Grammar? Stitching monster?

Last weekend and this weekend, Diablo 4 launched pre-emptive tests and public tests for external purposes. Following the last targeted invitation, the game's test scope has been expanded to all players.

If the tickets are no longer delayed, then Diablo 4 will be officially released in June this year. At this stage, the game has reached the node of "pulling out and romping".

The first time I played Diablo 4 was at the Blizzard Carnival more than 3 years ago. At that time, most of them were first surprises, and the offline trial content was just an early demo with an hour-long size.

This time, Blizzard released three professions, a complete first act plot, and the first of several major plots. After experiencing these 5-day experiences and getting more content, I found that in addition to continuing some traditional gameplay in the series, Diablo 4 also has some slightly unfamiliar new experiences.

These new experiences have surprises and unsatisfactory aspects. Judging from the current open content, it has both highlights and hidden worries.

On the one hand, as the orthodox sequel to the current generation, the impact and sense of substitution provided by Dark 4 with current technical support are top-notch, and some mechanisms are also adjusted and improved; on the other hand, the introduction of MMO elements in the game framework and the adjustment of some operation methods will not help but worry about the longer-term direction of the game while providing a sense of freshness.

In addition, for Blizzard, which has no "substantive new work" since 2016, the success or failure of Diablo 4 is probably also a crucial matter.

(The following content contains minor spoilers about the plot of Act 1, please read it as appropriate; some pictures may cause discomfort)

01 First meeting with the 4th generation: some familiar tastes

Let’s talk about the first impression. As early as the beginning of its release in 2019, the visual style of Dark 4 had been basically finalized. The sequel gave up the Dark 3’s cartoon/oil painting style and turned to the traditional dark and Gothic style of the series that was closer to Dark 2.

The character creation page is obviously applying the style of the second generation

Entering the game, a opening CG filled with plasma, as well as some cult plots and scenes in the subsequent plot, will soon make you realize the tone of this generation.

At the same time, although it is still a classic 45° isometric viewing angle, Dark 4 greatly enhances the visual expression level experience through real-time calculations and scene/lens switching.

In terms of plot, the game process isA lot of real-time calculation cutscenes have been added, and many scenes from the first perspective are no longer simply removing the UI + characters to do actions from a downward perspective. This significantly improves the narrative substitution of the new work.

In some specific scenarios, the game also sets up "observation points", which can show a more macro and deep space through the use of mirrors and close-ups. It can also make up for some shortcomings in the scene display in previous works.

Secondly, for the Dark Series, action feedback is also an important part of the game experience.

After the style of painting returns to tradition, the game's physical feedback, killing effects, etc. have also been adjusted accordingly. The exaggerated scene of an explosive skill in the previous work falling down, and the corpse flew up several feet high out of thin air and then fell down was gone. Instead, it is a more realistic killing effect: the remains of the corpse after the flames are burned, the body frozen by the ice-type skills, the explosion of broken ice, the broken limbs made by physical strikes, and blood splashes... These have a more realistic performance with the support of the next generation of technical support.

Simply put, in the first few hours of getting started with Dark 4, the series' consistent atmosphere creation, story development, as well as the sense of blow and action feedback in core battles are all familiar tone for old players in the series. Benefiting from current technology and design concepts, the way games tell stories has also been strengthened.

Compared to the previous straightforward plot of the series, some of the story directions in the first scene are unexpected

In the entire early experience, the intuitive feedback of the game was "very good". In terms of production specifications, Diablo 4 also reveals the quality that similar games should have in a current generation. And the overall performance is above the average level, which is more surprising to me than when I first played the demo.

02 More like Dark 2 or Dark 3

The core gameplay of Darkness should not be introduced. After talking about the first impression, let’s take a look at the game’s equipment and skill system.

If you want to be simple and rough, the part of Dark 4 is a combination of 2 and 3 generations. Judging from the existing content, it is slightly more frameworks that are slightly more inclined toward the Dark 3. You can also see these from the details of UI layout, operation interaction, etc.

In addition to the basic white, blue and yellow outfits, Dark 4 has 3 generation legends and 2 generations of dark gold (but this test does not have any open dark gold equipment to obtain). At present, there is no professional suit (green suit) in the official version for the time being, but there is a high probability that it will be there after it continues to operate in the future.

DarkUnder the 4 system, legendary equipment has become more flexible and seems to have been "downgraded". Under the current design, each legendary equipment has a special affix to extract - just like the Kanai box of Dark 3, but the convenience of operation seems to be more like the Dark mobile game.

Add the extracted affixes to the yellow equipment, and at the same time, it can upgrade this equipment into a new legendary equipment, and inherit the strength of the item in high-level yellow equipment. It can be foreseen that this is a driving force for repeated brushing in the middle and late stages. This greatly revitalizes the yellow equipment to a certain extent, avoiding the embarrassment of becoming decomposed materials in the later stage.

However, with the simple and crude "battle power/rating" such as the item strength and the setting of item enhancement, it will make people jump into the dark mobile game

Previously, in Dark 3, the effect of the professional suit was extremely strong, which led to the fact that the late game could only be used to form BD by "choose one of several suits + a small number of loose pieces", and the flexibility and diversity were restricted. Although some version development teams are still trying to introduce some new elements in recent times, this is still driven by the official season updates, not explored by players themselves. This is also a point that has been criticized from time to time in the long-term operation of Diablo 3.

As for Diablo 4, the designer previously emphasized that there will be a focus on the legend of the loose piece and the overall thinking to avoid this situation, but the long-term trend in this area is still a bit unclear.

Many legendary single pieces still have the potential to create gameplay around it

In terms of skill mechanism, the 4th generation skill tree also combines some of the characteristics of 2 and 3. Take the mage as an example - the character skills composition is generally still the basic skills that "does not consume energy/capacity can be produced", the main energy-consuming output skills, defensive skills, functional skills, and killer moves of long CDs in a type of final skill, etc.

Each active skill grid on the skill tree will basically extend some single-choice branches to strengthen the skill itself, which is a bit similar to the runes of the third generation, which is a bit like the runes of the third generation; the tree-shaped skill level distribution and the setting of the subsequent skills that require a certain number of points to be invested to unlock subsequent skills will have some sense of déjà vu.

In addition to the skill tree, each profession also has an exclusive mechanism. For example, the mage will unlock the enchantment system as it upgrades. In addition to the 6 active skills, two unlocked skills can also be selected through the enchantment slot. At present, it is mostly trigger-type, such as "each 100 mana consumed to automatically release chain lightning" and "when using non-basic skills, there is a 20% chance of releasing the ice ball". It's a bit like a passive skill with higher flexibility, and it looks good to expand.

The exclusive mechanism of the Necromancer is to "customize" the summoned objects, making the skeleton warrior more fleshy or more flexible and comprehensive - or simply "sacrifice" and turn it into strengthening the character's attributes.

In this test process, a more surprising thing in the early combat experience is that from the limited legendary equipment in the current beta version, you can feel the subtle linkage of some equipment and skills.

For example, when I was more than ten levels, I collected two affixes for reducing the consumption of core skills by basic skills and the attack speed bonus of basic skills. These two legends alone can build a loop within a small range, which has made my combat experience at this stage much better.

Or the Necromancer who is open this week's test, the blood mist ring alone can make the gameplay of corpse explosions well:

As for the rune words that some old players are more looking forward to, they have been temporarily put on hold by the development team, but they had previously promised to join after a more mature design.

At present, the idea of Diablo 4 in skills and equipment is generally to continue the framework of the third generation, and to avoid verified shortcomings as much as possible, and to combine some classic settings of the second generation. From the perspective of the new Dark work, it is fresh. What kind of chemical reaction can the current proportion of "stitching" can produce? It should be combined with the large and small secret realms that are likely to be in the future, as well as long-term content such as seasons.

03 Can brush brush brush and big world be compatible?

In addition to the above-mentioned inheritance and adjustment of the main characteristics of the past dynasties, the part that Diablo 4 itself extends is also worth unfolding - one is the new content under the framework of the open world, and the other is the introduction of some so-called changes after the introduction of some so-called MMO elements.

The most intuitive change is that the map is larger, and the rhythm of plot promotion and errand running tasks is obviously much slower than that of previous generations in terms of body feeling. Such feedback is based on the Dark 4's mount system, but this test did not unlock the mount, so there was a lot of boring running time during the first scene experience.

While the map becomes larger, the game's terrain is also more complex. Many scenes will design more staggered and deep, and some places require characters to climb, slide, or jump back and forth between cliffs. The upside is that the game can show more map content from a downward perspective, and a utilitarian perspective may feel that these "extraordinary" are a bit delayed.

Along with the open world map, mining and herbs are also accompanied by several materials for equipment, or chemical alchemy.

In addition, the world of Dark 4 inevitably has some list-style collection content, such as some "Lilith Statue" will be linked to rewards such as skill points, which means that as long as players are not very Buddhist, they must collect them all over the map.

Open the map page, and some entries such as regional reputation will also make MMO players particularly familiar with them.

This also involves talking about the topic of the introduction of MMO elements in Diablo 4.

Frankly speaking, based on the current test experience, the content released by the last invited test, and various official news, I do not agree with the argument that "Dark 4 has become an MMO". The core gameplay and underlying hierarchy of the game are still the settings of the traditional Dark series. The current MMO element appears, nothing more than adding some seasonings, which still cannot reach the level of qualitative change.

The first time during the test was that I had a clear understanding of "the game has added some MMO elements" was the marking of side tasks on the map.

I took several branch lines on the main line. When I opened the map and saw the task marking range, I couldn't help but blurted out:

"Isn't this "World of Warcraft"?"

Of course, the MMO-style feedback in the game is more than that: after entering the town, you can see other players walking around, and in the town, the player's default perspective will automatically lower; other players who appear in the wild world bosses and random refresh public events will enhance this view without fail.

In terms of levels, the current game has greatly enhanced the presence of dungeons. Some dungeons and profession exclusive/general extraction power links must be opened once. But the experience of the dungeon is a bit lackluster: First, the distribution of monsters at times needs to be optimized; second, the dungeon targets may be a bit unfriendly - for example, after clearing the monsters in the entire picture, you will find that you have to get a collection item on the other end of the map to settle.

According to the information previously released, Diablo 4 also has a similar mechanism to Diablo 3's small secret realm. Judging from the tone of the game's continued Dark 3 framework, there is likely to be a great secret realm that will reach the level in the future version.

With these layers, they should be able to support PVE goals in different dimensions. Otherwise, the current PVE content that focuses on copy will inevitably make people doubt whether it is "brush-resistant".

To be fair, to the present, it is difficult to see any earth-shaking changes in the core gameplay of the Dark Series, or innovations leading the times like the 200X era. The open world and MMO elements are the development team's solution to the problem of "Dark New Work".

With the blessing of freshness, this part of the experience has some differences and highlights. The current combination is not rigid, but it also does not reach an outstanding level.

04 Blizzard's next darkness

In the early morning of the 18th, on the day of the last test, the traditional programs such as Carmen, queuing and disconnection were staged one after another.

On the one hand, the players' enthusiasm can also be seen. Official data showed that 100 of the last 3-day tests were reported.Ten thousand players have reached level 20 or above.

The Dark series needs a new work too much. It has been 12 years since the Dark 3 was released since the Dark 2 body. Now, Diablo 4 has been more than 10 years apart from the previous work.

When it comes to Blizzard's signature, most people may think of Warcraft first. However, in the development of Blizzard, the Dark series happened to stand at several important nodes. In the previous article "The Midlife Crisis of Blizzard", we sorted out this intriguing timeline.

It's just that at that time we probably defined the "midlife crisis" too early. After writing this article, at the 2018 Carnival, when the outside world was looking forward to the official announcement of Diablo 4, Blizzard took out the Diablo mobile game, and public opinion was uproar and the stock price was halved.

A year after that, our voting on Blizzard Carnival in 2019 showed that compared to the new expansion pack of World of Warcraft, OW2, which released PVE content, has experienced some ups and downs, Dark 4 is undoubtedly the "newest" and most anticipated product of Blizzard. The storm of the past few years also needs a new product to prove itself.

Dark-like's gameplay audience also needs a significant new product. Products such as "Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem" two or three years ago, which can occupy a good Steam hot-selling position in the short term.

Judging from the existing test content, the series of new works from the Kaicai category must be much more solid.

After all, the so-called hidden worries I have listed throughout the article have actually covered most possible situations - but it is really unlikely that the official version of the future will trample all these thunders. I listed all possible problems, just to be cautiously restraining my expectations.