Diablo 4: the best of all the episodes of the saga?

Diablo 4: the best of all the episodes of the saga?

With its first three episodes, the Diablo saga has undoubtedly shaped the world of video games as we know it today. Diablo 4 therefore has the heavy task of doing, if not better, as well as three great hack'n'slash games. A fourth installment considered "the best of all" by Rod Fergusson, franchise manager at Blizzard. What is it really ? Answer in this test guaranteed without spoiler.

A divine staging for a diabolical story

It is difficult to answer this question as times have changed. Diablo III was released in 2012 with the ambition of attracting an even wider audience than Diablo had in its day. 11 years and 65 million players (2022 figures) later, we can undoubtedly say that the mission is successful. The secret of this success is partly in the story told, which had never taken so much place in a Diablo game. The writing of JV already spoke of "worked screenplay with endearing characters".

A point on which Blizzard has worked body and soul. Not only is Diablo IV's campaign about twice as long as its predecessor, it's also very well staged. The cutscenes are numerous and we know how Blizzard excels in this area, especially since it has made them immersive: the character created and personalized by the player stands out with his presence and his speeches. It must be said that he has his say: his blood was mixed with that of Lilith. She is the creator of Sanctuary but above all the daughter of Mephisto: the lord of Hatred and one of the three biggest demons of the Underworld. She has been released from her prison and has only one desire: to subjugate humanity for the execution of her designs.

That's pretty much the plot of Diablo IV. It is still an angelo-demonic conflict, but nothing is neither all angel nor all demon. It unfolds gradually with the arrival of protagonists with strong personalities. We don't necessarily get attached to everyone, but we manage to respect everyone's convictions. An undeniable strong point, especially since they are highlighted by excellent quality French dubbing. It is in particular Damien Boisseau (Matt Damon) who stands out for his quality as a narrator through the character of Lorath Nahr.

Diablo 4: efficient gameplay rich in possibilities

The story has therefore been more than rejuvenated with a dazzling staging where the gameplay has remained the same. Is it in the old pots that one makes the best anti-demon remedies? Probably, since the gameplay of Diablo IV is always with small onions and strictly identical principle: we rust enemies, we recover their equipment, we rust more powerful enemies and so on. The grip is almost instantaneous: a joystick to move, a key to dodge, the others to launch abilities. The sensations of combat are always as exhilarating in proportion to the number of enemies annihilated, even if we can be frustrated on the automatic aiming which does nothing but its head on the controller.

Nothing too difficult to understand, but that doesn't mean it's simplistic. We could even say that on the subject, Diablo went back 25 years.

It is indeed the modernized Diablo II talent tree that is making a comeback. It is divided into seven tiers, each representing a specific set of powers. The first concerns the basic attack, the second the main skill where the penultimate grants an ultimate skill. A similar architecture whose background will change depending on your class. There are 5 for the launch of Diablo 4: the barbarian relies on his paraphernalia of four weapons and his melee attacks; the thief relies on his agility and can attack with a bow as well as with daggers; the necromancer uses the magic of blood and familiars that he brings back from the dead, the sorcerer uses large area spells based on fire, lightning or frost; the druid can borrow animal forms while relying on the magics of nature. Each of these classes have an identity of their own due to their powers but also thanks to their class quest. This improves an aspect of their abilities.

Once the choice of class has been made (at least as difficult as that of the starting Pokémon), the player then levels up. He recovers skill points that he can directly invest in this talent tree. Each class has at least three major specializations. Regarding the wizard for example, these are Fire, Lightning and Frost.

But the variety of builds does not stop at these three default specializations. It will probably be less interesting than competitors of the genre but remains very convincing. There are many things to test and we take a certain pleasure in tinkering with an effective build against an enemy that would have given us a hard time on several occasions. However, using the interface does not make things easy. You waste a lot of time in the menus when you reset your talents. We would have liked to have a profile page allowing us to save our builds there so as not to have to redo everything by hand when the situation requires it.

A pitfall that we observe for equipment, just as useful as spells to explode from the demon. Especially when it is legendary or unique! A type of rarity reserved for items that directly influence your spells. Some can increase the number of Necromancer's Blood Waves and others can boost the power of a Druid's Hurricane as long as it stays in the field. There are many legendary items to collect in Diablo IV and even after 40 hours in Sanctuary, we feel like we have only seen a small part of them.

An open world that rewards hunting demons

Well overall, nothing new under the Sanctuary sun, you might say. Well you don't think that's so bad. In addition to a much more spectacular staging than before, it is above all through its exploration that Diablo 4 stands out from its predecessors. Our hero wanders the continent of Estuar, an open world divided into five distinct regions. Snowy peaks, swamps, endless deserts and demonic zones of all kinds, the biomes are varied. Some even give the feeling (good or bad, it depends) that they could have been used for a remaster of the first episode. Unfortunately, some players will regret Estuar's degree of openness: you can go where you want from the start, but monsters at a level much higher than that of your character may dissuade more than one.

But is it really a defect? Not in the least as there are so many additional activities. We are not going to detail them here but they allow you to break the monotony of a trip, whether it is for a side quest or the main campaign. In addition to all of them providing equipment for our character, they have a second use: to be beneficial for our secondary characters. The discovery of new areas, the recovery of strongholds from enemy hands or even secondary quests allow you to accumulate renown. It's a kind of popularity bar, specific to each region, which unlocks rewards linked to the account via five levels. These bonuses can be an additional usable potion or the allocation of a skill point.

Welcome rewards that manage to make you forget the repetitiveness of some of these tasks. A redundancy that should annoy some, especially in dungeons whose bosses are often the same. Nevertheless, there is a real pleasure in exploration and the game does not reveal all its secrets too quickly and, once again, we still want to discover them after a good forty hours already spent in Estuar. The only downside of this exploration comes from the arrival, for my taste, too late

Endgame: when there's more, there's more

Despite a solid campaign and a rich exploration activity, it is probably the endgame content that most players are interested in: an English term for things to do after the credits roll. They are few in number but some of them should tickle if not jostle players looking for a challenge. Once the campaign is over, it is possible to complete a special dungeon that unlocks world level III. A world level that allows you to make the game more difficult, to access Holy rarity items and to access these new challenges.

Nightmare dungeons promise the most replayability thanks to sigils: amulets that make dungeons more difficult by attaching special characteristics (or affixes) to them. For example, the player heals more easily but enemies can teleport as well as inflict ice damage. A principle that serves the basic promise of the game (that of finding the right build to succeed in order to recover better equipment) perfectly combined with the large quantity of dungeons available. You can then recover other sigils but also glyphs to insert into your paragon.

In a second step, it is also the Tree of Murmurs which is available. Far from the tense fights of nightmare dungeons, the Tree of Whispers offers the player a cache containing pieces of equipment of the category (legs, torsos, one-handed sword, etc.) of their choice. To be entitled to this chest, all you have to do is carry out activities in a predefined area to collect tributes. 10 of these tributes and the deal will be done. The Whispers tree quickly becomes redundant for a high level character but is a great way to quickly equip secondary characters;

In a slightly tougher challenge, Inferno Waves seems perfect for those looking for a middle ground between Tree and Dungeons. Randomly, an area of Estuar will be invaded by demons. Defeating them will give the player Ashes which they can use to open chests scattered around the area. Something all the more interesting to achieve when you know that the same chests will always offer the same category of pieces of equipment.

There are also Fields of Hate and World Bosses that players will be able to do once the campaign is over. The first is a fixed area acting as a Player vs. Player area: it only brings cosmetics for the moment and seems to display damage scaling difficulties between two characters at different levels. Finally, the World Bosses are titanic monsters to face in groups of twelve in a limited time. Epic confrontations thanks to the music and the very elevated camera which allows, once a week, to have more than interesting equipment.

A beauty of all the devils

On all the points discussed above, Diablo IV excels. But it is above all its artistic direction that can act as a real strong point. We have already talked about the cutscenes that we would have preferred to see in the cinema. The different biomes, also briefly mentioned above, manage to renew themselves constantly: the waltz launched between the play of light, the day/night cycle and the weather manage to provoke the feeling of discovery again. For example, the Broken Peaks can be enjoyed in different ways: with a bright sun or when it snows at night. This is all the more true on horseback: the camera gets up on its own and gives another perspective to the exploration. It is also a pity that we cannot control it: it is a little too close to the character when he is on foot, sometimes making things complicated to anticipate.

There has also been fabulous work to transcribe the general atmosphere of Estuar, plagued by a conflict that goes beyond its inhabitants: never, in more than 40 hours, has the feeling of unease, desolation or pity crossed us. Something all the more surprising since, paradoxically, the sets have regularly provoked exclamations hailing their elegance: Diablo 4 manages to render beautiful but above all alive the various misfortunes encountered by the citizens of Estuar.

We take this opportunity to once again salute the excellent dubbing of the French version which always gives a little more soul to everyone's sorrows. The soundtrack is just as great: it includes nods to Diablo II and offers its share of songs of all kinds that can be listened to even outside the game. Tracks adapted to sadness, desolation and epic battles. To Diablo in short.