Diablo 4 borrows from MMOs but is still about 'overpowered builds' and 'blowing up screens of monsters'
Diablo 4's endgame might look a lot like an MMO(opens in new tab), but it won't mirror the genre's endless climb for power, nor will it betray the series' history as an action RPG, Blizzard says.
The team continuously asked themselves if Diablo 4 was an MMO or an action RPG and where to draw the line during its development.
«The answer is that Diablo 4 is an action RPG first,» associate game director Joe Piepiora said in a group interview with PC Gamer. «It is a dungeon crawling, monster slashing, monster killing, loot collecting game.»
The open world and the way other players can appear alongside you to help with world events and world bosses are to make Sanctuary feel bigger, not to make it feel like group activities in an MMO.
«In Diablo, everybody's sort of a damage dealer,» he said. «The fantasy of playing a Diablo game, in many cases, is making really overpowered builds and just blowing up screens full of monsters at some point and having that kind of experience. We want to make sure that those elements are preserved where we don't have to worry about trying to create a curated set of balances between multiple players in a party that have to work in a very particular way together.»
After you've completed Diablo 4's story, you'll be presented with a ton of reasons to return to old dungeons and parts of the map for better gear. There are nightmare dungeons with unique challenges, bounties to complete, and PvP zones in the open world.
As you work your way to the game's level 100 cap, you'll earn paragon points and spend them on various stat increases on a giant board. Compared to Diablo 3's nearly endless paragon point system, Diablo 4 will have a limit on how many you can earn.
You're looking at roughly 80 hours
Read more on pcgamer.com
