Diablo IV - Beta Impressions

[Catfood220]

I tried playing Diablo 3 years after it came out, but it bored the life out of me within a couple of hours and I never went back to it. More of that doesn't appeal to me.

Plus this weekend is RE4 remake time

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Sooooooo anyone remember that kerfluffle about New World's title screen somehow frying certain nVidia cards? It seems like Diablo IV was like "I'll have some of that please." If you have a Gigabyte card, pay special attention.

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The game itself doesn't seem to be directly to blame, but rather it's just a catalyst through stressing poorly-made components until they blow out.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Sooooooo anyone remember that kerfluffle about New World's title screen somehow frying certain nVidia cards? It seems like Diablo IV was like "I'll have some of that please." If you have a Gigabyte card, pay special attention.

​

The game itself doesn't seem to be directly to blame, but rather it's just a catalyst through stressing poorly-made components until they blow out.

Oh look another reason why consoles have passed PC's for gaming.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

If you have a Gigabyte card, pay special attention.
The game itself doesn't seem to be directly to blame, but rather it's just a catalyst through stressing poorly-made components until they blow out.

Sounds like Gigabyte alright

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Oh look another reason why consoles have passed PC's for gaming.

Well, consoles have had their own problems.

And it's a whole lot tougher replacing anything in one.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Sounds like Gigabyte alright

Why people still buy their stuff is beyond me.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Why people still buy their stuff is beyond me.

Bang for your buck I guess. Though these days, their stuff goes out with a literal bang

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Bang for your buck I guess. Though these days, their stuff goes out with a literal bang

Odd... personally, I've never found them to be any cheaper than brands I consider reliable.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Odd... personally, I've never found them to be any cheaper than brands I consider reliable.

Around the time I built my own PCs, Gigabyte was slightly cheaper than their competitors for similar or slightly higher specs/features. That's probably not so much the case these days, or maybe not even the case a few years ago. But I tend to remember most people recommending them for that reason.
But of course, nothing I'd get from them would last as long as desired. Then again, I went with Asus right after my Gigabyte motherboard started having issues, and ended up with 2 defective Asus motherboards back to back before getting out of the custom PC game all together, so... I dunno what's considered quality these days any more

 

[FakeSympathy]

I have been trying out the open beta.

And I must say, it's looking really solid. Say what you will about Acti-Blizz's dehumanizing practices and pro-profit attitude, but they always seems to nail the atmosphere and world-building.

Builds are definitely a step-foward in comparison to D3. As Critical have pointed out, skill trees are actual skill trees, advancing in different skills leads to another. Unlike the lite-RPG skill trees like the ones found I Ubisoft games. While I heard some players were expecting PoE-level of skill tree paths, I personally think this version is less overwhelming. Skill Respec is easy to do on the spot, and I always welcome RPGs that does this, as it allows experiment at any time, and in case you botch builds.

Maps and dungeons no longer being randomly generated is a blessing for me. I get why some people might like randomly generated areas, especially those into more recent roguelike games, but I personally could never stand this in D2. I KNOW what I'm supposed to find, but I could spend 5 min, 30 min, or even an hour just to find the specific dungeon I'm looking for, enter it just to find the area randomized everytime I boot up the game. ALL THAT is gone. Holy crap, I can actually explore areas without looking into every corners now.

Everyone getting their own set of loot is amazing. I think this is what made me never want to co-op in D2. Everyone would work their asses off trying to beat a tough boss carrying each other through the battle, but when it's time for the loots they turn on each other. It's what made me not wanting to co-op the borderlands series either. Everyone having their own loots eliminates that fight for them, and we can be more civil and asks for trades.

Combat is great, but difficulty spikes seem to come from a horde of demons attacking me at once, or few tanky ones that are nothing more than bullet sponges.

And because this is beta, there were some technical problems as well. Textures loading in a few seconds late, game lagging and slingshotting me, random drops, etc.

Overall, yeah I am hyped for the full release. Not pre-ordering, though

 

[mirbrownbread]

Builds are definitely a step-foward in comparison to D3. As Critical have pointed out, skill trees are actual skill trees, advancing in different skills leads to another. Unlike the lite-RPG skill trees like the ones found I Ubisoft games. While I heard some players were expecting PoE-level of skill tree paths, I personally think this version is less overwhelming. Skill Respec is easy to do on the spot, and I always welcome RPGs that does this, as it allows experiment at any time, and in case you botch builds.

Maps and dungeons no longer being randomly generated is a blessing for me. I get why some people might like randomly generated areas, especially those into more recent roguelike games, but I personally could never stand this in D2. I KNOW what I'm supposed to find, but I could spend 5 min, 30 min, or even an hour just to find the specific dungeon I'm looking for, enter it just to find the area randomized everytime I boot up the game. ALL THAT is gone. Holy crap, I can actually explore areas without looking into every corners now.


Overall, yeah I am hyped for the full release. Not pre-ordering, though

I liked a lot of things about it as well, though I expected to feel a lot more attached to it once the beta closed. Yet, I'm nowhere near that super-duper-hyped/can't-wait-till-the-full-release feeling I imagined I would end at. Perhaps I was expecting it to replicate that Diablo 2 feeling where each hit we score even on the basic enemies feels like a victory for some reason, and simply clearing the Den of Evil remains iconic to this day.

Maybe they should've made DIV more reliant on "chance to hit" as D2, though I get it that that's not the "trendy" audiences' preference. Luckily, the beta confirmed that itemization is the name of the game with DIV, and frankly, I was stunned at the sheer number of different attributes that can roll on the various equipment pieces. In that regard, it far outpunches even PoE. Let's see how far they can take this!

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I played the open beta this weekend and it was ok at first then I got bored.
I never played a DIablo game for more than 10 minutes like 20 years ago so I'm coming this completely fresh.

Probably a dumb question but how much does playing as a different class really matter in terms of the core gameplay? I chose Necromancer and I was just walking around slaughtering everything, which is kinda fun at first but then just boring since there's no actual second-to-second thoughtful gameplay, just button smashing and holding the joystick at objective markers. Even the loot I was collecting was just garbage pretty quickly- everything was dying to my two-handed sword and corpse exploding.

 

[mirbrownbread]

I played the open beta this weekend and it was ok at first then I got bored.
I never played a DIablo game for more than 10 minutes like 20 years ago so I'm coming this completely fresh.

Probably a dumb question but how much does playing as a different class really matter in terms of the core gameplay? I chose Necromancer and I was just walking around slaughtering everything, which is kinda fun at first but then just boring since there's no actual second-to-second thoughtful gameplay, just button smashing and holding the joystick at objective markers. Even the loot I was collecting was just garbage pretty quickly- everything was dying to my two-handed sword and corpse exploding.

The class choice has an incredible impact on how the game will feel to you, so much so that anytime you switch characters it will feel "new". At least, that was the case with D2 (and D2R), but not so much in D3. As for the game feeling boring during the beta, we all expected that since a level cap of 25 is essentially nothing - nowhere near representative of how the late game (which is the longest stadium of an ARGP by far) will feel.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The class choice has an incredible impact on how the game will feel to you, so much so that anytime you switch characters it will feel "new". At least, that was the case with D2 (and D2R), but not so much in D3. As for the game feeling boring during the beta, we all expected that since a level cap of 25 is essentially nothing - nowhere near representative of how the late game (which is the longest stadium of an ARGP by far) will feel.

Do we know if the progress we made with the beta will be preserved when the game comes out? I wouldn't mind playing a bit more to see where it goes but starting over would suck (and almost certainly prevent me from picking it back up)

 

[CriticalGaming]

Do we know if the progress we made with the beta will be preserved when the game comes out? I wouldn't mind playing a bit more to see where it goes but starting over would suck (and almost certainly prevent me from picking it back up)

It wont, you'll have to start over.

 

[BrawlMan]

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[CriticalGaming]

Rather than make a new thread, I'm just gonna post reviews and whatnot here.

 

[CriticalGaming]

 

[Alienware]

Plays a lot like D2? It doesn't look that way...It just looks like a newer version of D3. I might give it a try but yeah it looks way more like d3 then d2

 

[CriticalGaming]

Plays a lot like D2? It doesn't look that way...It just looks like a newer version of D3. I might give it a try but yeah it looks way more like d3 then d2

D2 is limited by the animations of it's time. Even the remake is built upon the original's frame data to ensure that it remained the same game.

However we've got better tech now and D4's animations and combat is much more fluid, it's even more fluid than D3's really. The mechanics behind D4's combat and itemization is much closer to D2's philosophy though. Really D4 is the game that D3 should have been.