Was the Diablo 4 Beta fun if you’re not that into Diablo?
I jumped into the open beta and here are some initial thoughts from someone who’s a casual fan at best. Look, I’ve played my fair share of Diablo 3, but I never took it too seriously and even though I beat the original campaign, I couldn’t even begin to tell you what it was about—some angels falling out of the sky or something? It was fun, I liked it a lot, but once the people I played with moved on I had no interest in playing it solo. I played a little Diablo 2 back in the day, but not much, and I didn’t even own a computer during the Diablo 1 phase.
All that to say I’m in no position to compare the nitty gritties and where Diablo 4 stacks up to its predecessors, but if you’re new to the series, or it’s been a decade or two since you played a Diablo game, then you might be wondering what this game is about. Is it fun? Can you enjoy it if you’re not that familiar with the series?
Well, first let’s just get this out of the way: a big part of Diablo’s appeal is the nostalgia. There’s a reason you won’t find many AAA top-down action RPGs—the entire presentation feels like it’s pulled from a bygone era of gaming. But Diablo 4 works hard at adding depth in the environment, with either steep inclines or giant chasms—or sometimes both—making sure you’re almost never looking down a flat world.
Will this format bring in new fans? I dunno, but if it does it will be because of the combat…
…that silky smooth combat. Nobody does it like Blizzard, where your attacks have weight and you feel powerful and a little vulnerable at the same time—although I’d argue the difficulty was probably tuned down a bit for the beta. I think anyone could pick it up and play, it really is that smooth, but there’s still room for a lot of depth and strategy in the combat.
There’s now an evade button, and believe it or not that wasn’t in previous Diablo games, at least not like this. It’s mapped to the space bar if you’re playing on a PC, so that should tell you Blizzard expects you to evade a lot. And sure enough, I was evading like crazy during boss fights and random ambushes in the world. It adds a bit of strategy and survivability to your encounters, and boss fights just felt more like, I don’t know, boss fights. My movement felt very intentional, and not just spamming different attacks.
Speaking of movement, this game takes place in one giant open world. There were no loading screens to speak of, unless you were teleporting back to town or something. And it’s a shared open world, so you run across other players like an MMO, and I really liked that. Playing with other people is my favorite way to play these games, so I’m curious to see what it’ll be like to hop into random pick up groups in the full game.
But the real standout to me was the story and setting. Diablo 4 is dark and gritty and gory, and I’m here for it. I was glued to each cutscene, which is another Diablo staple, and I’m totally invested in the story even though I only saw a limited portion of it. The world did feel a little drab or monochromatic at times, but even that just really just added to the vibe. This is a harsh, unforgiving world.
I should also mention the skill tree looked… interesting? It seemed really large and a bit complex, but that’s not really my thing. If you’re the type of person that gets a tiny bit of anxiety when looking at the options you didn’t pick, like me, then this is the mother of all skill trees and yeah. Expect a little anxiety.
But as a whole, I was really into this beta. I went in on the fence about this game, but I’d say I’ve upgraded to a day-one purchase for sure. I love the combat, the world drew me in, and it shows every sign of Blizzard on their A game.
I played the open beta on a PS5, but the game is also coming to PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series consoles on June 6.
