LIVING HELL

DIABLO IV refines the ARPG series for a new era

- TYLER COLP

Diablo IV has a surplus of corpses. For every gangly demon, there are piles of bones just waiting to pop out. They bulge out of their stomachs like a rodent in a snake. One slice and they come tumbling out. It's a bloody mess, but to my Necromancer, it's an opportunity.

To her, there's value in what a body leaves behind. After all, bodies are a pain. They fight us at every turn and exist to get worse. Corpses, however, are a canvas. They birth friendly skeletons and deadly explosions. Those explosions lead to more corpses, and soon, my Necromancer is a spark in a world of gasoline.

Don't let the screenshots fool you: Diablo IV is an absurd game. It may be darker and more serious than Diablo III, but it still offers the bizarre pleasures of playing an action RPG. Numbers fly off of enemies, chests burst with loot, and you can be a Necromancer who disperses into mist and sets off every corpse in the room.

But no matter how ridiculous it is to have a pale woman pop corpses like they’re balloons, Diablo IV remains devoted to its tight combat design. Lead class designer Adam Z Jackson is personally responsible for my Necromancer build and he knows how many players raved about it during the four-day beta in March. When I describe it to him over Zoom, he starts to nod before I’m even finished.

“It’s very rare that I’ll put a stake in the ground,” he said. “But that kind of thing is one just because it kills combat interaction. If you don’t interact with enemies, if you don’t interact with bosses, then it kind of defeats the entire game. It’s fun to be powerful, and even to feel or be overpowered a little bit. But there are lines and—remember, everything’s on a spectrum—that is outside of the spectrum.”