For the past week or two I’ve been on a nostalgia kick replaying Diablo II. Eventually burning out recently and annoyed that retaliation/thorns builds aren’t viable (and that there’s no buff/debuff timer) I finally got around to doing a bit of research on Diablo IV.
On the positive side, it appeared there actually was an effective Thorns build available (albeit for an unexpected class). On the negative, it seemed like the game had turned wholly into an MMO with cooldowns and attack/buff rotations and world bosses and whatnot. So I waffled a bit but, ultimately just as with Diablo III, ended up caving.
Some thoughts being now a little ways past the prologue and having cleared a chunk of the first area’s north and western stretches:
Negatives
– Dungeons tend to be rather empty with barren halls and a notable lack of destructive urns/barrels.
– The Cellars and timed World Events feel exceptionally gamey.
– Weapon and skill bonuses seem pretty minor, with differences being sometimes only a fraction of a percent or a couple seconds.
– There’s about twenty too many different types of resources.
– Oddly frequent cutscenes.
– Dungeon rewards being static. Could they not think of a class-specific reward for each one?
Positives
– Grim Dawn-like respec access.
– Gameplay at this point isn’t as complicated/rigid as feared.
– The massive number of resources don’t take up inventory space.
– So many things to collect and upgrade.
– The map evolving as you clear strongholds is a nice touch.