When it was announced at Blizzcon 2019, fans of the series would not have been able to predict the tumultuous ride that Diablo 4 would have in the following years. From high-profile staff changes, employee strikes, and damning lawsuits about toxic working conditions, Diablo 4's developer Blizzard has found itself in the news a lot lately. Then to top it all off, it was acquired by Microsoft in a move that will no doubt have a profound effect on the world of gaming for years to come. With all of this turbulence and transition during Diablo 4's development, it's no wonder that the game has been delayed and will not be released in 2022.
Players may be disappointed by this news, but considering how many ups and downs Blizzard has gone through in addition to Diablo 4 getting a new game director towards the end of last year, a delay seems like a prudent plan. Despite the controversies and investigations, Diablo 4 does seem to be steadily progressing.
With quarterly development updates to assure fans that work on Diablo 4 is ongoing, Blizzard has provided more details about its upcoming title to get players excited. Although the game's release may still be a long way off, there have been plenty of details released so far so that players can start to get an idea of what the upcoming game might entail. With development updates covering Diablo 4's vicious combat, expansive settings, and re-imagined Paragon system, fans are excited for what the game will bring.
Plans For Diablo 4's Paragon System
The Paragon system didn't come into effect in the core series until Diablo 3 when the action role-playing dungeon crawler wanted to provide more end-game content for players to entice them back after they had already maxed out their level cap. After players reach the level 60 cap, any additional experience transitions into Paragon levels. Each level attained in the Paragon structure awarded the player increased attributes such as strength, intelligence, and vitality. Changes were made in the pre-patch before the Diablo 3: Reaper of Soul expansion was released, which among other things removed the cap on Paragon levels. Additional patches were added to further finesse the system during Diablo 3's post-launch life.
At the end of 2021, Blizzard released another development update for Diablo 4, which touched on the finer points of weapons and character upgrades, as well as introducing a new version of the Paragon system. Renamed and retooled as Paragon Boards, the system will still serve as a way of progressing past the level cap, which in Diablo 4's case is reportedly level 50. The new skill tree will provide more depth to character customization, with a complex and vast configuration of tiles that each represent powers and other benefits. With a glimpse at such considered and expansive end-game content, players are hoping that the rest of the game is as well-thought-out.
Split into Normal Tiles, Magic Tiles, Rare Tiles, Legendary Tiles, Glyph Sockets, and Gate Tiles, the reconfigured Paragon Board provides players with a large array of options when it comes to leveling up their characters. By selecting a tile type, players unlock specific benefits such as new Legendary Powers and meaningful stat boosts. They will need to map their way carefully across the Paragon Board, planning routes with the Normal Tiles serving as connections between the rarer and more beneficial Tiles. Reaching Gate Tiles forces players to choose which new board they would like to attach to that location and then progress through, further adding complexity and customization to the feature and making Diablo players narrow down their class and play style.
Other Changes Known To Be Coming In Diablo 4
Although development updates have been steady they have hardly been overly detailed, and much of Diablo 4 still remains shrouded in mystery. Specifics about the story or even Diablo 4's release date are just some of the aspects that players still don't know, but there are some updates and reveals that have shed a bit of light on the upcoming title. The game will feature an open world – a first for the series – as well as series staples like procedurally-generated dungeons and loot-focused character-building. The main villain appears to have been confirmed to be Lilith thanks to Diablo 4's beautifully dark and delightfully gruesome cinematic trailer, but the majority of the antagonists are yet to be revealed.
So far, four playable classes have been announced, with glimpses of gameplay revealed for each type including Barbarian, Sorceress, Druid, and Rogue – all of which are classes that have previously appeared in the Diablo series in some form. In terms of what's new to the series, the developers have revealed that it will be fine-tuning how blood and gore react in the environments, making it more realistic when it interacts with light. The Diablo series has always had a brutal and gory aesthetic, and with the glimpses shown in trailers so far, it seems Diablo 4 will be moving to embrace this macabre and visceral heritage even more wholeheartedly.
There will also apparently be a big focus on character customization, with players able to play a large part in determining the look of their characters. Diablo 4 will include customizable tattoos and body paint, armor styles, makeup, jewelry, and facial hair to name but a few. While some elements will be class-specific in order to keep in line with certain backgrounds and character lore, other aspects will allow players to change the color values of visual features such as skin, eye color, and hair. The new wardrobe system will let players push customization even further, mixing and matching an almost endless array of components and custom color palettes to bring characters to life.
While developers have promised that Diablo 4 will have some monstrous antagonists from the previous games returning as enemies for players to slice and dice their way through, the main focus is to also create new foes to battle alongside the more familiar faces. Overall, Blizzard has assured fans that there will be a massive improvement when it comes to attention to detail so that characters, environments, enemies, and settings feel both unique and part of the Diablo world. With everything that has been going on in the news and surrounding the beleaguered developer, Blizzard has a lot of work to do to win back the good opinion of fans. While this is by no means a small task, the details released for Diablo 4 so far seemed to have bought back a little trust in the direction of the franchise.
Diablo 4 is currently in development for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.