'Diablo IV' has the building blocks for post-release perfection

The 'Diablo IV' open-beta and surprise server slam were mostly well received, with some hardcore RPG-ers complaining the game was too easy in the first instance, and many people voicing concern that the balance had been pushed too far the other way in the second. So much so, in fact, that over the course of the server slam weekend, a quick buff was released for the Necromancer class whose minions were quickly melting to even low-level mobs.

Thankfully, at least for the review period, the balance seemed to be in a much better place. Having played to just over level 50 and earning the first few paragon points, 'Diablo IV' is the right level of challenging the whole way through. Low-level mobs quickly melted in their masses against the might of many spells, while some significant bosses spelt quick death and needed many return attempts to vanquish. This is exactly how a role-playing game is supposed to feel.

After spending some time getting to learn your character’s class, and how the different skills and spells work together, you’re supposed to feel godlike when you come across goat-men in the open world running from one side-quest to the next. But when you’re in front of a literal (figurative?) demi-god, it’s supposed to take all of your skill as a player, all of your cunning, and all of your character's ability. These bosses are the gatekeepers of the next part of the game, and if you come up lacking then it’s time to go back to the grind.

The review period wasn’t completely perfect, however. There were some graphical anomalies which would infrequently flash during a cutscene here or a set-piece there. The scarcity of other players made it nearly impossible to properly test any kind of PvP if your schedule and progression didn’t conveniently match up with other players. The same goes for world bosses, although having seen Ashava the Pestilent from the server smash, this was less of a concern.

A day one patch has been confirmed by Blizzard today which will be live for early access (June 2nd for Irish players) so hopefully that will fix the graphics bug though it was far from game-breaking. The lack of players certainly won’t be an issue post-release; indeed, the opposite has more of a chance and servers could be completely overloaded for days over the weekend.

The quality of world-building shown in the open beta and server smash continues throughout the rest of the areas we were able to see which was the last real unknown once the balance was shown to be in a better place. From snowy mountain regions and muddy fields, barren deserts to desolate shores, the same level of love and care has clearly gone into every part of the continent. One area of sandstone cliffs was sometimes not the easiest to navigate by feeling, but the map marker Google Maps route helps with that.

The slight frustration actually added to this area of plateaus, cliffs and valleys. Often you would see a guarded treasure chest or an Altar of Lilith and the feeling of success after pathfinding your own way down was often just as much a reward as obtaining the item was.

The towns and cities lacked a little of the life felt in the open beta with other player-characters running around, but this also offered the opportunity to experience them without any distraction. Unsurprisingly these too had the diligence and attention to detail afforded to them as the landscapes and open-world sections had. The larger towns in particular all had a unique feel to them matching the area of the world in which they lay. When you notice the worn, individual flagstones and muddy wheel tracks in Kyovashad, and the different merchants and townspeople going about their day when there aren’t 100 other heroes vying for their attention, there is a kind of peacefulness that comes over the city – despite knowing what’s going on just outside the gates.

The only place this falls down a little is the dungeons, and even more so the smaller caves and basements located under the trap-door symbol on the map. Some of the non-story dungeons feel a bit procedurally generated which, considering the overall scope of the game, is both disappointing but maybe forgivable. These aren’t supposed to be the main draw of your adventuring and we foresee many players only completing the ones with specific rewards for their class unless a side quest calls for it, but they really lack some of the effort that was so obviously put into the above-ground world. Even the mobs, elites and bosses can feel recycled in the same dungeon.

The same is not true for the voice acting in Kyovashad – though perhaps this is down to the choice of accent most of the NPCs seem to have been given which lives in an uncanny valley of ‘is that a person from there speaking English’ and ‘is that an English native putting on that accent’. Thankfully little time will be spent here once you progress the main story a little and unlock the other areas. Surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly, none of the other towns suffer from this.

It does bring us onto the subject of voice acting though, which was superb throughout our adventure in both side quests and main storyline quests. Ralph Ineson, who has had roles as varied as Zack in ‘Coronation Street’, to Dagmer Cleftjaw in ‘Game of Thrones’ and Nikolai Tarakanov in ‘Chernobyl’, plays a stand-out role as the player character's companion Lorath Nahr, and does an incredible job of it. Lilith is voiced by Caroline Faber, who brings an ethereal, haunting quality which perfectly matches the Queen of the Succubi.

Oh, and the game looks absolutely gorgeous too. The lighting and graphics are such a pleasure to behold that it will be a good few years until it even starts to look in any way dated. If it gets the support, new content and updates it deserves then there’s no reason why we won’t all be playing this well into the next decade, just as many have done with 'Diablo III'. The environmental physics are a lot of fun too. Noticing things the extra touches like footsteps and the size of your area-of-effect spells disturbing the snow in a radius around you are the things that really let you know that significant time and thought went into this game.

The game, in its current state and up to around level 50 at least, is excellent. The balance is there, the world is exciting to play through with each area feeling unique and having just enough to do that you move on before that zone is boring, everything looks amazing and perfectly suits the tone of the game’s story and setting, the side quests don’t feel too same-y as can often happen in RPGs, the main quests are an enjoyable means of giving structure to our adventuring, and all of the background stuff like acting and world decoration falls perfectly into place. Imagine the ‘drawing a horse’ meme, but all of the horse is photorealistic.

This is far from the end of the story, however. As mentioned earlier there is a day one patch coming which will supposedly include balance updates, so much of this review may be turned on its head imminently.

More important for many players is the end game. From the review period it seems like there’s quite a bit of content to play through and time required before anyone will get to level 100 (cut to speed-runner getting it day 2), but once we do, what do we do then? 'Diablo IV' isn’t supposed to be a one-and-done kind of game like your typical single-player RPG, and a lot of its success - both in the hearts of us players and financially from the battlepass - relies heavily on what comes after the ‘story’ is finished.

There’s nothing we can do but wait and see, and we’ll be doing an end-game review too, but for now, this game is close to perfect.