked about here before.
But part of the issue was that Diablo IV itself wasn't quite clicking for me like I hoped it would. Path of Exile clicked right away, and I've now played it for years, getting into it around the time of the first ExileCon back in 2019. Diablo IV just didn't feel good to me at the start, so I put it on the shelf to marinate a bit while I moved on to other games.
First Glimpses Of Greatness
I didn't really pick it back up until I got my hands on the ASUS ROG Ally Z1 Extreme I reviewed a while back. It was one of the first games I installed because I wanted to both see how well it would perform on a handheld form factor that didn't require any workaround (like the Steam Deck did at the time), but I was also hoping something would trigger in my brain and it would finally be time for me to explore Sanctuary.
And it worked - for a while. While I was on trips and had the Ally with me, I would boot up Diablo IV anywhere I had a stable internet connection. Playing Diablo IV from my hotel room in Iceland during EVE Fanfest in September was actually a treat, especially that Sunday evening when I was fairly sure I was catching Covid so I stayed locked up instead of exploring Reykjavik.
Diablo IV really shined on the ROG Ally at the time, and it also confirmed another aspect of playing the ARPG I was starting to realize: I just didn't like the mouse and keyboard controls. Yes, I know that historically that has been the standard in the franchise, but I'm a pleb - I just want to lounge back in my chair and fire electric bolts at things mindlessly rather than furiously flick and click my mouse around. I noticed when I would sit at my PC to play, I would want to make the mouse and keyboard controls work for me that I would force myself to play them. Yet on the ROG Ally, while that's an option, it's not the main one.
However, as I continued my review and started to test other games on there (I was also starting to review Cyberpunk's Phantom Liberty DLC as well - which I partly did on the Ally), Diablo IV fell by the wayside.
Xbox Enters The Picture
Recently, Diablo IV was on sale for 40% off. Since I sent the ROG Ally back to ASUS, I've been itching to play the game. Yet I could never bring myself to buy it on a console, knowing I had a perfectly good version sitting on my PC. While Diablo IV has since been launched on Steam, I didn't feel like I could buy it there while owning it on PC already.
Yet when news came to us about the 40% off sale for Black Friday, I realized this was the chance to grab it for a form factor I was sure I would play - on my console. Despite being almost positive that this would come to Game Pass at some point next year, I wanted to dive in now, especially as we're starting to put together our End of the Year coverage - having not played one of the year's biggest releases was starting to gnaw at me.
So I grabbed the normally $100 version on Xbox for around $45 (I had some Xbox cash sitting in my account as well from a few rewards I had redeemed). And again, it clicked for me that this was the way I wanted to play games right now - away from my PC, lounging and just relaxing after a long day.
Then again, it's not always the case, given the staggering 19 hours I put into Hearts of Iron IV over the Thanksgiving holiday, but sometimes you just need to watch the world burn - literally.
Hopping on my Xbox Series X, Diablo IV is actually a pretty solid port. I don't like that enemies refresh at half the framerate of the rest of the game, but it's a nitpick I can get around because I'm finally doing the thing - playing Diablo IV.
I made a whole new character for this endeavor, and I am happy also to be reminded of the cross-save functionality Blizzard is using here. My Rogue character has been fun so far - normally in ARPGs I stick with spellcasters, so it's been a nice change of pace to get up close and dirty with the Rogue's daggers, and pop out for ranged when things get overwhelming.
After a weekend of playing Diablo IV on my Xbox (with a bit of WW2 sim thrown in for good measure), I was pretty hooked again. It even got me to stop playing EVE Online nonstop - I missed a pirate insurgency for the chance to hunt down Lilith.
Then, the Steam Deck OLED showed up on my doorstep. And the world changed.
Steam OLED Is Now My Favorite Place To Romp In Sanctuary
I'll get this out of the way right now - Blizzard provided a code for Steam so I could check this out. I didn't want to do any wonky workarounds but rather test Steam and Blizzard's claims that Diablo IV is a verified and playable title on the platform. And my god does it ever perform.
While it's not going to give the highest possible graphics settings - rarely can you do that on the Steam Deck unless the game is just not that visually intense, a good mix of medium and high settings, coupled with AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0, can help the ARPG achieve a higher than 60fps refresh.
And I feel that the higher framerate is needed for this game. Anything lower and it just feels sluggish overall. Right now, in the latter stages of Act 1, I'm sitting between 70-80fps in most situations, with dips into the 60s when in towns. It's perfectly acceptable, especially when you consider I'm playing it on a handheld and not my RTX 4090-powered PC.
It's been rather liberating to just turn on the Deck, boot up Diablo IV and just sit on my couch, lounge in my bed or head out to a coffee shop the past few days and jump back into where I left off on my Xbox. Diablo IV runs beautifully on the Steam Deck - and it looks incredible, thanks to the OLED screen. This is a game that reminds me just how good OLED can be, especially when coupled with darker art aesthetics. While the HDR looks washed out - it seems Linux's HDR support is just as wonky as Windows - the SDR image is among the best I've seen on the handheld.
The past few nights, my sleep schedule has been thrown out of whack thanks to the sheer ability to just lay down in bed, throw on some headphones and hop back into Santuary. I'm not that far into Act 1 since restarting over the weekend - again, the Hearts of Iron IV detour did put a damper on my progress - but I'm definitely having fun with Diablo IV finally. Jumping into Sanctuary on the go back during the ROG Ally review set the table for the fun I'm having now - I really don't want to put it down. In fact, the OLED Steam Deck is sitting right next to me as I type this, charging up the battery just so I can drain it once again with more time in Diablo.
It's not been an easy ride for Diablo IV players since launch, which the developers themselves have acknowledged over the past few months. Diablo IV had a massive presence at BlizzCon 2023 (honestly, it was the best part of the show floor), and players, despite the issues, were excitedly getting free Diablo tattoos and drinking in the world of Sanctuary when it came to Anaheim. I was among them (though I didn't get a tattoo because I'm a wimp).
But after finally spending some time in Diablo IV, finding the best way for me to play and stay engaged, I'm excited to finally get through the campaign. While I don't see myself getting caught up in all the seasonal content, I could easily find myself popping in after the story's final moments to either play a new character or just see what's new. But it feels a bit liberating to finally get this one off my backlog - especially considering just how big a release this was this year. And all it took was figuring out the best way for me to play - not simply dealing with an experience that, frankly, wasn't fun early on.
