Within the game world of the Diablo series exists a relentless battleground where heaven and hell eternally wage war, leaving humanity crushed in between. And now, with the highly anticipated arrival of Diablo 4, the harrowing depths of this nightmarish realm plunge even deeper.

At the beginning of the game, the demon Lilith is resurrected. She’s the daughter of hate and, at the same time, the co-creator of the human world. She seduces people to give themselves fully to sin and it doesn’t take long for this to lead to problems.

Diablo 4 has become much darker than its predecessor and uses many more elements of horror and gore. Indeed, the story itself isn’t necessarily worthy of an award, but Lilith, for example, is a complex villain who has clear motivations for her actions.

But if truth be told, that’s not really what Diablo 4 is about. Rather it’s mostly about slaughtering monsters and demons and getting better and better with your chosen hero or heroine.

Choose your character

In the beginning, there are five character classes to choose from: Barbarian, Necromancer, Wizard, Hunter and Druid, each available in male and female form. They all bring their own talent trees, specialize in certain weapons, and play differently.

For example, while the barbarian jumps straight into the fray, the necromancer instead creates a small army of skeletons to fight for her. With the talent trees, a lot can be adapted to your own playing style.

On the one hand, the characters get better and better through experience points, which they get for completing tasks and killing monsters.

On the other hand, it’s mainly about loot – weapons, equipment, and items that fall out of killed monsters or crates. Every item that appears is a potential upgrade for your character.

And because the unattainable goal is to get the perfect hero or heroine, things really pick up after the main story. Then it continues with greater difficulty and you are introduced to the endgame.

Open world with MMO elements

In the game world, which is quite open compared to its predecessors, there are events. For example, there’s the Hell Flood, where you fight strong enemies and collect things you can use to get crates.

Huge world bosses appear at certain times and are very difficult to beat. Then there are nightmare dungeons, which are filled with lots of strong monsters and good loot. You can also engage in direct combat against other players.

"Diablo 4" has added more elements from massive multiplayer online games (MMO). In the overworld, especially in cities, you meet other players with whom you can kill monsters together or complete events.

However, the game is not primarily intended as an MMO, the game’s director at publisher Blizzard, Joe Shely, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa): "There are many who play Diablo alone or with only a small group."

He said the world was designed according to what content people play: story and dungeons are reserved for individual players or fixed groups. In contrast, the overworld events, such as world bosses, that are played online include random game endings.

You don’t have to spend money to win

A major criticism of the Diablo series in the past has been the game’s post-release monetization, with players required to invest real money to get the best loot. However, in Diablo 4, only cosmetic items will be sold for real money.

You can’t pay for strength; there’s no pay-to-win, Rod Fergusson, general manager for Diablo at Blizzard, told dpa.

"Part of Diablo 4 is an homage to what came before," Fergusson said, pointing to the dark atmosphere from Diablo 1, the progression system from Diablo 2 and the exciting combat from Diablo 3, combined with innovations like the split open world and freedom of choice in Diablo 4.

And that sums up the new game pretty well. Diablo 4 has become a great, modern, action-packed RPG with a fascinating game world full of life (and death). It feels like everything has been well thought out: an interesting story, varied characters and an extensive endgame.

Maybe it lacks a bit of innovation due to the approach of uniting the three predecessors, but fighting through the countless monsters and demons is a lot of fun.