Diablo IV Anyone?

[agentlossing]

Anyone looking into the beta (last weekend or this one) for the upcoming Diablo IV? I didn't get to play the older Diablo games unfortunately, but had a good time with Diablo III, even though I recognized some of the things folks complained about with that title. It had couch co-op and my wife and I played through the campaign and had a blast back then.

I've only had a half hour so far to look into the beta. So far it seems much darker in tone.

 

[bastibe]

I was a massive fan of Diablo I and II back in the day. We must have completed II, in particular, dozens of times in coop. I played III, too, but found it strangely lifeless and boring. Not holding my breath for IV, to be honest.

 

[agentlossing]

III didn't have much of a story, but we didn't need it for couch co-op. We'll see how IV stacks up. I didn't care for how meaningless a lot of the game mechanics/economy were in III either.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Be wary of the beta if you have certain 3080 Tis. It’s apparently burning some of them up. It’s less the game’s fault but too cheap of a component on the board.

 

[mnhoj]

The oldest and I used to run a LAN cable across the hallway from bedroom to bedroom back in the Diablo II days. Such a blast.
At the end we were hacking with the Jamalla editor. Our Amazons were super over powered. ( :
Been thinking about IV with the two youngers(four of us) but I don't have a PC anymore, maybe I can run Windows via bootcamp?
Might just have to go back to II.

 

[bastibe]

Might just have to go back to II.

There's also a lovely remaster of II available.

 

[agentlossing]

The oldest and I used to run a LAN cable across the hallway from bedroom to bedroom back in the Diablo II days. Such a blast.
At the end we were hacking with the Jamalla editor. Our Amazons were super over powered. ( :
Been thinking about IV with the two youngers(four of us) but I don't have a PC anymore, maybe I can run Windows via bootcamp?
Might just have to go back to II.

It seems to run really well on consoles, even my inexpensive Xbox Series S.

 

[mnhoj]

Game time. It's downloading now.
Cross platform PC and PS5 so we're all happy campers.

 

[L0n3Gr3yW0lf]

A bit late to the thread. I used to love everything Blizzard made. All time favourite and addict of Diablo, StarCraft and Warcraft games.
My first ever RPG was Diablo I and I played so much Diablo II i almost failed grade 8.I have played Diablo III years after its launch because I was very disappointed by the graphical design they went for (it used to be blamed on the StarCraft II engine for being to colorful), I finished it only once and was very unimpressed by the story which is what I loved the series for. The only interest I would have to play Diablo III again would be for the couch co-op (which is available only on the consoles) and I might on the Switch if I had someone to play with.
Anywhom. After the disaster that was Warcraft III Reforged, the utter disregard for the player base with the trash that is Diablo Immortal ("Don't you have phones?"), the utter abandonment of the campaigns for Overwatch II which they promised so much I have little faith or love for Blizzard.

I was a bit interested in Diablo IV at the announcement and I like the dark direction that they went back to like Diablo I and II but then turning it into more and more multiplayer oriented content and features turns my stomach inside out (I had enough of MMO pretenders and must play with others and microtransaction and gamble the blip out of it, don't worry that will come later after the sucked you in) I stopped paying much attention to it.

If it's worth playing in 6 months or a year's time, after they fix their inevitable launch bugs and unable to log in or play (because their servers fail every ... Single ... Goddamn .... Game cough Overwatch 2, WoW Classic, Warcraft III Reforged, WoW every expansion, Diablo III, every StarCraft 2 expansion cough, and some decent reviews on the grinding mechanics.
As I said, I have little love for Blizzard and unless they crawl out of their own laziness and bad corporate culture (just read about Activision's CEO horror stories how it is to work there) I will most likely avoid whatever new stuff they make.

I would rather play the remastered StarCraft I and Diablo I (and Diablo II if they ever plan to come out with it).

 

[agentlossing]

An update for anyone who cares, we've been enjoying Diablo IV couch co-op. The game looks and runs beautifully. It has the same sort of shallow gameplay loop as Diablo III (with some changes), but I don't mind this shift to casual RPG, as it's perfect for this use-case. One gripe, however, is that you can't advance world tiers until finishing the campaign, so the game world has only leveled to 50 in Veteran tier, while we're almost a full act away from the campaign's conclusion. We did too many side quests, without realizing it would affect progression. Oh well. It just means that the bosses aren't as threatening now as they're perhaps supposed to be, and level progression is extremely slow. Time to race through the remainder of the campaign.

 

[L0n3Gr3yW0lf]

An update for anyone who cares, we've been enjoying Diablo IV couch co-op. The game looks and runs beautifully. It has the same sort of shallow gameplay loop as Diablo III (with some changes), but I don't mind this shift to casual RPG, as it's perfect for this use-case. One gripe, however, is that you can't advance world tiers until finishing the campaign, so the game world has only leveled to 50 in Veteran tier, while we're almost a full act away from the campaign's conclusion. We did too many side quests, without realizing it would affect progression. Oh well. It just means that the bosses aren't as threatening now as they're perhaps supposed to be, and level progression is extremely slow. Time to race through the remainder of the campaign.

That is disappointing because I enjoy a story and difficulty/challenge at the same time. I hate that problem with Diablo III as well because the story was not compelling on some of the campaigns and redoing the whole thing to get to the higher Nightmares was very annoying. Especially when I am a quest hoarder and exploration OCD-ist. I might give it a try if Blizzard gives a decent discount to the game this Halloween.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

I played Diablo II and Lord of Destruction until my eyes bled, but I've boycotted Actiblizzard ever since Diablo III started out with server-sided gaming, the RL auction house and DRM.
Torchlight 2 was a great alternative at the time. And by the time Diablo III became affordable on the PS4/5 I was no longer interested in ever playing it.
So I'm not inclined to play Diablo IV either.

Torchlight 3 was okay but also had a very shallow repetitive game loop, and I hear the latest one is even worse. :\

 

[mnhoj]

Have a level 73 Rapid-fire/Poison trap Rogue in Season 1. My setup feels amazingly quick and has a good balance between single target and AOE.
My kids are busier now so there's a lot less group fun, but I still take some time on my own.
We did get together over the weekend and helped get one of them through the storyline - which I missed. The cutscenes are pretty amazing.
Looking forward to the new season in a few weeks.

 

[agentlossing]

I played Diablo II and Lord of Destruction until my eyes bled, but I've boycotted Actiblizzard ever since Diablo III started out with server-sided gaming, the RL auction house and DRM.
Torchlight 2 was a great alternative at the time. And by the time Diablo III became affordable on the PS4/5 I was no longer interested in ever playing it.
So I'm not inclined to play Diablo IV either.

Torchlight 3 was okay but also had a very shallow repetitive game loop, and I hear the latest one is even worse. :\

I just purchased Torchlight 2, hoping it will be a good experience on my Steam Deck. I'm waiting to play until we're (mostly) done with D IV so I don't get burnt out on the genre.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

The Torchlight games are certainly more cartoony, and it does look a bit dated graphically now. But I found it played very much like Diablo 2 in how combat/magic/specials work and the progression/skill trees.
There's item/weapon creation, transmutation recipies, gems (ember shards) infusion/removal to give items particular bonusses.
All very close to what D2 did. + hidden quests and secrets in a lot of the levels.


Combatting your way through the chapters, each with their distinct themes, can become a bit of a drag.
Particularly if you come acros a phase beast for the umpteenth time and get dragged into a sub-dungeon.

The end game offers procedurally generated maps with particular difficulty/reward settings. Though I've never really delved into it on completion of the story mode.