A new Diablo 4 video gives us a tour of the upcoming sequel's five distinct zones, shares a deliciously macabre enemy redesign, and confirms it abides by the official code of the internet: you can pet the dog.
The seven-minute video, titled Inside the Game - The World of Sanctuary, gives a visual tour of Diablo 4's world alongside commentary from senior quest designer Harrison Pink, game director Joe Shely, senior dungeon designer Dini McMurry, and art director John Mueller. Once again, we're told Diablo 4 is much "darker" than Diablo 3 and more reminiscent of Diablo 2 before we're given a breakdown of each area.
The regions of Diablo 4 are each unique and inspired by real-life locations. Kehjistan is a seemingly middle East-inspired desert region, Scosglen is inspired by the wetlands of Scottland, Fractured Peaks is inspired by the bold peaks of the Carpathian Mountains, the Dry Steppes is the game's "mountainous desert region" - which looks like Arizona to me - and Hawezar is the Diablofied version of the swamplands in the southern United States.
What's really interesting to me is how the zones are connected by geographic middle grounds that would exist in real life between two different regions. For example, moving from Fractured Peaks into Hawezar, you'll encounter waterfalls that are caused by snow melting due to the change in climate.
Diablo 4 redesigned "some of the monsters" to better fit the mood of the sequel. For example, Mueller explained that the Fallen family of monsters went through a "major redesign" to be "more grim, a little scarier, a little darker to match the tone of Diablo 4." Here's a sneak preview shared in the video that shows this redesign:
The video update also gave an answer to the hottest question undoubtedly on the minds of players looking forward to Diablo 4 - a game whose core theme is "hatred," I'll remind you. Pink confirmed "you can pet the dog, by the way," and apparently, it wasn't easy.
"So many people asked to pet the dog," said Mueller. "It was actually a lot of work figuring out how to pet that dang dog."
We recently learned that Diablo 4 is having an open beta run next month, giving folks who pre-order the game early access on from March 17-19, with a wider testing phase happening from March 24-26. The game launches properly on June 6 for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One.
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