• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Diablo IV Beta |Mini OT| READ THE OP

What would you rate Diablo IV

  • 1 (Amazing)

    Votes: 116 37.3%
  • 2

    Votes: 111 35.7%
  • 3

    Votes: 62 19.9%
  • 4

    Votes: 12 3.9%
  • 5 (Dreadful)

    Votes: 10 3.2%

  • Total voters
    311

ManaByte

Gold Member
I find this very interesting - I am playing on PS5 so obviously.my controls are defaulted to a controller. 2 of my friends have high end rigs 2ith 3070s and 3090s and play most games on their PCs.

But here is the kicker, they are both using a controller for Diablo IV and saying it feels amazing and more fun to play. It's so funny how Diablo seems to just feel more satisfying on controller even for PC players.

Does anyone else share same sentiment?
Diablo has been better on controller since the original Diablo was ported to the PS One.
 

Hendrick's

If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
Hit 20 with Sorcerer. Really enjoyed what I played. Will probably wait until next weekend to try the Necro.
 

Krathoon

Member
It seemed kind of easy to bring Lilith back. No wonder she had not come back years ago. I guess her summoning room was long forgotten.

Lilith is more of an manipulative character and a creator of the world to boot.
 
Last edited:

bender

What time is it?
Hit 25, finished the main questline and I *think* all of the side quests. PS5 version. Thoughts:

-To be expected as it is a beta, but encountered bugs (invisible walls blocking part of the map, disappearing object, world events that were unfinishable, long load times (over a minute), stutters from what I assume is latency.
-There is a ton of content which is nice.
-The character creator is terrible and considering the limited options, it's impressive how ugly most character faces are.
-The visuals are fine but lean a little bit on the generic side. I think I prefer D2 overall as it was a lot more readable.
-The open world feels more like a maze with very few open areas. It makes traversal a little cumbersome. My litmus test for open worlds is that if I'm using fast travel, it isn't interesting or well thought out and I used nothing but fast travel when the option was presented and that's outside of cleaning out my inventory. The main town is much larger than past entries and I'm not sure I'm a fan of that either.
-And part of the reason I fast traveled so much is the amount of random mobs in the world. It feels like you are often fighting an endless stream of trash mobs.
-Diablo has been streamlined a bunch through the years. No more town portal scrolls, no more identification scrolls, and now, no more identifying items at all. Not a bad change but I wish they would have cribbed from Torchlight and given you a pet to send back to towns to sell trash.
-I played a Sorcerer and I'm not really loving it like the Wizard in D3. Others have mentioned it but I found it incredibly boring. I went Pyro (Fire Bolt, Incinerate, Hyrda, Inner Flames).
-This could all be a combination of difficulty, world scaling and RNG from loot, but there seems to be no difficulty curve. A legendary item in D3 could turn you into a God for a few levels and then the balance would level off and on the opposite spectrum, you could fall behind the curve which meant getting the next upgraded loot feel all the more rewarding. I didn't experience any spikes like that in the beta which made each encounter and boss feel largely the same and each piece of new gear feel inconsequential.
-Loot is doled out at a nice pace.
-Loot detail on your character is also nice.
-I'm not really sold on the Guild Wars inspired events either. Seems more like an excuse to justify the open world and online aspects of the game. I need to try some world bosses though.
-Randomly ran into the Butcher in one of the side quest dungeons so that was a cool surprise.

Maybe I burnt myself out on the core formula with D3 or maybe the Sorcerer isn't going to be my cup of tea this time around, but the beta while not bad, left me largely cold.
 

Laieon

Member
Weird, the wolf cub cosmetic didn't appear in my inventory at 20 even after a relog.

Edit: Maybe it's just not in yet.

 
Last edited:

Krathoon

Member
The invisible walls blocking the map are supposed to be there. It is only a demo. There is one if you go out the east gate of the main city.
 

bender

What time is it?
The invisible walls blocking the map are supposed to be there. It is only a demo. There is one if you go out the east gate of the main city.

I had one in a dungeon and I could walk around it using another path in the room so it wasn't intentional.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
It should drop in your inventory once you reach level 20

Weird, it didn't for me. Maybe it will on a relog.

Yeah I think its in your inventory day one, cos I can't even see where you assign cosmetics on the inventory screen.

Got the world boss down. Its a level 25 event. I was level 20 and did barely any damage. There were about 9 level 25s also there and they managed to get it down with like 5s to spare.

Also what's with the weird second health line? Like you deplete an enemies health but there's a vertical line on the health bar that then has to be depleted.
 

Krathoon

Member
I think the new ESO expansion may get my money over this game. There is a Deluxe version that contains all the major chapters. You get more bang for your buck.

I may also get Grim Dawn. It is $55 now with all the expansions.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Shield, maybe?
No, the shields are like a blur over the main health that deplete first. This is like normal red health that has gone. Then a little line is about 15/20% behind it, and you have to still keep hitting it to bring it down.

Just really weird, it's probably something I should know but frustrating when it looks like the enemy is dead and you're still hitting it
 

amigastar

Member
I think the new ESO expansion may get my money over this game. There is a Deluxe version that contains all the major chapters. You get more bang for your buck.

I may also get Grim Dawn. It is $55 now with all the expansions.
55 bucks? really? I see it for 3,31 € on steam right now.
For 4 bucks you can't go wrong with grim dawn i love it.
 
Last edited:

Krathoon

Member
55 bucks? really? I see it for 3,31 € on steam right now.
For 4 bucks you can't go wrong with grim dawn i love it.
That is for the Definitive Edition with all the expansions. It is on gog.

It does still look cheaper on Steam though.
 
Last edited:

Shodai

Member
My critique so far after finishing a rogue (25, no quests left that I am aware of, played on PC):

- Graphics are fine, a bit less gritty than I expected, but serviceable.
- Performance is pretty lackluster for a 3080ti/5900x/32GB. I will chalk it up to beta/debug code running/bugs. Had to move textures down to medium to make things acceptable.
- Camera feels too close up. I sure wish it was either drawn further out, or I had the option to do so.
- The mini-map is a poor replacement for an overlay. I still stare at something when I need to keep a route, but when I don't, the darn thing still takes up a huge amount of space on my screen. The kicker is I cannot zoom in or out on it.
- Combat weight on rogue feels less heavy than D3. It's not terrible, but it also isn't great.
- Dungeons are fine in terms of design, less gothic than I had hoped, but this is coming from a D2 fanboy.
- Dungeon quests that make you fetch multiple items then bring them back to a central point are awful - In my opinion, exceedingly lazy and bad design. On top of that, you can only carry one fetch item back at a time. It is a purposeful waste of my time, and just insulting.
- World boss is not fun for me at all. Insta-death with no good tells as to how far to move. Speaking of which...
- Evade: Is this supposed to have iframes? If so, they are, at best, buggy. If not, and it is only for movement, the distance you evade is too small and I find the whole system pointless.
- Elite/Champion/Boss/etc combat tells are bad. Given my major interest in souls games, this really bothers me. There are some damage events that are simply unavoidable.
- There are way too many quests. I'd rather have half of the current amount but better written/designed.
- 3 months out I have concerns - Lots and lots of bugs (Yes, I know, beta...), but in this case we have a lot of hardware and game design issues.
- UI, is at best, acceptable. I find it awful to look at, and even less useful for productivity.
- Why do town portals not make...the iconic town portal noise? Easy win that was totally skipped. Makes me question how much of a love for Diablo the designers have.
- As far as I remember there are no callbacks in music to the iconic D1/D2 music. Another easy win that was missed, and something I hoped for.
- Open world is not fun for me - I would like to be able to choose if I want to run into other people or not.
- Too many currencies in my opinion.
- Give me exocet font.
- I am glad I can pet dogs with the hello emote. That's a win.

Overall, and this is coming from a huge Diablo fan, 1-3 (I have many reservations about D3 even after thousands of hours), I believe we are looking at a upper-middle of the road game so far. I can see a path to greatness, but 3 months out, I suspect it's going to be quite some time before they get there.
 

Freeman76

Member
PoE runs circles around it and its not even close. The "dungeons" are also hilarious in their variety, as there's basically none of it, its constantly the same backgrounds. Like even Torchlight had that on lock way back then, if you're playing ARPGs since a long time you could see that D IV just offers absolutely nothing new

it is getting a pass because its called Diablo and lolrogue

I stopped at PoE runs circles around it.

I mean....wtf are you smoking. Fair enough if you prefer PoE but get real
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
xAmCexR.jpg


Daddy sorc 25 baby!!
Worst sorc yet it only started to get fun at level 24 with 6 legs🤣🤣

I basically thunderspear proc the fuck out of mobs and collect drops that give me back mp
 
Solid game, but incredibly boring. Those who wish to just continue where they left off in D3 will be satisfied. I expected more changes tbh, the game just doesn't do it for me. Been years since I've played D3, but I still can't stomach more of the same shit, I've had enough. Compared to all games in existence, this is a very high quality title. Compared to Blizzards own output from the past, this game lacks the attention to detail and the perfectionism in every aspect of a game. You can almost feel the drain of talent this company has witnessed while playing.
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
Aye the light proc build is okay ish.
But it feels so fucking weak overal
I will be avoiding this class until they fix it

Part of the problem is that the aoes radius are smaller than they used to be.

Personally, I've been running a full cold build and it's been nice, nothing flashy but effective - blizzard + frozen orb. You really need to train yourself to hit mobs with the orb explosion so you double dip, otherwise the damage sucks. Blizzard is great however. I also run the frozen orb enchament... on outdoor areas it kinda sucks because it can target enemies that are out of range, but indoors getting an extra orb every 5 casts is solid stuff.
 

omegasc

Member
Are you outside from the US? That can happen when you are outside of the US.
Anyways i'm level 14 right now and i like it. I'm not blown away but it's good.
Yup. Brazil. It was fixed quickly after I sent this message though 🙂
Everything is a lot smoother today, I barely got queued.
Tried controller on PC and it's great! Vibration helps a lot in noticing you're getting DoT.
 

Ogbert

Member
I like it.

It is what it is. An arcadey, fun arpg. The purists will hate it, but I’m a filthy casual so I’m ok.

It still has a lot of rough edges. Ranged and melee remain two entirely separate games, with the former being a lot easier (at least for now).

Enjoyed the rogue, although energy regen needs to be buffed.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
Part of the problem is that the aoes radius are smaller than they used to be.

Personally, I've been running a full cold build and it's been nice, nothing flashy but effective - blizzard + frozen orb. You really need to train yourself to hit mobs with the orb explosion so you double dip, otherwise the damage sucks. Blizzard is great however. I also run the frozen orb enchament... on outdoor areas it kinda sucks because it can target enemies that are out of range, but indoors getting an extra orb every 5 casts is solid stuff.
You seem to understand diablo maybe we can coop when the actual game comes out.. i love testing builds in diablo more then actually playing the game
 

DavidGzz

Member
PoE runs circles around it and its not even close. The "dungeons" are also hilarious in their variety, as there's basically none of it, its constantly the same backgrounds. Like even Torchlight had that on lock way back then, if you're playing ARPGs since a long time you could see that D IV just offers absolutely nothing new

it is getting a pass because its called Diablo and lolrogue

Ok, I'm 41 been playing since D1 at age 15 but whatever makes you feel better. PoE feels like trash. I did play it for a while(150 hours)but then I'd go back to D3 for the new seasons and realized how much smoother it felt that it made me stop going back to that subpar feeling crap. Agree to disagree. D4 is the next step in this genre. Going back to anything else in the genre is like playing an action rpg after playing Dark Souls. Hollow feeling.
 

Barakov

Gold Member
I'll give it a try next week on PS5 for the open beta but it seems pretty good with some caveats? I think we'll have to wait for the first expansion for it to hit its' stride like with D3.
 

Ogbert

Member
Main criticism is that there is too much cc on players. I hate losing control of my character.

It’s an insanely unenjoyable mechanic.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
I like it.

It is what it is. An arcadey, fun arpg. The purists will hate it, but I’m a filthy casual so I’m ok.

It still has a lot of rough edges. Ranged and melee remain two entirely separate games, with the former being a lot easier (at least for now).

Enjoyed the rogue, although energy regen needs to be buffed.
I also played rogue, did you find them a bit squishy on veteran? Some mobs like the big volknars or whatever the fuck they're called are resilient little bastards. Was like fighting goats.

And I only really struggled on Dungeon bosses because there's no mobility to get out the way of the AoE or Orb lasers etc.

I can feel myself getting strong now but I also miss the level areas instead of scaling. It was fun to see your power levels obliterate earlier enemies
 

Ogbert

Member
I also played rogue, did you find them a bit squishy on veteran? Some mobs like the big volknars or whatever the fuck they're called are resilient little bastards. Was like fighting goats.

And I only really struggled on Dungeon bosses because there's no mobility to get out the way of the AoE or Orb lasers etc.

I can feel myself getting strong now but I also miss the level areas instead of scaling. It was fun to see your power levels obliterate earlier enemies
Like you, only on bosses.

I ran a melee build with flurry for normal stuff, as it’s more fun, and just switched to range for bosses. I think the trick is just to use one or two maxed out skills for anything more difficult.

I don’t think you should put points into anything until you’ve maxed the proceeding ability.
 

bender

What time is it?
Ok, I'm 41 been playing since D1 at age 15 but whatever makes you feel better. PoE feels like trash. I did play it for a while(150 hours)but then I'd go back to D3 for the new seasons and realized how much smoother it felt that it made me stop going back to that subpar feeling crap. Agree to disagree. D4 is the next step in this genre. Going back to anything else in the genre is like playing an action rpg after playing Dark Souls. Hollow feeling.

Mostly agree. I tried PoE and more recently, Grim Dawn. They seem like really well made games but nothing feels as good as D3 with a controller. After the D4 beta, I'd argue that D3 still holds the crown in that regard.
 

DavidGzz

Member
Yeah, guess I am screwed in regards to the wolf cub since I did not get it and I just relogged. Boooo
 
Last edited:

Kacho

Member
Solid game, but incredibly boring. Those who wish to just continue where they left off in D3 will be satisfied. I expected more changes tbh, the game just doesn't do it for me. Been years since I've played D3, but I still can't stomach more of the same shit, I've had enough. Compared to all games in existence, this is a very high quality title. Compared to Blizzards own output from the past, this game lacks the attention to detail and the perfectionism in every aspect of a game. You can almost feel the drain of talent this company has witnessed while playing.
I find it incredibly boring too. I think it’s the non-existent difficulty curve and the boring early game loot. “Oh green number? Gearscore ugrade!” Yawn as fuck.
 
Last edited:

DavidGzz

Member
Mostly agree. I tried PoE and more recently, Grim Dawn. They seem like really well made games but nothing feels as good as D3 with a controller. After the D4 beta, I'd argue that D3 still holds the crown in that regard.

I think it's because it's more arcadey, but I'll trade that action for the added realism here. I love the look, sounds, and atmosphere so much more here. It's like Ninja Garden feels smoother and faster than Dark Souls but I prefer Dark Souls combat much more.
 
Top Bottom