Is it too late to start Diablo 4? A spoiler-free new player’s perspective a year later

You might find yourself wondering if it’s too late to get into a game over a year after its release — perhaps you want to figure out if playing the base game is worth it before the release of Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred. With the release of Diablo 4 on Xbox Game Pass I felt I had nothing to lose trying it out, and at the very least I could experience the continuation of the story even if I decide to not stick around with the seasonal gameplay model.

For a little background information, I have to confess that Diablo 3 was my first time experiencing the franchise. I cannot sit here and regale of my childhood endeavors with a franchise beloved to many since the early days. I received my copy through the World of Warcraft 12-month subscription commitment and played at launch along with many of my guild members. I quickly became a fan of the series and even enjoyed pushing Inferno difficulty before the Torment difficulties were added watching as the game evolved over time.

With that in mind, it is my understanding that many of the features I could not imagine playing without have not always been in the game — but more on that later.

Early game and leveling

My partner and I started our journey through the campaign with frequent comments on Blizzard’s fantastic artwork and cinematics. Having your character rendered in greater detail made for some extremely cool shots over the campaign. Be warned though, there is no way to replay those cutscenes as of yet, so you should have your screenshot button at the ready or make sure to soak in those moments while you can. I made the mistake of assuming there was no conceivable way that with cinematics as gorgeous as those, Blizzard would omit a replay feature. However, it says something to me that my only real gripe about my experience leveling was the fact that I wanted to see all those cinematics with my character again.

When it came to the actual gameplay I noticed many differences from the previous installment, and while not all of them were considered great, none of them felt bad. The new open world style map really helped give life to a living, breathing world, along with the ability to pursue the plotlines that snag your interest the most at certain points of the story. It definitely helped lessen the previous experience, which always felt like it was on rails in comparison. At first I perceived the lack of a randomized map in the open world as a negative, but over time I quickly grew fond of being familiar with the areas. No more feeling lost in areas I had cleared hundreds of times like I was back in Diablo 3.

With combat in mind, the skill tree system allows you to quickly and easily play around with your build, so you can experience different abilities easily to find ones that you like. This in direct comparison to Diablo 3 where many abilities and modifiers were locked behind hard level requirements which would keep you from using them until much later. Frequent Legendary drops while leveling only added to that desire to experiment with interactions in my build to create some unique playstyles long before the endgame was reached. If you are unfamiliar with a Legendary drop in the context of Diablo, they are some of the strongest pieces of gear that can define playstyles by empowering specific abilities or morphing them into something else all together. They are often only utilized until reaching the endgame, but here in Diablo 4 they are abundant throughout.

Once my primary objective of completing the campaign was completed, I could already feel the desire to push the endgame and my build to higher levels and experience everything the game had to offer. I was hooked.

Quality of life improvements in later seasons make the game more fun

It wasn’t long after completing the campaign that I had set my new goal to defeat Uber Lilith, the hardest boss in the game. It was during this time when a majority of the quality of life additions made sure to keep me coming back when comparing to the game at launch. The biggest changes include a reduced experience requirement, WASD as movement keys, new gear improvement systems, and the ability to salvage gear to save the Legendary power on the gear for later use — and most of these changes were only recently added in Season 4. I did not know that while forming my initial opinions of the game, and I honestly could not imagine spending nearly as much time playing Season 4 as I did without them.

WASD keys as a gameplay option for moving your character is something I can say I’ve wanted since my first days playing Diablo 3. The new gear improvement systems allow players to choose some of the affixes on their gear along with a healthy dose of RNG which can, and do, provide suboptimal outcomes. Those moments would be much worse if not for the fact that it is now much easier to acquire a similar piece of gear to try again when those situations arise thanks to the final huge improvement, the ability to save Legendary powers to your Codex. Before Season 4, players would have to hold onto gear in the event they would want to use it later for their build, whereas now it can be safely stored for later use when salvaged.

All together, these changes made it so I could put together my dream build with less effort than ever so I could get right into the endgame action sooner. Despite that, I only made it as close as the below screenshot to completing my final goal of the season. I had my screenshot finger ready for the big moment waiting for the boss to become attackable again when… I died, during my best attempt.

That being said, I am just that much more determined to finish the job in Season 5.

It’s never too late (unless we’re talking about Soulstones)

The game is certainly not without faults (let us replay cinematics… please?) and maybe Blizzard could be a little more lenient with gear bricking RNG but I feel that there never was a better time to hop into the game than now. Starting now will give you time to familiarize yourself with the game systems, while indulging in the innumerable of quality of life improvements during the last season before the release of Vessel of Hatred.

Here’s hoping that Blizzard can keep the momentum going as the past year has been game changing in some great ways just in time for the expansion. I couldn’t be happier so far with my decision to finally start playing the game. I hope to see you around Sanctuary soon!