I have played every season of Diablo IV since launch. I am also an older gamer, which probably colors how I look at the game. I am not trying to race anyone, impress anyone, or turn every season into a second job. I want a good ARPG power fantasy, a reason to log in, a character that gets stronger in satisfying ways, and enough stuff to do that I can pick my own level of seriousness.
For me, Diablo IV has become one of the better games in a surprisingly thin ARPG landscape. I play Path of Exile 2 (913 hours) , Last Epoch (1,800 hours), Grim Dawn (612 hours) and Diablo IV (654 hours) . Don't judge those times, I am retired and enjoy ARPGs! They all do different things well, but Diablo IV has its own lane. It is more approachable, more polished moment to moment, and much easier for me to just sit down, relax, kill demons, make numbers go up, and enjoy the fantasy of becoming absurdly powerful.
The game is much better now than it was at launch. The endgame has been fleshed out a lot. There are more systems layered on top of each other, more reasons to move around the world, more ways to work on a character, and more activities that feel like they feed into the larger loop instead of just being isolated chores. It still has that “log in, pick a thing, smash monsters, improve gear” rhythm, but now there are enough things to pick from that it feels more complete.
I also really like the open world. A lot of ARPGs are basically menus that teleport you into monster hallways. Diablo IV has towns, zones, strongholds, events, world bosses, Helltides, quest chains, dungeons, little side stories, and all the environmental flavor that makes Sanctuary feel like an actual place. The campaigns are high quality, the production values are excellent, and there are a surprising number of quests if you slow down enough to notice them.
That last part matters. Questing is best enjoyed with a very low-level character on Normal or Hard. Once your build is online and you are blowing up entire screens, the beautiful dungeons, terrain, monsters, and little details all become a stream of diluted pixels. That is fun too, obviously. That is the ARPG promise. But the game actually has a lot of atmosphere if you are not deleting the screen before your brain can process what you are looking at.
I enjoy both sides of the game. I like having permanent characters I can keep improving over time, but I also enjoy the disposable seasonal journey. That sounds negative, but I mean it positively. A season gives me an excuse to make a new character, play with the new systems, unlock cosmetics, check off the journey, and then move on when I am done. It does not always have to be a forever character. Sometimes it is just a fun seasonal project.
The cosmetics are also better than they get credit for. Yes, the cash shop is expensive. No argument there. But the seasonal Reliquary value is actually pretty good. If you count the platinum you get back from the Reliquary itself, it works out to roughly $7.50 a season for a pile of unlockable armor, weapons, mounts, pets, portals, and other cosmetics. Compared to the cash shop prices, that feels like the sane way to collect cool stuff. I like transmogs in general, and Diablo IV has a lot of great armor and weapon looks.
Crafting and gearing have also improved. It is still not perfect, and I am sure spreadsheet goblins can find ways to make anything complicated, but it is much easier to understand than it used to be. It has enough depth that improving a character feels meaningful, but it is not so opaque that I feel like I need to take a graduate course before replacing a pair of gloves. For the most part, I can understand what I am chasing, make progress toward it, and feel the character get stronger.
The community is another plus. Diablo IV has a good streaming and guide community, and that matters for this kind of game. You can play casually, but if you want to go deeper, there are people testing builds, explaining mechanics, pushing content, and doing the math. I like being able to bounce between “I am just chilling and killing monsters” and “okay, why exactly does this build work?”
Diablo IV is not a perfect ARPG, but I think it is very clearly a good one. It is chill, it looks great, it sounds great, the combat feels good, the power fantasy works, the endgame is much stronger than it used to be, and the seasonal structure gives me a reason to keep coming back without demanding that I live there.
For me, that is enough. More than enough, apparently, given the hours.
