Diablo 4is an exciting new installment in Blizzard’s dark fantasy RPG franchise, and with it comes a lot of the core design players have grown to expect fromDiablo. Each character class available returns from a previous game or two, including the Barbarian, Sorceress, Druid, Rogue, and Necromancer, who will all have their own respective abilities and weapons. Players going intoit as their fourthDiablogame will likely have a much smoother onboarding than players who are completely new to the franchise, but there are stillsubstantial changes inDiablo 4that distinguish it uniquely.
Diablo 4’s RPG gameplaylooks awfully similar to its predecessors, for example, but its art design has been improved greatly to meet modern standards and give it a wonderful baroque aesthetic.Diablo 4’s marketing has been full of cinematic trailers with a hefty budget backing them, and it is great to see that high-budget cinematics will also be present throughout the game’s narrative. But one other considerable improvement to its art design is how the player’s character avatar will be depicted fully in in-game cutscenes, customizations and all.
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Diablo 4’s Art Design is Its Greatest Asset
Fans who have loved the franchise since its inception will likely flock toDiablo 4. However,Diablo 4’s environmental art design might be enough to lure in new audiences alone due to its stunning fidelity throughout Sanctuary. There is a depth of realism in its exquisite lighting that pours shadows along caverns and gorges, and depth-of-field plays a huge role in depicting the draw distance of an environment if there are landscapes shown in the background while the player is in the foreground.
BecauseDiablo 4is taking an open-world approach to its level design, it will be even more interesting to see how these environments bleed into one another as players fluidly traverse into adjoining regions. Likewise, character customization inDiablo 4looks to be superb with the same attention to detail as seen in the rest of the game.
Character customization inDiablohas always been a neat feature, though it never allowed players to fully make their own character. Thankfully, players will actually be seeing their character avatar often inDiablo 4’s in-game cutscenes, and not just in their inventory management menu.
Diablo 4 Character Customization Will Be Paramount
Diablo’s top-down, wide-angle view has never been able to represent how a character looks and all the details players dedicate to making them look interesting because they look microscopic at times on the screen. Therefore, details such as tiny facial markings or tattoos on barely exposed skin would seem like an absolutely redundant customization feature forDiablo 4to include.
This is a similar issue that someFPS games such asCyberpunk 2077have, where the player’s character has a lot of customization options available but only a few opportunities to see those details in-game. In-game cutscenes are unlikely to occur often and only if players are strictly following the main narrative path, but it is still a fantastic way to let players feel fulfilled with their customization options in a cinematic way.
Diablo 4has two beta weekends in Marchwith players reportedly being able to explore the game’s first act, and this could be a fantastic opportunity for fans to get a small taste of how in-game cutscenes will portray their characters, no matter how frivolously they choose to design them. If nothing else, this gives an actual reason to care about what the protagonist character will look like, down to their otherwise insignificant and tiny customizations.
Diablo 4launches July 02, 2025, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
