Despite its name, Diablo 4’s open world of Sanctuary is a scary place. Monsters and brigands lurk around every corner and, though you can venture out alone, it often feels far safer to have a buddy by your side. I certainly found this during my own multiplayer forays.
Since I was playing the willowy-looking Rogue, I felt especially comforted by the 7-foot-tall slab of muscle and armor that accompanied me. My friend and I made an unlikely duo as we roamed the wastes of Diablo 4's disquieting yet artistically stunning overworld.
To be a Rogue in Diablo 4’s macabre hellscape is to be constantly using guile and trickery to avoid blows, throwing traps, and diving out of danger. If you’re smart, this strategy can take you far, but sometimes no level of agility makes up for sheer toughness. This is where my buddy's Barbarian War Cry came in.
On paper, it looks simple: a taunt that recharges every 25 seconds and buffs the damage of nearby party members for a short while. In practice, however, the judicious use of this skill was the difference between life and death. The cooldown is just long enough for War Cry to be a consistent part of your arsenal but also requires you to be cautious about when you use it. In addition to the taunting effect, the damage buff ensures that a skillful group of players can quickly take pressure off by deftly focusing fire on trickier enemies. Use it too early, and you won’t have it when things get hairy. Use it too late, and your friends will perish.
Use your abilities too late, and your friends will perish
With War Cry, Blizzard has taken two simple mechanics, paired them together and given them a complex life of their own in the multiplayer context. This is a common refrain across Diablo 4 and is why, as fun as the game might be to tackle alone, the real heart of the RPG’s appeal lies in the frantic, yet surprisingly cerebral multiplayer.
Killing with Convenience
Diablo 4’s multiplayer experience is a smooth and painless ride, ensuring that your frustrations remain directed at the hordes of demons rather than the game itself. First off: you can group up with pals regardless of any level differences. Enemies scale to each player on an individual basis, meaning that high-level characters can adventure alongside low-level allies and still receive challenges and gear proportionate to their level.
What’s more, you can seamlessly teleport to allies directly by using the Town Portal system. This means that the game’s sizable open world won’t prove a logistical obstacle when it comes to your dreams of multiplayer carnage. Loot swapping is easy, and enemies in Diablo 4 drop loot individually for each player, too – squabbles are a thing of the past.
On top of that, Diablo 4’s social infrastructure works seamlessly. All I had to do was invite my friends to join me, and they appeared in my version of the world; no awkward loading screens or technical mishaps.
Diablo 4’s social infrastructure works seamlessly
The game also telegraphs your allies’ actions. Not only are the animations for the different skills distinctive, but enemy health bars will change color should they be made Vulnerable by an attack from you or an ally. This, in turn, invites you to press the advantage. Other status effects are marked by symbols, which are for the most part, visible and intuitive, allowing you to better synergize your abilities.
Did your buddy just make that skeleton Vulnerable? Hit them with an attack that exploits this and you’ll get results. Conversely, if your ally is Vulnerable, you’ll know it, and have ample opportunity to support them.
Join the party
When it comes to the experience itself, the deliberately disruptive design of the open world is somehow magnified under the lens of multiplayer. As you and your crew venture through Sanctuary, you’ll bounce between events and dungeons like the grimmest, darkest pinball. In single-player, the urge for loot and exploration is enough to egg you on, but, with a team of like-minded people at your back, the impetus to unearth Sanctuary’s rewards and secrets feels intensified.
The varied goals of your group’s members create a shopping list of engaging activities, except, instead of looking for milk and eggs, you’re looking for massive scythes and codices of eldritch power.
The weight of Diablo 4’s opportunities sits more comfortably on multiple pairs of shoulders. You start to have conversations, deliberating over where to go and what to do. Even your deliberations won’t survive contact with the outside world, as Sanctuary accosts you with MMO-style emergent events.
You’ll bounce between events and dungeons like the grimmest, darkest pinball
Diablo 4 expertly straddles the line between giving multiplayer parties too much control over their journeys and not enough. It speaks to the skill of Blizzard’s developers that the multiplayer experience almost always sits at a precisely tuned middle point between these two poles.
Thanks to the quality of life improvements, you can even split the party, reconvening should one of you encounter something particularly challenging or interesting. Then comes the battles proper, where your group’s abilities neatly interact in pleasing, understated ways. Loot the bodies, rinse, and repeat.
Diablo 4 encourages you to explore your way, to take in the chaotic and brimming open world of Sanctuary on your own terms. It’s clear that a great deal of work went into calibrating the systems that make this possible. The result, tuned and polished to perfection, leaps from the screen and nestles directly into your brain stem, where it belongs.
