Diablo IV (2023) - Horror Video Game Review (Xbox Series X)

I've dabbled over the years with the Diablo series of video games. The original Diablo I had a demo for once, while I brought the Diablo II special edition though bounced off that one around halfway through. I did actually play Diablo III: Reaper of Souls to completion, despite giving it a healthy eight out of ten I really can't remember that one much at all sadly. With Microsoft buying Blizzard I decided to hold off from buying latest entry Diablo IV and instead waited for it to hit GamePass. This new entry is a far more dark and moody entry than the colourful one that came before, and it really looks great. Perhaps I was playing this incorrectly, but as this sixty to seventy hour story played out I became to find some giant issues with terms to how darn easy it all was.

Without fact checking myself here is the synopsis as I saw it. Diablo takes place in the realm of Sanctuary, a place where humans came to live after Lilith - a rogue demon and Inarius - a rogue angel created it during the eternal fight between the Burning Hells and their opposites the High Heavens. In Diablo IV, a sorcerer has managed to summon Lilith to Sanctuary. The man has fallen for her lies that she is the one being able to protect Sanctuary from the ongoing fight between angels and demons. With the power to sway people to her side, Lilith sets out to find a way to travel to the Burning Hells and steal her father's power. Meanwhile, Inarius being currently trapped on Sanctuary sets out to defeat Lilith, hoping that his success will compel the Heavens to invite him back from his banishment.
You play as a wanderer who had been captured by cultists of Lilith and fed her blood, escaping your imprisonment, you discover you are the best placed person to find and defeat the demon.

I recall that Diablo III took place within hub levels of cities, with the dungeons branching off of those, and each chapter taking you to a different city. At least that is how I remember it. Diablo IV is one huge open world environment, again split into chapters, but with you able to travel anywhere you wish. Alongside the main quest there are a heck of a lot of side quests that range from the simple (going to a specific area and collecting a certain type of item) to more story based ones, such as helping a woman with an uncontrollable curse that summons demonic creatures. The core story was one seen plenty of times before and it will come as no surprise that your travels to stop Lilith always have you arriving moments after she has left for the next place. The plot is kind of split into two, with a chunk of the story also revolving around stopping the sorcerer who summoned her in the first place (and who has ties to one of the friendly characters who helps you on your journey. The voice acting was all very good, most notable was Ralph Ineson (Brahms: The Boy II, The Witch) as Lorath. Each of the different character classes you can choose all have their own voice actors. For my run I played as a female necromancer and enjoyed her powers. There are just a couple of CG cutscenes but I have to say these scenes were amazing to look at, so were worth the wait between them.

The setting of the game is very grim-dark with no joy to be found anywhere. Locations are dark and dreary and often full of dead horses and destroyed buildings. There was more variety in the locations than I had thought there might be with deserts, swamps and woodlands all making an appearance. The enemy types are suitably varied with everything from human enemies such as cultists and cannibals to more demonic ones and wild creatures like wolves and walking tree men. About two thirds into the game you are given access to a horse which makes traversing the areas so much more easy and streamlined.
My biggest issue came with just how easy the game became. To begin with it was easy enough that I bumped up the difficulty to the next tier. By around the halfway point of the game even this became too easy and so I went to change it...only to find I couldn't. For reasons alien to me, you are not able to increase the difficulty anymore until the campaign is completed. This was an issue for me as with literally thousands of games in my backlog I had no intention of sticking around once the story was finished with. This meant that around half of my whole experience had me so overpowered that I would destroy enemies instantly whenever I saw them. Not only that, but I had so many spells and shields that it became very hard for enemies to even damage me. This led to an increasing feeling of tedium with me falling off of everything outside of the main story and side quests. I don't know the thinking behind locking adequate difficulty settings outside of the main campaign.
Playing as a necromancer was fun even if it gave for a more hands-off experience. I had eight summoned skeletons as well as a huge iron golem who would wade in and destroy enemies without me needing to get my hands dirty much outside of my skin flaying, skull spear throwing and blood wave attacks. Around two thirds into the game I was no longer getting any better equipment than what I had, so that became another aspect that felt wasted on someone who didn't want to do any end game content.

I did enjoy Diablo IV, it looks great and plays wonderfully. I do really wish it had allowed me to play it on a harder setting as it began to really drag due to the severe lack of challenge. A flawed game that had a lot going for it, but unless you are really committed to squeezing every last drop of fun out of this hack and slash it might leave you feeling a little hollow.

SCORE: