Diablo 4 fans react poorly to its roadmap reveal — for things Blizzard should've already learned from

The roadmap is very similar to World of Warcraft's roadmap layout, which is a very admirable attempt at greater transparency on Blizzard's part. It's incredibly useful too for them, hopefully, as a feedback gathering tool. And if you look at the comments on Rhykker's video and across the Diablo 4 subreddit, people are lining up to give feedback.

 

A lot of the discourse revolves around those pesky borrowed power mechanics, which we've seen Blizzard leverage ad nauseum in Diablo 4 since it launched.

 

One of the reasons Blizzard killed borrowed power in World of Warcraft wasn't just because it felt bad to lose all of that progression at the end of the expansion, but because at some point they realized "couldn't the development time be used on things that add permanent upgrades to the game?" And to be fair, the Diablo 4 team has spent development hours improving existing systems, but it's all too often backwards-facing.

 

It is a bit different season over season versus expansion over expansion, but the formulaic nature of Diablo 4's approach has fans creating memes around how the seasonal model basically just shifting previous mechanics across with a new color theme. New, permanent additions to the game, such as the revamped boss ladder with Belial, don't seem to hit the game at the cadence players would potentially like.

 

 

Rhykker argues that Diablo 4 would be better off with a "meta-progression" layer, by which players would unlock actual content like bosses and new dungeons as they progress their power. I couldn't agree more on that point. World of Warcraft's new boss Delves accentuate that to some degree, giving players who have progressed their gear score a major challenge and permanent reward to unlock for that particular season.

 

Personally, I wouldn't mind if Blizzard's Diablo spent a little longer making seasons bigger and more meaningful than rushing together temporary systems that will be lost and forgotten forever when the seasons end. And yes, some "borrowed power" features do make their way into the game permanently as affixes and the like, but it's not quite as inspiring as all-new systems and dungeons that now typically only come with full expansions.

 

There's simply a lot in Diablo 4's design that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The only permanent rewards are transmog (gear styles), and all the best ones come from paid store DLC and tired battle passes, and rarely from actually completing dungeons or downing bosses. Features like World Bosses and strongholds are underwhelming or forgotten entirely in endgame play. Unlike games like World of Warcraft, Elden Ring, Monster Hunter, or even Diablo 2, Diablo 4 bosses rarely feel like epic climactic battles as they should, but instead simply reflect annoying road bumps with minimalistic rewards.

 

I accept how tough it can be hard for developers to thread the needle on games like this. The entire player base is comprised of communities that want different things ultimately. Path of Exile 2 is seeing some contention with its attempts to create a slower, more difficult ARPG experience over the Diablo 3-style hyper-power fantasy with millions of exploding numbers. I also realize that World of Warcraft has a monthly subscription model that funds its ongoing development, likely giving that team a far bigger budget with which to play.

 

But, in my humble view, I don't think the resources the Diablo 4 team has are being used as effectively as they could be, from a design philosophy stand point.

 

Source

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