[Xbox Series X] Diablo 4 - First thoughts after 1 hour of playing

When Diablo 1 first came out, I was in high school and saw the game for the first time. As a kid I had never seen a game with graphics so detailed and visually impressive. I did play some Diablo 2 when it came out but did not try Diablo 3 at all. A lot of friends gave good reviews for Diablo 3 but I guess there were just too many games around when Diablo 3 came out, so I didn't really give it a good go. However, with the big hype about Diablo 4 I decided to try it out.

5 main characters to choose from: Warrior, Necromancer, Sorcerer, Rogue and Druid

I'm happy to say that Diablo 4 gave me a similar shock with the graphics. The whole Diablo 1 game was done in isometric perspective, so Diablo 4 was a huge jump from that. Since the game was made in 3D, you can see sometimes the view rotates during specific scenes to add to the realism. The character designs are highly detailed, you can pick from various pre-sets to make the character look a certain way. For me I like to make them similar to how I look in real life, and they definitely did provide enough range for me to do that.

The game changes perspective to remind you everything was made in 3D

As I'm playing on the Xbox, one of the issues I was concerned about was whether the game would be as fun with a controller, as I have only ever played Diablo 1 and 2 with the mouse. I found that with a controller it was even easier and more fun than with a mouse. It is a lot easier to move your character around with just the thumb stick rather than having to click on where you want them to go on the screen with a mouse. Also, attacking is much easier to just press a button rather than having to click on the enemies. I found with Diablo 4 that it will automatically aim at the enemy for you if you are not facing them. At least with the melee skills.

You don't have to click a mouse button to battle monsters - just press A on the controller

The skill tree looks very extensive and looks like you can spend a long time exploring the various skills. With a warrior your skills are also weapon dependent so you have to think about what type of weapon you're wielding before learning each skill. I didn't realise that I was dual wielding even from the start of the game so I didn't learn frenzy to start off, but flay was pretty cool too as it inflicts 13 bleed damage over 5 seconds.

Extensive Skill Tree

As usual I got very excited when blue armour dropped to upgrade my grey armour. It is very easy to upgrade without a mouse, in case you were wondering. There is no drag and drop required so you can simply choose what you want to upgrade with the thumb stick and press a button. I can see myself spending time grinding to get the magical and rare armour again.

Equipment screen

In summary, I think this game is definitely worth buying, especially if you have friends to play with. The question is whether you want to get addicted to a new game for hundreds of hours. I'm not quite sure I want to do that as there are other things I want to do with my life, but if you are looking for a game to kill a bit of time, this will definitely do the job.

Fighting the first boss in the game