A grumpy old gamer

I have been playing a lot of Diablo 4 these past months. Overall, it is a very impressing game, especially with regards to the production value. I don’t think I have seen anything like it before. The graphics, artwork, audio, cutscenes, atmosphere, mechanics, story, music… the list goes on and on. However, there is one thing that annoys me more than anything. The difficulty level. Why on Earth is the game so extremely easy? There is no challenge whatsoever and it is almost impossible to die, and I can dispose of most enemies, including bosses with one or a couple of actions. It becomes rather boring after a while.

I am playing at the highest difficulty level I could use. There are more difficulty levels to chose from, but they do not become active until you beat the game on the lower difficulty settings. The first hours were a proper challenge, and I had to try several times on the first boss. But before long, I started to build a skill tree and learn the mechanics and my barbarian become massively overpowered.

Now, at level 54 or thereabouts, I have stopped to bother. I run straight up to the big bad bosses and just button mash like a 5-year-old and I can kill even the biggest bosses in seconds. It is utterly stupid. It was the same story with Diablo 3, except that one was perhaps even easier. So, in my opinion, we have here a great story and an exceptional piece of work by a huge team, that we just click through as fast as possible just to unlock those higher skill levels so the game becomes challenging again. And there is a real danger that players like me run out of steam and stop caring along the way. When I finally get to the higher, proper skill level where my character can get hurt and require some form of brain activity to proceed, chances are I have grown tired of the game and moved on to something else. I cannot understand for my life why I should not be allowed to select a very challenging skill level from the start should I desire it? If the higher skill levels would be available from the get-go, I don’t think I would be writing this piece at all today. The fact that I can run straight into a supposedly extremely dangerous evil and huge boss and just button mash is very stupid.

When I compare Diablo 3 and 4 to Diablo 1 and 2, the game mechanics and gameplay are indeed >20 years old and it shows mostly. But what those older games did get perfectly right was the skill level. It was a proper challenge all the way. The bosses scared the living daylights out of me even at the higher levels. Maybe I am just a grumpy old gamer, but I still have more fun playing Diablo 2 (resurrected) the the most recent Diablo 4. When death is around every corner, it keeps you on the edge and you get more involved and immersed. And that is what gaming should be all about. Tell a good story and let the player struggle to reveal more of it. 

I like the story and side quests. I don’t want to run through the game on the first playthrough. I want to take my time and discover everything in my own pace. But as it stands today, the game Diablo 4 is honestly not that interesting to play for me anymore. I am not sure that I will have enough interest to keep playing after I beat the game. With a proper difficulty setting, this Diablo 4 could have been such a perfect gem of a game.