[STEAM] Diablo IV is in a great place, whether you buy Vessel of Hatred or not

[Steam 0]

When we reviewed Diablo IV, the latest installment in the long-running action roleplaying game series last year, we said it was

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. But ARPGs live and **** by their endgame loops, and it was far too early at the time to accurately assess the game’s true staying power.

Sadly, after that confident first step, like so many loot-hunting games before it, Diablo IV fell flat on its face. I’ve seen plenty of boneheaded updates to live-service games, but Diablo IV’s first major patch, released a couple of months after the game’s release, was still pretty shocking. By that point, a consensus had emerged that the endgame was a bit barren, and getting to the game’s level cap of 100 was a tedious slog. But that’s the great thing about live-service games, right? Tweak some numbers, throw in a couple of fun high-level activities, and,

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.

Sadly, the game’s developers at Blizzard had other plans. The patch notes for that first update read like someone had systematically gone through the game and

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. Almost every character build had been mercilessly nerfed, and worst of all, the game became even slower.

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, and Diablo IV floundered like this for its first three

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. I mostly lost interest.

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