Diablo 4 Early Impressions Review: Story, Gameplay, and More

Image: Attack of the Fanboy

At long last, Diablo 4 is almost here. While we wait for the official release in a couple of months, Blizzard Entertainment has graced us with a taste of Diablo 4 in the first beta. While we did receive Diablo 2: Resurrected in 2021, we haven’t had a new Diablo entry since Diablo 3 came out in 2012. As the God Father of dungeon crawling, min-maxing, and online RPG co-op, Diablo is back with Diablo 4.

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The first beta weekend of Diablo 4 is now done and, after completing the entirety of Act 1 and crafting an awesome archery/poison trap/shadow Rogue with a focus on spreading Vulnerability, we can genuinely say that Diablo 4 is the grand return we were waiting for.

Diablo 4 Gameplay & Story

Diablo 4 is a streamlined and edified version of the past games’ mechanics and UI. If you’ve played any previous Diablo entry, you’ll feel right at home with Diablo 4. If you are new to the franchise, Diablo 4’s gameplay is extremely addictive and easy to love.

Related: Best Diablo 4 Sorceress Build – Skills, Stats, and Items

Diablo 4’s gameplay consists of getting and completing main and side quests, creatively obliterating large groups of enemies that all have unique attacks and abilities, and diving into challenging dungeons for essential character perks. You’ll gain experience by doing just about anything and use your skill points to create a specific class build.

Diablo-4-Classes-Early-Impression-Review
Image: Attack of the Fanboy

Diablo 4 Classes

Speaking of classes, there are five classes in total: Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer, Druid, and Necromancer; but Druid and Necromancer weren’t available in the Closed Beta (March 17 to March 20) window. Regardless, each class is extremely unique and fun to theorycraft.

Each class offers a unique playstyle that works to make Diablo 4 endlessly replayable. On top of that, each class has multiple branches in its skill tree which can be explored to create distinctive builds. For example, you can create a flame Sorcerer that focuses on high damage and explosions or a Sorcerer that chains lightning in between enemies for quick eliminations.

Diablo 4 Gameplay

Diablo 4 is completely open-world and features cross-play online multiplayer which means there are jump-in public events and large time-specific world bosses. You can play all of Diablo 4 in an online party or completely solo. Either way, Diablo 4’s combat so far is peak Diablo hack and slash.

Besides the world-class cutscenes, what caught our attention the most during our playthrough of Diablo 4’s first early access period was the intoxicatingly dangerous dungeons and character building. Overcoming impossible hordes of hellions, skeletons, and other demonic horrors with a character that feels expertly crafted, even if you don’t really know what you’re doing, is undeniably fun.

Diablo-4-Lillith-Early-Impression-Review
Image: Attack of the Fanboy

Diablo 4 Story: Act 1

In the first beta weekend, players got to play through Diablo 4’s first act. There’s nothing fully original here — an extremely powerful demon named Lillith has been summoned and you need to work with various characters to track her down and defeat her.

While the story isn’t surprising, Act 1 had a few interesting twists and turns that made the opening act enticing. The story might not be Diablo 4’s greatest strength, but Act 1 was enjoyable and set things up to get even better.

Diablo 4 Early Impressions

The first Diablo 4 beta went as expected. While there was an unsurprising amount of error codes and very long queue lines, what was also unsurprising was how great Diablo 4 felt to play.

It seems simple and maybe a little too familiar since there have been many amazing Diablo-like games that have satiated us during the wait, but the king has returned. Diablo 4 is already excellent and we can’t wait to see it get even better before it releases on June 6, 2023,


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Author
Noah Nelson
From his early days of blog-style music, movie, and game reviews to working as the Esports Writer at Coastline Community College, Noah Nelson now works fulltime as a Staff Writer for Attack of the Fanboy and PC Invasion. He has been helping gamers everywhere with Destiny 2 god rolls, Warzone 2 DMZ missions, and collectibles in any indie game for over a year and a half. His Bachelor's Degree in English Rhetoric and Composition with a minor in Journalism from CSULB has shaped him to be a strong writer and editor. His fondest gaming memory is playing Sly Cooper 2 after begging his mom (for hours) to play it before his birthday and he still cries myself to sleep remembering the time he accidentally saved over his 99% completion save file in Kingdom Hearts 2.