I can’t stop playing Diablo 4, and it’s all because of its exquisite build crafting and engrossing map design

It’s always, always a good sign when a game feels so good that you want to spend as much time playing it as you can. But an even bigger sign that you’re hooked is when you feel compelled to try things you wouldn’t in a similar game; playing classes you tend to skip, or building around certain roles you never thought were exciting.

I’ve seen this before in Elden Ring, a game that convinced many players to try magic. I’ve certainly found myself playing the launcher much more often than FromSoftware’s previous games, and that’s saying a lot considering how much I play them.

But my latest obsession is Diablo 4, which is not a surprise if you know me. But I’m more surprised by how many classes and playstyles I keep experimenting with.

In the vast majority of ARPGs I play, my first character is always the warrior/barbarian type: all-out aggression, in the middle of it all, melee above all else. I find it much easier to appreciate the nuances of a game’s combat, the reactivity of the game’s world, the weight of the animations (and ragdolls), and the general physics engine of it when playing as a warrior.

Even after finishing the game as that class, I’m generally more inclined to explore new builds for the same class (or leave the game altogether). it literally took me years to create a wizard in Devil 3, and that didn’t even happen until I played around with Demon Hunter for a bit. Before that, they were barbarians and crusaders.

We’re only over a week into the life of Diablo 4, and I’ve already played every class in the game. Technically I’ve been playing the game longer than most due to the review period, but the point still stands. I finished the campaign as a Druid pre-release and as a Rogue after it came out. Since then, I’ve hit level 40 with a bleed-focused barbarian, level 40 with a shock and ice sorcerer, and most recently level 23 with a blood-stealing necromancer.

Diablo 4’s action combat just feels satisfying to play no matter which class you choose. By choosing a different class than I’m used to, I found it enlightening to be able to experience the game in new ways and appreciate the action I crave from a different perspective.

When lightning bolts, ice shards, and arrows feel as thick when they hit as my hammer hits, you can bet I’ll be sticking with each class a lot longer than I thought.

But there’s another, equally crucial reason why no class feels bad to play in Diablo 4. Each class is effectively a tree, and you can dictate how it branches. I don’t like pet classes in ARPGs, so my Necromancer is basically a death mage. There are clear paths you can follow that offer you different options if you sacrifice your ability to summon corpses.

When I finished the game as a druid, I didn’t spec a single point on shapeshifting abilities. My druid was a storm caller, a wielder of nature’s magic. Rogues are also adept at being mini demon hunters: they destroy most things from a distance with their barrage of arrows, or nimble melee fights that deal impressive damage very quickly, but they also need to constantly stay on the move due to his lack of defense. .

Then there are the Barbarians, who have perhaps the most complex level of character building. Because of how much you can customize your gear as a barbarian, you can lean on certain damage types and align them with whatever abilities you prefer. For example, an overhead strike could be a helmsplit with an edged weapon, or a ground strike with a blunt weapon.

A big part of the reason traversing the world of Diablo 4 is appealing is how distinct its different regions are. It’s a joy to see how Blizzard applied its material-based lighting to rocky, barren deserts, as it did to traversing snow in the early hours.

Even at the end of the campaign, you won’t see a significant part of that world, so there’s always something to look at for future characters. Beyond their appearance, each area contributes to enemy variety, either by having entirely new enemies or thematically appropriate factions of existing ones.

The ability to scale walls, roll downhill, and jump over gaps adds a layer of verticality to an otherwise flat, open world. I’m really intrigued to see what’s around every corner, something only FromSoftware games do for me.

It’s almost as if Blizzard knew more players would be encouraged to try unfamiliar classes in Diablo 4 compared to their previous games. The game is designed to speed up how you play future characters once you finish the campaign once.

Your horse is available to all future characters once any of them unlock it, which means you can start roaming sooner and much faster. If you spent time chasing down Lilith Altars in the various regions of the game, any character in that region immediately starts with additional skill points, more healing potion capacity, and other buffs.

And, if you decided to take it easy your first go and stick with World Tier 1, your familiarity with the game makes starting future characters at World Tier 2 a much easier pill to swallow, which in itself means that they will be climbing. Rank up much faster.

This all bodes well for future seasons/seasonal content. If I’m having this much fun right now, I figure I won’t mind starting a season character and experimenting with a different build and joining the race.

Check out our beginner’s guide to Diablo 4 if you need help getting your first character off the ground in Diablo 4.