Abilities react pleasingly with enemies and the world alike - my Barbarian warrior’s massive bludgeoning abilities sent wargs sprawling and skeletons shattering with realistic physics, while my Sorcerer’s penchant for pyromancy frequently burned the flesh away from catacombs’ worth of swarming vampire spawn, leaving heaps of smoking bones in my wake. This style-and-substance approach carries over into the action itself - Blizzard has found a neat midpoint between combat legibility and new-gen flair. And for the truly fashion-obsessed, there’s a full transmog system to let you choose exactly how you look, too. It’s a gorgeously superficial reward to go along with the stat buffs and abilities each piece of armor or eldritch weaponry offers. Far from a silent hero, your character is very much a part of the tale, rather than having story simply happen around them. In a game as obsessed with treasure-seeking, it’s always a pleasure to see your character - dripping in dungeon-scraped riches - reflected up close. It’s helped along by some dashes of real Hollywood talent – Ralph Ineson (“The Witch”) lends his boulder-like tones to one lead character. Cutscenes play out from filmic camera angles, focusing on characters’ emotions as much as the words coming from their mouths, turning moments of exposition into rich glimpses into the beleaguered world of Sanctuary. Diablo IV might still be played from the birds-eye viewpoint you’d expect, but it has a tendency to literally dive into its story moments, offering fresh angles on the story and drawing you into the action. Where it innovates, then, is in how all of this is presented to you. Coupled with its gloriously grim tale of a darkened, fantasy-medieval world beset by a fresh demonic incursion, fans will find the Diablo of old intact. With Diablo IV, Blizzard is returning to the template it helped create and, after tens of hours with the new game, it’s clear that this is a reverent throwback. Its loot, cooldown abilities, randomized quests, and co-op play have been repurposed and reinterpreted by fans-turned-developers, helping shape how we play games even decades later. It’s no secret Diablo defined much of modern gaming from its original 1997 incarnation onwards. What’s most surprising, then, is that this ancient beast is now wearing a gorgeous new skin, transforming the dungeon crawling of old into something far more modern. From the snappy, hotkey-smashing combat to the satisfying build-up of loot and abilities, this is a true return to the genre-defining action RPG of old.
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