Taking the Long Way Round - What Not To Do Your First Time Playing Diablo 4

It has been an exciting month for PlayStation Plus subscribers, especially those who picked up the recently added Diablo IV. I have heard a lot of good things about the Diablo franchise over the years, but never had a chance to play any of them. Since I only just got back into gaming recently, I have mostly been playing catch up with old titles that are included in the PlayStation Plus library. So far, I have been content playing older games, since they are still new to me, and in most cases still have better graphics than the games I was accustomed to playing. That being said, I was excited to see a relatively new game become available. To be honest, I was surprised to learn that Diablo IV was first released in June of 2023, so I would imagine it is old news to many of you, but in my eyes it is still new.

Before I could even download the game, I had to delete a few others to make room on the harddrive. I wish it was more clear how much space each game is taking, and the space needed for the game you want to download. There probably is a way to see this, but I just used trial and error, deleting games and then seeing if I could restart the download without an error message. The download itself took around 3 hours, which was not as long as I was expecting. After you download the game, you then need to make an account on Blizzard, which is easy enough, but still a bit annoying.

Once your account is set up, then the fun begins… kinda. Character selection is honestly a little more stressful than I was expecting, since there are five classes to choose from and a sixth locked class. Each class will have completely different playstyles, but I don’t really have a baseline for what to expect since I haven’t played before and don’t know what style of play I will enjoy. I chose a barbarian because he looked the most badass.

I start the game, finding myself traversing a snowy mountaintop with an isometric perspective. I am not used to games with this perspective, but I kill a few spiders and skeleton men nonetheless, before making my way into a small town. I’ve been playing for a whole of 5 minutes when I am called away for some work, followed by lunch. During this time, I have more time to consider my choice of character. Seeing my barbarian swinging his axe was satisfying, but felt a bit too common for a game of this scale. Quite frankly, it reminded me a bit too much of Dynasty Warriors, which is a fun, albeit repetitive hack-and-slasher.

After taking a few minutes to watch some youtube videos about the game, it became clear to me that I wanted to choose a character that could do some magic. I was warned against choosing a sorcerer because they were fragile in boss battles, so I decided to try out the necromancer. All of the body types are skinny and creepy looking, so I decide to go all-in with that vibe. I’m all set with my new character and I click start game. When the game loads it is different than with the barbarian. Instead of opening on a snowy mountain top, I am in the middle of a medieval town. I figure this is just a different start position for a different character class, so I go on into this large new world in search of enemies to defeat.

I am having fun with my necromancer, and even accumulate a small army of the undead to join me in my fighting, however, something is missing. The game feels hollow, and rudderless, with no clear story to connect me to this world. I was suspicious that something was wrong, so I asked a friend who I knew had been playing for a long time if there was something I needed or somewhere to go to find the story. He was confused by my question, and suggested I may have somehow skipped the story entirely. Guess what, he was right! I played around with starting a new character and noticed an option to skip the campaign, just before you start. As I had already had my brief start with the barbarian, the option must have flipped to the skip option when I started my second game with the necromancer.

There is no way to put my level 19 necromancer back into the story, so I find myself once again looking at the create new character button. Two characters, hours invested, and still basically square one with the story, so clearly not the optimal way to begin.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my failed start to this game.

All gameplay photos were taken by me. Have a wonderful day.