I thoroughly enjoyed what I played of Diablo 4 during its review period, and I even created a Hardcore character on release to join friends in a self-imposed challenge run to beat the game without dying. But once the first Season of Diablo 4 hit, I had exhausted myself with what I felt was a fairly lackluster end game.
So when I dipped my toes into Season of the Malignant I did just enough to grind out the first series of cosmetic unlocks in the Battle Pass and shelved the game. It wasn’t until after a positive experience at BlizzCon that I ended up leaping back into Diablo 4 to give Season 2 – Season of Blood a shot. I’m a sucker for vampires and anything vampire-related, so I just had to give it a chance!
Hell, I even dressed like a vampire for an entire year. But the gameplay loop in Diablo 4 wasn’t enough to keep me invested long enough to complete the entire Battle Pass for that Season—something I now deeply regret going into Diablo 4 Season 3 Season of the Construct. For the first time FOMO has hit me, and it isn’t even something related to the slow rotation of cosmetic items that are extremely pricy for a $70 game.
It’s for Battle Pass items that I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to obtain again. I’m not saying that Season of the Construct is bad. It’s really just alright. But now that I’m actually playing the game again, the urge to make my Sorcerer look good is overwhelming. My partner gave me a set of Lilith-inspired cosmetics for my character to help with the feeling, but my mind keeps shifting back to the Season 2 Battle Pass.
To clarify I did not pay for the previous Season Passes, they were provided to me by Blizzard, so I don’t have the feeling of having lost money which would be really frustrating if so, but FOMO still got me. So much of what was available genuinely appealed to me. Still, I could not convince myself to continue grinding away for its rewards due to Diablo 4’s slow gameplay (especially in comparison to Diablo III, which I’ve really been enjoying!) and the Paragon Board system. I’m not saying either is bad; I just think that Diablo 4 is in a state where it’s still growing into itself, much like its predecessor did.
Diablo III was kind of a mess at launch. It had the real money market board (I actually had a friend whose mom used this feature to make some extra spending cash for herself), and class balancing was all over the place with the Monk mostly reigning supreme. And much like Diablo 4, the end-game loop wasn’t exactly all that satisfying. And I feel like Diablo 4 is in a similar place, albeit for different circumstances.
I just wish the game was more fun to play so getting those Battle Pass rewards wouldn’t feel like as much of a slog, even if the one in Diablo 4 is functionally the same as the one in Diablo III, just a lot grindier and costs money because I don’t enjoy feeling FOMO over items I miss. Especially when in retrospect, they are items I missed because of a mostly uninteresting gameplay loop. Would I go back and grind out the Season 2 Battle Pass if I knew I would be playing Diablo 4 again? Probably. But hindsight is 20/20.
Diablo 4 is available for the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. The Vessel of Hatred DLC expansion will arrive in late 2024.
