![]() ![]() From my time with the Diablo IVpreview build, it seems that those who want a big, dark, and new Diablo world to explore and fight enemies will be pleased. While I focused on Frost skills, re-specing my character was a cheap and easy process I could do anytime, so Diablo IV will give players a lot of room to experiment. I could progress up to level 25 in my demo and, along the way, assign points to unlock abilities on my skill tree that would shape my character’s skill set. I focused on abilities that would allow me to freeze enemies in place and deal more damage to them. While I played around with the other classes and other types of magic like fire, most of my playtime was as a frost mage. This demo gave me access to the Rogue, Barbarian, and Sorceress classes, which have many unique skills players can utilize offensively and passively to create different playstyles. It’s the same dungeon-crawling, demon-defeating isometric combat everyone expects from a Diablo game. However, there’s nothing too revolutionary here regarding the core Diablo action-RPG formula. This open-ended structure makes Diablo IV feel freeing and gives an otherwise grim game a hopeful sense of adventure. Players will encounter each other as they explore too. Sidequests and dungeons populate this massive world, and after the game’s opening quests, players are free to complete major campaign questlines in the order they see fit. The biggest innovation of Diablo IV is that it’s set across multiple giant, shared worlds that are nonlinear in structure. My demo was set on Fractured Peaks, an icy tundra that is one of the first Shared Worlds where players will be able to explore and complete quests. That’s especially notable as this style of game has largely been left to indies recently. Even this mid-development build of the game had an impressive level of AAA polish in its world design, writing, and combat. Both cutscenes and gameplay are disturbing, the combat is fast-paced but weighty, and the world’s colors are muted and dark. Everything we’ve seen of the game so far suggests that it will be a worthy inclusion into one of gaming’s great RPG franchises, but there is still so much of the title waiting to be discovered.Based on a chilling conclusion to the game’s opening dungeon that I won’t spoil here, it’s clear that Diablo IV is a return to the first two games’ darker form - it’s significantly grimmer than Diablo III or Diablo Immortal. Of course, all of this is leading up to Diablo 4’s June 6th release date. In any case, you should expect longer queues and wait times, especially during the beta’s opening hours. Hypothetically, this beta could feature special events specifically designed to test what the servers can handle. ![]() This open beta will help stress test the game, but we’ve already had one open beta that presumably did the same. However, it’s not quite clear if that “Server Slam” tag is anything more than marketing. That means that this should be the closest we’ve come to experiencing the launch version of the game. More importantly, it is expected to feature some of the recently confirmed class changes and balance updates. Along with a host of bug fixes, the Server Slam beta will reportedly reflect the full version of Diablo 4‘s Legendary item drop rate. There are actually a few new things in this trial, though. ![]() Of course, that item won’t really be useful until you’re able to unlock mounts in the final game. You can also earn the Cry of Ashava Mount Trophy by defeating Ashava with a Level 20 character. That means that those who reach Level 20 with at least one character can still unlock the Initial Casualty and Early Voyager titles as well as the Beta Wolf Pack cosmetic. The good news is that you will be able still be able to earn all of the rewards featured in the previous betas. Even worse, your progress from previous betas will not carry over to the Server Slam, and your Server Slam progress won’t carry over to the final game. However, you will only be able to level those characters up to Level 25 during the Server Slam period. Just as before, Diablo 4‘s Server Slam will allow players to choose between all five of the game’s classes. ![]()
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