STACK #224 June 2023

GAMING FEATURE

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Since 1997, the world of Diablo has been a magnet for those wanting hot RPG-infused dungeon crawling.With Diablo IV hitting this month, we caught up with its game director at Blizzard, Joe Shely, to find out where life in Sanctuary is at. Words Amy Flower A fter three main outings, the Diablo story has become quite detailed – perhaps almost dauntingly so for newcomers. Shely tells us that they’ve aimed to make Diablo IV easier to get into. Sanctuary players haven’t seen before!” Players can choose from five main characters, all of which will be familiar to returning Diablo fans. Then it’s customisation time! “Player choice is one of our core design DANCE WITH THE DEVILS

Find sanctuary in Sanctuary Here are some red-hot Diablo IV tips, straight from Shely to us: As you’re making your way through the story campaign, take time to go off the beaten path and check out areas that you haven’t explored. There are mysterious statues scattered throughout each zone called Altars of Lilith. When you find one, you’ll gain powerful permanent stat boosts to your characters and increase your ‘Renown’, which provides benefits like increased potion charges or additional skill points. By taking time to explore, you’ll come across random events, Strongholds that you can liberate, and new town hub unlocks, tons of dungeons, world bosses, and more.

“We want the story to be fully accessible for all players, whether they’ve played every Diablo game prior, or this is their first time entering the world of Sanctuary. We set the stage of the Diablo IV story many decades after the events of Diablo III and are introducing lots of new characters to tell the story from a brand-new perspective. Lilith and Inarius are two of the key characters and they have a deep history tied to Sanctuary as the literal creators of the world, but we’ve never explored their full story before. In Diablo IV , the character you create is an adventurer who’s learning about these characters right alongside the player, as you become more and more embroiled in conflict between the forces of Heaven and Hell.” New to the Diablo experience is that it’s going open world. “ Diablo IV has the biggest world we’ve ever created, and it felt like a natural step to make it fully connected and immersive,” Shely explains. “We want Sanctuary to be a living breathing world that encourages exploration. Towns, dungeons, quests, world bosses, events, Strongholds, and more are spread throughout the world and can be encountered at any time. As you make your way through Sanctuary, you’ll be able to seamlessly travel between the zones and occasionally run into other players to team up with and take on challenges or face off against each other in dedicated PvP zones. This is a version of

“One of the new additions is unique mechanics for each class. For instance, the Barbarian has access to the Arsenal system, which allows them to equip up to four weapons at once and seamlessly swap between them in combat. This is unique to the Barbarian and allows them two additional slots to equip stat increasing items on their character that no other class can. The Sorceress has access to the Enchantment system, which gives them the ability to modify and enhance specific spells of your choice to add even more variety to your play style. Each class has these unique mechanics which adds a fun way to experience our iconic classes in new ways.” What may come as a surprise to some is the influence of heavy metal music upon Diablo IV . “Our goal with Diablo IV was to create the darkest and grittiest game in the series,” Shely says with a grin. “Everything from the gameplay to the art to the sound design had this mentality in mind and we were inspired by all forms of media. Horror, gothic fantasy, and heavy metal were all things that helped us craft the mature world of Sanctuary that players will step into. Heavy metal fits so well into the dark universe of Diablo IV and really gets your blood pumping while you’re slaughtering demons. Can’t you just imagine a character like the Butcher rocking out in a music video?!”

• Diablo IV is out on Jun 6

philosophies for Diablo IV and the ways you can customise your classes is a big part of choosing how you want to play. From the moment you create your first character, you choose how you get want them to appear visually. After you start playing, you’re introduced to talent trees to specialise your class however you want to play. For example, the Necromancer has choices that let you become a master summoner and have an army of the undead at your back, become a pure dark caster using shadow, bone, and blood magic, or a hybrid build tapping into all skills. Every class has these choices, and even veteran Diablo players will discover new ways to play that they’ve never experienced before.” Shely tells us that Diablo IV also sees the introduction of a touch of class…

10 JUNE 2023

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