Diablo IV Review in Progress – The first weekend in Hell

thesixthaxis.com:

Diablo IV finally releases today (after a pre-order early access period this past weekend), this latest game in the series brings with it a lot of changes, from a darker tone and less of the wrestler-style monologuing from the villains to being almost massively multiplayer this time around and set on a map that no longer leans on procedurally generation. With the early access weekend and almost 20 hours of Diablo IV behind me, and with plenty more days and hours of play in front, here’s my first impressions.

To start with, there’s five whole classes to choose from at this game’s outset – Barbarian, Necromancer, Sorcerer, Rogue, and Druid – with large skill trees that give a ridiculous amount of options when it comes to tailoring your chosen character to your playstyle. They all feel great to play as, but have fundamental differences and styles. My Necromancer – my main class, as ever – has a small squad of up to eight undead minions (and a golem), handles very differently to the Sorcerer I played as during in the beta, who teleports around and unleashes salvos of elemental magic like a high-level raid boss.

Diablo IV looks unerringly gorgeous as well, whether you’re in a macabre, bloodied dungeon or a desert of red sand, it’s really beautiful. Performance on PS5 is practically perfect as well, with a grand total of three frame rate stutters through the weekend, each of which was triggered by using a viewpoint, where the camera zooms and swoops to get a nice view of the level ahead. These honestly look so good I wished I could remove the UI and screenshot them to use as a wallpaper.

My only criticism is that cutscenes don’t take advantage of this visual finery. There’s plenty of detail in the animations, so the fact that the