It’s over, over! Diablo 4’s first beta weekend is over. And it brought a lot of knowledge. Probably the most important thing we all noticed when logging in on Friday evening: The Diablo fans are obviously in the mood for the game. Because although it was only a pre-order beta, for which you had to activate a key, Blizzard’s servers collapsed under the onslaught, as if a horde of barbarians had attacked it. (Although… that’s somehow true.) But as annoying as the queues were at first, the problem was quickly resolved: by Saturday morning at the latest, we were able to log in without twiddling our thumbs and play without any problems most of the time. The scope of the beta is also very decent – unlike the Diablo 3 beta back then, you can really play for hours here. But: There is also a whole lot of content and features that you will find in this beta not yet can try. Here we give you a small overview of what’s missing in the beta and what you can (hopefully) look forward to in the finished game.
No mount in the beta
You can look at the horses in the stables, but you are not allowed to ride them yourself.
Source: buffed
Let’s start with something simple: your horse. The game world of Diablo 4 (buy now ) is open and very spacious, so there are inevitably longer walking distances. You can actually shorten it by simply grabbing your horse and riding it briskly to your destination. However, the horses are not yet unlocked in the beta, only a few NPCs are already allowed to swing into the saddle. So we have to wait for the feature until the release.
Just one of five zones
Diablo 4 consists of five zones, each with its own look, matching enemies and even different armor designs for your loot. In the beta, however, you can only play through the prologue and the first act, and you are limited to the frigid mountainous region of Shattered Peaks. The beta already gives a good insight into the MMO-heavy gameplay, but it’s still exciting to see how the finished game with all five zones feels. After all, you can stray off the path early on and decide for yourself where you want to go. It is not yet possible to assess how this will affect the balancing and the arc of suspense – but at least the beta makes you want more.
The beta lets you explore the first of five major zones. Those who march across the borders will be teleported back.
Source: PC Games
No PvP
Player vs. player battles are also not included in the beta version. In the final game there will be special zones called Fields of Hatred – these are the only areas where you are allowed to attack other players. In PvP you can earn cosmetic rewards, but they don’t have any gameplay advantages. By the way, arenas like in Diablo Immortal are not planned so far and PvP seems to play a comparatively small role. Which should also be the reason why we haven’t been able to play any of it in the beta.
Only two difficulty levels
Diablo 4 will offer four levels of difficulty, so-called world levels, but you can only try the first two of them in the beta. The first is intended for beginners, so if you’re already familiar with Hack & Slays, it’s better to set the second level straight away, which will give you more gold and more XP. But it only gets really interesting from the third level “Nightmare”, which is intended for character levels 50 to 70. Because only from here you can capture sacred and unique items. Nightmare seals can now also drop for the first time, with which you activate high-level endgame dungeons. Champions gain auras for a variety of damage resistances, and there are Infernal Tides as additional endgame events.
You can test two levels of difficulty in the beta. However, levels 3 and 4 are not available – they are intended for endgame only.
Source: PC Games
It gets a whole lot harder on the fourth level “Torment”, here there are even more special items that you can use to further specialize and improve your heroes. Incidentally, there will be no set items among them, as Blizzard has canceled them for Diablo 4 for the time being. The same applies to the rune system, which is said to be a bit similar to Diablo 2 – this also needs more development time and will not be included at launch (and in the beta).
Diverse Paragon system
On the two trial weekends you can only play your heroes up to level 25, which is pretty decent. Since there is also a very uncomplicated respec system, you can try out a lot of talents and upgrades despite the level limit. Legendary items with special modifiers also drop in abundance (Blizzard apparently increased the chance of getting them for the beta), so you can test out a few simple builds. But what is still completely missing is the brand new Paragon system, which awaits you after level 50. This allows your heroes to level up another 50 – which means that, in contrast to Diablo 3, the Paragon system has a comparatively low upper limit. On the next page you will find out why the system should keep you busy for a long time.
