Though most likely fair ways off, it looks as though Diablo 4 plans to be a lot darker and more social than its predecessor. These are reportedly two of the main pillars in place that are uniting the development team in their goals for the next Diablo title.
The Kotaku deep dive into the current state and future of Diablo games reveals some of the current Diablo 4 plans that the team is sticking to. In talking to current Blizzard employees, Kotaku reported that one of the main guiding principles in developing Diablo 4 is to embrace the darkness.
Many fans felt that Diablo 3 lacked some of the gruesome stylings and darkness that made the previous titles so popular and unique and it seems like Blizzard is looking to bring back some of that feel.
“They want to make this gross, make it dark, [get rid of] anything that was considered cartoony in Diablo III… Make what people were afraid of in Diablo II, but modern,” one employee told Kotaku.
It also seems Diablo 4 plans to take some cues from Destiny in attempting to make the game more social. Speculation says this could make the hub cities in Diablo more like that of the Tower in Destiny where players can not only pick up quests from NPCs but join up for missions and generally mess about with one another. It could also lead to more instances like Strikes or raids.
“The question that kept getting asked is, ‘If there’s going to be a ‘strike’ equivalent, where you’re forced into a very story-focused, well-designed level of a dungeon, what does that look like in Diablo?” one source told Kotaku. “What if we still had a core Diablo game that just happened to have a bunch of people on the map to do other cool stuff?”
It’s important to note that games often change and Diablo 4 is still in throes of development. While it certainly seems these are core aspects Blizzard intends to stick to when looking at Diablo 4 plans, the future is never certain.
