[News] Diablo 4 review – Praise Lilith, it’s back

[-_-Moltres-_-]

 

“By three they come, by three thy way opens, by the blood of the willing, we call thee home.” The past four years of my life have been haunted by those words, teasing me at every turn, reminding me that, one day, I’d be writing this Diablo 4 review. Given I’ve focused on it for my entire career so far, it feels almost surreal – how is the action RPG game releasing next week? There was always concern that all of that excitement, all of that magic, would fall flat. Could Diablo 4 really live up to the sky-high expectations I set for it? Yes, my fellow nephalem, yes it does.

As the winds of Sanctuary howl, calling me home as it were, I watch my new Rogue emerge from an isolated cave atop the Frosted Peaks – fresh new meat for Lilith’s minions. She’s an echo of myself, in a way, crafted specifically for this journey using the myriad character customization options that are available. She’s my sacrifice to Lilith, the Daughter of Hatred that I’ve developed a perfectly healthy obsession with.

I played Rogue in my initial Diablo 4 gameplay preview, and compared with the beta’s spell-slinging Sorcerer and notorious Necromancer, it felt underpowered. That remains true for the game’s first few acts, especially because I chose the Shadow Twisted Blades melee Diablo 4 build over the po[CENSORED]r Cold Archer. I was playing on world tier two, but bosses quickly became a grind, and waves of Fallen were tricky to deal with given the single-target burst nature of the build.

It all gets better with Shadow Imbuement, though, which I unlocked towards the end of Act 3 (bear in mind I played Acts 2 and 3 first – I’m a heathen, I know). Pairing it with Dash allows you to surge through waves of enemies, imbuing them with shadow magic. A second Dash sees the entire group explode in one glorious crescendo of blood, guts, and gore, and it becomes far too moreish.

There’s a tactical element to the chaos, too, as infecting and killing one large enemy at the center of the horde would cause them to explode. With the Blended Shadow Imbuement upgrade, this explosion would then trigger Vulnerable on nearby enemies. Paired with a leveled-up Malice, which allows you to deal up to 9% extra damage to vulnerable foes, the enemy tides simply became putty in my dagger-wielding hands.

My Rogue’s power was amplified by the fact I picked up a Legendary midway through Act 5 that made my Twisting Blades act as boomerangs that swirled around my character’s body, dealing damage to any creature stupid enough to attempt a full-frontal assault – and there were many. The flipside of picking up this orange surprise is that some Diablo 4 bosses simply felt too easy as a result. I certainly felt like I was tearing up the game’s last zone a little easier than I should have been. But, then again, is it a bad thing to be able to kill literally anything that gets in your path? You decide.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/diablo-4/review