Diablo IV: Down the rabbit hole

I called it. I totally called it.

At least that is what I would say if most of my predictions didn't end up being wrong. Yes, Diablo IV is here and yes, Lilith is in it. But it is not a prequel, it is not an MMO, and in general not according to how I predicted things. So what happened? And where did I fail? All will become apparent as we disect D4 and what we know about it. It will be like the Plinkett reviews. Only in print. So let's jump in.

A sequel

It seems obvious that Diablo IV would be a sequel to Diablo III. Yet if you recall, I mentioned how a prequel would make more sense, due to the insane powerlevel of the Nephalem. As far as we know now, DIV simply glosses over this issue by not having the Nephalem around. Yet, it is not as simple as a sequel to Diablo III.

At first, things were easy. We had Diablo. The second game, Diablo II followed as an almost direct sequel. Tristram was back, Deckard Cain was back, and all three of the player characters returned as enemies.

Let's ignore Diablo Immortal as it isn't out yet anyway, and jump to Diablo III. It isn't a sequel to Diablo II. Not really. It is more like a sequel to the first Diablo. Recall what happened in Diablo. We descended into the catacombs under Tristram Cathedral. We fought the Butcher, King Leoric and Diablo. We also met Deckard Cain, and the Witch Adria. In the first act of Diablo III we descend into the catacombs again. We kill the Skeleton King again and Kill the Butcher again. We meet Deckard Cain and in Act II our path crosses with Adria. Out of all of these, Cain was the only thing that showed up in II as well. And Diablo of course. The story works much better as a sequel to I than it does to II.

So what about Diablo IV. Isn't it a sequel to III? Depends on how you look at it. It works pretty well as a sequel to Diablo II. In fact, many people call it the game Diablo III was supposed to be. And it does remind you of it a lot. The art style is more like D2. The character selection screen is more like D2. The currently confirmed classes are all from D2. Health potions are consumable items again. Talent trees and potions return. As for the story....well there is a time skip.

The story

As far as we know now, there is nothing preventing us from pretending that the grimdark we see everywhere is the result of the Worldstone's destruction and not Malthael's crusade. The reality is though, that the story follows Reaper of Souls. Malthael killed thousands of people, and even angels. Heaven shut its doors to give the angels a chance to heal and rebuild. This leaves a desperate and decimated humanity to its own devices. And so they cry out to their creator. Why is that such a bad thing? The answer lies in the Sin War.

To understand the story, we must first look at how the world was created. At first there was only Heaven, Hell, and the battlefield of Pandemonium between them. When we think of Heaven and Hell, we think of the afterlife. But for Angels and Demons, that is the regular world. So what is the afterlife? Well the soul of angels enters the crystal arch before they get a new body. Demons meanwhile get into the Abyss, before they return. So it is pretty much a never ending cycle for them. And what do they use this immortality for? They fight. The end goal is to destroy the other team. The most important tool for this is the Worldstone, a giant crystal in the middle of Pandemonium, that can create and alter worlds. The Worldstone an the Fortress built around it, changed hands all the time during these fights. This battle between Angels and Demons is called the Eternal Conflict. So you can imagine how long it has been going on.

Enter Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred. You see, while he isn't the poster child of the franchise, out of the three brothers, Diablo, Mephisto and Baal, the middle child has something the other two lack. In fact, it is something every other demon lack. Children. Sure, Azmodan has consorts, so he has to have offsprings of some kind, but Mephisto is different. He had two children who are actual powerful demon lords in their own right. A son, Lucion, and a daughter Lilith. Now Lilith got bored of the Eternal conflict and she came across an angel Inarius, who fealt the same. Together they stole the Worldstone and created a world free of the eternal conflict, where angels and demons can live in peace. They named it Sanctuary. Of course they weren't all work and no play. And since Lilith resembled a succubus a lot, it was only a matter of time before they did the horizontal tango. Their children were the Nephalem. While all Nephalem are offsprings of demons and angels, not all of them are born from them directly and even few directly from Lilith and Inarius. The very first Nephalem, born from L and I, and therefor likely the most powerful of them all, is Rathma, disciple of the dragon Trag'Oul and the first Necromancer. This is important, because the chalk white skinned dude from the Diablo IV trailer that calls Lilith blessed mother, looks a lot like how Rathma is described. While I don't recall it being said anywhere, people seem certain that the pale guy is indeed Rathma.

Anyroad Inarius began having second thoughts after he really thought about it and realized the angels will be angry if they knew what he did. He got the bright idea of killing the Nephalem. This made Lilith pissed. They had a fight, and Lilith was banished into the abyss. Inarius modified the world stone to depower the Nephalem. Over time they turned into regular humans. But Lilith escaped his prison and even took his brother to Sanctuary. They didn't want to fight directly because they didn't want to draw attention. Instead a cold war broke out. The battlefield was the hearts of men. The siblings one side, Inarius was on the other. This was the Sin War. Everything went well, untill Richard A Knaak was asked to write the Sin War Trilogy. The guy really loves stupidly overpowered characters. Long story short, Nephalem regained their powers. Their leader Uldyssian imagined Lucion into nothingness while Lilith was banished into the Abyss again, this time permanently. All of this brought attention from the angels and demons. To prevent further bloodshead, a truce was reached. Sanctuary can remain on two conditions. The Nephalem get depowered again, and the demons don't mess around with it. Well actually there was one other thing. Daddy Mephisto was kinda pissed he lost his children, so he asked for Inarius to be a guest in his torture chamber for all eternity. Since the angels were pissed at him for banging demons, they granted this request.

So if there was a truce, how did the Diablo series happen? Well the lesser demon lords weren't happy the three brothers signed the truce, so they rebelled and banished the three out of Hell. Right into Sanctuary. Just according to Keikaku. This little event is the Dark Exile. This is where things get foggy, cause the Soulstones are the messiest peaces of lore in Diablo. In theory they trap the souls of demons. In practice, being fragments of the worldstone, they just empower them. If you crack a soulstone, the prison is broken. If you shatter it, the soul is sent into the Abyss. Also, what is done on the Hellforge with the Forge's Hammer, can't be undone. That is why in D2 we shatter the soulstones there. The Dark Exile ended with the Binding of the three. Mephisto quickly overtook his Soulstone corrupted the Zakarum priesthood, a religion that despite having a jungle city as its center, has paladins and archbishops, and sent Lazarus to King Leoric's court. Archbishop Lazarus was to ensure Diablo takes over Leoric and gains a body. That didn't work. Leoric simply gone mad. Instead, his son Albrecht became the vessel of Diablo. His other son Aidan returned and slayed Diablo. But when he saw Diablo's body return to the form of his brother Albrecht, he lost it and stabbed the soulstone into his head. He became the Dark Wanderer. Before leaving Tristram to find his brother Baal, he quickly had sex with Adria, to conceive a failsafe in the event that he dies. This failsafe was Leah. So far so good. It was a pretty good idea as well, cause Diablo did indeed die, and his soul was trapped in the Abyss, but there was enough of Diablo left in Leah for him to return. The problem is, the others. Adria said he tagged the other souls. Supposedly even after they died, the other lords of hell left enough of their presence lingering, that Adria could tag them and drag them back from the Abyss. This is a really moronic excuse to turn Diablo into all the seven evils, but it might help us with Lilith's case.

As I mentioned, Malthael's mad plan of drawing every soul with demon essence in it (as in, all of humans) really did a number on humanity. And he even hurt the Heavens so they aren't responding to their fan mail. In these desperate times maybe-Rathma dupes a group of treasure hunters into summoning Lilith. Either her essence lingered still, or summoning rituals help escape Inarius' spell. At any rate, Lilith is back and we already have dev confirmation that Duriel and Andariel, two of the lesser evils from Dialo II, also return. It seems like a second Sin War.

The setting

Diablo IV takes place in Sanctuary. Of course. Where else? However it isn't set where we might have expected. Remember how I said Tristram is a given, due to traditions? And how XIansai was set up so much it has to be in? Well the truth was quite different.

If you look at a map of Sanctuary you see two large continent on the west and the east, plus two island nation up in the nort and down south. These two are Xiansai and Skovos respectively. On the Western Continent you have the Dreadlands where the Barbarians live. Down south you have the Aranoch Desert. If we go west from that, we have the kingdom of Khanduras and finallí the Kingdom of Westmarch. The eastern continent goes from Scosglen, the home of the druids, down south to Kehjistan a large kingdom. Northern Kehjistan is a desert, while southern Kehjistan is a jungle.

Diablo I was set exclusively in the town of Tristram in Khanduras. Pretty simply affair. Diablo II began in Khanduras. After that the player crossed the Aranoch Desert to the Port city of Lut Gholein. For act III the player crossed over to the southern regions of Kehjistan and the city of Kurast. Act IV was hell and Act V was set in the Dreadlands.

Diablo III also began in Khanduras. Act II was in northern Kehjistan and the city of Kaldeum. Act III was the Dreadlands, IV was heaven and V was Westmarch.

From the eleven acts, nine were set in Sanctuary proper. Of those, only two were set on the Eastern Continent and both were set in Kehjistan. Why is this important? Well, Diablo IV will be set in Scosglen, Northern Kehjistan, and everything in between. The one I'm most interested out of these is Hawezar, a marshland filled with psychedelic plants, witches and gigantic snakes. The second is the Fractured Peaks wich promises gothic architecture. The biggest takeaway from this is that we are going to explore parts of the world we have never seen before. And even if Diablo Immortal gets released sooner, most footage show us playing in Khanduras and Westmarch, so the unseen areas will remain unseen.

Am I butthurt Xiansai is not included? Not really as it could still have potential as a DLC or expansion. The development team is determined to keep things low fantasy and not mix in court intrigue. And frankly in a strictly combat RPG like Diablo it wouldn't really work either. But still a place like Xiansai could be a nice setting. Imagine all levels of society at war with each other due to famine and general lack of resources. The rich families fighting each other for control. Beggars spending the little they have on assassins to thin out the competition. And the simple folk in between easy prey for cults. Not the mention all the exotic new monsters we could kill for loot.

Class struggle

As I have mentioned before, all three classes are from Diablo II. The Barbarian, of course, the Sorceress and the Druid. The latter looks amazing. It is not a cartoony druid. This one can be mistaken for a Barbarian. No wonder since they used to be one people before they split due to ideological differences. There is just one tiny problem. Remember the established pattern? Barbarian, Knight, Spellcaster, Martial Artist, Archer. Out of the five classes three are confirmed, and two are spellcasters. One or two of the usual archetypes will need to wait till the expansions. An archer is pretty much a given. I mean can you imagine a medieval style RPG with no bows and arrows in it? Of course you can't. So what will we have? Personally I think the Knight will be pushed to DLC. Or even drop out completely. Sanctuary is a shithole now even more so than before. It is a place that rejects the notion of Paladins or Crusaders. There is now knight in shining armor. Something like a witcher is more likely.

Unfortunately this also axes my idea for a gambler. As compelling as the story might be about a guy who lost everything save for his clothes and a pack of playing cards, and has to enter a dungeon due to a lost bet, I don't think mowing down demons with thrown cards, really fits the atmosphere the devs are going for.

Prove me wrong, Blizzard.

Nitpicking

Let's make one thing clear. I did not play the demo. I was not there. I only saw streamers play it. And I also understand that this is pre-alpha gameplay. But a few things are worth mentioning to make sure the devs have the right idea.

Darkness is not just the visuals: The graphics are great. But that is just step one. In II and I, espcially I you really fealt out of your depth. A large group of monsters was seen as a threat and not a chance to get an EXP multiplier. It doesn't matter how bleak the atmosphere is, if you can buttfuck every demon coming your way.

The math: The stat screen is pretty bar bones to make sure players aren't confused by the math. But some people really want to be confused by the math. It is what makes an RPG and RPG. Sure we don't have to roll persuasation, insight or sleight of hand, but it shouldn't be simple as attack and defense. Attack is damage, attack speed, attack rating, critical chance and critical rate. Whereas defense is armor, block chance, life, life regeneration, life per hit, parry chance. People love this. And if they don't get it they will feal the game is watered down. And you don't want your players to feel that. You really don't.

The interface: This is a pet peeve of mine. But I don't like slick interfaces in a fantasy game. Compare Dragon Age Origins, where you can practically smell the parchment, to Dragon Age II, where you had squares, sharp lines and flashing lights. No. That's not how you do it. When I saw a perfectly square white speech bubble it hurt my eyes. It hurt my eyes. I'm aware that these things are probably the last ones to be finalized during development, but I just want to say it in advance that they need to change.

All in all, I really liked the Diablo IV presentation. Especially the arsenal system for the Barbarian and the new druid. Also, a big thumbs up for the character customization. There are a few details requiring fine tuning, but it is shaping up to be a worthy entry in the Diablo franchise. Especially if it is true that the extra monetization will be strictly cosmetics.