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Diablo 4 Open Beta opened on March 17 for players who pre-purchased either the Deluxe or the Ultimate Edition, or for those who purchased a Double Down from KFC. While the experience so far is just limited, it gives players a good sample of what Diablo 4 is going to be. Read on for our Diablo 4 Open Beta First Impressions, and see if it's worth it for you to pre-purchase the game for an early taste of Sanctuary's war for salvation.
Diablo 4 Beta First Impressions
The game opens with the memorable cinematic cutscene that heralded the arrival of Diablo IV. It clearly communicates what brought about the events of the game, and what the stakes are for our adventurers. It sets the tone for the rest of the game, and Lilith's presence all throughout, at least within the scope of the beta, really sells her importance to the players. It's important for Blizzard to do this because Lilith is a new antagonist – granted, she has been present in the previous games and has been mentioned multiple times, but it's the first time for the players to actually encounter Lilith. Hence, the importance of Lilith had to be built up, and Blizzard has done a great job in making sure players know who Lilith is and why she's dangerous.
The Open Beta only allows players to bring their characters up to Level 25, from the Level 100 cap that you can bring your players to in the full game. It also covers only until the first Act of the game, contained within the area of Fractured Peaks, which runs for about five hours of gameplay. For the writing of this article, I tested out all three available classes so far: Berserker, Sorcerer, and Rogue. All ten character slots can be filled during the Open Beta which will get wiped after the Open Beta period ends, sadly.
For better or for worse, the core gameplay loop of Diablo IV remains true to what fans would expect from a Diablo game. It's most reminiscent of how Diablo III felt, so those who picked up Diablo II: Resurrected would have to adopt the more modern Diablo gameplay once again. But the new systems fall right into place with the old formula, adding a layer of gameplay that I greatly appreciate. Perhaps the most simple but also most impactful addition is the addition of dodging to all characters – an ability that was once locked to certain classes. This allowed Blizzard to make the action more frantic and allowed them to design fights without accounting for the lack of maneuverability. This also makes fights much more dynamic and engaging than before.
Adding to the dynamics of combat is the wider variety of enemies available – with a good number of special enemies available from the get-go. The skills and abilities players use are designed well and the animations that represent them are fluid. This makes combat a sight to see as well, and the chaos never makes the game hard to play because the fighting is flashy and vivid. Contrast that with the often dark and bleak environments and you get action scenes that really stand out.
The gameplay differences between the three available classes make the experience of playing one class distinct from the others. The Berserker allows players to be headstrong, damaging opponents as they damage him, and unleash monstrous attacks when the Fury meter gets filled. The Sorcerer is the master of the elements that defeat enemies from a safe distance, utilizing different elements for different occasions, making them very versatile members of the party. Meanwhile, the Rogue has the highest DPS as usual, using ranged weapons to defeat any opponent from afar and utilizing weapon mods to cripple, poison, or disable their enemies to give them the advantage. Within each class also lie a variety of builds players can experiment with, giving the game a lot of replayability and really giving players a run for their money with the ten available character slots.
Given that players can also now refund their ability points at any time, this allows players to change their character builds any time they want. Diablo IV may just have five different classes, but each one of these classes has multiple possible builds for players to experiment on and try out. Add to this is the Codex of Powers that get unlocked as the player completes challenges, as well as the different other class specialties each one has, and you get a lot of different ways to enjoy Diablo IV. That's just from the Open Beta content we have so far, which means there's potential for so much more in the future when other features like the Paragon System get unlocked. But of course, compared to its biggest competitor, Path of Exile, Diablo IV still pales in comparison when it comes to the modularity of builds. Still, we have big improvements in IV from III.
Another great addition that I appreciate from playing the game is the online component. Other players can be seen traversing the open fields alongside you, and every now and then you might find yourself cooperating with a stranger to complete community events together. However, the online components aren't fully unleashed in the game yet, as we haven't experienced any epic large-scale battles with humongous monsters yet like what has been advertised in previous builds. It's still easy to see how much Blizzard is encouraging everyone to play together, as there are a lot of bonuses and benefits coming from playing as a party, and how some dungeons encourage you to bring specific classes into them for added bonuses. Of course, we need to remind players as well that the game's full online functionalities not being online yet means the full extent of the game's live service mechanics, its microtransactions, and the online trading market, still haven't reared their ugly heads and has had not been given the opportunity yet to ruin the game. Finally, it also means that the game requires a steady online connection to play – a thing that many of us has already taken for granted but is still a large issue for many others.
The overall presentation has also been vastly improved, not just with the better graphics, but also because the game feels a lot cinematic now more than ever. On top of the usually great cinematics that Blizzard Entertainment is known for, many sections of the game now feature cinematic camera cuts and camera angles. Some dialogue sequences are also presented as machinimas, similar to how Warcraft III cutscenes used to look, but now with the better graphics engine used for Diablo, it looks great. These are, of course, sold further by the voice acting, which has always been a strong point for Blizzard games, and overall, Blizzard now presents Diablo in its most dynamic form ever.
There are still a lot of other features that we haven't discussed yet, but we'll leave the rest for the eventual Diablo IV Review we'll push out when the game comes out in June. There are already plenty of things to do in Diablo 4 Open Beta that will help tide over the wait until the full release, and I would recommend really getting into the game and finishing all of the side content and building different classes to your heart's content if only the characters you create in the Open Beta would carry over to the main game. As such, it's not the case. So, I can't imagine anyone wanting to play through the Open Beta so willingly now knowing that they'll have to do a full reset later on. But for the purposes of experimenting builds to make it easier for you to find the perfect playstyle just ready for the release date, then this is the perfect time to do so. Otherwise, you might just want to sample the game's main story up to the point the Open Beta allows you to, and just level up one character to Level 25 to get the Open Beta exclusive rewards.
