If Diablo 3 was a somewhat sterile attempt to maximize loot churn and make us love seasons (as well as “revolutionize” in-game spending via the short-lived real-money auction house), Diablo 4 clings to the same trends, but with much better set dressing. Not long after exploring Act 1, it’s clear that Sanctuary has embraced a return to moody gothic horror.
There are ominous glowing gateways, self-righteous zealots, bad parents, bad children, and those abominable strings of flies that instantly kill you. With the Butcher in the first Diablo, arguably the most iconic encounter in the series, the best cheese was usually trapping him behind a door (when you could still close them) or shooting him from a barred portal.ĭiablo 4 has, on the surface, all of the right ingredients for a Diablo game: A lone Wanderer gets caught up in an existential war and becomes the last line of defense against all-consuming doom this time it’s Lilith, the Daughter of Hatred, who created Sanctuary with the angel Inarius. There’s a ritualistic, rhythmic power in piercing a series of gates before a major boss, running headlong toward a fate you can’t see until it’s too late. I’ve funneled hordes of monsters through doors to create bottlenecks and pick them off at a distance. When you think about the existential infrastructure of the game and its visual language, it’s doors all the way down, from humble gates and fiery red portals to ornate stone slabs and yawning caverns. Diablo 4, like its predecessors, is a game about doors - pausing on the threshold of an open maw, bathed in unholy light and anticipation before you meet whatever’s on the other side. I don’t mean the hypocrisy of the High Heavens or the comically doomed faith everyone has in the efficacy of soulstones.
In a kinder existence, perhaps Denysov would be a busy carpenter, living off the constant destruction of the Eternal Conflict - the unceasing war between heaven and hell - and the humans trapped in between.īut in this small, dark corner of the map, Denysov’s unfinished portal just might be one of the most overlooked cornerstones of Diablo mythology. It’s a simple dream, but Denysov, who probably hasn’t ventured far from Yelesna, has no idea how many doors my Wanderer routinely annihilates on the path to gold and glory. “Not much else to do ’round here.” He doesn’t have anything to sell, he says to no one in particular, and this door should fetch a nice price. “Been working on this door for days,” he mutters.
In the tired village of Yelesna, a man named Denysov hammers away at a studded wooden barrier flanked by a pair of stakes.
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