Diablo IV Rant + Screenshots
And to be honest, I'm quite disappointed.
Yeah, I know, I said something different before. I really gave it enough time now to really think about it and to not judge only by nostalgia. But almost nothing changes. And here's why I don't like this game as much as I was hoping to.
It won't just be a rant, I got good things in the end too, as well as some cool screenshots for you to enjoy ;)
1) My own character feels, as if he doesn't belong there.
And no, it's not because I named him Marlon and that name is giving him the persona of a completely different character from a completely different game. The problem is, that if I DIDN'T give my character the name Marlon, this character would have nothing. And I mean literally nothing. My little interactions with him while playing the game are completely shouldered by the fact, that I named him Marlon and therefore have something to imprint into him. Without that though the character would just be a random guy, running around randomly, without any knowledge of why he was 'chosen' and why he's even there.
In Diablo III, there was an entire cutscene at the beginning of the journey to let me catch up with who I'm actually playing. This minute long cutscene told me everything from past to abilities to future goals to passion - everything I needed to know to have an idea of who I'm playing. While I'm playing though, there is a lot more knowledge that unfolds itself while, yeah, interacting with other characters, so there was a lot of thought behind it.
In Diablo IV? Nothing. I have the Trailer of the Rogue class, and even this FIVE MINUTE LONG TRAILER doesn't tell me shit. Yeah, a thief, a murderer, a bounty hunter - but WHY??? What made him become like that? What are his goals? Why does he care about the fate of the world?
It says a lot about this game that I played it for so long now and I STILL don't know shit about this guy. I know more about the Marlon from TWDG, even though I literally have no idea of his past and the only interactions I had with him were a card game, a little talk about chores and the confrontation scene. With the Marlon in Diablo IV, I explored deadly caves, swamps, temples, I literally went through hallucinations with him, made new friends, new foes, got a horse, battled fucking Andariel, the list goes on. And I still don't know shit. Up until now, I don't know if he has good intentions, if he's something in between, if he's just there for the eventual money, if he even cares about any of the things that are happening.
A big part of why this character feels so blank is the fact, that he doesn't talk with the others. In Diablo III, whenever I would ask someone something or even when I randomly encountered NPCs in camp, my character actually ask the question I chose, would talk and express his thoughts, his feelings, even his fears. That character felt real, alive, and not just because I named him Marlon and assossiated him with another character. No, that character was alive on his own, I mean I played Diablo WAY before I knew TWDG, and yeah, as I said. That shit was crazy good.
Which I can't say about Diablo IV.
2. The story is all over the place.
I.... I have no idea what's going on.
The story started off with Lilith returning. Then it turned out, that it was foretold, that she would come back and that this stupid ass Archangel Inarius would somehow destroy her to return to the Heavens. He just misinterpreted this prophecy because apparently all angels apart from Tyrael, Auriel and Itherael are arrogant idiots (yeah, I'm looking at you, Imperius.)
Then somehow my character arrives, getting drunk with the locals of a town, eating some flowers with Lilith's blood and now, that poor bastard has a connection with her.
So far, everything's alright, apart from the fact, that I know nothing about who I'm playing. That connection thing with Lilith is such a good fucking plot point, because the people who know about it are actually afraid of Marlon, questioning his motives and if he's still in control. The fact, that this kinda reflects what is happening in TWDG makes it even better, but that is just a side effect, this part of the plot is in itself really good.
But then shit gets weird.
And suddenly I'm talking to a wolf, getting BLESSINGS from the three Greater Evils and fight one of the Lesser Evils. Randomly.
What angers me most though, is that I got multiple visions and other interactions with Azmodan and Belial before fighting each of them in Diablo III, but I didn't speak to Andariel once. Not once did I hear her voice. And I LOVED her design and the fight against her, but it just felt so out of place, because she just suddenly appeared.
That's a problem with this game in general, there is so much stuff happening randomly... Things and people are just there, there's not much explanation for why they're here. No idea who Donan and Lorath are, or their friends, Nafain and Airida or whatever her name was. No idea what their deal is, why they're in their positions, nothing. Deckard Cain gave me his full life story when I asked him about it, I know more about this NPC than I know about my own character right now.
My biggest issue with the story though is that there is just this one red line, that I follow and that's it. Yes of course, you couldn't get different outcomes or so in Diablo III, but that's not what I mean. In Diablo III, I could actually talk and interact with the characters around me, I could ask them a lot of stuff, find out more about them, their story, the world... It was perfect, especially for finding out more about my own character too, because, well, he would react to their stories. That's how I even managed to get so many incorrect Marlon quotes for this blog. He was interacting with the NPCs, even randomly when we were out in the fields. Which isn't the case here.
And what also bugs me, is that I can't find any sort of book. In Diablo III, if you run around for a while, you will certainly find a monster, a bookshelf, anything that could drop a book. These books are read to you by the person who wrote them and sometimes it's a memory or a letter or a part of a journal or some explanation of who we are talking to. For example, Deckard Cain traveled the world for decades and wrote down a lot of stuff, informing us about the monsters we encounter or explaining the Archangels or the Prime Evil, which is very cool.
It made everything feel more medieval and as if I was really working to gather information about my enemies etc. preparing to bring them down.
There are no books in Diablo IV. I searched for them, everywhere I could go. No books. No information. Nothing. Which is very sad, since that would give the whole game so much more soul.
3. The gameplay is fucked up.
First of all. I needed five buttons and the mouse in Diablo III. Now I need ten. And the mouse. One missclick and I destroyed my flow for the next few seconds, because the chat suddenly appeared. Or that funny wheel, that I can talk to others with. I'm getting the hang of it. But it was so hard to get used to it.
Second of all. The skill tree. My father and I play Diablo since... well, he for 23 years, I play it ehhh... should be 12 years now, yeah. And we never had to think about what skill we wanted to use for what, because it was all quite easy to handle. I could choose from I think 5 or 4 different skills for one button, maybe add a rune or something to power them up, that's it. That skill tree there? There's too much stuff going on. I need action points to level my skills up (why???) and I can choose from over 13 different skills for one button, counting in the add-ons for one skill. We both still haven't figured out how this thing works in its entirety, which is pretty sad since I'm almost at the end of the game.
Third of all. How the fuck can it be, that I defeated Andariel, one of the BIG BAD EVILS OF HELL, first try, but I needed SEVEN attempts to defeat some random guard called Brol or something? And he even appeared before her, therefore should have been easier. Like... What? And today I got killed by a horde of monsters in some old cathedral (it's always the cathedrals, I swear). Really? How on earth is it possible, that I can kill Elias, that dark Horadrim guy, Lilith's right hand man, FIVE TIMES IN A ROW. But I'm not able to defeat the little zombie on the road anymore?
Jesus, imagine Marlon fighting off Lilly and Abel, but then he just stands there like "Well, I've done all I can do" and gets devoured by walkers.
This whole system is so frikin alien to me. And I don't even know what the issue is, for real.
I will continue this game and finish it, so that I have a round up overview and then I'll make a full blown comparison.
And there are cool things too about this game, a lot actually. It's just that the issues are overwhelming them a bit and that makes it... just a bit hard to fully enjoy the game.
I'm not one to hate on games just because, ergh, new games. Sonic Frontiers for example. Loved it. New, fresh, better than Sonic Forces, better than some other Sonic Games, just... great.
So, I got some good things to say about Diablo IV too.
1. The character customization
I looooove that feature. Marlon actually looks like a more adult version of the TWDG character, which is just great, I love it. These cool tattoos we can choose, the different accessoires to resemble the classes culture, it's almost perfect. It's just not enough stuff to choose from, but hey, the first time we get customization, this is totally fine.
The customization gives us the ability to give the character a very personal touch, which is great compared to the fixed characters we had in the last three games, although I didn't think they were bad at all.
So far, the story itself is great. Like I said, it's a bit... confusing, but the main part, that little marriage feud between Lilith and Inarius is pretty interesting. My favorite part though, as I already mentioned, is the fact, that we get drawn into this by her blood, we literally drank it and now she's become a part of us.
Poor Marlon suffers from crazy visions of the past and because of her blood, he's able to get blessings from the Great Evils, which is.... NOT a good idea, but it adds to this whole 'She's seducing you' thing. And the more secrets Marlon has, the more wary his allies become and the trust is on very thin ice.
Also Marlon being protective of kids is just the funniest.
"You can't talk to her like that, she's sensitive!",he shouts, while blood is dripping from his gloves and blades.
I gotta admit. I hated the german voice acting for the Rogue at first. And to be honest, in the cutscenes where he's gotta speak normally, he.... I dunno, he just sounds so confused and soft. Not fitting for a fucking murderer in my opinion. The moment i first heard his voice, I was actually asking myself, if I was playing a fourty year old puppy or a rogue.
But as the story progresses and I got new attacks etc. it actually got way better than I expected. He's doing really good and for real, when he jumpes off the horse to make this insanely large arrow hail attack, that war cry he does? Yeah, that's ma boi xD
They have a large amount of really well known german voice actors, especially the one for Lilith, literally everybody knows her, she has so much experience and when she gets the key to hell from Rathma - the hatred in her voice.... god, it sent shivers down my spine. Love it.
Elias is, I think, the voice actor of the Templar from Diablo III, which is absolutely fabulous, the nostalgia kicks in. I like Lorath's voice actor as well, even though he sounds tired all the time, that's just his character I guess. And I don't think we need to talk about Mephisto. That voice.... fucking great.
In Diablo III, bossfights are a walk in the park. Yeah, you gotta watch out sometimes, but it's mainly just hitting the enemy until it's dead. That's because Diablo III is focused on the story and the flashy environment as well as the action, rather than the difficulty of a fight.
Diablo IV gave me a really hard time though. I've been defeating the bosses in Diablo III with ease, even in expert mode, but in this game, I died so often, even in easy mode. It's frustrating, but that's the whole point, I WANT to feel this anger and fire again, I want to feel the passion, the relief when finally defeating a boss, leaving only 5 HP to me.
It's awesome to have that back.
Well, so far so good, that's it for my rant today.
Now here are some cool screenshots I made, enjoy xD
Marlon walking up to Inarius like he's just some local drug dealer made me crack up.
