Thursday afternoon, Blizzard dropped its quarterly report for Diablo 4's ongoing development, focusing on a recent internal test for a pre-alpha version of Diablo 4. While Game Director Luis Barriga acknowledges that the game still has a long way to go, he says that "even at these early stages, Diablo 4 is very fun to play."
In the report, Barriga breaks down certain aspects of Diablo 4 that mark changes for the franchise. With regards to storytelling, he says Diablo 4 has a new feature called conversations, which include close-up camera shots of characters talking, like in Mass Effect. Some conversations will also remain from the isometric perspective, but will have a variety of animations for character models to act out. Diablo 4 will also bring the player closer to the story with real-time cutscenes for big events, where the player's character is featured in their full custom armor.
The test also allows Blizzard to see how Diablo 4's open-world structure worked. Barriga mentions that players will be able to diverge from the story to do open-world activities including crafting, events, side-quests, and even world PvP. One specific example is Camps, locations where enemies can be cleared that will turn into outposts with NPCs and a waypoint. These aren't required locations in Diablo 4, but rather something players can find on their own.
Multiplayer is a particularly interesting area of discussion that Barriga goes into. He clarifies that Diablo 4 is trying to create elements of shared world games, but is otherwise avoiding feeling like an MMO. Philosophically, Barigga explains this is because it doesn't feel like Diablo when players see others often or in high numbers.
The Diablo 4 internal playtest at Blizzard lasted just two days and provided the team an abundance of data and experiences to consider. The game isn't even at an alpha state yet, so clearly there's a lot of work left to do. But Barriga is happy with the results, saying he believes "we have all the key ingredients for a great Diablo 4."
Diablo 4 is currently in development for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.