Diablo 4 impressions: A new sanctuary for action-RPG fans on Xbox

Diablo IV is now out on Xbox and Tom has given us his first impressions after spending some time in Blizzard's latest version of war-torn Sanctuary...

We're now at the halfway point of 2023 and it seems there has been a steady stream of "Game of the Year contenders" already — I'm sorry to say that I'll be adding another one to the pile for you to consider! Diablo IV launches on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One today, and while I've only spent around 15 hours or so with this full release so far, it's clear to me that Blizzard has knocked this Diablo entry out of the park.

Diablo IV launch trailer

I'll kick this off by covering something I spoke about a little while back: Diablo IV's return to the grittier-feeling Sanctuary feels undeniably right. I loved Diablo III, but I could never get along with the overall art style, which was a far cry from Diablo II, so seeing Diablo IV change direction is a breath of fresh air. It's gorgeous — if you would call a landscape filled with pain and anguish "gorgeous" — and exactly what I'd want from a game focused on the forces of Hell tormenting the living. Naturally, the color palette is predominantly a blend of darker tones of grey and brown mixed with whites as a backdrop, and small splashes of other colors that pop in the bleak atmosphere of each scene. The color palette also allows your character's abilities to shine a little brighter as well Most of you have said you'll probably be using the Necromancer class — I've been rolling through with a Rogue, and she creates quite the spectacle when causing skeletons to explode from purple Shadow-imbued bow shots. Creatures froth in the lime green of a poison trap, and anything that bleeds spews its life fluid all over the crisp white snow.

Combat, unsurprisingly, is fantastic in Diablo IV, and during my mere 15 hours with the game, I've reached level 28 and have already outfitted my character with all the skills that I want. The initial leveling phase is quick and ensures you can access the majority of the skill tree early on so you can experiment with builds and play in the style you'd like. With combat being the general focus of the Diablo games, it's great to not feel like a low-level player... even when you are a low-level player.

Much like the skill tree, loot scaling is also rapid, and you quickly move from an inventory filled with common white gear to all rare yellow gear quickly. As with any good looter, finding which items are worth selling versus breaking down is key, and within my first ten hours, I was selling the few white and blue pieces I found for some extra pocket money and breaking down the abundance of rare gear for materials. On top of that, any piece of equipment you find that has a style you've not had before can be broken down and added to your wardrobe, which gives you the ability to fully style your character at will for free. It's a simple but neat feature that adds a little layer of personality to your playthrough.

Unholy hell, how much?

While the world of Diablo IV is full of gear to collect and cosmetics to find, many of the more exotic-looking pieces of apparel look to be unique to the in-game store, which you purchase with a premium currency called Platinum. All of the items in the store are purely cosmetic, which is a good thing because the prices aren't for the faint of heart. Depending on the outfit you'd like to purchase, you could be looking at paying between £10 and £20. Granted, the outfits you purchase for Platinum are extremely detailed and look premium, but the price tag is a bitter pill to swallow, so I think I might be giving that a miss. With the Battle Pass set to arrive next month, it'll be interesting to see how the cosmetics there match up to what you could potentially buy in the store.

So far, much of my time has been spent crawling through dungeons and seeing what hidden wonders — or hidden Butchers! — are hiding in the shadows, but the few quests I've embarked on have been a real pleasure. Whether I'm helping a priestess rid a child of a possessing demon or helping a woman find her skinned husband chained up in the woods, it's been brutal and satisfying. I've only finished a couple of story missions as well, as I'm taking this one slow, but Lilith is already becoming one of my favorite antagonists. She is just pure evil and I can't help but love her. Judge me all you want.

It's been a joyous time, made all the more enjoyable by a smooth rollout from Blizzard. I'd say Diablo IV is probably one of the smoothest live service games to launch in recent years — I've just not run into any issues. Everything has worked, the handful of achievements I've earned have popped just fine, and everything has been bug-free. Aside from the obnoxiously priced store items, it's very hard for me to find anything I don't like at the moment. It's still early days for my adventure, of course, but still... not even a queue!

Diablo IV is a ton of fun to play so far and takes Diablo's legacy to even greater heights with fast, fluid combat, fantastic voice acting stringing together interesting questlines, and more loot than a Treasure Goblin (which I'm yet to see). Each subsection of the map is filled with cellars to clear of enemies, world events to complete, quests to embark on, and more. If you're a fan of the series, even my first few hours make it clear that Blizzard is onto a winning formula that shouldn't disappoint you. For new players, while it's a continuation of the Diablo storyline, it's a separate experience that will introduce you to everything Blizzard's fantastic universe has to offer. The learning curve is light, and with the addition of varying difficulties, there should be a sweet spot for players of all skill sets.

What do you think of Diablo IV so far? Are you enjoying your slog through hell? Drop down into the comments section below and let me know!

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Xbox Series X|S Xbox One

Written by Tom West

Tom has been playing video games since he was old enough to hold a controller, experimenting with a number of systems until he eventually fell in love with Xbox. With a passion for the platform, he decided to make a career out of it, and now happily spends his days writing about that which he loves. If he’s not hunting for Xbox achievements, you’ll likely find him somewhere in The Elder Scrolls Online or fighting for survival in Battlefield.