Diablo 4: A Schizophrenic Game

I haven’t done a #Diablo4 blog in some time mostly because there hasn’t been anything really interesting for me to dive into. While there was a Season 15 PTR, I saved myself some time by watching DatModz play for roughly a day to conclude that the game will still remain in a bad state post #LordofHatred launch. Usually with a player like DatModz, he will give things a chance and try to remain positive. However, seeing his disappointment was pretty much a clear indication that something was wrong. I don’t want to talk about Season 15 itself but my frustration with the game’s and the company’s direction has made me want to write this post up.

Diablo 4 has become a highly polarizing game. But when I describe it as polarizing, I mean that the game itself is bipolar in nature where you would have this drastic swings between patches, seasons and the infrequent expansions that leave players mystified at what the hell is going on behind the scenes. At least for me, I have to wonder what some of these discussions at Blizzard are like when you have massive changes like the Mythic 3.0 redesign, which I believe still infuriate the player base, despite some relenting by the developers. But this is a mere sample of where god awful decisions push Diablo 4 into a bottom tier state at times, even though the expansion itself was highly praised initially.

Part of the reason I decided to write this blog was from seeing a few D4Bad YouTube videos that have attempted to identify the core problems with the game. Some attempted to portray their views as raw facts but I don’t think most of these people did an adequate job of outlining the various issues but tried to pinpoint a single core issue as the reason the game is in a terrible state. The reality is that there’s plethora of reasons that the game suffers greatly. A while back, I mentioned in a blog post some of the philosophies and pieces that needed to be changed about the game. In review that post, I still think most are relevant and is a good thing to check out once again. But I think I want to update some parts as the game feels to be moving towards a worse state than ever, which might be motivated by the M$ empire impending control over everything under them. In revamping some of what I said, I think it’s good to compare where things have failed in accordance with my previous evaluation and whether or not those evaluations still hold true.

E-sports and Balance

I mentioned before that the e-sports mandate within Blizzard will make the game worse. Once the Tower and leaderboards were introduced, it has become clearer to me more than ever that the game is in a far worse state. While leaderboards and the (unwanted) Tower are at the pinnacle of my list for what’s wrong with the state of the game, you can see how the design of the Tower plagues the game because there are permutations of that type of gauntlet, timed mode that keep returning with varying scaling. You have the Undercity, the Tower, Echoing Hatred, the latest Realmwalker encounter, more circles (e.g. the dreaded Soulspires that are already a part of a gauntlet, round based fight), shrine encounters (which are more circle fights), etc. In short, there isn’t much creativity in these encounters but most are repetitive and involve monster rushing and a timer.

When you combine that aspect with the idea of e-sports, the game becomes repetitive and limited because the game developers end up being forced to balance everything around those formats along with the normal content. The leaderboards especially make it painfully obvious where the problems in the game are because of how a meta exist. Usually, the meta exist around the latest fad/development in the game where the developers socially engineer players to try out.  A prime example of this is when the Spiritborn and Paladins made their debut for the expansion and were overtuned. This only occurred to pump up sales by trying to engender a word-of-mouth campaign in making the expansion fun as a result of an ultra powerful class. However, in the subsequent season, the classes generally were nerfed as expected but overtime the nerfs made the class too weak or that only a single build might exist worth playing.

Part of the social engineering agenda to me is that the company lacks enough resources (which may sound funny) to properly balance and handle every single build conceivable. Worse yet most of the time a high end meta occurs is when a deep bug is discovered. Truthfully though, the balance issue wouldn’t be as necessary if the e-sports part wasn’t attached because there really wouldn’t be a need to constantly shift percentages around, which has made the game unstable. Outside of buffing underperforming builds/skills/classes, the only thing that would require fixing are the bugs, at least in theory or at the very minimal put less pressure on the developers to constantly make these changes. Instead, leaderboards merely expose what’s unbalanced and allows players an excuse to bitch at the developers.

PVP

This isn’t really that big of an issue, although Blizzard did make a feeble attempt at its return in Season 12 when players could become the Butcher and slaughter people in the PVP zones. That part was fine since it ended up becoming a one off situation rather than a major focus. But I still think that numbers indicate most people don’t really care for PVP in Diablo 4. And I have to insist that the current PVP zones should be revamped while PVP itself ought to be relegated to a flag people turn on in town to enable this game mode. But it should be elective and minimized at best. Otherwise, just get rid of it. There’s two perfectly good zones that most people don’t really go to because of the PVP stigma.

Gear/Itemization

While many applaud the Horadric Cube for bringing actually crafting to the game, gear still remains problematic for the most part. Legendaries are in a reasonable spot because you can get close to an ideal item. However, Uniques and eventually Mythics are in a really bad state because of the massive change to how they were stripped of their identity since Lord of Hatred. Itemization has been a huge problem since the beginning of Diablo 4 and I don’t think they’ve managed to figure out how to resolve it.

With the Horadric Cube, non-Unique items have improved greatly in terms of being useful because of how you can craft onto them and do so more deterministically. I still think the general RNG added to the process makes the system frustrating because you end up wasting time getting the exact stats you need. Part of the issue there is that each category of affixes has “filler” stats. On top of that, you can’t directly craft Greater Affixes, which means finding a solid base is imperative. Then when you go for Transfiguration, you have a good chance of bricking the item. While the developers claim that there really isn’t a “bad transfiguration,” I think most players would disagree because people dislike the indestructible trait.

Uniques and the OG Mythics are in a really bad state. What Blizzard did was make getting the ideal stats the hunt, but turning that part of the game into a standard Blizztard hamster wheel wild goose chase. However, they removed the identity of uniques when they got rid of the guaranteed stats that made them valuable. Certain stats were build defining but they also made build variety more interesting. Instead, Mythics became “quality” or as we say from the Diablo 3 world, nothing more than primal ancients.

My theory on why this was done is resources when they had promised to go through all the uniques to review the passives. Once passives were removed from the skill trees, there was no way that the developers could undergo every single build permutation in dealing with the changes necessary for uniques. Instead, they gave uniques the same affixes as a random legendary without the ability to reroll. Now, I understand that some of this may have changed after a recent patch or even in Season 15. But I think the idea of a unique has been utterly pulverized into the ground.

The way I would salvage uniques and mythics at this stage is by making them into an Aspect. I mentioned before Aspects were big problem in Diablo 4 mostly because of Aspect bloat. With Lord of Hatred, I think they managed to cut some Aspects down to help focus them better. I really believe some people at Blizzard read my post because many of those things were somewhat addressed in Season 11 and Lord of Hatred, especially with the Horadric Cube (and no, I had no insider knowledge). Given that Aspects have improved to a degree, I would argue that Unique Aspects should simply be made into a rare currency or that salvaging them puts them into the Codex. This is the only manner to salvage the way itemization works in conjunction with uniques because the only thing useful from a unique item is the Aspect. And I do emphasize making the Aspect rare as a currency.

I really don’t see any other way of fixing Uniques and old Mythics because the developers utterly trashed what they were. Or you’d have to create a different category of an item where the base is extremely rare but has more slots for affixes and other valuable properties where only Unique Aspects can be crafted onto this type of item. That way, you can still have the current itemization setup but create a new type of chase item that is less frustrating to work with but more valuable than a typical item.

If you went in this direction with the new class of item, I would like to see the return of Chaos Armor. I think if we gain the ability to imprint Unique Aspects, then those would probably be limited to a slot. However, this might be a good opportunity to introduce Chaos Armor/items. To sweeten the pot especially since uniques changed since Chaos Armor had been first introduced, I would make the properties of a Chaos Item random. Here’s where I think RNG actually makes sense and can be fun. For instance, you could have an extra affix, double Aspect crafting, multiple Enchantment slots, etc. A Chaos Item would be really rare but this would be a great compromise for the old uniques as well as creating a new chase item.

Mercenaries

Mercenaries remain nothing more than a buff at this stage. I was really hoping that the expansion would have done more with Mercenaries whether adding more or giving them new abilities. I still think that this was a near pointless feature from Vessel of Hatred that possibly was meant to be used in conjunction with the Raid/Dark Citadel feature. Yet for whatever reason, Mercenaries ended up being a weak addition with almost no customization. At this stage, the only real benefit for using a Mercenary is to get the currency to buy items during leveling or obtaining Aspects that one might not already have.

But Blizzard has to be aware of how bad Mercenaries are in their current state. They don’t necessarily make the game bad in themselves (outside of the potential for really rare bugs) but they don’t have much of a stake in the game. I mentioned previously that they felt more like a checkmark on a laundry list rather than being made into a core, first class feature. With Followers in Diablo 3, they became hugely important once they received the Emanate update as well as interesting because of how you could gear them. Diablo 2 made followers necessary because of elemental damage at the highest levels in the game.

Yet Diablo 4 Mercenaries are as I said before just a mere buff. I continue to harp on the subject because they really felt like a huge feature worth the money you were spending for Vessel of Hatred when they were announced. Instead, we would get something like an additional 15% elemental resistance along with Unstoppable. Really? That’s it? And one can argue with the revamp to resistance, the Mercenary bonus feels even more pointless.

At least, it would be nice to have seen them receive steady updates. We haven’t seen anything thus far and they shouldn’t be a paid feature when the feature is just substandard compared to other games. I would be more forgiving if Mercenaries had more depth to their skill pyramid/triangle thing (not even a twig) and gear slots with Emanate on them or at least something that allows us to customize them.

Dungeons

Since I wrote that blog post, Dungeons have received various revamps along with updates for monsters (mostly elite/rares) as well as connecting key rewards such as treasure goblins to provide more incentive for doing them. Also, War Plans did help breathe more life into Dungeons in giving us a small tree to upgrade them by adding encounters and rewards in a small manner of customization. Lastly, they added the Escalation Dungeons which would have additional affixes, rewards and eventually a boss.

Even with these adjustments, Dungeons remain more or less static to me. Most of the time the loot isn’t very good and there’s not a lot of variation in the zones since assets have been heavily reused. And some dungeons are more dreadful than others not just because of the layout but the way you resolve things like dealing with prisoners, which are still a carpal tunnel nightmare for me. Unless they decide to really expand on the War Plan activity trees, I still believe that there needs to be more work in terms of customization on Dungeons.

The rewards most of the time are pretty trash. I was really unhappy when they removed Aspects from Dungeons because I felt those were a great motivator to do Dungeons in early leveling. I think since the build enabling portions of Aspects mostly have moved onto the skill themselves, Aspects have lost their luster, making them not as useful compared to previous seasons. Escalating Dungeons themselves don’t really feel escalating in the sense that they progressively get more interesting (i.e. dangerous and rewarding) while the boss either is a pain in the ass or this worthless loot pinata that you stand around and get destroyed trying to pick up this explosive diarrhea of treasure while that stupid pylon stands over you and zaps you to death.

In general, I just feel Dungeons are still dry. They aren’t bad to dead necessarily just boring and need more variety with player agency at this stage. Again, I think the only way to address this is to expand on the activity trees or provide more currency that allows players to further customize their Nightmare Sigils.

Seasons

I mentioned that Seasons seem pointless to me in the previous blog. Obviously, Seasons are a way Blizzard can con whale player types into purchasing their Seasonal Battle Pass, which really is one of the few ways Diablo 4 can continue making money beyond their expansions. However, there was significant backlash on the changes to the Reliquary because of how shortchanged they seem.

Battle Pass aside, I think mechanics-wise, Seasons are still pointless for players at the end of the day. My thesis about Seasons being more for the developers still stands because Seasons just feel like the developers jacking around without much meaningful change. I think one of the leads for Diablo 4 tried to address that not every piece of content can go into the core of Diablo 4 because of how those things would need careful consideration in terms of the overall game health.

At this point, I have to refute that claim because we got this latest change via Mythics, which honestly should’ve been a seasonal feature that the developers used to experiment with. In fact, a lot of core changes just ended up getting adjusted no matter what like bosses with the forced phasing and one shot mechanics. So his statement makes no sense to me.

The reality is that Seasons feel wasteful because they’re mostly there to justify spending money on R&D effectively. We do get to see small glimpses of the return of things like Chaos Portals but it’s frustrating not knowing if something the player base might’ve enjoyed would ever return. And if people did like it, why do the developers have to go fuck things up and turn it into garbage?

I know I’m not the only one that has problems with Seasons in their current format. Another motivation for me writing this post involves seeing a (verbose) YouTube video where someone tried to blame Diablo 4’s problems on Seasons. The main thing this person saw as the problem is just the lack of content growth in the game. And while we have seen the incorporation of pieces of content, I think the gist of what he’s talking about is true. He mentioned Season 2 as one of the better seasons. I think what made Season 2 good is that Season 1 was not only abysmal but Season 2 added more content, the powers and just more things to do. Then when they used to have the season midpoint patch, they added the unique class rings onto the lair bosses (which may have also been new). That direction made Diablo 4 appear very viable as something that had good prospects.

And I have to contrast that Season 2 with Season 3 because of those dungeons no one wanted. Quite frankly, I think it was the annoying traps (that got reincorporated into some areas like the Capstone Dungeon) which made Season 3 a failure. But where things took a sharp downturn was during the mid season patch. Blizzard was aware that the Vampire Powers were fun but they didn’t want them to return in the same manner as the unique rings from Season 1. Instead, they added the Vampire Powers as Aspects.

Here, I think Blizzard really dropped the ball. I know that during the old campfires with the community on Twitch they talked about this and the chat just went dead cold. While no one really cared for the content from Season 1 because of how the season ended up being an abysmal failure, I really believe players wanted to see a good chunk of the Vampire content reincorporated into the core of the game. We knew the powers themselves would’ve been nerfed but if they were added along with the content to obtain them, I really believe that Diablo 4 would’ve started looking like it had a shot at being competitive against Path of Exile because now you would have expanding content that was going into the core of the game, which meant more activities.

Instead, we got the start of Aspect bloat. Builds were already having problems trying to jam in uniques, mythics and Aspects. Over time, some of these powers were made useful but not in the same capacity as when they were released. Similarly, the unique rings from Season 2 slowly diminished because they either were too powerful or really didn’t have a spot (e.g. the Rogue ring) in the scheme of things. I think for something like a Vampire Power, if they had just allowed us to use 2-3 with a special panel to slot it in, it would’ve been fine.

But a lot of these design decisions look more transient and dependent on the team at the moment rather than actually having long term purpose. And Seasons almost justify these bad decisions that don’t really improve the health of the game but leave it bloated because of conflicting priorities.

The Killing of the Player Imperative

I never really understood this issue and I doubt the people at Blizzard do either. But maybe around the time of the elite/rare ability revamps, I recall the developers bragging, “You will die.” They seemed oddly proud of being able to kill people. It wasn’t a matter of, “We want to challenge you.” It was, “We’re going to kill you.” Which means adding unnecessary frustration to the player base. So what really happened since then?

I would say the issues really started to come to a head with the Lord of Hatred launch where the sheer amount of ground effects compounded by random explosions that no player could really withstand, the typical buggy mess that includes disconnects, etc. became more apparent than ever. Already, the players hated the Lilith fight as well as how lair boss fights kept changing. Now, regular mobs would be incorporated into this mess for no apparent reason. The supposed AI enhancement of mobs from that one season didn’t really feel that much different at higher levels so that brag never made any sense. However, the random deaths to ground effects were what has triggered the biggest complaints.

While the developers have mentioned that they’re taking another look, the fact is that they’ve never really been able to create a satisfying experience. It’s always been an all-or-nothing situation. For instance, they “revamped” how the Executioner affix (the dropping sword) works but I honestly didn’t see any difference. I think the problem is that they’ve equated killing players as some sort of KPI for management as opposed to understanding what challenging content is. I’m not saying there isn’t challenging content but their view of challenging I think is misconstrued (e.g. that shitty Mephisto fight)

But what I mean by misconstruing challenging content is that they mistake the idea of difficulty with raw frustration. Dealing with nonsensical RNG, instant deaths that come out of nowhere, ridiculous numbers like gem fragments needed for high level gems aren’t challenging. They’re frustrating. Frustration simply is when you piss someone off enough that they are willing to give up because they understand that whatever they’re doing is a waste of time and energy.

I always use the old EA Wasteland Fountain of Dreams game as a prime example of how people can fuck up a good thing. Fountain of Dreams was meant to be the successor to the original Wasteland game that Interplay had done. While it looked and kinda smelled like Wasteland, Fountain of Dreams lacked the original teams’ vision of what made Wasteland a great game. It was clearly half baked and the systems never really gelled. I read that Interplay/the original team distanced themselves from this game, kinda like how the people from Blizzard North has viewed Diablo 3/4.

But for myself, Fountain of Dreams was pure frustration where starting out was impossible. This game was done pre-internet so there weren’t any cheat codes (known) nor online help to figure out how to bypass certain encounters (namely some killer clowns that just destroyed you). No matter what you did, you just annihilated in that encounter because you had no power. I have no idea why it was done in that manner but in the days of packaged software, you had no patches or updates to fix that type of issue. I might’ve given it to my friend who would eventually go to Caltech and he couldn’t get passed those clowns. When I read that it was an near impossible game to overcome and one of the worst games of all time, I was vindicated that it wasn’t just me having problems. But the main thing is that I gave up. If I knew just how bad it was, I would’ve returned it because it was shitty and a complete waste of time and money.

Diablo 4 is moving in this direction where it’s beginning to smell like Fountain of Dreams with their “let’s kill the player” mandate. I frequently read complaints on reddit where people mention random deaths. No one likes them when they happen because it feels unfair. When it’s a bug, the situation is unfair but understandable. But when it’s the result of really bad design, then you have to place that blame squarely on the developers.

The problem is that this situation has been a constant battle in this game. With the constant balance updates to skills, items and monsters, the state of the game feels as though someone on a severe LSD trip is in charge. At least pre-Vessel of Hatred, the general consent had been the odd team was making the bad decisions. Now, it’s impossible to tell because S14 and S15 are just bleh.

 

Different Development Teams and Vision

I suppose one has to ask why things change so drastically. The game feels highly unstable and the only thing I can really pinpoint is that there hasn’t been someone truly in charge with a solid vision, the pull and an iron clad hand to make things work. The game feels messy like a Disney movie designed in a boardroom rather than by a group of top notch game designers. Instead, my real impression of the development team are a bunch of 2nd rate marks that were desperate to work at Blizzard because of their nostalgic fandom or perhaps just typical corporate climbers which is why the output has been this trashy copy of Diablo 3 with some Diablo 2 mixed in.

When Blizzard did that Diablo day or whatever they wanted to call that, the fans on Twitch clamored over the release of the Warlock class and the various upgrades to QoL for Diablo 2: Resurrected. Somehow Blizzard managed to pull a major heist, using nostalgia as a disguise. But hardcore fans were quite appeased by this Warlock expansion, which I think is horribly priced for what you really get. Yet I have to admit that the live response was quite overwhelming as I think no one realized that a game like Diablo 2, even under the Resurrected umbrella, was targeted for any updates.

Naturally, Diablo Immortal, which also received a Warlock update, had tepid feedback. But everyone was anticipating the full class reveal for Diablo 4 where I believe some people had already decoded. For whatever reason, when the Diablo 4 guys showed up, the crowd not only went mild, they seemed resentful. One thing I admire about the Twitch viewers is that they remind me of old school pro-wrestling fans, the ones that were vociferous with the signs in the crowd that ridiculed the heels. Effectively, emotes are the Twitch version of the pro-wrestling signs.

Anyway, there just was no excitement, no enthusiasm for the new class. I know there was a leaked video/review too so maybe that influenced people’s decisions to shit on the game but it’s as though the crowd already made up their minds. And usually the thing about Twitch fans, kinda like ECW fans back in the day, is that they detect bullshit and conartists. So the latest group of developers with their corporate grins just amassed a heel-like reception. It was almost as though the Jonas Brothers showed up because Disney told them to for a UFC show and got torn a third asshole.

Obviously, that whole segment was scripted and probably had been walked through, perhaps heavily edited and shot beforehand but it felt so soulless and I think everyone knew it. Whatever the case, it wasn’t a good look for Blizzard nor the Diablo 4 team. I don’t care what numbers M$ is boasting about Diablo 4, there is a massive disconnect somewhere.

Part of it is just that so many people have left. It’s kinda like watching WCW around ’91 when all the hot people had left for the WWF because WCW became a shitshow then outcomes Luger vs Windham because the fans knew Flair had left and started chanting, “We want Flair!” At least for me, this current team just seems drained with no real direction outside of pulling whatever they can salvage from Diablo 3 because they’re out of ideas and too afraid to really experiment outside of their box. Or perhaps, when they do experiment, they’re just so off base that the reception ends up as a shit storm because the team ends up mixing metaphors (e.g. puzzle games in an ARPG)

When they had the previous director Rod, a lot of people dismissed him as someone who should be leading the charge based on his previous experience. While the main point I read was that he was hired to get the game back on track (because of the various delays and controversies inside the team that caused problems), the end result proved less than satisfactory. It simply felt like a lesser Diablo. The graphics may have improved but so what if the game play isn’t there.

After he left, there really hasn’t been a key person has made any impact as far as I can tell positive or negative. The game feels like it’s on maintenance mode where the minimum necessary is done and that the developers keep shuffling around content based on limited tools or jacking around with numbers rather than creating real new content. I have to harp on the last part because of the perception of where the state of the game should be based on the money they’ve supposedly generated (and bragged about which is why you shouldn’t brag since people can use that information against you) and what one may believe the team size working on this project is.

Conclusions

I have no idea what to think anymore. I’m utterly frustrated whenever I read things on the forums. My friend recently bought the expansion and I would love to play with him for S15. On the other hand, my expectations and hopes for the game are at an all time low. I know Blizzcon is coming up in September but I don’t expect anything exciting to be announced. Some people are clamoring for a Diablo I remix or redux. But outside of updating the graphics, why should anyone really get hyped for an ancient game?

That really just leaves Diablo 2: Resurrected, Immortal and 4 on the table. I think Resurrected probably stands the biggest chance of receiving updates because of how enthusiastic the Warlock add on was. I think at the very least a new class could be introduced given the success the DLC was. But I have no idea what else they could add to the game beyond just more rewards and types of difficulties. The QoL aspects seemed like the other major win so maybe they could add a few more.

I haven’t tried Immortal nor do I want to. My impression is that it’s big in China and makes good money out there. But the microtransaction aspect turned me off to it. I would see this game receiving a class update if something was announced for Resurrected. The positive for Resurrected and Immortal though is that they’re independently developed rather than in-house.

I do expect something to be announced for Diablo 4 as that Warlock/Diablo day had an intentionally clipped clip of the developers hinting at a big reveal for BlizzConn. However, I would honestly be surprised if it’s a new expansion. The other problem, for me at least, is that my expectations for BlizzConn announcements are so incredibly low that the only thing I anticipate is being horribly disappointed.

Part of the problem is that it’s all PR/marketing BS to me. I can’t tell if the people working their truly believe that their shit doesn’t stink the way they talk about things or if there’s a 12 gauge shotgun aimed behind their head to force them to say these things (or perhaps a little of both). But I think it’s just a losing proposition because players like myself are probably going to be horribly underwhelmed no matter what given the history of what we’ve seen for the past decade or so coming from Blizzard.

Now, if it is an expansion, I would be surprised just because they just released Lord of Hatred at the end of April. Unless their development/release cycle has been drastically changed, then I’ll remain skeptical. I mean they still could just announce an expansion but it feels too recent that Lord of Hatred had an announcement for itself. They could announce a DLC with a new class like a Witch Doctor but it would feel minor league given this is BlizzCon and M$ had bragged about all the money they made. So what the fuck are they doing with that money besides handing it to shareholders and upper management?

But that’s where my frustration lies. I don’t know how else to feel at this stage towards this game. I feel like every time I glance over at the forums or patch notes, I’m better off watching horrible movies like Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave and writing reviews because at least it’s mildly entertaining to me.