Impressive launch. I got the mid tier version, so I had 4 days of early play, and finished the main campaign on my Barbarian. He's level 56 now I believe, in Nightmare (3) and I've done a bit of everything, Helltides, Legionnaire events, PvPvE in their semi Division zones, but I have not had the luck of being online when a world boss was up.

Overall a much better launch than D3 or if people even remember vanilla D2 online. The skills are fun, but the cooldowns and resource generation/regeneration could probably be reduced and make the game more fun overall. It'd require a complete overhaul though of scaling and hitpoints though. The loot is also a bit annoying, I don't like how spread out the stats are, as others have said, it feels like there are too many stats to reasonably keep track of for offense and defense.

I have been focusing on overall damage output, resource generation (especially for Barbarian), and percentage resistances to the various damage flavors. Thorns are pretty strong early but already in Nightmare you can't just sit there and expect to tank most larger enemies, unless you use up all your timer defense skills every fight or something. Execution stat is pretty fun, but the 'injured' requirement makes it less optimal than straight crit chance/crit damage/AoE damage etc.

I had several build ideas I was planning, but the reality is you are going to have to base your build off the uniques and sacred legendaries you find, which are sometimes game changing. So currently my barbarian is Frenzy, Wrath of the Berserker/War Cry, with Hammer, Foot Stomp, and Death Blow(or whatever that zero resource cost hit is called).

But, it's like 2 days after release. I expect quite a few balance/redesign changes for some of the loot. Also, we just don't know enough yet; I have enough Paragon points via leveling + Renown to get into a second Paragon table, and a useless unique (that drains barbarian rage) may actually be awesome, as I got some rage regen/generation abilities now. I almost recycled it when I got it, now it might be my strongest one hander.

Anyway, it's a Diablo game, for all the pluses and minuses that brings. I expect the loot especially to change design the first year, but a lot of what's in the game already is very impressive.

jdreyer wrote on Jun 7, 2023, 03:29:

Zaibach wrote on Jun 6, 2023, 22:49:
Finished the campaign, did a few dungeons, tried a few other characters then uninstalled it.
Imo D4 is boring as fuck.
I've played 20 years of D2, mostly pvp but still.
D3 I was late to it but still enjoyed it in few doses.
D4 there's just too many issues I have with it to bother putting more hours into it.

How many hours do you have in game?
What were the issues you encountered?

It's just kind of bland and uninteresting (so far) It's not a BAD game, it's just a mediocre arpg. The overworld is okay, the dungeons are mostly copy+paste with very few variations. The creatures\monsters themselves are not memorable in the least (also very lacking in the "randomization" factor) and the bosses so far have been unmemorable. The UI is a step back from even Diablo3 (if that was even possible, and it is) whoever designed it and approved it needs to change careers. The itemization, the bread and butter of arpgs....ughhh it's basically a more convoluted version of D3's itemization. It feels like they threw stuff at the wall to see what would stick. If it ain't broke DON'T FIX IT! No we have to have, vulnerable damage, overpower, 10 different varations of critical hits....jesus christ...

The story and atmosphere I've seen so far however are BIG step up from Diablo3, which is not saying a lot since that was basically a comic cartoon of a game. But I'll give em that, the horror factor in this game is back to the roots so KUDOS for that at least.

I have found that turning off the damage numbers has increased my enjoyment of the game, even though at every possible corner Blizzard seems to insist on taking agency out of the players hand. The skill tree "looks" extensive, but since you are so limited in the number of skills and their "upgrades" and you only have a certain amount of "slots" it's basically Diablo3 all over again. Ditto with the cooldowns. Oh you like that skill? Sorry you can only cast it once per 30 seconds. Play how WE want you to play. The items being "smart loot" I.E. dropping mostly for the character you are playing is GREAT for casual gamers, who might only play one class. For someone who enjoys ARPGs and has done so for over 20 years it's a big step back.. Why can't I equip a bow on my Barb? Instead of giving us MORE possibilities Blizzard has locked you in to playing each class the way THEY want you to.

I have no idea about the endgame, since I've yet to experience it, but so far it's a game that I will probably enjoy playing this weekend with some friends, and then forget about it. Unless they drastically change a few things. Which I doubt they will do.

P.S.

Before I forget. The monster level scaling is kind of bullshit. I realize why they did it (because it's easier) but it's lazy game design, made in every single game that has it for "balancing" reasons. I.E. another easy way to let the player go where they please. It is much harder to design an open world game with fixed monster levels than it is to just level scale them all. BUT in games without level scaling it is also much more rewarding for the player to find ways to get more powerful and enjoy their power fantasy in ingenious ways. Hopefully the level scaling tapers off at 50 and is then adjusted by the "difficulty" setting. I guess I'll see when I get there.

P.P.S.

I'm playing on hardcore at the moment. Died a couple of times, once to the butcher and once to the Act1 boss. Both times because I was presented with mechanics that I did not encounter before, couldn't counter but MOST IMPORTANTLY couldn't RUN AWAY from to figure out another approach. In D2R (and most other ARPGs) if you face new mechanics, or odds where it's almost impossible to live you could pretty much always back away. Here Blizzard forces you to die. There really is no incentive for hardcore players to play hardcore, other than it being an achievement. It's an exercise in frustration. The repetition is very strong in this game, with Diablo2 (and even in D3) the randomization was a much bigger factor.

This comment was edited on Jun 7, 2023, 05:47.

Zaibach wrote on Jun 6, 2023, 22:49:
Finished the campaign, did a few dungeons, tried a few other characters then uninstalled it.
Imo D4 is boring as fuck.
I've played 20 years of D2, mostly pvp but still.
D3 I was late to it but still enjoyed it in few doses.
D4 there's just too many issues I have with it to bother putting more hours into it.

How many hours do you have in game?
What were the issues you encountered?

I'm playing Path of Exile until DIV is half price on sale, can't believe its so expensive glad to hear its stable on launch though

Now that I have been to every area of the world and done some proper exploration, I only have two complaints about the graphics:

1) The shiny glossy surfaces. This isn't just a "problem" of Diablo IV, however, but many Unreal engine and Frostbite games are guilty of the same phenomenon where (especially rocky/marble/whatever) surfaces have this artificial shiny look to them. Since it is so widespread across engines, I'm wondering if it is a general shader issue. In Diablo IV it is outright jarring in some places since it looks really weird when surfaces covered with blood and viscera look like Lilith just did some deep cleaning.

2) The water, or more specifically the surf, at the Scosglen coast looks like crap. Without any exaggeration, there are in fact games from before 2010 where the water/surf/coastline stuff is done better. I recently replayed Risen (a 2009 game) which has a much more realistic depiction of coastal waters than Diablo IV in 2023.

Other than that, Diablo IV is a very pretty looking game in my opinion and I appreciate the many unique locations which contribute to making exploration worthwhile.

Finished the campaign, did a few dungeons, tried a few other characters then uninstalled it.
Imo D4 is boring as fuck.
I've played 20 years of D2, mostly pvp but still.
D3 I was late to it but still enjoyed it in few doses.
D4 there's just too many issues I have with it to bother putting more hours into it.

So because your brand new computer runs it well the graphics suck?
You must be used to unoptimized games.
Who need ray tracing in a ARPG?
IMO I would rather it runs as smooth as possible.

The original Cookie Clicker

jdreyer wrote on Jun 6, 2023, 15:48:

Timmeh wrote on Jun 6, 2023, 13:06:
The only thing is the graphics are very pedestrian.

no ray tracing, nothing that really WOWs you (yuk yuk). It kind of reminds me of a game like this from 10 years ago.

my computer i just built gets almost 200 FPS fully maxed out at 4K.

Tell me you've never played a Blizzard game without telling me.

This is always how Blizzard games are. They never have cutting edge graphics, opting instead to have a distinctive art direction that still looks great. And they tend to have top of class gameplay for the genre, although that has gone by the wayside post-Activision acquisition.

The art is really what separated Blizzard games from all the copy cats. If you realize, they almost create timeless looking graphics that is heavy on distict looking characters and an art that doesn't look so bad, even many years later.

Believe it or not, I just recently got hooked back into a Warcraft 3 pro player whose streaming daily. Back when I used to play it, some might consider him the greatest Orc player. Seeing him playing daily now and even better, is awesome.

The funny part is, he plays Warcraft Reforged since you cannot use original Warcraft 3 anymore for online play, but doesn't actually enable the Reforged graphics since it is unanimously voted to be inferior to the aged original Warcraft 3 graphics. The Reforged graphics have better shaders and higher poly counts, but god does it look ugly beyond that and makes the game look mediocre/average. The second you put back the original graphics, it oozes Blizzard quality. This is a game that came out in like 2003 if I recall and I'm still enjoying those graphics over the remaster.

WaltSee wrote on Jun 6, 2023, 16:24:
Then there's "Cheer up the guards"--with the side quest circled in blue on the map--I go there at the proper time, but there's no way to "Cheer up" the guards...

It's not very clear, but you have to use an emote on the guards.

Yep. Blizzard are the kings and queens of casual friendliness. Their games are made to run on an extremely wide range of systems including outright potatoes and ancient "gaming" (lol) laptops.

Diablo IV is looking great imo. I'm playing it all maxed out at 4K@120fps + DLSS and my RTX 4090 barely comes out of zero fan mode. My PC remains completely silent when playing the game. It's awesome.

BTW, this is a game where, even if you have beefy hardware, you should enable DLSS because Diablo IV is one of those games that actually looks better with DLSS enabled (also with FSR) because enabling DLSS beats the inferior default TAA of the game.

Back to Sanctuary now... I'm level 52 (all solo play) and have not even finished the campaign yet because I did so much side stuff in Fractured Peaks and also quite a bit in Scosglen. I'm finally focusing on the campaign now because I want to leave the rest of the side activities for later. There is still tons of stuff I have not even touched including one full regional map.

If anyone is just starting now that would be my priority (non-)pro tip: Don't beeline the campaign but definitely focus on it. Do a few side quests, participate in most events (orange circles) you come across, clear most cellars you see on the map, run the occasional dungeon if finishing it gives a nice bonus relating to your class but don't stray too far or too long from the story line.

Leave the rest for later when your progress slows to a crawl. Seriously, playing solo, it feels like level 50 to the end of 52 (I'm very close to 53) took me almost as long as leveling up from 1 to 50. You are going to want to have stuff to do after you finish the campaign. Lots of stuff. Very many lots of stuffs . Leave as much as you can for later. The paragon grind will be more easy-going if you have fresh content to dive into.
Don't make the same initial mistake I did by trying to play this like a completionist thing. Don't try to 100% Fractured Peaks before moving on. Dumb idea. Return later after you have finished the campaign.

P.S.: Some of the side missions are pretty basic and you can tell when Blizzard let their interns write a simple fedex quest but some are also really impressive. I don't want to spoil anything but make sure to do all the side missions in Scosglen. There are some really well written quests that blend in perfectly with the Scottish/Celtic theme of the area. It's definitely, by far, my favorite area of the game (including the Scottish accents ).

For me, art direction and talent are far superior to bolt-on stuff like RT, which a lot of people turn off because either they think the game looks better with it off, or they can't abide the frame-rate drop, or both. Blizzard does have quite a lot to say about HDR, however, which I thought was fairly interesting. Unlike RT, HDR doesn't gobble frame rate and looks great. Without FSR, but all else maxxed, I get ~100fps average @ 4k. More than enough to play the game. People also need to realize that the great majority of people who buy this game will not have a RT'ing GPU, or will turn it off, if available. They always do this so that the game will appeal to greatest number of people on multiple platforms.

I passed on D3 because it just looked messed up--especially with the "auction house" which was a really bad idea. Plus, I don't like bright, 2d-ish cartoon graphics, period. This looks like a great game if I can ever get past the "Light the signal fire" (side quest!) in the beginning that is supposed to keep the monsters away--I light the fire and my Barbarian is instantly surrounded by limitless hordes that kill me every time. I can't even open a portal! In D2, I could have used a TP scroll to open the portal, lit the fire, then jumped into the open portal. Then there's "Cheer up the guards"--with the side quest circled in blue on the map--I go there at the proper time, but there's no way to "Cheer up" the guards, who are practicing on dummies. Minor things, but the funny thing is that on these early side quests it simply says the level needed to complete is my present level--whatever that is...;) I started at 7, but I went somewhere else and came back level 9 and then the quests said Lvl 9 to complete. I'll get past these in time!

Timmeh wrote on Jun 6, 2023, 13:06:
The only thing is the graphics are very pedestrian.

no ray tracing, nothing that really WOWs you (yuk yuk). It kind of reminds me of a game like this from 10 years ago.

my computer i just built gets almost 200 FPS fully maxed out at 4K.

Tell me you've never played a Blizzard game without telling me.

This is always how Blizzard games are. They never have cutting edge graphics, opting instead to have a distinctive art direction that still looks great. And they tend to have top of class gameplay for the genre, although that has gone by the wayside post-Activision acquisition.

Finally got the game to work on my PC when I came across information about a conflict between Razer software and Diablo iv. Just exit synapse and cortex before starting game.

Agent.X7 wrote on Jun 6, 2023, 13:35:

Timmeh wrote on Jun 6, 2023, 13:06:
The only thing is the graphics are very pedestrian.

no ray tracing, nothing that really WOWs you (yuk yuk). It kind of reminds me of a game like this from 10 years ago.

my computer i just built gets almost 200 FPS fully maxed out at 4K.

Always at least one person who thinks a brand new game looks like a game from 10 years ago. I gotta say, with HDR on and playing on an Ultra-wide, Diablo III doesn't even come close to this game. The lighting and shadows in DIV are insane.

Well, it's not really that, unless you're new to the Blizzard train, you would know that Blizzard has never used the latest and greatest technology in any of their games. They use an engine and technology that is widely accessible for a range of older machines to newer ones. Their games will look "good/great" on new machines, but not using the latest bells and whistles in technology.

Meanwhile, on older machines, the games can still look decent and run great. That's why they were so world wide loved in the past. Starcraft 1, Warcraft 3, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, WoW, they were all good/great looking games for their times, but didn't use cutting edge technology. All well established titles with monster fanbases because of this decision.

I'd say, nobody played a Blizzard game because it used the latest graphic engine and you were going to stare at your screen oogling everything. They played them because they were made so well.

I wanted to play this last night, but I got addicted to old Oregon Trail games (MS-DOS & macOS -- never played them before -- only the original Apple 2 version; still looking for that mainframe text version to try) online before I passed out after 10:45 PM PDT. What's wrong with me as an old fart?

"In the four days since early access started on June 1, Diablo IV has been played for 93 million hours, or over 10,000 years --- the equivalent playing 24 hours a day since the beginning of human civilization."

this must be Bobby's team of 3rd graders he enslaves to write this meaningless hyperbole bullshit. My god stfu..

Timmeh wrote on Jun 6, 2023, 13:06:
The only thing is the graphics are very pedestrian.

no ray tracing, nothing that really WOWs you (yuk yuk). It kind of reminds me of a game like this from 10 years ago.

my computer i just built gets almost 200 FPS fully maxed out at 4K.

It's not pushing boundaries graphically but the art design is outstanding. I think the game looks gorgeous in 4k. Raytracing is coming in a post-launch update by the way, there was rudimentary support in beta but it got pulled due to some bugs.

Timmeh wrote on Jun 6, 2023, 13:06:
The only thing is the graphics are very pedestrian.

no ray tracing, nothing that really WOWs you (yuk yuk). It kind of reminds me of a game like this from 10 years ago.

my computer i just built gets almost 200 FPS fully maxed out at 4K.

Always at least one person who thinks a brand new game looks like a game from 10 years ago. I gotta say, with HDR on and playing on an Ultra-wide, Diablo III doesn't even come close to this game. The lighting and shadows in DIV are insane.

The only thing is the graphics are very pedestrian.

no ray tracing, nothing that really WOWs you (yuk yuk). It kind of reminds me of a game like this from 10 years ago.

my computer i just built gets almost 200 FPS fully maxed out at 4K.