If you asked me back in summer 2023, I'd have told you Diablo 4 was a notable next chapter in Blizzard Entertainment's action RPG series. But as we all know, grindy online RPGs have to evolve fast as their communities demand more content and more polish. Almost three years later, the Lord of Hatred expansion has positioned it as a serious contender for the ARPG crown, and most of its strengths come from its much-maligned predecessor Diablo 3.
With Lord of Hatred and Season 13, it truly feels like a convincing long-term vision for Diablo 4 is coming into focus. Its present and future are combining lessons learned from the entire series and not just Diablo 2, which continues to get its fair share of love through new Resurrected content anyway. At long last, I'm proud to say: we are so back.
The runes dilemma
As sturdy as its core always was, Diablo 4 was stuck in a "no man's land" of MMO-lite design circa Destiny 2, unsure whether to commit to the more casual crowd or try to entice genre diehards who would always be better served by Path of Exile's sicko-first priorities. This resulted in muddled progression systems and an approach to skills and perks that largely resulted in a hodgepodge of numbers that didn't amount to much for too long, with most players only getting a few hours into their seasonal journeys before deciding their time was better spent elsewhere.
The (demonic) elephant in the room was that its old-fashioned skill tree was kind of bad, actually. Veterans would try to convince you it gave them far more control over their builds, but we mostly had a regular amount of skills with small increments through additional nodes plus passives that didn't do much when compared to the late-game bonuses and unique effects enabled by high-level gear.
With Lord of Hatred's launch, all skill trees - not just those pertaining to new classes - have received a substantial rework, putting them way closer to Diablo 3's originally divisive (but more impactful) system.
Secondary nodes alter or totally transform skills in tangible ways, and passives are essentially gone on a class level. The reworked Equipment system and the absolutely daunting Paragon Board take care of those now, and instead, you're getting cool gameplay changes based on your choices. Like transforming chain projectiles into flaming, spinning chains that are planted on the ground. Welcome back, Diablo 3 runes.
As important for a rewarding endgame grind the traditional loot showers and late-game toying with stats are, Diablo 4's class trees used to feel like a missed opportunity. Now, root-level build variety is back on the menu. This affects the moment-to-moment fun, as we're no longer encouraged to get used to two or three meta builds per season by a rigid system. More iteration on other fronts might be needed, but classes are in a pretty good spot right now thanks to one of Diablo 3's once-derided experiments.
Paint the town anything but red
A game that desperately tried to shake things up even if the initial effort wasn't quite there, an unsung strength of Diablo 3's is its more colorful art style and overall presentation. It was obviously influenced by World of Warcraft's success, but it helped set it apart from not just the second game, but also the rest of the Diablo-like subgenre. Diablo should've always been the ARPG series breaking new ground, not one living in the shadows of others.
While I think Diablo 4's gritty, less cartoonish aesthetic serves a function and appreciate how disturbing and fittingly dark its vibes can get, that's no reason to paint the entire game in muddy shades of grey, brown, and red with the sole intention of pleasing Diablo 2 diehards. Even in the lush jungles of Vessel of Hatred's Nahantu region, colors are annoyingly muted. Only the fires of Hell, angelic lights, and magical effects have a pop to them.
While Lord of Hatred doesn't retroactively alter Diablo 4's overall palette, the new Skovos Isles region - a Mediterranean-inspired zone controlled by the Amazons - is a breath of fresh air. The countryside, although infected by demons and other abominations, looks crisp and autumnal in shades of auburn. These more saturated hues cover the trees and vegetation in a conscious attempt to inject more visual dimension into the world of Sanctuary, and it more than pays off.
Diablo should've always been the ARPG series breaking new ground, not one living in the shadows of others.
Lord of Hatred feels like Blizzard firing on all cylinders because it dares to look to the studio's more recent past to shape Diablo 4's present and future. Diablo 2 is a distant game that's been perfectly refreshed, and with Path of Exile 2 promising the densest and most punishing ARPG loop around when it hits 1.0, Diablo 4 must become its own thing: an immediately fun game that's easy to jump into and can satisfy in small or large doses without getting too lost in the weeds. That flexible approach is what made Diablo 3 enduring in the end, and that truth should've never been avoided or ignored for so long.
Though War Plans, a new optional endgame structure cutting down on management and bridging different activities together, needs a lot of work before it's accepted by the community, Diablo 4 feels finished now. All it took was a mix of accepting past wins and decisions tied to a game folks aren't nostalgic about just yet. With base-level issues squashed and confidence regained, Lord of Hatred's explosive finale could also be considered a new beginning. And, unlike a few months ago, I'm excited to see what comes next.
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