We played over a dozen hours of a preview build of Diablo 4 that let us play most of Act 1 and reach character level 25. It’s really good, y’all. Watch and find out why we love it.
Previewed on PC by Ryan McCaffrey
#IGN #Diablo4
It's rare for a game to come along that I can't stop thinking about even when I'm not playing it there are plenty of Great games out there don't get me wrong But a precious few keep running in my Head even after I've walked away from my PC as you've probably guessed by now I Can't stop thinking about Diablo 4. even In its current unfinished State blizzard Wouldn't let us capture our own gameplay Footage likely due to the placeholder Audio in my build and other normal in Development stuff that doesn't make for A pretty video so you're looking at B-roll they put together for us here Diablo 4 is absolutely crammed with Story content Beauty character Customization and so much more I played Roughly 12 hours of act one bringing my Barbarian from a barely clothed level 1 Bodybuilder to a Decked Out blunt force Trauma-inducing level 25 Powerhouse by The time I reach the end of this builds Content One of the first things that struck me In the first couple hours of Diablo 4 Was just how much story there is Relative to previous games in the series You'll spend a lot of time watching cut Scenes of both the Cinematic and in-game Variety the former R per blizzard Tradition always gorgeous and the latter Are impressively varied in both camera Angle and length if I'm being honest I
Think the frequency of the cutscenes in The early game combined with the Unavoidably lousy feeling of being at The lowest point on the power curve when You're just starting out makes Diablo 4 Feel a bit slow for the first hour or Two This isn't really a complaint though as I applaud Blizzard's effort to layer More story into Sanctuary making it feel More alive and filled with more history Is a good thing besides you'll still Spend an overwhelming amount of your Time slaying monsters in combat yeah As you've heard by now Diablo 4 is more Open world than ever and Blizzard's Implementation works well sure you can Wander anywhere you want but regions Outside of where you're supposed to be In act 1 are at a significantly higher Level enough to crush you like a bug for Roaming into lands you're not yet Welcome in The context the regions you visit in act 1 look to be a noticeably small portion Of the total landmass of sanctuary but You are heartily encouraged to explore The areas you do belong in as you'll Earn Renown for discovering new areas Picking up and completing side quests And more The more renowned you tally the better The tangible rewards get notably in the Form of skill points furthermore as you
Level up you'll be able to do things Like visit The Alchemist to improve your Health potions healing ability exploring Both towns and the Open Fields of combat Alike will yield frequent blue Exclamation marks on your map Designating another side quest the Layers here run both wide and deep again Making Diablo 4 feel like an extremely Content-rich experience Speaking of insane layers of content the Skill tree is Bonkers in this game in The best of ways it snakes along Sprouting Hub and spoke clusters with Each Hub along the way offering between Four to eight choices some of which are Either or picks I'm sad I don't have footage of my own Barbarian Build to share but as is my Preference in Diablo games my goal is to Be able to deliver the maximum amount of Pure pain at any given moment I dumped several points into bash my Concussion-inducing Fury generating Secondary attack while going with the Bleed-inducing flay as my primary attack And adding Whirlwind leap and death blow As my three special abilities and then Wrath of the Berserker as my ultimate Which I unlocked near the end of my time With this preview version meanwhile you Can respect anytime you want for a Reasonable fee of in-game gold I only Ended up undoing one point near level 25
In order to pick a different branch of The skill tree to spend my action point On Sadly I have no footage of any of this To show you but alas The heart of any Diablo game though is Of course the way you utilize your skill Point choices my general strategy Depending on what I was fighting was to Go after the most annoying and or Dangerous bad guy in the mob first Blunting him with my bash attack until He got stunned allowing me to switch to My primary attack and slash his life bar Down to zero anyone causing me problems From range had their personal space Rudely invaded by my LEAP attack which I Also put several skill points into Because of its usefulness oh and the Sadistic Joy it brought me to watch my Foes get crushed underneath my feet as The ground All Around Me caved in upon Landing On this note I should complement how Beautiful Diablo 4 looks it's got Delectable lighting and delightfully Violent effects and using all of your Attacks within one battle as you'll need To do quite frequently before too long Makes Diablo 4 look like a demon slaying Orchestral performance that you get to Conduct As I carved up hell's minions well Except for the Times where they carved
Me up my time traversing Sanctuary never Got old not just because of the surplus Of side quests that frequently popped up Heck even some of the random dungeons With no side quests attached to them Were so big that they took me roughly Half an hour to clean out but also the Seemingly random in-game events both Public and private I rarely saw any other players due to The relatively small group of people Playing this preview build but you will And that means you're likely to have an Easier go of those public events than I Did I held my own in most cases though I do Confess to getting beat down mercilessly By the stronghold event blessed are you Who will die in the mother's name it's a Multi-step torture chamber that ended in Me getting smoked by the final boss of That encounter I'd meant to come back Later after leveling up a bit more but Sadly I ran out of time Ultimately Diablo 4 feels like a Massively plused up version of Diablo 2 Which is the best case scenario for it In my book not that it ignores Diablo 3 There are clear notes taken from the Best of that game too but tonally and Artistically it leans more heavily into The Diablo 2 Playbook Regardless this is going to be a huge Game by any definition the initial
Campaign projects out to about 50 hours Based on my time with act 1 plus the end Game stuff that blizzard is specifically Focused on that we haven't even seen yet The opportunities to play as different Classes and roll different builds within The same class and the development Team's promise to keep feeding the Community new content for years to come Heaven Help any game that ships anywhere Near Diablo 4 because I know I'll be too Absorbed in my adventures and Sanctuary To care about anything else for more on Diablo 4 don't miss the original Announcement trailer from BlizzCon 2019 And for everything else in the world of Video games stick with IGN [Music]
