“Diablo IV” (Diablo IV) is scheduled to launch in 2023. “PCM” was invited to test the development version and conduct interviews with the production team, including: Zaven Haroutunian, the lead game designer in charge of dungeons, combat and art and Angela Del Priore, lead game designer responsible for home consoles, controllers and user interface. Zaven didn’t hesitate to describe this episode as a “love letter” to loyal players.
I was invited to try the development version of “PCM” and saw many projects close to the second generation, such as skill trees, game mechanics and storytelling methods that are more complex than in the third generation. But the lead game designer Zaven Haroutunian believes that “Diablo IV” is a combination of the dark atmosphere of the first generation, the rich and varied skills and equipment of the second generation, and the smooth combat process of the third generation. Lui said that in the initial planning for “Diablo IV”, narration and visual effects were required to “return to darkness”, and he was one of the main axes of this episode.
Free exploration with 100 level limit
As for “Diablo IV”, the demon Lilith has returned to the lead role again, and what impact will her appearance have on the work and the overall direction of work? Zaven explained that the story of the demon Lilith was originally set by the creator of “Saint Huary”. Returning to the game world this time is not a good thing for all beings, after all, she is a demon.
“Diablo” encountered random events on the map, such as defending the target or knocking back all enemies in a prolonged battle. Lead game designer Angela Del Priore explained that the random events in this episode will be very rich, and some of them will be relatively simple L event allows players to complete it in a short period of time. There is also a “regional event” that requires 4 players to participate. Eventually, they must face a powerful world boss, which requires the cooperation of a large group of players.
For the story campaign, Angela said that the game time is approximately 35 hours, depending on how fast the player reads the game’s text dialogues, and completing the story campaign will go into the final content. In this episode, the player’s level will be limited to level 100, including the maximum level starting from level 51. It will take a long time for players to complete the main line and reach level 100. Zaven said that the monsters in this episode use dynamic levels and that players can go anywhere without limiting the progress of the story, but the monsters still have a certain starting level. For example, some regions will not start at level 1 like the player.
Related skill tree
The skill tree in this episode uses the node design, and there are also unique character skill pages, such as Barbarian Weapon Proficiency (Weapon Proficiency), Rogue Specialization (Specializations), and Rogue Codex. power (code of power) that can be obtained by playing dungeons. ), new players may feel complicated. Angela said that the relevant teaching and instruction is still being improved. In addition, the skill tree has added a “keyword” search, which makes it easier to find specific skills.
For the Codex of Power and character specialization skills that can be obtained through dungeons, Zaven hopes that the mechanism can show the character’s uniqueness. For example, barbarians have weapon specialization, while mages have enviable doubles spells and characters are presented through unique skills. Zaven added that Codex of Power will be shared at an account level and no roles will be assigned. Unless the player changes the “world” he is in (e.g. HARDCORE mode).
As for resetting skills, Zaven said that it’s easier for players to reset points early on, but hopefully players can significantly develop their characters and the cost will become more and more expensive in later stages.
The interface of the host version is more unified
“Diablo IV” will be the first simultaneous cross-platform release of the series, has been in charge of playing on large TVs, and is evaluating the text display effect of the game. On the other hand, the team is still evaluating special support for individual platforms such as the PS5 controller. Compared to Episode 3, which was later transplanted, Diablo IV decided to have a unified interface experience on each platform from the beginning. In the trial version for PC, you can also seamlessly switch between keyboard, mouse and XBOX controllers. However, in the test game, several scenes appeared to be dark at the beginning and players had to drastically change the brightness of the screen. Angela said the effects of the content were still being adjusted.
“Diablo IV” is expected to launch on Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S, PlayStation 4/5 platforms in 2023.
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