It’s been a few weeks since Diablo IV saw its full launch, and real-life interferences notwithstanding, I’ve had the chance to dig into what it offers. I’ve also had an opportunity to get a feel for the shop and what server stability has been and seems to be moving forward. All of this, of course, might change a bit once we get into the seasonal content. That, however, is a problem for another day. Today is about Diablo IV’s launch state. Additionally, I’m not going to retread the ground I previously covered in the Review in Progress; if you haven’t read that, start there and then come back.
Gameplay
I decided to stick with the Sorcerer when it came time to roll on the live servers, and I’m glad I did because I probably wouldn’t have noticed the many balance changes between the early review access build and the live build. In addition, they also made many hotfixes and updates after Diablo IV launched, which isn’t surprising for a multiplayer online game. The nerf that had the most significant effect on me was the synergy between “heal x amount after not taking damage” gear and barriers. In the early review access build, if I had a barrier up, I would heal even if I was hit because, technically, I didn’t take damage. On the live build, getting hit even with a barrier up will prevent the regen from happening. I’m not surprised this was nerfed, but it did considerably change how recklessly I could play.
Aside from the various gameplay and balance updates, playing in the live environment made the solo storytelling aspects stand out a lot more. While playing through the campaign, players are in a solo version of whatever area until they progress the story to a certain point. For the most part, I enjoyed how this preserved the solitary aspect of ARPGs but also opened up things after being in the area for a bit. However, it was a bit jarring to be running around a zone with other players, and then they would suddenly disappear because we entered an area where I was currently working on the story. The opposite would happen as well. I’d finish a story quest, and then suddenly, a bunch of other players would appear around me. I’m unsure if there is a more elegant way to pull this off, but as much as I liked the storyline being a mostly solo experience, it pulled me out of things every time it happened.
During the early review access, I enjoyed the rarity with which I ran into other players because It made the world feel far more dangerous. So, with trepidation, I looked toward playing on the live servers. That said, I was quite surprised to find that I have enjoyed running into other players out in the world. One day early on, I was working on a side quest and ran into another player doing the same quest. Without saying anything to each other, we seamlessly worked together. At one point, he knocked the mobs down, and I froze them, and it was glorious. I love moments like that. Most of the time, it’s just passing by other people, but every now and again, something cool like that happens.
I know there have been complaints about how much experience it takes to get to level 100, but I don’t think it’s surprising or egregious. With the experience increases given on the higher world tiers, as long as you increase those when you can, it isn’t too terrible. Also, having reaching the max level be a longer-term goal isn’t bad either; this isn’t a game where the whole point is to get to the max level. I would like to see the stats for how many players have at least one level 100 character on their account in a month or two. It’d be interesting to see.
Queue Times and Server Lag
My two big questions going into live were how long queues would be and how badly servers would lag. Since there’s no offline mode, those two things could have easily ruined the game. In the first week, there were some queues, but I didn’t experience anything crazy. Certainly no six-hour queues or anything. The most frustrating part of the queue was that there seemed to be a queue for logging in and loading into the game. Secondly, the queue timer felt utterly arbitrary. At this point, though, there never seems to be a queue, which is fantastic.
Lag issues are another story. During both the early access review period and the early access launch, I experienced no server issues whatsoever. That all changed as soon as Diablo IV launched for everyone. Immediately after, I started having rubberbanding issues, hangs, and more than a few disconnects. I had to do one questline in Act 2 four times because I kept disconnecting right before making it to the checkpoint. It was interesting that although my quest progress reset, I did keep all the loot I had obtained while working on the questline, so it feels like the quest progress should have been saved as well. By the end, I was so frustrated that I would have preferred to lose the loot if it meant I didn’t need to start over again. Thankfully the disconnects have significantly decreased over the last couple of weeks.
Lag is an ongoing issue, however. Every time I enter a new zone or leave/enter a city, everything lags out for a minute. I also have run into a weird bug where sometimes using my horse will cause me to constantly rubberband so much that traveling via mount is by far slower than running around. There’s no pattern or consistent reason I can see which causes the mount to sometimes act like that. Everything will be fine, and then it will start snapping back over and over. I can live with both those issues, but rubberbanding or lagging out while fighting things is incredibly frustrating. I’ve had multiple deaths happen as a result of both. I’m happy I wasn’t playing a hardcore character because that would be extremely frustrating. The lag issues have improved overall but are still a constant presence and a huge frustration.
Cash Shop
Another concern for me was the cash shop, and the potential it had to ruin Diablo IV if done poorly. I know this game has been handled very differently from top to bottom than Diablo: Immortal, but my disappointment there runs deep. I’m happy to report that what’s initially in the cash shop feels incredibly innocuous. Aside from personal feelings about a cash shop in a game that has to be bought, it’s all fairly normal cosmetics available. Outfits, mounts, and weapon skins are currently available. No power, no buffs. Price points could be a point of contention, but all of that seems to fall well within what I have seen in other buy-to-play games.
Another aspect of the cash shop I was a little wary of is how much other players’ purchases might affect my gameplay. Although I am often amused by wild transmogs and outfits people create in games, I sometimes get frustrated once we get beyond a certain level of flashiness, which often happens with things bought at an in-game cash shop. So far, I haven’t seen anyone wearing anything that screams cash shop to me. Looking at what’s available, everything looks like it could be just a nice drop from some boss or something. I hope they keep this methodology up for the long term.
Conclusion
As I’ve previously mentioned, Diablo IV is a blast to play. I like the much darker overall vibe than Diablo III and the unrelenting brutal storyline throughout. The variety of class builds and how Diablo IV unfolds the complexity over time helps new players get into it and delivers variation and fun for veterans. Additionally, as I mentioned in my previous Review in Progress, Diablo IV is a game that respects the player’s time and doesn’t ask us to do the same things over on all characters unless we want to. The main negative currently is server instability. Generally, that hasn’t been a huge problem, but it pops up regularly and can be a particular problem while playing a hardcore character. That said, I’ve been having a blast in Sanctuary and don’t see any sign of wanting to take a break from it, which is abnormal for Diablo games and me. Generally, I play the main campaign once, and I’m done playing until there’s a new story to play. I’m already thinking about what’s next for me in Diablo IV.
Full Disclosure: A copy of the game was provided by PR for the purposes of this review. Reviewed on PC.
