Diablo IV Open Beta
Well, where to start?
The open beta went off over the weekend 24-26 of march on battle.net. And for you that don´t know what type of game Diablo is, it is an action RPG dungeon crawler. Meaning that you move through clicking your way through the world using a mouse if you´re on PC that is. Diablo IV will be available on PC and on Console. It was developed in the beginning by Blizzard North but when that studio was shutdown in 2005, it was taken over by Blizzard Entertainment. And is now on its fourth installment.
The story starts 30 years after Diablo III, where millions where slaughtered in the continuing war between the High Heavens and Burning Hells. And this is when, Lilith, the daughter of Mephisto decides to come back to Sanctuary. Her grip on Sanctuary cuts deep into the hearts of men and women alike, cultivating the worst in its denizens and leaving the world a dark, hopeless place.
The main plot is similar to Diablo II in that it is a “following in the footsteps of” story; specifically, the game’s player character(s) is/are pursuing Lilith across Sanctuary. A core theme of the game is “hatred”; the motif of hate consuming the world, and the hearts of the player character(s).
Minimum Requirements for PC
- Operating System: 64-bit Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD FX-8100
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon R9 280
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: SSD with 45 GB available space
- Internet: Broadband Connection
Recommended Specifications for PC
- Operating System: 64-bit Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K or AMD R3-1300X
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 470
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: SSD with 45 GB available space
- Internet: Broadband Connection
The game is expected to take up to 50 hours to complete on your first playthrough.
The game is beautiful to look at, featuring an actual day and night cycle with dynamic weather effects. And the highest settings for graphics will probably require one of the newer GFX cards on the market.
When starting the game you will get to choose a class to play. In D4 there will be 5 classes at launch: Barbarian, Druid, Rogue, Necromancer and Sorceress. They have also revamped the skilltree from the other games. And Blizzard expects about 40% to be filled on an average end-game character.
And the game will also feature dungeons, strongholds and all other goodness that makes a good RPG these days. And it will of course still have different seasons as in Diablo III. The game can be played solo or in a group of up to 4 players per party. The game utilizes a shared world system where groups may encounter one another, engaging in both PvE (PvM) and PvP activities. The game will not have an auction house. Players can create clans while in the game.
There will be cross play and cross progression between consoles and PC. And another feature on console will be couch co-op, although the players need to have separate battle.net accounts.
But what are my thoughts on the Open beta?
Well there are a few. Firstly, no company ever seems to taken into account how many players actually stands to take part in a beta for a popular game franchise. Not even Blizzard. They had long login queues all weekend, worst during the peek hours of gaming. But noticable throughout the entire weekend. Secondly: The game had stuttering issues in the graphics, and rubberbanding issues due to server lag. The graphics issue was present in the closed beta a while ago aswell, and was supposed to be taken care of for the open beta. It was reportedly better but still present, and that is not a good sign this close to release. Hopefully as a good friend of mine said during my stream, is that it has already been fixed for the full release and this beta version wasn´t issued with the full fix. And the rubberbanding effect was most likely due to severe server fatigue due to the amount of players being on.
Final thoughts then. Well, if you liked Diablo III, you will most likely enjoy the fourth one. I´m pretty sure they will fix these small issues until the release this summer. And hopefully they will put some work into the UI to get it out of being the most basic it can be, basic but useful.
Do I think based only on the beta that it´s worth €69.99? No, I don´t. Well not for me anyways, it´s probably worth it to a die hard fan of Diablo. But in my mind I might as well wait for a sale.