"When we talk about the world of Sanctuary and the tone we're going for - that feeling of dread, isolation, desolation - it's not a great place to be, so we want to make sure we maintain that feeling as you're adventuring because that's just core to the story we want to tell. If you choose to invite some friends, or people you meet in social hubs, you can do that, but you determine how you experience that. "Your dungeon experience will be the same as it's been in the past," said Tiffany Wat: "a privatised instance for you. Think of the shared world events in a game like Destiny - it's like that.īut you won't see other players all the time because Blizzard doesn't want that.
In the demo, it was automatically a shared world, we didn't have to OK anything, and several players appeared at a world boss, which we killed and earnt, I think, our own individual loot. So how does the shared world work? It will focus on certain kinds of content, where players will be more likely to appear (I don't know how you opt in or how you join games). "It's really important to build that experience and keep you immersed in the world and have these public events and the opportunity to trade with other players."
"Currently, we don't have plans for that because we feel these features just add so much to the game," senior producer Tiffany Wat told me. What's more, other players will show up in your game, which means, controversially, you will not be able to play Diablo 4 offline. There'll be a story running through it - about Mephisto's daughter Lillith, who you saw in the trailer, who's the mother of humanity - but you'll be able to meander away from it as in other open world games. It's a whopping great customisation pie (and you can choose different faces for your hero).īut the biggest idea of Diablo 4 is a non-linear, shared open world, which means, for the first time ever, we won't be going from Act 1 to Act 2 to Act 3 and unlocking a new area each time. And on top of that, there are all the legendary item effects you've come to expect from the series. On top of that, there's the new Rune Word socketing system for equipment and, presumably, weapons. On top of skills, there are talent trees, as in a game like World of Warcraft, and each class has dozens of options to choose from and further customise their build. Like earlier Diablo games, you spend points on skills to improve them, and they can even gain new effects at higher levels. The skill system, though, is new - new from Diablo 3, anyway. Someone has filmed all three characters playing through the Diablo 4 BlizzCon demo. The sorceress - another returning Diablo 2 class - turns into a ball of lightning. You have four other abilities to play with, in addition to your bread-and-butter attacks, and these include an eye-catching ultimate which, in the case of the druid, unleashed a storm of tornadoes and lightning all around me. I leaned on it constantly as the barbarian, dashing through big bosses just as their big hits were about to land. In Diablo 4, evade has you dash, or leap, a short distance, and it's incredibly useful. In and out of shapes he shifts and it feels terrific.Įvade plays a key role now too, having evolved from Diablo 3's console dodge roll. Similarly, the druid, a returning Diablo 2 class, can seamlessly change from attacking in werewolf form to pulverising the ground in bear form. The barbarian now has four weapon slots (and reaps the benefits of every weapon equipped, statistically) and could, in the demo, switch between a dual-wield attack with two weapons, and a two-handed shockwave attack, at the click of each mouse button with no interruption. I was also impressed by the attention lavished on your bread-and-butter left-and-right-click attacks.
Freezing, smashing, charging - it's a game which makes you constantly feel powerful, and where pushing enemies around is more important than ever. Abilities have a chunky, physical presence in the world, like the druid's boulder, which bowls into enemies and keeps knocking them back as it rolls. I played as the barbarian and the druid but not the sorceress - the three classes (of five) announced so far - and the thing to know upfront is Diablo 4 is gorgeous, muscular fun. Finally, Diablo 4 is flesh and blood, and I've played the demo at BlizzCon 2019 - twice - watched the 'Unveiled' panel and talked to the team making it.
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