Now that the latest Server Slam Beta has ended, people are quietly waiting for Diablo 4’s launch in June
After playing in an older beta as well as the most recent Server Slam, I have a pretty decent idea of what Diablo 4 is bringing to the table. Here are a few of my impressions as we wait for the upcoming June launch.
Graphics
As far as in-game visuals go, they are some of the best graphics I’ve ever seen in an ARPG. Environments are beautifully rendered, and this time around, they’ve nailed the Diablo 2 aesthetic that fans kept asking for. While Diablo 3 looked great for its time, the Warcraft-inspired cartoony graphics didn’t do the Diablo setting justice. Every nook and cranny is filled with gory details like body parts and a metric ton of blood, just as you would expect from a world where demons roam freely.
Character animations are also great, with some abilities feeling very weighty and satisfying to use. Enemies are also more alive than ever as they try their hardest to eradicate your character. Since killing is an integral part of the experience, death animations are also very intricate with multiple variations for every enemy to keep things interesting. I must also mention cinematics since Blizzard is infamous for their amazing work in that department. The first cinematic of the game is simply breathtaking, making you wonder if you’re actually watching live-action during some moments. It perfectly fits the setting and fully immerses you in the experience. Personally, I can’t wait for the full launch so I can see the full story cinematics.
Gameplay
When it comes to gameplay, there’s nothing unexpected going on under the hood. The same classic ARPG experience you’ve come to expect is present as you make your way through endless hordes of enemies. You have the usual six slots to equip abilities, giving you plenty of freedom to experiment with various builds.
Every character has the ability to dodge danger with a five-second cooldown. And to simplify things regarding potions, there is only one potion slot for Health. Over the course of the campaign, you’ll be able to upgrade that potion by spending money and resources at an Alchemist NPC. Diablo 4 allows you to choose between two difficulty settings when starting out, Adventurer and Veteran. There is clearly a difference between the two, but if you’re not a complete newcomer to the genre you can definitely play on Veteran. When reaching level 50 you’ll be able to unlock the Nightmare difficulty, with Torment becoming available when you reach level 70. Since all betas were limited to level 20 or 25, I can’t really assess how difficult the game can get.
Classes
Make sure you check out our extensive Diablo 4 class guide before kicking off your adventure. Alternatively, you can check out the presentation of each class straight from Blizzard right here. Here is a quick rundown of every class that will be available in Diablo 4 on launch:
Barbarian
The ideal class for people who want to feel like a true melee monster, the Barbarian is better than ever. After complaints that the class lacked damage and survivability in the first Betas, Blizzard has buffed him. Currently, the Barbarian has excellent AOE abilities with the help of Whirlwind and Rend. Paired up with Challenging Shout to taunt enemies, you can make quick work of packs of enemies in no time. And to deal with bosses, Death Blow is an excellent single-target ability.
Guides:
Rogue
Mixing the Amazon from Diablo 2 with a melee class is an interesting choice, making the Rogue a great character. A master of taking down bosses, the Rogue might struggle a bit with packs of mobs due to the lack of AOE abilities. This can be easily fixed by using long-range abilities like Penetrating Shot, Rapid Fire, or Barrage. Pair these up with Shadow Step to quickly get out of a sticky situation and you’ll do great.
Sorcerer
It wouldn’t be a Diablo game without a dedicated spellcaster, and the Sorcerer is currently one of the strongest classes in the game. While still squishy when surrounded by enemies, the Sorcerer more than makes up for it with a ton of AOE abilities. All your favorites are back, including Fireball, Frozen Orb, and the dreaded Hydra. And when things are looking grim, Teleport is there to help you reposition.
Guides:
Druid
Making a return from Diablo 2, the Druid is an interesting mix of a melee fighter and a spellcaster. You will shift between dealing damage in Werewolf or Werebear form to gather Spirit, then start blasting your enemies with Landslide or Lightning Storm. You also have a wide assortment of abilities that will make you sturdier and different types of companions to help you out. Each of these have different abilities themselves, giving you plenty of versatility in combat.
Necromancer
The dedicated summoner class, Necromancers are very similar to their Diablo 2 counterpart. You have your usual repertoire of Curses and direct damage spells that mostly make use of enemy corpses to cause AOE damage. Your trust Skeleton army will always be by your side as well, giving you plenty of room to cast spells while enemies focus on them.
Performance and bugs
I played the latest Server Slam beta on an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X with 16GB of RAM and an RTX 3070. The game ran smoothly on Ultra settings on a 1080p monitor, even though I did encounter some stuttering along the way. But I’m pretty sure that those stutters were due to server stability and not performance issues. Regarding bugs, I only encountered some issues when trying to team up with a friend.
At one point, I was randomly teleported back to base, and our party was disbanded. Managing to get into a party again was a bit of a struggle, but this was probably also due to crowded servers in my region. All in all, I didn’t encounter any truly game-breaking bugs. Diablo 4 is set to launch on June 6, 2023 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S (see more about Diablo 4 cross platform capabilities). There are multiple Diablo 4 editions available which we’ve detailed in the link. If you’re itching for some ARPG action to tide you over until that launch date, have a look at our best games like Diablo list.
