Diablo 4 fits glimmers of hope among poison swamps and ritual burnings

pcgamesn.com:

The Diablo 4 campaign is set to take players across a range of desolate and danger-filled lands, encountering everything from poison swamps and coastlines packed with the undead to draconian religions with a penchant for ritual burnings. But, as it gives a deeper look at the five regions you’ll explore in the RPG game ahead of the Diablo 4 beta, Blizzard emphasises that it wants to ensure players have something worthwhile to fight for.

There are five key regions that you’ll explore as you cross Sanctuary in your fight against Lilith. These are the arid deserts of Kehjistan, the rolling highlands of Scosglen, the grim marshlands of Hawezar, the frosty Fractured Peaks, and the Dry Steppes, a grassland full of rocky cliffs and lava rivers. Blizzard says, however, that it wants to ensure that the zones don’t feel like one-note biomes, so they’re more diverse than previous entries.

Speaking to Game Informer, several senior Blizzard designers give a little insight into what we can expect from each region. Kehjistan, for example, draws inspiration from the Middle East and the Mojave desert, but will also see players check in with its capital city Caldeum – a location that will be very familiar to fans of Diablo 3, where it was a major hub. It will also see you encounter Truine cultists, marking the first in-game appearance of the long-established faction.

Scosglen takes its inspiration from the Scottish highlands, and you’ll be exploring plenty of coastline packed with undead people that died out at sea – culminating in a giant creature called the Sea Hag. Quest designer Madeleine James says this queen-like figure is “three times as big as all the other drowned and just this bloated mass of body parts, so that’s really fun.”

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