Home » There are many highlights, but there are many hidden worries. Can “Diablo 4” “save” Blizzard? | TechNews Technology News

There are many highlights, but there are many hidden worries. Can “Diablo 4” “save” Blizzard? | TechNews Technology News

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There are many highlights, but there are many hidden worries. Can “Diablo 4” “save” Blizzard? | TechNews Technology News

“Diablo 4” will be available for public beta testing from March 18th to 20th, and will be open to all players from March 25th to 27th. If there is no delayed ticket, “Diablo 4” will be released in June. It is now time for the game to “pull it out” stage.

The first time I played Diablo 4 was at the Blizzard Carnival more than three years ago. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it for the first time. The content of the offline trial play was only an early Demo of one hour. This time Blizzard released three occupations, a complete first act plot, and the first of several major regions. After two five-day experiences and exposure to more content, the author found that “Diablo 4” not only continued the traditional gameplay of the series, but also added a slightly unfamiliar new experience, with surprises and unsatisfactory places. From the perspective of open content, there are advantages and disadvantages.

As the orthodox sequel of the new generation of “Diablo”, the impact and sense of substitution of the latest technical support of “Diablo 4” are top-notch in the industry, and the mechanism adjustment and improvement are also in place; the game framework introduces MMO elements, and some operation adjustments provide a sense of freshness At the same time, it is unavoidable to worry about the long-term direction of the game. For Blizzard, which has no “substantial new work” since 2016, the success or failure of “Diablo 4” may be very important.

(The following content contains minor spoilers for the first act, please read with discretion)


Seeing the 4th generation for the first time: a familiar taste

Let me talk about the first impression first. It was announced as early as 2019 that the visual style of “Diablo 4” was determined. It abandoned the cartoon/oil painting style of “Diablo 3” and turned to the traditional dark gothic style closer to “Diablo 2”.

▲ The character creation page obviously follows the 2nd generation style.

Entering the game, the opening CG full of blood, and some cult scenes in the follow-up plot will quickly make you aware of the tone of this generation. Although it is still a classic 45-degree isometric perspective, “Diablo 4” greatly enhances the visual effect by means of real-time computing and scene switching.

In terms of plot, a lot of real-time computing animations have been added, and there are many first-person perspective scenes, which are no longer simply overlooking the simple hidden UI and character movements, which significantly improves the sense of narrative substitution in the new work. Specific scenes also set up “observation points”, which can be used to show a more macroscopic depth space with mirror movement and close-ups, which can also be regarded as making up for the lack of scenes in the previous work.

Secondly, the action feedback of the Diablo series is also an important part of the experience. After the painting style returns to the traditional style, the physical feedback and killing effects have also been adjusted. The exaggerated scene of the corpse flying several feet high and falling down in the previous game is gone, replaced by a more realistic killing effect: corpses left after being burned by flames, bodies frozen by ice-type skills and ice-crushed explosions, caused by physical blows With the support of next-generation technology, blood spurts from severed limbs have a more realistic performance.

A few hours before getting started with “Diablo 4”, the consistent atmosphere creation, story unfolding, as well as the core sense of combat strikes and action feedback are all familiar tones for old players. Benefiting from technological advancement and design concepts, the way of telling stories has also been strengthened. Compared with the straightforward plot in the past, the first act has some unexpected trends. Throughout the early experience, the intuitive feedback is “very right”, and the production specifications also reveal the quality that the next generation of similar games should have. The overall performance is above the standard, which is more surprising than playing the demo for the first time.

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More like Diablo 2 or Diablo 3?

The core gameplay of the Diablo series does not need much introduction. After talking about the initial impressions, let’s take a look at the equipment and skill system. If simply defined, “Diablo 4” is a combination of the 2nd and 3rd generations. Judging from the existing content, it is slightly biased towards the 3rd generation. It can be seen from the UI and operation interaction details. Extraction affixes and yellow equipment can be upgraded to new legendary equipment, and can inherit the strength of high-level yellow equipment items. It can be foreseen that this is the motivation for repeated treasure hunting in the middle and late stages, so that yellow equipment can avoid the embarrassment of being decomposed into materials in the later stage.

The effect of the third-generation professional suits is extremely strong, so that in the later stage, you can only rely on “choose one of several suits + a small amount of bulk” to form a BD, which limits flexibility and diversity. Although the team is still trying to introduce new elements in the recent version, it is still driven by official updates rather than players’ self-exploration, which is also a point that the 3rd generation has been criticized from time to time. As for “Diablo 4”, the designer emphasizes the emphasis on the legend of parts and adjusts the logic to avoid the above situation, but the long-term direction is not clear.

Skill mechanism, “Diablo 4” skill tree also combines the characteristics of the 2nd and 3rd generations. Taking mages as an example, the composition of character skills is generally “non-energy-consuming/capable of production” basic skills, energy-consuming main output skills, defensive skills, functional skills, and long-CD ultimate moves such as finishing moves. Each active skill grid of the skill tree will extend a single-choice branch to strengthen the skill itself, which is a bit like the 3rd generation multi-choice rune; the tree-shaped skill level distribution, and the setting that requires a certain number of points to unlock subsequent skills, are somewhat 2 generation shadow.

In addition to the skill tree, each profession also has an exclusive mechanism. For example, the mage will unlock the skill enchanting system with the upgrade, in addition to the 6 active skills, you can also use the enchanting slot to select two additional unlocking skills. At present, it is mostly triggered, such as “every 100 mana points are consumed to automatically release chain lightning”, “20% release of frozen ball when using non-basic skills”, it is a bit like a more flexible passive skill, it seems to expand Good sex. The exclusive mechanism for necromancers is “customized” summons, which can make skeleton warriors more fleshy, flexible and comprehensive, or simply “sacrifice” to enhance character attributes.

What is more surprising about the early combat experience is that from the limited legendary equipment in the beta version, you can feel the subtle linkage between equipment and skills. When I was a dozen or so levels, I collected two affixes, core skills for basic skill consumption reduction and basic skill attack speed bonus. These two legends alone can build a small-scale cycle, and the combat experience is much better. Or the necromancer who is open for the second Beta test, the blood mist ring alone can explode the corpse:

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As for the rune language that old players are looking forward to, the development team has temporarily shelved it, but promised to join it when the design is mature.

It seems that the skills and equipment of “Diablo 4” generally continue the framework of the third generation, and avoid the shortcomings of the past as much as possible, while combining some classic settings of the second generation. From the perspective of new works, it is considered fresh. What kind of chemical reaction this ratio “stitching” can produce will still have to wait for long-term content such as secret realms and seasons to be determined.

Can Swipe Swipe be compatible with the big world?

In addition to the inheritance and adjustment of the main features of the previous dynasties, the extension of “Diablo 4” is also worth talking about-one is the new content of the open world framework, and the other is the changes after the introduction of MMO elements. The most intuition is that the map is bigger, the same plot promotion, errand task rhythm, the body feeling is obviously much slower than the previous generation. This feedback is based on the “Diablo 4” including the mount system, but the beta version does not unlock the mount, so the first scene has a lot of boring running time.

As the map becomes larger, the terrain becomes more complex. Many scenes will be designed with more layout and depth. In some places, you need to climb landslides or jump back and forth between cliffs. The advantage is that looking down can show more maps, and the disadvantage is that the “cumbersome terrain” is a bit slow. Along with the open world, there is also mining and herb mining, corresponding to several equipment materials or potion alchemy.

In addition, the big world of “Diablo 4” is inevitably stuffed with some list-style collections. For example, some “Lilith Statues” will be linked to rewards with higher income such as skill points, which means that as long as players are not very Buddhist, they must be full. map collection. Open the map page, some items such as regional prestige will be very familiar to MMO players, so let’s talk about the introduction of MMO elements in “Diablo 4”.

Judging from the test experience, the content of the last invited test, and various official news, the author does not agree with the argument that “”Diablo 4″ has become an MMO”. The core gameplay and underlying mechanism are still the traditional Diablo series settings. The emergence of MMO elements is nothing more than the addition of new seasonings, not to the extent that the taste is gone. The first time the author has a clear understanding of “adding MMO elements to the game” is the map side task marking. After picking up a few branch lines on the main line, I opened the map and saw the scope of the task marked, and instantly blurted out: “Isn’t this just “World of Warcraft”?”

Of course, there’s more to MMO-style rewards than that. After entering the town, you can see other players walking around, and the preset viewing angle will be automatically reduced; the Boss in the wild world, and other players who appear in random update public events will have a seemingly unenhanced perception.

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In terms of levels, the presence of dungeons has been greatly enhanced. Some dungeons are linked to professional-specific/universal extraction powers. The goal may not be very friendly—for example, if you clear the entire map, you will find that you have to get a collectible at the other end of the map to settle.

According to previous information, “Diablo 4” also has a mechanism similar to the third generation of small secret realm. Judging from the continuation of the framework of the third generation, the future version is likely to have a large secret realm. With these layers, it should be able to support different PVEs. Otherwise, the PVE content that focuses on the current copy will inevitably make people skeptical about “resistance to brushing”.

Up to now, it is difficult for the core gameplay of the Diablo series to undergo earth-shaking changes or innovations leading the times in the 200X era. The open world and MMO elements are the development team’s solution to the problem of “New Dark Works”. With the blessing of novelty, there are differences and bright spots in the experience. The current combination is not blunt, but it is not outstanding.

Blizzard’s next Diablo

In the early morning of the 18th, on the day of the test service opening, “Diablo 4” performed the traditions of Carmen, queuing and disconnection. Of course, the lack of preparation, on the other hand, the enthusiasm of the players can be seen. According to official data, there are millions of players reaching level 20 within 3 days of testing. The Diablo series needs new works too much. It has been 12 years since the release of the 3rd generation and the 2nd generation.

Speaking of Blizzard’s signature, most people may first think of Warcraft. In the history of Blizzard’s development, the Diablo series happened to stand at several important nodes. “Blizzard’s Midlife Crisis” sorted out the intriguing timeline, but the author probably defined “midlife crisis” too early. After writing the article At the Blizzard Carnival in 2018, when the outside world was looking forward to the official announcement of “Diablo 4”, Blizzard came up with the Diablo mobile game, causing an uproar in public opinion and a sharp drop in stock prices.

According to the 2019 Blizzard Carnival report poll, compared with the new expansion pack of “World of Warcraft” and “Overwatch” with PVE added, “Diablo 4” which has gone through ups and downs is undoubtedly the most “new” and most anticipated product of Blizzard. The blizzard with constant wind and rain for several years also needs new things to prove itself. Audiences with dark-like gameplay also need important new works, such as “Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem” two or three years ago, which started with crowdfunding by a small team, and can occupy the best-selling position on Steam in the short term.

Judging from the test content, the creation of a series of new works is quite solid. After all, the various hidden worries listed by the author actually cover most possible situations-but if the official version wants to step on all these mines, it is unlikely. Listing all possible problems is just the author’s cautious and restrained expectation.

(This article is reproduced with the authorization of Game Grape; the source of the first picture: Blizzard)

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