Ever since Diablo II dropped in the summer after I finished eighth grade, I’ve been a fan of the franchise, blown away by its endless replayability, scope and grimdark European fantasy visuals. When I first heard Diablo IV was in development, I got really excited.
While I wasn’t the biggest fan of Diablo III at launch because of the change in visual style and its dumbed-down character progression, Diablo’s dedicated community lived on and the late-stage rifts and seasonal content helped get me back into playing the game cooperatively with friends.
When the Diablo IV teaser trailer first appeared, I was cautiously optimistic. While it didn’t showcase actual gameplay, it seemed to be a return to the darkened tones and dismal world of Diablo II. It was a visual style that I craved would be present again. I played the beta when it released as well and I was impressed with how fluid the combat felt and how vast the world seemed. All early signs pointed to a great game.
It has pulled me into its endlessly lootable, explorable, character building world. However, something about this go around seems a little too familiar and I’m not just talking about the call-back homages and nostalgic easter eggs. Diablo IV feels insanely repetitive.
Granted, dungeon crawlers always have an element of repetition. They’re designed to be all about the endless quest for better loot, more money, upgraded equipment, and cosmetic customizations. However, those elements have nothing to do with why it's repetitive–it’s the lack of diversity.
Diablo IV boasts over 150 dungeons and a largely level-scale-based world that allows you to tackle side objectives and exploration in almost any order you choose. That’s a staggering number of dungeons. The ambitious nature of Diablo IV’s size foreshadows how potential problems begin to come into focus.
There are fewer than 25 dungeon bosses to choose from, something I became keenly aware of as I was facing off against the same bosses over and over on my level 30 Barbarian. I must have fought ten Blood Bishops and Khazra Abominations. Broodguards were plentiful as well. The first time I faced them, they were fun fights. They had some semblance of personality. After double digits, I was ready for something new.
I’m not even asking for a ridiculously ornate or unique design for every dungeon boss, but I’d much prefer some variety. Blizzard could have gone the easy route and just made these monsters larger versions of everyday enemies and that would have been sufficient.
The types of enemies all seem to blend together too. I have definitely fought over 100,000 flying gargoyle demons, werewolves, spiders, bears, tusked beasts, human raiders, cultists, and ghosts. In a smaller game world, that seems like a good mix, but in the vastness of the Diablo IV map, it is simply not enough. Traipsing through zones and fighting spider after spider and gangs of werewolves for hours on end starts to get pretty boring.
The palette swaps are downright insulting sometimes too. Instead of red ghosts, now you’re fighting teal ghosts. Instead of white snow werewolves, now they’re brown. Snow goat men become red goat men. Cultists are wearing green robes instead of red. This was always a part of the Diablo franchise, but in 2023, as well as in a game as ambitious as Diablo IV it seems outdated.
There’s a lack of unique concepts when it comes to completion of dungeons and how the dungeon boss battles unfold as well.
Dungeons all have either a meter to fill or a few objects to grab for their first phase. The second phase is typically killing all enemies or finding another object. After doing so many of these in a row, the tedium really starts to set in. These dungeons also start to feel superficially long without any real reason, clothed in environments that feel like uninteresting backdrops.
There’s a really fun boss fight at the end of Act II where you fight a large creature through the streets of a village, following him as he rains destruction on unsuspecting townspeople. After a particularly tragic scene involving two characters, the hopeless devastation being wrought by the creature feels like it has emotional impact. The skirmish feels weighty and the zoomed-out camera angle gives depth and makes your character feel small next to this massive enemy. Diablo IV needed more moments like this. You’re fighting an army of hellspawn and there’s very seldom this sense of scale. It often feels like a day job–monotonous and predictable with very little to be excited about.
Additional boss fight mechanics would also make the game more appealing. Almost every boss you encounter has a moment where they set up a ring of two to four additional, weaker enemies that form an impenetrable barrier. You have to run around and kill them all to be able to damage the boss again.
All the bosses have four diamonds in their health bar that, as you cross that threshold of damage, they drop one to three health potions and summon groups of additional monsters. Again, in small doses this would be completely normal, but it grows tiresome because every boss in the game behaves this way.
I can see the game developers’ perspective. It’s difficult to make a AAA game with so much content while keeping it new and interesting. I had the same problem with Elden Ring’s side dungeons. The game was an absolute masterpiece, but the side dungeons became overly repetitive.
Maybe Diablo IV’s size and number of dungeons shouldn’t be the only selling point. A smaller world with the same amount of enemies wouldn’t seem so samey. Bringing back procedurally-generated dungeons would keep things interesting. Adding in mechanics like time trials and challenges to get through dungeons instead of fetch quests. Changing up locales and limiting palette swaps would create visual appeal.
Diablo IV is still a really good game and I’m definitely enjoying myself. A portion of my summer gaming will absolutely be reserved for its endgame content. It’s a return to form, but it’s not perfect. Size isn’t everything.
