By: Alex Tilton

The last time Blizzard Entertainment graced us with a game in the Diablo series it was a massively profitable disaster. The game itself was fine, but everything surrounding it was a problem. The launch was bungled, and the game unapologetically embraced the pay-to-win model. Playing the game yielded various kinds of items that players can use; weapons and armor mostly. And they could then turn around and sell these items to other players for real world money, of which Blizzard got a cut. A feature which had to be removed in South Korea because it violated their anti-gambling laws.

So I found it kind of hard to enjoy. Progressing in the game depended on either spending many hours grinding for items, or coughing up cash to pay for them. It left a bad taste in my mouth and I put it behind me. Eleven years later, I get a text message from the same friend who played through Diablo 3 with me. “We’re all taking a day off work to play the game, like last time. Want in?” I immediately flashed back to all the annoyances the previous game blessed me with and said, “Sure.”

Apparently keeping myself in denial over being middle-aged is more important than time or money.

But then…the game turned out to be really good. Blizzard learned their lesson. No real money auctions this time. In fact, no auction house at all. Not even for in-game money. Instead, they embraced the ‘premium cosmetics’ model that so many other games have profited from. If you have cash to burn, you can pay real money for high-end cosmetic enhancements to your character.  With that said, here’s the review of the game itself:  Very good, but not great.

The simple fact is that this game gets repetitive. There isn’t enough variety in the enemies, quest type or crafting to justify more than one playthrough. Which is a problem because higher difficulty levels only unlock after completing the game on a lower difficulty level. In any case… Blizzard has poured the usual ocean of money and talent into creating a highly polished Triple-A level game. Returning players and new players will both enjoy it. They did a good job of making players crave better and better equipment, which gives them a reason to grind and so on and so on…

The voice acting is pretty good. I thought it could have been a little better but that’s like complaining that you won $900 dollars in a raffle instead of $1000. The control interface didn’t make me feel like a bumbling incompetent and I had very few issues with login. I’ve yet to experience a significant glitch, but there have been lag issues. This game, like many, is ‘always online’ to verify that you have a paid copy. The drawback of which is that even when you’re playing alone sometimes things are choppy and slow. This will thin out as the initial craze for the new game passes…but at that point I won’t be playing, will I? First world problems aside, Diablo 4 was a welcome diversion. I hadn’t sunk my teeth into a new high-end game in quite a while and it was fun to get back into it. I don’t know how much I’ll care when the inevitable DLC comes out, but I felt like my money was well spent.

Image Sources: Wikipedia & Blizzard News