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After endless amounts of rumors, and "out of season April Fools jokes", Blizzard has finally lifted the curtain on their next Diablo title: Diablo IV. Announced during this year's Blizzcon, the reveal came with a 9-minute cinematic trailer and a gameplay trailer, showing three character classes: mage, druid, and barbarian. According to Blizzard, the game will take place years after the previous mainline entry, Diablo III, and will be a return to the franchise's "dark roots". The game has no release date, but it will launch on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

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[Ra1d]

Looks like a discount Path of Exile (and Path of Exile is free). The fact that they're using in-engine cutscenes also tells me that the game is being rushed in response to bad PR, and they've given up on trying to provide the kind of quality that Blizzard used to.

I don't think they're rushing the game, they even said during Blizzcon that this game isn't coming out anytime soon and pointed out "not even Blizzard soon". So this game could be 3-4 years away from release. IMO the point was not to rush a release, but to announce it this year(to save face from last year's bullshit). I mean even Diablo 3 was announced in 2008 and was released in 2012.

Also I don't think the final version of the game will look even remotely close to what we're seeing here, since this is a basic demo from a very early development stage.

 

[burial]

The graphics look worse than 3!!!!!

No, they look like what D3 shouldve looked like, but I know what you mean.

Not very impressive for current gen graphics.

 

[Gatoulis]

It will be a shame for the game to only be released for current gen consoles, the likelihood is by the time it is released next gen playstation and xbox to be around.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

It will be a shame for the game to only be released for current gen consoles, the likelihood is by the time it is released next gen playstation and xbox to be around.

I would imagine the only reason they don't mention the PS5/XbTwo is because their official consumer versions haven't been formerly announced yet. All we have are the early teasers and half announcements and rumors. I fully expect by the time this releases (which I would guess late 2020/early 2021 myself), it'll launch on the PS5/XBTwo along with the PS4/xbone. EDIT: especially since the next gen consoles are going to be keeping the same exact architecture, so doing an up-port will be laughably easy.

 

[zniel0]

More always online garbage. Path or exile is atleast free to play and actually looks better instead of the pushed to gather generic asset generation this is made up of. Sure ill play it but ARPG's like torchlight 2 Grim Dawn are miles ahead of this.

 

[silvershadow]

aw mann, too bad no switch release planned

 

[Rahkeesh]

I'm betting the console versions are going to be always-online unlike for D3, which can be a little more complicated for playing on Switch. I'm also betting any potential switch port would have to target 30 FPS instead of 60, yielding a pretty different experience.

 

[vincentx77]

No Switch, no buy. I played D3 for years on PC, and after I got the Switch version, that game the game new life for me.
And I know all of the hardcore dudebros have been bitching about the cartoon-y graphics in D3 since before it came out in 2012, but I think it gives D3 a more timeless look that makes it scale more easily on different kinds of hardware. It looks good in 720p on a PS360 console, and it looks stunning on a high-end PC at 4k with everything dialed to max. These graphics definitely won't do that. I don't necessarily think they're awful, but they'll certainly be 'of their time'

 

[Vorde]

I think people need to realize that with Diablo being so radically different transitioning from D2 to D3, and with the change in graphics, they've brought in multiple demographics. Some people like the dark gritty somewhat washed out look that Diablo II had (I personally loved the way D2 looked), and some people like the bright and cartoony style brought to D3 (I have a few friends that like it more). I'm glad they're getting back to their roots, with D5 or whatever, we might see them move back to bright and cartoony graphics./
They didn't hint or explain anything about the Skill system they're going to use, it would be nice if they had a better crafting system than D3. D2 was a bit too hardcore for most of the player base, but that's the beauty of Diablo to me.
Anyways, I'm not disapointed at all, I think it's going to be pretty awesome based on what they've showed off

 

[Obveron]

If the PC version has offline couch co-op, I'll be buying it.

 

[Rahkeesh]

The game has offline nothing. You can play couch co-op on a single console/TV with 1 other person (maybe that will happen with PC?), but you're still connected online to a shared overworld.

 

[medoli900]

Perfect ;-) So it will run on the switch. What will be great!

You do know that Diablo 3 is on Switch since a while now, and that it runs flawlessly, right?

 

[DeadSkullzJr]

Guys you are missing the bigger picture here, graphics doesn't determine if a game is going to be good or not, it's the gameplay itself, including the story behind it. This is just a trailer anyways so things are bound to change as time goes on. If graphics really mattered than most of you must be joking when you claim to like retro gaming, because NONE of those games compare to modern standard graphics. Quality is what matters the most out of everything, I think maybe you should reevaluate on how to determine a good game from a bad game.

By all means am I not trying to sound rude either, but I feel people just don't think about things more clearly when it comes to things like this.

 

[magico29]

hell yeah baby, music to my ears.

 

[Deathwing Zero]

Courtesy of the online only thing I never did 3 despite many many many hours of 1 and 2.

To that end I will believe it when I see it, and especially with Bethesda contracting the suck virus in recent times.

You'll probably be wanting to skip this one as well. From the info they've given, it's basically Diablo MMO. Hard pass from me, I don't need more MMO nonsense. Not really into having other people screwing with me by suddenly just killing me forever. It is however, without a doubt, online only (source).

 

[VitaType]

they've given up on trying to provide the kind of quality that Blizzard used to.

They better don't. After all Blizzard is all about refining. Thats the Blizzard formular: Take something existing that somewhat is popular and make a own ultra polished version of it. I mean who really remembers any of the hero shooters before Overwatch, any of the digital cardgames before heartstone, any of the MMOs before WoW or any of the RTS before WC2 or any hero RTS before WC3? I admit that making the rough-like Diablo realtime instead of turn-based and this way create a all-new subgenre was original, but beside that refining really was there success factor.

 

[NotACat]

play Diablo 3 again and you see its way better. Looks great to mee.

yeah graphics still not today standard (like Wolcen) but the atmosphere has returned and looked way better than D3, but seem the animations are a bit clunky and worse than D3 (maybe because this was a rushed demo/trailer?)

 

[aMp]

That cinematic looked so pretty. It kinda makes me interested in the franchise.

 

[FAST6191]

You'll probably be wanting to skip this one as well. From the info they've given, it's basically Diablo MMO. Hard pass from me, I don't need more MMO nonsense. Not really into having other people screwing with me by suddenly just killing me forever. It is however, without a doubt, online only (source).

Oh well. Hopefully someone manages to bring me some nice co-op dungeon crawlers again. Got some nice single player efforts and I thought we were getting some back on the 360 during its later life but they all failed.

 

[Maximilious]

All the mention of PoE while Grim Dawn gets no love. Sure Grim Dawn costs money, but definitely worth it for a true D2 style successor. Dual classing with talents/skill points is great and the atmosphere is amazing.

PoE is ok and I do like how they breath life into the game with seasonal events, but I honestly hate the skill system. I'd rather have control over my characters skills rather than wait for RNG to give me the skill I really want to use.

That said, I was not impressed with the gameplay trailer for D4. It looked like they are going for a more "realistic" magic effect as in "what would this look like in the real world". It might work out, but it really doesn't pop for me at the moment. This is a fantasy world, make blizzard or other effects look totally badass and out of this world. If the skill system and itemization look good I will probably pick it up. D3 is very monotonous and lacks that character uniqueness of past entries. If they can solve that then I'd consider D4 a worthy successor.