In Blizzard’s latest quarterly update on Diablo 4, the game’s director, Luis Barriga, and the dev team shared new details about the forthcoming title. While launch day is still a long time away—even by Blizzard’s own generous, internal standards—it’s already clear that Diablo 4‘s skill system is shaping up to be very different from its predecessor’s.
Diablo 3 released for PC over eight years ago and franchise fans are eager for a fresh campaign against the forces of hell. Diablo 4 is making several changes to the long-running action RPG’s standard demon-slaying formula, most notably, the inclusion of open-world exploration. Other changes that have been revealed so far include the ability for up to eight players to join together, and the elimination of loading screens, which may be Diablo 4‘s most important new feature.
The most recent update focused on the game’s mechanics and skill trees. As revealed in previous updates, every Diablo 4 class will have a distinguishing mechanic, like the barbarian’s arsenal system, allowing players to easily switch between weapons. The character’s skills will be modified by a two-fold skill tree comprised of roots and branches. Players modify and gain active abilities by spending points in the branches, which in turn unlocks points that can be spent on the roots for passive abilities.
The developers also noted that players will not be able to acquire every skill in a single playthrough, and may in fact require multiple characters to fully explore a single class. This adds tremendous weight to every build decision. This system contributes re-playability and adds depth to every class, at the potential expense of frustrating completionists and aspiring jacks-of-all-trades. Ultimately, more interesting builds seem like a worthy trade-off, and hopefully, Blizzard gets creative with Diablo 4‘s classes to maximize the system’s potential.
Three of five starting classes have been revealed for the game, and so far Diablo 4 is holding fast to the series’ roots. Variants of the sorcerer, barbarian, and druid classes have featured in earlier titles and while they each have their own satisfying appeal, the tropes are starting to show their age. It would be refreshing to see the weighty character-building system fueling a completely new kind of character.
It is worth acknowledging, the conservative class reveals may be an intentional play on Blizzard’s part. With the announcement of open world play and large battle parties, there is some concern from fans that Diablo 4 will stray too far from its core identity, and essentially become a darker shade of World of Warcraft. But Blizzard’s focus on a system that seems to prioritize season-by-season commitment and experimentation should help distinguish the title from a traditional MMORPG.
Diablo 4 is currently in development. A release date has yet to be announced.
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