So, a new update for Diablo 4 came out a couple of days ago, and honestly, it does give me back a bit of hope I lost after Diablo Immoral. Apparently, they’re also further along than I thought!
Not only have they made a great job with the aestetics – graphics – the enemies they showcase in a new video actually seems to be fully functioning now – they move, they attack, they’ve got death animations.. Everything seems fairly fleshed out.
They’ve got something called “Paragon Boards”, which basically functions as a skilltree. We’ve known that for a while, they showcased a WIP for an idea of it, but in the new video, it was more finetuned, visually overhauled so it looked pretty finished.
From what I can understand, they’re going to release the game with five playable characters – The Barbarian, which is basically a staple for this game, along with a Sorcerer, also a staple. But they’ve also made a Druid, Necromancer and a Rogue.
While The Barbarian and Sorcerer has been in every single game so far – although in Diablo 1, the Barbarian didnt show up until the expansion, Hellfire and the “Sorcerer” was called “Wizard” in Diablo 3 – the Druid has only been part of the franchise in one instance (the expansion of Diablo 2, Lord of Destruction), the Necromancer only showed up for the first time in Diablo 2 and 3, and the Rogue was in Diablo 1.
You could probably argue that the Rogue was morphed into the Assassin-class in Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction, and became the Demon Hunter in Diablo 3, but I’m not sure I would necessarily agree on that.
See, the Rogue in D1 was basically a platemail-wearing bowshooter that could interact with traps and magic to keep enemies at bay.
An Assassin was basically an “in-your-face” type of melee fighter, using shorter weapons such as a claw, or Katars – which is basically more in line with Diablo 3’s Monk, in my opinion. Sure, they dont play the same, but they fill the same “class need”. Also, instead of interacting with traps, Assassins could pick locks on chests without keys.
Later, in Diablo 3, the Demon Hunter would almost make sense to compare to the Rogue – infinite ammo, using bows and crossbows, trying to keep the enemy at bay.. except that while the Rogue could use plate armor, they didnt have the same kind of defense in Diablo 3 – rather they opted for another defense-type; in Diablo 3, all melee classes got a built-in 30% damage reduction, whereas ranged classes, such as the Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, Wizard and Necromancer, did not get that damage reduction.
This meant that every time an enemy did, say, 100 points of damage, a Barbarian would only need to deal with 70 points, and then count of their actual resistances. In Diablo 1, a plate-wearing Barbarian and a plate-wearing Rogue would deal with the same amount of damage, but in Diablo 3 a Barbarian innately deals with far less damage taken than a Demon Hunter – therefore, I’d argue that a Rogue and a Demon Hunter is different on that specific alone. But wait – a Demon Hunter also keeps enemies at bay! Sure, but not by magic, like the Rogue – but rather by movement skills, such as Vault. Rogues knows magic – Demon Hunters does not. But yeah, ok, both Rogues and Demon Hunters uses dexterity stats to deal damage, you say. Fair enough, I’ll give you that – but I counter with the fact that Rogues were supposed to be magic users, while Demon Hunters are supposedly “normal people” that just hated demons so much they channeled it into use.
They fit into the same class-niche – a fast-paced damage dealer who uses dexterity as a damage stat, that is “too fast to hit”. But that’s about it. You could just as well argue that Barbarians and Crusaiders are the same, because they both are “too tanky to kill” and both uses strength as their primary stats.
And for quite obvious reasons I barely mentions Diablo Immoral, but yes, most of Diablo 3 classes are in Diablo Immoral, save Witch Doctor. That’s the only Diablo 3 class that didnt turn up in Diablo Immoral – yet, atleast.
Not only that they have five classes, by the way, you’re now also allowed to customize your character to look however you want! They did that in Diablo Immoral too, but that’s a phonescreen.. How often will you look at your character there? I’m not sure about genders though, they havent said anything specifically about that, but I assume it’s most likely like in the other games that came out recently – female and male versions of all classes. They didnt say it, but they included something in the video that implies it. It does look like it’s a variant of a Barbarian – just not as buff as she was in Diablo 3.
It could very well be one of the other classes though – it was not specified, it could have very well been a female Necromancer there in that shot.
Which is weird, to be honest. All the explicitly stated Barbarians shown has been male, as with the Druids. They use “he” about everything they say about both Barbarians and Druids – but “she” when they’re talking about Rogues and Sorcerers. Necromancers though have no pronouns used, but the Necromancer itself looks female.
Although – when I googled to find out, I see people on different sites, “game journalists”, atleast claim that Diablo 4 classes arent gender locked, and that you can play a female Barbarian, or a male Sorcerer. But I havent found any sources showing that it’s something Blizzard itself has claimed. Note – it might very well be something they’ve said and I’ve completely missed it, like in an interview or a video or something, and that I probably should have seen that statement – so take my word with a grain of salt, please. It’s absolutely possible that Blizzard made the classes opened for male and female, and that I’ve simply missed it. I dont want to spread a rumour that says that there’s only two male classes and three female classes – I’m just saying that if so, then I have missed that statement.
The game also is non-linear open-world, with “almost 150 dungeons” in the game, roaming world bosses, random local events, strongholds that you clear out and make into towns.. It’s almost MMO-esque, in a way, with shared worlds, cross-play.. (Although, they just specified Xbox and PC, and couch-coop on Xbox – I assume Playstation can coop with PC and Xbox as well, they just didnt specify that)
If you imagine Diablo in Elden Ring – open world, dungeons, roaming world bosses.. it seems like Diablo 4 will be a whole lot of fun!
They also said that they’re going to keep the game alive – adding onto it, making new stuff.
And all of it is released sometime NEXT YEAR.