The Diablo 4 Beta

 So I played the beta over the first beta weekend of March 17th.  Long story short, it was good.  Diablo 4 looks very promising and has a lot of potential.  It can't be said for certain that the endgame, which is the most important part, of Diablo 4 will be good or bad, but the early gameplay is a good sign.  

 In many ways, Diablo 4 feels like what Diablo 3 should have been.  The days of cartoony bright graphics with goofy limp witted npcs are over.  Time to enter a world of dirt, grime,  grit, grunge, sadness, blood, and shadow.  You know, something fitting for a game called fucking diablo.  

 It is a simple change with huge impact.  Tone and atmosphere completely change how it feels to play in this world and a huge part of what it means to BE a diablo game.

 The controls are solid.  Tight, snappy, feels great and is very fun.  I can't recall of a single instance in which I got upset at my characters movement or actions.  It felt like it did everything I controlled it to do.  Now we come to the 2nd pillar that makes a good diablo game, the loot.  Once again, it looks promising.  

 Diablo 4 has a new system in which you can imprint aspects of a legendary's power onto a rare, making rare items more than just something you pickup and quickly salvage away to dust without even a single glance.  I found myself getting excited when a legendary dropped or even when a rare dropped.  I looked over every rare I found carefully.  Each rare had to potential to be better than my currently equipped gear.  

 The stats are extremely varied allowing for at least 8+ different percentages of different stats it can roll and even +1 to class skills as well as the 5 other base stats like dex or int that it can roll.  This system has the potential to make rare items better than some legendary items, which is very exciting and reminiscent of Diablo 2's loot system.  

 After each dungeon I did, I combed through my inventory hovering over each rare item and read every stat making sure it wasn't an upgrade. Little by little I would find upgrades to my gear and it felt good, it felt like progression.  My growth was gradual but satisfying, however there were definitely moments in which I would find a very good rare or legendary that would make me much stronger, but it is a far cry from Diablo 3's huge leaps in power for sure.  

 One worry I have is that legendary's items will lose their identity.  You can find some pretty generic legendary's and can see the same legendary powers on different items.  For example I found a legendary helm with a generic name, no special title, with the power of giving me a barrier buff when I fight an elite.  Then I found a legendary ring with no special title and it had the exact same legendary power.  However, not all legendary's I found were like this. I did find legendary's with special titles and unique powers.  It appears that some rare items can be rolled as legendary and gain additional stats as well as a random legendary power picked from a specific pool of legendary powers.  

 I don't love this kind of system off the bat, but I don't hate it either. The effect it has is more legendary possibilities and diversity when picking which power goes in what equipment slot.  Also it means more legendarys drop in general because the development team doesn't have to hand tail0r each item.  The only real way to tell if this system is good or bad is to see how it pans out in the endgame, but for now I think its a decent system.  This system ensures lots of diversity and spec possibilities I think, only time will tell.

 Only Act I was available for testing with a maximum level of 25, but even that offered at least 20+ hours of gameplay.  There were 30+ non-storyline dungeons to explore and even simple puzzles to solve in some.  They were fun and surprisingly non-repetitive.  Among the cities where also many side-quests to do, around 30+, that offered decent rewards and even experience.  The quests were fun and felt richer than typical diablo quests with unique monsters, voice acting and mini plots.  

 There is so much more to go over, but this is too many words for me.  The world is vast and full of secrets and treasures.  The graphics look fantastically dark and gloomy with an amazing sound design to complete it.  The loot system is the final nail in your coffin in front of your computer that you will be staying in because you just can't pull yourself away from the game, even for a poo.  Well maybe 1 poo.  

 I want to send you off with this amazing piece of music in the Gale Valley area along with some Sorceress gameplay, no sfx, just music. You can feel little whispering of Diablo II within these plucking strings.  (May need some time to load)