Diablo IV and Steam

Blizzard wrote:

The gates of the Burning Hells have opened once more, welcoming more of

Lilith’s children home.

Diablo IV is a game about slaying nightmarish creatures and acquiring powerful gear, but also about forging memories with new and old friends. We want to break down barriers to make it easier for wanderers everywhere to defend Sanctuary.

Which is why we’re honored to announce… Diablo IV will be available to play on Steam starting October 17! The Diablo IV Steam page is live now, and the game is available to wishlist.

Diablo IV’s presence on Steam is in addition to Battle.net, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4, so wanderers playing the game on any existing platform need not make any changes. Those wanting to play on Steam will need to first purchase the game on that platform, then connect Diablo IV to a Battle.net account (as we require for all platforms). This enables cross-platform play and more. Players using Steam will have access to features specific to that platform, such as Steam achievements, their Steam friends list, and the option to invite those friends to play in-game. We’re looking forward to seeing more defenders of Sanctuary band together and welcome any feedback you may have.

The timing of Diablo IV’s launch on Steam couldn’t be better! It coincides with the release of Season of Blood, our second Season, which introduces a new Questline for you to uncover, Vampiric Powers to wield with terrifying lethality, 5 additional endgame bosses, and more.

Friends, will anyone buy a second copy for Steam, or their first copy if they haven’t played it yet? As far as I understand, the game failed. Personally, I didn’t like Diablo III, and I’m not going to play the fourth part either. But I would buy an additional copy of the D2R for mules when it comes out on Steam.

The king is dead, long live the king! D2R!

Simple summary of D4:
Not worth the money. At all.

That said, D4 still has a ton of potential that is currently being wasted.
Sad thing is, based on that live stream yesterday, it'll continue to be that way as they either still don't care and/or still just do not understand the actual, real (content) problems with it. Sure, a couple of the (still largely half-assed) QoL bits will actually be an improvement. But that doesn't make up for having absolutely nothing to do in the damn game.
Though they certainly enjoy hearing themselves talk...

That's sad but true, they just forgot to include end game content.

Up to level 60, it's fun. Not the greatest game of all times for sure, but fun. Campaign, side quests, strongholds... there are lots to do.

But then... what do you do ? Redo everything again and again ?

They forgot base principe of the diablo games. Killing bosses is like opening card booster packs with value or trash cards. Value drops can help you in game progress or short cut the grind by trading them. Its also social aspect of the game. You can give your gg item somebody who will have fun with it again. Items are making D2 fun not classes. This is just missing in D3 and D4.

Seems they also forgot to switch on their servers today...

Having to buy D4 again is a HUGE disappointment for me.

DurienDaragoth wrote: 1 year ago

Value drops can help you in game progress or short cut the grind by trading them. Its also social aspect of the game. You can give your gg item somebody who will have fun with it again.

For this reason I'm glad with "soulbound" items, at least endgame ones. You should work for your endgame character, not pay for it.

Aah, i wanted to buy D4 in steam, but waiting when it will be there was annoying. But, when I came to endgame in 4, well, it's not what I thought to expect - dungeons, dungeons, again and again. And shitdrop. D2 is much better & interesting in end game.

Trang Oul wrote: 1 year ago

Having to buy D4 again is a HUGE disappointment for me.

DurienDaragoth wrote: 1 year ago

Value drops can help you in game progress or short cut the grind by trading them. Its also social aspect of the game. You can give your gg item somebody who will have fun with it again.

For this reason I'm glad with "soulbound" items, at least endgame ones. You should work for your endgame character, not pay for it.

Well but rng is deadly sometimes. Example i never droped any griffons or

Jah and have already finished 7 chars. The chance of drop the specific item is too low in D2 to be souldbound but i understand you. I think it making just balance between chore grind and efficiency grind.

Necrarch wrote: 1 year ago

That's sad but true, they just forgot to include end game content.

Up to level 60, it's fun. Not the greatest game of all times for sure, but fun. Campaign, side quests, strongholds... there are lots to do.

But then... what do you do ? Redo everything again and again ?

I'd like to quote this for emphasis, simply because "even Necrarch" has now realized this.

Nothing against you (<3!) but as we know, you're generally more representative of the "casual, little time" population, simply (understandably so) due to your real-life/family obligations.
Blizz's excuse has always been "well, most people aren't even 100 yet! we cater to the masses, not the people who actually have time to really play" (which is an idiotic argument to begin with). But with "even Necrarch" realizing the lack of content a measly 4ish months in..that whole excuse goes straight out the window.

Also confirms that you really don't have to be 100/geared to realize just how little there is to do in that game. Hell, I've said it since beta but noone would believe me and instead they talked drunkard ol' me into buying it anyways, lol.

DurienDaragoth wrote: 1 year ago

Well but rng is deadly sometimes. Example i never droped any griffons or

Jah and have already finished 7 chars. The chance of drop the specific item is too low in D2 to be souldbound but i understand you. I think it making just balance between chore grind and efficiency grind.

The drop rates are fine IMO. Those are endgame items. They were supposed to be an ultimate reward for few players really dedicated to the game, not worn by anyone at level 80 a week after ladder reset. You do not need them to complete the game.
If those items are common, and you already steamroll all the content, what would be the point of further gameplay?

They did the same with Overwatch 2. Which is a similar dumpster fire.

I wonder whether it will overtake on negative reviews though.

Schnorki wrote: 1 year ago

Necrarch wrote: 1 year ago

That's sad but true, they just forgot to include end game content.

Up to level 60, it's fun. Not the greatest game of all times for sure, but fun. Campaign, side quests, strongholds... there are lots to do.

But then... what do you do ? Redo everything again and again ?

I'd like to quote this for emphasis, simply because "even Necrarch" has now realized this.

Nothing against you (<3!) but as we know, you're generally more representative of the "casual, little time" population, simply (understandably so) due to your real-life/family obligations.
Blizz's excuse has always been "well, most people aren't even 100 yet! we cater to the masses, not the people who actually have time to really play" (which is an idiotic argument to begin with). But with "even Necrarch" realizing the lack of content a measly 4ish months in..that whole excuse goes straight out the window.

Also confirms that you really don't have to be 100/geared to realize just how little there is to do in that game. Hell, I've said it since beta but noone would believe me and instead they talked drunkard ol' me into buying it anyways, lol.

If that's Blizz take on this it's hilarious considering they've nerfed/gimped XP grinding at least twice from what i've read about it (have not played it). So people not being in that Level Bracket is more by design than by commitment of each individual. Furthermore i don't really get the fixation on max level. That was introduced in WoW and stuck with Diablo like an annoying little brother that's pestering and following you constantly everywhere you go, while at the same time you're free to do anything you want from lvl 60 onwards in D2 (and even without any level requirements in Classic)


A quick detour i never got a chance to vocally say anywhere around here:

The level Pacing of D2 is so on the mark and well spread over the whole game with it's three difficulties it left me flabbergasted. That's something i never really noticed in the OG D2 because you couldn't respec (until very, very late) so you had to get rushed through the acts to not screw over your build. With respec you actually can enjoy the whole game and end up well past 60 at a comfortable pace.

Flippy wrote: 1 year ago

The level Pacing of D2 is so on the mark and well spread over the whole game with it's three difficulties it left me flabbergasted.

This is because they used to actually hire in-house testers to play the shit out of their games before they released.

This had the unsurprising effect of ensuring that the game was actually fun to play.

I wish that studios/publishers would do more of this in the 2020s. It's a small investment to make in the big scheme of things.

Thanks @Schnorki for using me as an (valid!) example of slow play.

The good news for D4 is that I am still having fun in it. I am 57-ish as of now (yeah, 4 months after release), on a single, non ladder char. But yeah, I am almost done with campaign, side quests and explores, so I realize quite well now what is going to be next, i.e... well... what ?

Trang Oul wrote: 1 year ago

DurienDaragoth wrote: 1 year ago

Well but rng is deadly sometimes. Example i never droped any griffons or

Jah and have already finished 7 chars. The chance of drop the specific item is too low in D2 to be souldbound but i understand you. I think it making just balance between chore grind and efficiency grind.

The drop rates are fine IMO. Those are endgame items. They were supposed to be an ultimate reward for few players really dedicated to the game, not worn by anyone at level 80 a week after ladder reset. You do not need them to complete the game.
If those items are common, and you already steamroll all the content, what would be the point of further gameplay?

I also dont have problem with actual drop rates. I think you missunderstood me the endgame items arent common even with trading. You still need lot of effort to get the oposite value items. For

Jah you need 10 tokens so you need 600 runs to get that counter value. If its lot or not is different for every player. My fun in endgame is trying fancy builds and new items than endless grind.

I couldn't bring myself to play diablo 4.... I tried, honestly... nice try blizzard but no...the resurrection of d2 was your real finest hour and not the release of d4 IMHO
I get tired of this game, I rest for 1-2 months, I come back again and I get sucked up to my ears for 3-4 months, then I cool down again for 1-2 months, I come back and it tightens again.... all I really lack is the ability to additionally create 5-10 more characters, not for mules...

Bass wrote: 1 year ago

...the resurrection of d2 was your real finest hour

And D2R wasn't even made by Blizzard themselves technically, it was made by Vicarious Visions which was an Activision studio but not part of Blizzard itself while they were making D2R (they were merged into Blizzard in 2021).

ShadowHeart wrote: 1 year ago

Bass wrote: 1 year ago

...the resurrection of d2 was your real finest hour

by Vicarious Visions which was an Activision studio

sounds like a group oldfag d2 freelancers ))

Bass wrote: 1 year ago

sounds like a group oldfag d2 of freelancers

No, Vicarious Visions was an independent studio established in the 90s. They were engulfed by Activision in the early 2000s. They had no relation to Blizzard as far as I know until they were tasked to do D2R. They made completely different games before that.