Diablo 4 will be open world and offer freedom to the player, but the focus will be on the campaign

In an interview with IGN, game director Joe Shely and Blizzard general manager Rod Fergusson explained what players can expect from the game. open world from Devil 4🇧🇷 From their words we know the game will deliver lots of freedom and side questsbut that the focus remains on the plot and on the main campaign.

“One concern with highlighting the term ‘open world’ is that people have that notion of the genre related to Breath of the Wild, like, ‘Oh, it’s completely organic, I can go anywhere and do anything and eventually I will understand “This is really not our case,” said Fergusson. “Our history allows for it a non-linear approach, but there is a storyline🇧🇷 We wanted to have a beginning, a middle and an end. We wanted to start in a certain place, we wanted to end in a certain place.

Fergusson explains that Diablo 4 offers a “branched story”, where players can choose the order in which to perform the main parts. In between, there will be a chance to explore the game world and engage in side-quests or skip them.

“That’s the beauty of the open world, there’s a lot of side quests, there’s a lot of things you can do that aren’t on the ‘golden path’ of the main campaign,” Fergusson added. “The campaign path is a branching path where you decide when to attack these branches and in what order.”

Apparently Diablo 4 will overflow with secondary activities, so much so that, as revealed by director Joe Shely, the Blizzard team was practically forced to reduce part of the content because the game world was too dense.

“As you explore the game world, there are many things to do, both on horseback and on foot,” said Shely. “In fact, we had so many things to do that it was a challenge to get around the game world on horseback.”

Speaking of the open world, Fergusson said a very interesting funny thing. while working Gears of War 5 (before moving to Blizzard), the development team met with open world designers from other games, who explained that the idea of ​​an open world “is a bit of an illusion”, since in reality most of players who want to be guided through the adventure at the same time.

“Players say they want open worlds and freedom of choice“said Fergusson. “But they also want know where to go.”

Diablo 4 is currently in development for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC. It currently doesn’t have a firm release date yet, but it’s rumored to launch in early 2023, with the official announcement expected at The Game Awards 2022 in December.

Sources: (1), (2)