The problems that have involved Activision Blizzard in recent times, combined with the difficulties encountered in the development, have forced the software house to postpone Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 to a later date, making Diablo Immortal the only product published by the creators of World of Warcraft (remember that the development was entrusted to NetEase) coming in the course of 2022.
However, the radical change of plans of the company has not diluted the time with which the developers will periodically offer us updates on the fourth chapter of the IP story: in this regard, in the last few hours, the first very long post has landed on the official Blizzard portal of the year that provides a lot of material about the game and allows us to discover new details on the settings that will be the background to our adventures around Sanctuarium.
Return to darkness
To compensate for the almost total absence of news on Diablo 4 gameplay we find a long chat from the developers that allows us to deepen their approach on the stylistic side with a focus on the construction of Diablo 4 environments . The description of the working method of Blizzard programmers and artists reveals an almost morbid attention to the smallest details , which contribute to making every single location more credible and pleasing to the eye.
What immediately catches the eye is the desire to make the whole game world darker, given that one of the main criticisms raised by the community in the third chapter concerned the artistic direction, more colorful and less obscure than that of its predecessors.
With Diablo 4 there is clearly the will to go back to basics thanks to settings with more serious tones and incredibly rich in details that perfectly reflect the characteristics of the place we are exploring. One of the techniques that most helped the development team to achieve the remarkable result that can be seen in the images published in the post is certainly the lighting: it would seem that the skilled Blizzard programmers have exploited the same technique used by Rembrandt , which is all based on the particular positioning of the light sources to enhance the chiaroscuro.
Great attention was also paid to atmospheric effects , which combine to make the images on the screen more ‘realistic’. The wind will make even the smallest tufts of grass move and the rain will dynamically form puddles, filling even the footprints left by a horse’s hooves with rainwater. These are microscopic details that, taken together, give life to the breathtaking scenarios that we can also admire in the trailers that accompany the update on the state of the work of Diablo 4.
A tour of the Sanctuary
Fear not, the amount of detail on how Blizzard is working on the creation of the Sanctuarium landscapes has been accompanied by the painstaking description of numerous areas of Diablo 4, as well as by the confirmation that the map will consist of five different regions with unique characteristics and many secrets. to discover.
We start with the Scosglen Coast , an area in which the weather is perpetually adverse and this is reflected both on the color palette and on the scenery: in addition to the rain and wind that agitates the elements positioned in the background, we can also notice structures that the locals have built with the aim of making them as solid as possible to withstand the fury of the elements and prevent them from being swept away at any moment.
The second stop of this virtual Sanctuary tour takes us to the Orbei Monastery , an isolated place located in the rural Arid Steppes and where the few remaining Zakarum followers hide.
The area in question is much brighter than the coastal area and is mainly characterized by temples and stone structures that alternate with large areas occupied by expanses of arid earth and salt-encrusted tuff around which you can often meet and gladly the caravans with the remains of the Zakarumites on pilgrimage that did not make it. Also in this case there are dynamic elements on the screen and we can see how the wind moves the sand around the scenery making the seabed more alive.
We then move to Kyovashad, probably one of the most interesting places among those shown: it is in fact a huge military camp with a medieval style characterized by environments covered by snow and poorly lit in which the torches positioned along the road stand out. Another peculiarity of this area is the increasing presence of fortifications that can be seen on the way to the heart of the camp, the only place where there are still survivors.
The last two environments covered in Blizzard’s post are not exactly Sanctuarium locations, but dungeon biomes: Despicable Caves and Flooded Depths . The first is the inevitable rocky cave with poor lighting and a flood of skeletons and carcasses of those who have tried to get out without success.
Apparently, the developers were inspired by the Druids for the realization of this biome and around the dark cave you can see different elements in the background that belong to their culture. The Flooded Depths, on the other hand, are underground structures that alternate parts in worked stone that has not suffered the damage of time and portions in wood that, due to water infiltrations, have largely collapsed or irreversibly damaged.
The return of the Expeditions
Fortunately, from the very long post from the developers, some details regarding the gameplay of Diablo 4 also emerge, although this is little information when compared with the amount of details provided on the landscapes that we will visit during the adventure.
The announcement of the two biomes mentioned above is accompanied by the confirmation of the return of the Expeditions, or the dungeons : in the game we will be able to face more than 150 activities of this type , all procedurally generated based on a series of aesthetic elements and linked to the bestiary that are dictated by the biome. An element on which the developers seem to have focused in a particular way are the transitions between one level and another of the dungeons , which should be much more fluid and credible than what was seen in the previous chapters of the series.
The latest news is closely linked to Blizzard’s obsessive attention to detail, given that there will be numerous around the scenarioselements that will tear to pieces during the fierce battles based on weapons and spells. In fact, it would seem that a particular system of destruction of objects has been studied that allows the game engine to manage many small elements on the screen without too many problems and thus make the experience more engaging.
In short, there is still a long way to go until Diablo 4 arrives on the shelves but it is undeniable that this showcase of the settings that we will be able to visit and the new details on the gameplay have further increased the hype towards the game.