Diablo 4 - Beta Review: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE Through Sanctuary and Settings!

the Diablo Series has been a long-standing staple of the asymmetric RPG genre for well over two decades Diablo set the tone World building atmosphere and gearing that is shared by many games in the genre today it's had the highest of highs and subsequently the lowest of lows so you're likely wondering how does Diablo 4 the latest in the line of the game stand up does it remain true to its roots while still incorporating contemporary Trends and quality of life within the genre will it reach the heights of quality that fans of long forced since Diablo 2. but will it succumb to the corporate monetization and simplification of the most recent titles in the series this is what I wish to discuss with you if you'll have me my name is Brandon Mouse and this is my Diablo 4 beta early review where I hope to answer all your questions and showcase what blizzard is bringing to the table in sanctuary this time around [Music] thank you upon booting up the game you're introduced with the character selection screen you can have up to 10 slots for your characters here you will also find the world difficulty tier selection in the beta the options were adventure and Veteran however in the full game we will gain access to the Nightmare and torment difficulties these levels of difficulty are similar to the previous Diablo games and Ratchet up the damage and HP of the monsters while also giving you greater benefits via XP and gold earned within the main menus we have the collections which houses your codex of power for legendary aspects your challenge is to see what you've completed and which rewards have been granted and for those daring enough a fallen characters tab where you can have up to 8 Fallen characters from your hardcore games I tried my handout at this mode and I must say it did add another level of immersion and care to the world even if I only lasted for five hours no [Music] that's it dude I died it's over I died Beyond this your standard blizzard title options are here from social to invite your friends to Clan where you form a guild and can have Guild tags they've covered the basics of social interaction and organization for your progress within the game in terms of the settings I found that they really knocked this out of the park their graphic settings for every minute detail you could want and overall the performance of the beta was fantastic occasional stutters aside an occasional cue problems the game mostly ran great for me sound settings give you what you need to adjust the balance of the World music and voice on top of this there was a good deal of accessibility settings for item drop sound effects and also subtitles the gameplay options were much appreciated it allowed me to reduce the visual effects to my liking and remove HP bars it's great that they give you these options for those who wish to have a more immersive visual experience at the cost of the aid and information the controls section was as you would expect and allows you to keybind what you need to feel comfortable I did not play with the controller however the settings look good and if they are anything like those from Diablo 2 resurrected then I have no reservations for them there is a good variety of options for how you interact with your fellow dungeoneers in the world the social tab allows you to customize your network settings notifications and chat settings touching back to when I spoke about accessibility within sound blizzard also includes a host of settings for accessibility within gameplay as well it's standard these days to make sure that everybody can enjoy their experience while playing the game and they really made sure that everyone's needs would be met overall I'm very pleased with the customization and the amount of options we get within the general settings gearing in Diablo is make or break for most people the progression and curve at which you attain your loot while you grind out your Dungeons and kill thousands of the hordes of Hell sets the tone for what you'll expect from your experience after having played the beta for 30 plus hours I found that I was able to get a pretty good setup going on my rogue and I had a lot of good off pieces for varying build types I enjoyed the Synergy that you could create between different aspects which integrated with your skills and abilities and some build altering ways now this is merely a beta and we do not know how the end game will truly feel however as it stands right now I was happy with the progress of how gearing felt finding solid rare bases and using aspects to craft them into legendaries felt good to me I enjoyed that I could customize my build to that level and it always is a bonus when a random legendary dropped either replacing or giving me a new aspect to acquire for the collection there are some really cool builds that you can make that hinge on the legendaries and how they affect your abilities my favorite thought I ended up playing most were puncture Rogue and poison barrage Rogue the player inventory accessed by pressing C gave a lot of information to look through if you wished you had equipment consumables Quest items and aspects it was nice that they separated these into tabs so as to not take up precious resource space also included was your stash of materials and your basic core stats as well as your detailed stat breakdowns the currencies were also displayed at the bottom and Visually it gave me all the information that I needed at any time specializations were unlocked at level 15 and in the beta we had access to two of three I found that having the specialization enhanced my builds and gave another layer of depth for the gameplay combo points for instance were very fun and it reminded me my days playing subtlety Rogue in PvP when I used to play a lot of wow onto abilities and skills I know people have been on the fence with this one whether or not the skills were complex enough more akin to Poe or simpler like something reminiscent of Gauntlet Dark Legacy I view the skill tree as something in the middle is enough skills and branching Pathways to give you a good deal of customization for your build without becoming burdensome or requiring a guide on how to navigate their Pathways I found the variety for each of the characters available to give me the tools that I needed to create builds and really Theory craft I think they did a good job here and I'm eager to see how the additional levels up to 100 as well as the modifications from the Paragon tree further built upon this system in the beta we're easily able to afford refunds the cost of 25 following around 2 400 gold however we have heard from the devs once you hit 100 it would almost be more worth your time to restart your character I'm on the fence about this subject as speaking with closed beta players the impression that I've gotten is that it would be doable and some good folks over on the subreddit have also broken down the numbers based on the data from the play test and found that it would cost you approximately 840 000 gold to fully respect now this is pure speculation and extrapolation nothing is certain on this topic and you either enjoy the feeling of having more importance to your skill decisions or you want complete freedom and load of creation I believe that this is mirroring of the gaming environment for which you grew up in those who played the old RPGs and Diablo 2 prefer a tougher experience whereas those in a newer generation who enjoy Diablo 3 would want less restriction and consequence will tell how this pans out personally I'm okay with it being hard to reset your talents the vendors in Diablo 4 were much like those of previous games apart from the occultist a hybrid of the enchanter and the new aspect system he had the blacksmith to repair Salvage and craft gear shopkeepers to sell goods and make your gold an alchemist allowing you to upgrade your health potions as well as craft consumable elixirs the Curiosity vendor basically was this game's version of gambling from the older titles the currency of which was obtained from world events in the form of opals on top of this we had the occultist who is the newest edition allowing you to craft legendaries from rares with aspects from your codex or from weapons which you've extracted them from in his menus you also found sigil crafting which will play a part in Nightmare difficulty and up to create keys for dungeons this was probably the most alluring aspect of vendors for me I enjoy playing Mythic dungeon keys and wow and this brings me back to that system I'm excited to see how it all works out once we get to end game the final vendor present was the Jeweler a vendor for Gem cutting and fitting each of the vendors in their uis were good to me and I found that they had easy readability and Visually were on brand with the series as is tradition for Diablo games players had a stash available to them this was a chest which is shared between all your characters it had upgrades available in the form of tabs for which you could purchase I found that the space was adequate but we'll have to see from here if it's going to be enough by level 100 and for our end game the part of player space for which I'm most excited for is the Wardrobe here you can create and apply transmogs to your gear changing their style and look to make it your own I had a variety of options available to change the look of my rogue to my liking and I really appreciated how customizable that it felt out of the box I'm excited to see how much more gear and styles we're gonna get when we get access to the launch of the full title if things continue on this trend as they are in the beta then this surely lessens the impact of fomo for skins from the battle passes and from the store because there's actually quality options available in game to me this is how it should be you should feel rewarded for both your stats and visuals for the time that you invest in the world so far I'm impressed with this system and time will tell how it's going to flesh out onto sound now I found that the voice acting and the cutscene quality in the game was very high my first playthrough I listened to all the dialogue of every character giving quests as well as watching all the cutscenes the voice acting in this game was truly top-notch and it helps to ground youth in the world of sanctuary you want an audience without Chieftain earn it slay our enemies hunt the causera of the ice Clan who stalked this mountain break their bodies and bring their shattered bones back as tribute then maybe the chieftain will acknowledge you the music in this game was also phenomenal I often found myself just standing about in the towns of the fractured Peaks just to stay a while and listen the score is varied and really immerses you within the Dark Fantasy settings it's reminiscent of the D2 days and we all know how classic that music is as a musician myself I had a great appreciation for the work done here and I'm very excited to hear the songs and the sounds of the other zones within the world oh speaking of the world this map was huge for being one region of a potential five I'm impressed with the amount of open space that we get to run around in the map showcases the many Pathways and regions with a very nice art style the markers and information present were also well executed I found it easy at a glance to see what I needed to do and where I needed to be heading quests that were main quests were marked in yellow side quests were blue and events in red adding markers on the map was also easy and helping you needed to get somewhere specific often I would find myself just wandering around the world if I did not set a marker so it's a good addition to help keep me focused on the task at hand hovering over the regions just shows you how many zones within each are present and it's a solid amount I love the art style and the overall feel of the zones that we were given I'm excited to explore the other regions when the game fully releases with Diablo 4 taking the leap towards an open world based game they really needed to have a good variety and setting to keep people intrigued and care serious every time I would run through the world going Zone by Zone I would just bask in the atmosphere and often get lost along the way the world is immersive tense and Visually detailed there are so many little beautiful touches and areas to explore and stumble into from mountainous snow-capped regions to swampy lowlands and rolling snow-covered Hills the fractured Peaks sets a tone in a Vibe which had me enthralled the whole way through it's the details in the presentation the way the trees and the grass move in the wind the snow deformation as you wander through the Zone the squish of the muddy brackish water as you Wade through the lowlands it's all here and more Blizzard's art team once again proving that they carry the weight of this company these people deserve a raise looking for with the release of the other zones I'm very positive about how they'll turn out after having stepped foot in about one-fifth of the available space I love the world building and the setting the beta and the evolution to a more open world game truly has worked wonders adding on to the discussion of World building and the open world scale we have new forms of exploration and objectives aside from the main and side quests available in the form of group events I participated in multiple events both solo and with groups of wandering adventurers and I found that the experience was quite enjoyable my favorite event was the world boss ishava this caught me out guard at first because she hit hard these World boss experiences are akin to something out of the monster hunter Playbook and you can really see how they've taken influence from that game alongside Lost Ark for inspiration into how they're going to develop their open world more I think these are positive changes for Diablo they don't take away from the more form factor dungeon experience that we all expect from the series frankly it's a breath of fresh air and it's a nice addition to give other opportunities for gearing and general play aside from grinding and game dungeons we will see how this develops as we gain access to the other three World bosses bounties hell tied events and the tree of Whispers content so far it's looking like a good package adding on to these events and new systems they also introduce the renowned system which is much like Lost Ark where players can use different characters to gain different sorts of stats from Collectibles and various XP that they gain in the world on a character this is also much appreciated and a nice addition to the world dungeons the core of all Diablo games returns in stride with thematic dungeons that have varied Landscapes and settings I love the art style and the themes within the dungeons a few of these included were keeps Crips caves lost cities and some more open air regions I found that there was enough variety aesthetically and I did not get tired of what I was experiencing there is some overlap with the themes however for example one cave is a standard cave another is an ice cave and a third could be a poison cave these set pieces are much like those of the past tiles and with tiles comes some level of reuse and repetition the place that this was most apparent was the actual directionality of the tile sets often you would find similar Corridor and room layout sections normally this would not be an issue in the Diablo titles as they had procedural generation and different variety each run however in Diablo 4 it appears that they have chosen to go the set layout row this to me is the biggest issue that I could find in this beta I love the design visuals and atmosphere and I just want a little more variation in the path in each run there's some mechanics as well included which are Hit or Miss for people and lead to a lot of backtracking personally I'm okay with Gathering relics and keys to progress the dungeon I just hope that they have a little more incoming to further increase the variety of these objectives overall dungeons were enjoyable in the beta but they could use some work in the future as we will be in them quite a lot on to bosses the boss situation is kind of mirrored to that of the dungeons that they reside within there were set archetypes of bosses which would repeat with different names throughout this to me was less of an issue as I understand what an undertaking it would be to design well over a hundred custom bosses with the move sets I say this because it's been a welcome addition that bosses in Diablo 4 have a much more varied move set with telegraphing and mechanics I felt like I was playing a mix of Lost Ark wow and Diablo it was pretty awesome I love the mechanics and the boss fights it caps off the dungeons nicely and it's a welcomed addition I hope in the future they have a little more variety and continue the trend making boss fights engaging and more than just how fast can I blow up this enemy and get a loot shower ultimately how you view Diablo 4 will be influenced by your personal Journey with the series over the years I think that the game does enough to piece both camps the hardcore D2 players and the D3 gotta go fast crowd it's a healthy marriage of newer arpg game systems from other games in the genre today and the change to an open world is greatly to its benefit I think that Diablo 4 has a lot to offer and I am very optimistic about the future of this series I think that we're on the right path to reclaim the glory that once was before the series veered with Diablo 3. the beta was immersive gory impactful and most of all I had a blast I hope you check it out when the next weekend's open Beta drops to find out for yourself if I had to rate my experience out of 10 I would say that Diablo 4 beta would fall somewhere closer to an 8 to 9 range it's a very good foundation for a future that I hope blizzard will cherish and nurture to really Bloom into the penultimate arpg experience that all us fans wish to take Revel in Diablo 4 beta was worth my time and I think it'll respect yours as well so give it a try next weekend and let me know in the comments how you feel about the Diablo 4 beta [Music]

Channel: Branimau5

Views: 3,540

Keywords: Diablo4, Diablo, Beta, Review, Opinions, Viewpoint, Perspective, Gameplay, Storytelling, Games

Id: 9ZZ3rzGddVM

Length: 18min 9sec (1089 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 21 2023