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The newest installment from the action RPG is definitely an enticing mixture of old and new ideas offering a bleak, brutal, and potentially brilliant go-back to form

With a click from the right-mouse button, my musclebound barbarian sinks his axe into the ground behind him, sweeps it forward, and helps to create a shock wave that obliterates my way through its path. Ahead, a horde of undead creatures is repulsed through the blast, zombies flayed through the force from the air, skeletons scattered over the ground, and wraiths dissipating into spectral dust. The room’s furnishing flies together, chairs, candlesticks, and barrels smashing into the far wall. The ground itself is scarred through the attack, a conical depression left within the floor as though struck with a meteorite airburst.

I’ve performed this attack countless times during the last weekend, also it does not light up my brain like Blackpool in September. The Diablo series represents gambling in its purest and maybe most reductive form and it has exploited these feedback loops to enormous success within the last two-and-a-half decades, reworking the complex rulesets of role-playing games into something less cerebral and much more sensory. While there’s a disagreement to be had about how exactly intellectually nourishing these games might be, d4 items provide extensive seductive power. Clicking monsters to death within this game feels dangerously good.

Yet having spent two days with the game during its beta phase, it’s clear there’s more to this than mindless monster-bashing. Diablo 4 sees the series return from the long hiatus following a third game that proved controversial in additional ways than one. Partly due to this, it appears both forward and backward, addressing some criticisms of Diablo 3 while striving to compete in a world that has changed dramatically since 2012.

After a mixed reception towards the colorful visuals of Diablo 3, Diablo 4 returns to being the moody goth kid of their RPG social group: pale-faced, clad in black, and enthusiastic about death. The opening area, named Fractured Peaks, is definitely an oppressive place where muddy, monster-ravaged villages cling towards the edges of the snowy mountain range, with warrens of caves and dungeons concealed underneath the frozen surface. Said dungeons enjoy their own dinginess. Painted in abundant dark shades, similar to FromSoftware’s Bloodborne, the blackened walls and floors are slick with decaying viscera and frequently writhe with strange tendrils that grasp at you in the stonework.

Diablo 4’s appeal to the past isn’t purely stylistic. As your character accrues power over the game’s dark fantasy adventure, you have to choose how you can channel that power, picking skills and talents that complement each other to make your selected warrior an unstoppable destructive force. Diablo 4 ditches the prior game’s overly streamlined approach, going back to a more traditional skill tree that shows your character’s entire power trip instantly.

I tested two of the five available character classes within the open beta – the barbarian and also sorcerer. What became obvious within my time together is how intuitive character progression is. My sorceress, for instance, offered a range of elemental powers to select from. I could make her an incandescent pyromancer, or perhaps a weaponized Elsa who froze her enemies to death. Instead, I centered on electrical abilities, Emperor Palpatine-ing my way through dungeons by zapping demons with bouncing bolts of lightning. This wasn’t the limit of my options, either. Diablo 4 allows me to further tailor these attacks to make a collectible item referred to as “Crackling Energy”. As I plucked these orbs of static electricity from fallen foes, they’d discharge automatically when approaching new enemies. Hence, my sorceress could fry whole categories of demons before casting her first spell – a wonderful sensation.

Structurally, Diablo 4 differs, as players now carve their way via a huge open world. For the beta, just the Fractured Peaks area was open to exploring, but this nonetheless represents a sizeable and impressively freeform area. Although there is a central story to follow along with, it’s simple to get side-tracked into some offshoot adventure, helping a villager find her missing husband in certain shadowy forests or delving into optional dungeons with foreboding names like the Black Asylum. These secondary activities are tied together by “Renown”, a currency that, when accrued, periodically rewards players with extra gold, and skill points, along with other bonuses.

The looser structure results in a more coherent world, however, it doesn’t radically change how Diablo plays. Instead, the outdoor world exists mainly to facilitate Diablo 4’s new status as a persistent video game. Diablo 4 has extensive multiplayer features, along with other players wandering freely around the game world in a position to periodically fight together because they explore individually, or actively join clans and attempt quests together. This ever-present multiplayer element could prove controversial, but interaction with other players isn’t mandatory, and you will happily plunder dungeons and pursue the central storyline solo.

While the storyline has always been part of Diablo, its role is small compared to other RPGs – largely an excuse for players to mash monsters through the million. But Diablo 4 constitutes a more concerted effort to seize the player’s attention, splitting up the action with increased elaborate cutscenes and dialogue that obsess with individual characters and take additional time to explore the game’s pseudo-Christian lore. These sequences bring together all the flair you’d expect from Blizzard, as well as an impressive cast that includes veteran voice actors for example Troy Baker and Jennifer Hale, alongside Hollywood names like Ralph Ineson.

Broadly, it’s an average fantasy adventure, a great battle between good and evil. There are cults. There are prophecies. There are more helpless villagers than you are able to shake a pitchfork at. But there is also an effort at more nuanced characterization. The main antagonist – the demonic goddess Lilith – isn't wholly villainous, as the fallen angel Inarius, a central figure within the religion from the game’s longsuffering humans, isn't wholly good. There’s an adequate amount of interest to become audible over the sound of battle, also it helps the game takes itself seriously, avoiding the temptation to lace the narrative with knowing side glances and ironic gags.

Some questions remain. While Diablo’s character progression is slick and intuitive, does it offer the same degree of flexibility as other ARPGs, especially Path of Exile, which stepped in during Diablo’s long absence? Moreover, exactly what does this new multiplayer structure mean for Blizzard’s long-term monetization plans – can we eventually be inspired to pay for a regular membership? It appears inevitable it'll continue to evolve after launch, and also the question is what form will that evolution take? This is a game that may change shape substantially within the coming years. In its current form, a minimum of, d4 items appears like a worthy ascendant toward the throne of destruction.