One of the best dungeon looter franchises ever made is Diablo. Every game that involves dungeon crawling, looting, and the addiction of playing the same level constantly with friends has to thank the Diablo franchise in some way. It perfected the formula that everyone is still emulating to this day.
On Sunday, during the Xbox and Bethesda showcase, Activision Blizzard unveiled a new trailer for Diablo IV. The trailer not only gave us a potential release date for the game, sometime in 2023, but it also gave us a new class with the Necromancer. After this unveil, the showcase spent a lot of time diving into how the new open world of Diablo IV is going to change the franchise in a new way.
“We can’t wait to open the gates of Hell next year—the talented team behind Diablo IV puts gameplay first in everything they do, and they have built the biggest and most ambitious vision of Sanctuary yet,” said Mike Ybarra, president of Blizzard Entertainment, via an official press release. “This sprawling world draws deeply from the dark well of the franchise’s 25-year history and is designed around the philosophy of player choice, offering an adventure unlike anything Diablo players have experienced before.”
Also mentioned in the press release was how Diablo IV will have cross-play and cross progression. No matter the console players will be able to carry over their progress and that’s a fantastic addition to a franchise where loot matters so much.
Even the innovators eventually have to innovate and that’s what Diablo IV being an open world game feels like. While it’s certainly fun exploring the same dungeons and looting to our hearts’ content, the world of video games have changed. The freedom of an open world and the fun of exploration are what many fans desire and this has the potential to be a great new step for this franchise. It’s a chance to experience Diablo in a new way and that is never a bad thing.