What Diablo 4 is doing to help the series reclaim its crown as the action-RPG king

It's a curious thing, the hype surrounding Diablo 4. A brief consideration makes it clear: it's the next installment in a beloved Blizzard franchise 10 years in the waiting, of course it's going to be accompanied by gnarly levels of hype. But where is that coming from?

It's not like Diablo 3 fans have been starved of new seasons of updates and content , even if those are coming to an end now. So then perhaps it's the heritage of Diablo 2 that lingers on, the all-timer that will undoubtedly be a benchmark for any and all Diablo games – nay, all games like Diablo – likely until the end of time. In that regard Blizzard is at least making the right noises, especially given the recent reveal of the reworked Necromancer class.

Fans of the original Diablo games will already be aware of its return, but truth be told the revived Necromancer is a stellar example of Blizzard's intention behind 2023's Diablo 4. At its core, the revamped class has the right thematic cues: raising the undead, summoning demons, and leveraging the use of powerful blood magic as seen in the Diablo 3 rendition of the character. 

And yet, given the fact that many of us would likely grumble if a new game of this ilk was reduced back to the archaic pace of early '00s PC gaming, these critical class components have been melded together with more modern combat; the faster pace of Diablo 3 and the hard-hitting "crunchy" mechanics of Diablo 4 will make for a more fitting iteration of the beloved Necromancer class.

Back from the dead

The reveal of this class, alongside the various interviews that executive producer Rod Fergusson has taken part in since, has given us a bit of insight into precisely how we can expect the gameplay of Diablo 4 will unfold moment to moment – and it's perhaps here that we can understand a bit of the hype. 

The point is mostly to allow players to tailor the Diablo 4 gameplay experience to their own preferences, a fairly grand goal for a series that has been admittedly bogged down in prescription class mechanics rather than adaptability. 

With the Necromancer as an example, it's now possible to choose whether you play defensively, aggressively, or through buff-based direct damage by choosing the skeletal warriors, mages, or golem summons respectively. But not only that, each of these three archetypes have additional choices within them. As with its Diablo 2 variant, the new Necromancer is quite the versatile sort.

This is bundled with existing knowledge about the rebuilt and highly customisable Paragon system, or how Legendary item skills can now be carried over from lower level items to more powerful equipment. We've seen a little of the new Paragon Board from the recent news drop, too, and if you've ever played Final Fantasy 12 and enjoyed its License Board, then you'll know the kind of flexibility that will be afforded us in Diablo 4.

The Diablo Immortal of it all

There is a bitterness hanging onto the series, however, thanks to the recent release of mobile free-to-play release Diablo Immortal, which was developed alongside NetEase, and is powered by a particularly nefarious monetization system. It's been something of a hype killer for many who went into Diablo Immortal looking for a low-in-fat lite version of the Diablo experience as a warm-up for 2023. It's concerning, for sure. Add in a job posting that was all too easy to point towards a pay-to-win Diablo 4, and you've got a community of players side-eyeing a potential release rife with similar problems to Immortal. Blizzard insists that's not the case, but it's difficult to know for sure without getting our hands on the final product. 

However, Diablo Immortal does set us up for another important point. Visually the mobile offering and 2023's Diablo 4 will share some similarities, and that's all tied to the phrase that Blizzard is throwing around to epitomize its stance on the next game. As a slogan, Diablo 4's "return to the darkness" might well be a little too much of a cereal-box-quote to generate any real hype, but it's enough to get us daring to hope.

There's no denying that Diablo 3 certainly felt a little lighter in tone and style than the grim and Hellish vibes of Diablo 2, what with its romps through High Heavens and sandy deserts. We're craving those darker environs that made the earlier PC games so compelling, and that does seem to be the case from recent gameplay videos. But Immortal shows a rediscovered darker direction that we're all too keen to explore in greater depth.

And it would be fair to criticize the artistic approach to Diablo 3 save for the obvious fact that darker, generally speaking, means more niche when it comes to games and so a title shift to something more welcoming would have meant broader appeal for Blizzard. But with Diablo Immortal already stacking up as the biggest launch of the franchise so far (yes yes, it is free to download after all), it's clear that diving back into the lightless depths of the demonic underworld isn't necessarily the death knell we might've once assumed.

The thing is, even 10 long years after Diablo 3, even with Diablo 2: Remaste... sorry, Resurrected giving nostalgic players a place to go, Blizzard is gunning for an iterative approach to its franchise, one rife with baby steps intended to garner a huge following. Diablo fans are day-oners already, of course, Blizzard doesn't need to convince them. It's the curious outliers that might be more in-tune with the likes of Path of Exile or the recent Lost Ark and their social, expanding worlds that Blizzard will want to tap into.

The hype surrounding Diablo 4 might suggest that the franchise is still the one to beat, but the shape of the market is telling us otherwise and Blizzard needs to be savvy to that. Diablo 4 probably won't be leading with new, industry-changing systems, but honestly that's for the best. It has the name, the devoted following, and seemingly the core gameplay to back it all up, so for that hype to land it needs to also bring with it the changes of the last 10 years.

So far, with many months left to wait, it seems Diablo 4 might just pull it off.

Diablo 4 is one of the biggest new PC games for 2023, not to mention one of the most anticipated upcoming PS5 games and upcoming Xbox Series X games for the new year.