Diablo IV Review (Dave)
Despite my game hour investment, I can't give this installment into the Diablo series a positive review. Elements of the game work marvelously, most notably, the cinematics. Between the repetitive game play loop that doesn't really go anywhere and the grind for minimal rewards, the game loses its luster quickly.
The story is serviceable, but unfinished. Blizzard has opted for a continual story with limited resolutions to keep people paying for expansions. The main issue here is that quantity has taken priority over quality, which means you have loads of quests, most of which aren't memorable. In fact, you'll likely start skipping most of them. A few side quests do have their charms, but because the reward system is so banal, it's only worth it to get the progression bonuses. It is unlikely the lore will suck you as you'll feel mostly separate from it.
As for the progression system, it has its up and downs. You will go from feeling really powerful to utterly worthless if you switch to a different Torment too early. This wouldn't be so bad if the torment run you left weren't mind numbingly easy. And the drop rate is a bit absurd. While I appreciate a truly random feel to the drops, it does seem stacked against the player to try to challenge themselves. Most of the time, you can get better drops mass running easy mode than taking a risk against enemies that are challenging, but dropping the same garbage.
Then there are the instant kill mechanics, which I personally don't like. They're not used often enough to get the player to build up an understanding of them in general, but rather, just some single event situation to overcome and be done with it. I don't hold this against the developers entirely, but it does feel like a lazy way to make a game harder without doing much to the rest of the game to compensate for it. Sure, you can grind away the difficult bosses to learn their moves, but that grind only translates to those specific bosses. They don't really translate to anywhere else in the game. It can also make hardcore frustrating to all, but the most dedicated fans of the game.
Lastly: the shop. The shop is just plain bad. Not conceptually, in the sense of buying skins (but even that seems silly to me), but the overall cost per skin. Not only does Blizzard have a manipulative transaction scheme to get players to not think about the actual cost, the cost of each skin is priced in such away to pressure people into buying more so they don't "waste" left over platinum. Had they simply left it a straight currency cost and/or battle pass option, I'd be less bothered by it. But the limited choices, the lack of a color wheel, and the manipulative pricing, it's just a regular slap in the face. And that's not even counting the regular slaps coming in the form of lazy Season design.
Bottom line: is it fun? Sure. I had a lot of fun, but it felt like empty fun. Not mindless fun. I have great mindless fun with Vampire Survivors, but empty fun. There's so much potential to Diablo 4 that was limited for unnecessary monetization options and focus on streamlined eye candy in lieu of a power fantasy with an interesting story.
I think you'll have a better time in general with a different aRPG, unless you got a couple of friends who want to play. It's definitely more fun with other people, but even that is contingent on each individuals time investment potential.
6/10 - Solid audio/visuals, great spectacle, lazy design, bad monetization model,