Diablo 4, Blizzard’s latest hack-n-slash action RPG, finds itself in a rather strange place despite being a relatively new title. The game is hemorrhaging players and the overall interest is rapidly dropping by the day, leading many to suspect the game’s life may be over before it truly began.
In this piece we’ll analyze all the aspects that led to the decline of one of Blizzard’s most ambitious titles, as well as answering the obvious question of whether Diablo 4 is dying or if the current stagnation is nothing more than a setback. Stay with us as we explore the world of Diablo 4 and tackle some of the more difficult problems within the game.
@ Blizzard
Is Diablo 4 Dead?
Although the fans like to meme about Diablo 4 being a dead game, it is still technically alive. There are players enjoying the game and leveling characters through the campaign, but the current state absolutely pales in comparison to the first month of the Diablo 4 release date. The hype is just not there anymore.
Blizzard, in their stubborn way, kicked off Season 1 with a series of massive nerfs when the game was barely out for a month, causing many players to either drop out early or begin their first seasonal character with a deep feeling of resentment. The move caused unnecessary friction between the devs and the players, leading to an even greater divide within the community.
So as Blizzard continued to make irrational decisions and pretended things were hunky-dory, the dissatisfaction within the community began to fester. Suddenly, all the little problems that plagued the game from day one were brought into the limelight, with players and Diablo 4 content creators voicing their concerns on all forms of social media. Streamers like Asmongold, who was initially enjoying the game, began noticing all sorts of issues and became vocal about it. Others followed suit.
Blizzard attempted to remedy the situation through a series of Campfire Chats, where they openly discussed some of the game’s issues and answered questions. Sadly for them, this just backfired and added fuel to an already raging fire.
It is obvious Blizzard are struggling to figure things out, despite their desperate attempts to reassure the public. However, their efforts have borne little fruit so far.
The Glaring Problems of Diablo 4
When it comes to ARPGs, Diablo 4 is a disappointment in every sense of the word. There’s just too many problems that need fixing, and too little time. We’ll highlight some of them here.
@ Icy Veins
Horrible Diablo 4 Item System
Let’s take Diablo 4 items for an example. In a game based around loot, you’d expect there to be interesting items to pick off the ground. Sadly, this isn’t the case in Diablo 4. In fact, Diablo 4 has perhaps some of the most convoluted item affixes that in most cases simply make no sense.
Instead of picking up interesting loot and gearing your character to the teeth, you’re often left rummaging through your tiny inventory, only to be left scratching your head in confusion. The item design is plain horrible and needs a complete overhaul if the game expects to stand a chance against other titans in the genre such as Path of Exile.
Bad Inventory Design
The inventory in Diablo 4 is embarrassingly small and counter-intuitive. You have little to no room to store your items while exploring the world or tackling a difficult dungeon, leading to constant teleports to the town to either sell or stash your loot. And speaking of stash space, the stash inventory is also very limited, which often causes players to create alt characters simply to store all the items they want to keep.
Blizzard will never admit this, but it is clear this was done intentionally to either sell inventory and stash space later on, or to add it as a seasonal reward in one of the future Diablo 4 Battle Passes. This leads us to our next problem.
Diablo 4 Battle Pass
Since it’s 2023 and everyone must have a Battle Pass in their game, single-player or online, Blizzard obviously added one to Diablo 4. Diablo 4 Battle Pass works how you’d usually expect one to work. You will be given daily chores to mindlessly grind in order to unlock some limited Diablo 4 microtransactions for the current season, and each new season will bring a different Battle Pass.
So why is this a problem? Well, if you’ve been following the Diablo: Immortal saga since the beginning, you’ll know that all the effort in that game went into developing a predatory cash shop, with the leftover hours being used to develop the actual game. At least that’s the sense we had when we played the game. Diablo 4 Battle Pass has a similar vibe to it.
@ eXputer
When you open the Diablo 4 Shop and Battle Pass, you’ll notice incredible attention to detail for the paid character and mount skins, but that same level of detail will be completely absent from the actual game, where you’ll have copy-pasted dungeon design layouts and soulless NPCs in every town you visit.
Final Thoughts
Diablo 4 is a game with a lot of untapped potential. It has smooth combat and character movement, stunning graphics and is set in a dark world of Sanctuary which all Diablo fans love. If all the problems in Diablo 4 were to be fixed, the game might actually stand a chance. This, however, is somewhat unlikely at this point as the train has already left the station.
If we compare Diablo 4 to a game such as New World, we’ll see a lot of similarities. New World, much like Diablo 4, had a successful start…until all the flaws came seeping out. The player backlash was immense and the game never managed to fully recover, despite some pretty great updates that followed. This is the fate that awaits Diablo 4.
We believe the game is still alive, but will soon be on life support. Even if Blizzard somehow manage to fix all the issues and bring back a small portion of the player base, it will never be the same. Effectively, Diablo 4 is dead, and will remain dead unless Blizzard pulls off a real miracle.
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