No secrets stay that way for long on the internet, especially when they concern perhaps one of the most long-awaited video games in recent memory.
Diablo 4, the rumored sequel to Blizzard’s long-running dungeon crawler, is now all but confirmed to be getting an official reveal at this year’s annual BlizzCon convention. While fans have known for some time that the developer has been tinkering away on the title behind closed doors, it appears that the studio is finally ready to share the fruits of its labor. Following the discovery of a magazine ad for an art book that unknowingly name-dropped Diablo 4‘s existence, other industry insiders have now come forward to share what they know of the project.
Reddit user PracticalBrush12, who has accurately leaked details for myriad other games in the past including Pokémon Sword and Shield, has disclosed a wealth of new information, chief of which being that Diablo 4 will supposedly return to the grittier aesthetic of Diablo 2 instead of continuing the third instalment’s more colorful palette.
“Diablo 4 is actually going to look dark, gritty and gross,” says PracticalBrush, adding that “Locations are toned down, infrequently laid with corpses, wasteland, greyish deserts, clut caves surrounded by flesh, rotten crypts, marshes and bogs, plagued cities you name it.”
How wonderfully dreary.
As for gameplay, we’ve put together a summary of the leak’s major reveals below.
- Three classes, Mage, Druid and Barbarian, seen so far.
- Four-player co-op.
- Players can ride mounts to traverse the map.
- Contextual interaction with the environment (e.g. wall-climbing).
Sounds promising, no doubt, but no matter the source’s credibility, we should caution that none of this is confirmed. With that said, however, reputed Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad has since corroborated PracticalBrush’s claims on Twitter.
This lines up with everything I've heard about Diablo IV.
The game is shaping up well and is definitely what fans would want out of the game. Takes what people loved about D2 style, improves on D3 combat. https://t.co/5aXaQk528M
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) October 31, 2019
To put it simply, this is about as close to receiving factual information one can get without hearing it directly from the horse’s mouth. Some skepticism should be maintained, of course, but BlizzCon attendees will almost assuredly be privy to the same Diablo 4 reveals this weekend. We’ll have all the official news as it breaks when the ceremony kicks off on November 1st. Stay tuned.
