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Activision Blizzard push Diablo 4 discounts and free trials even as Season 2 updates divide playersBlood Harvests go down well, but Steam reviews at launch are Mixed
Blood Harvests go down well, but Steam reviews at launch are Mixed
Image credit:Blizzard
Image credit:Blizzard
Activision Blizzard rolled outDiablo 4’s Season 2, also known as the Season of Blood, this week, together withan absolute deluge of quality-of-life improvementsacross console and PC. The publisher have also now launched the hitherto Battle.net-based PC version on Steam, and are trying to attract newcomers with a discount on Valve’s platform and a free 10 hour trial this weekend (that’s 19th-22nd October) for Xbox players.
Have the Season 2 updates - which you could summarise as “slay vampires to get vampire powers” and “spend less time and have more fun grinding/farming for loot and levels” - salvaged Blizzard’s action-RPGfromthe ashes of Season 1? I’ve been trawling the reactions this morning, and while the new Diablo appears to be evolving in the right direction, the big picture is still of a game with just as many raters as haters.
If you don’t play loot-driven ARPGs, all this probably reads like some really excited instructions for how to load and operate an absolutely epic custom-fit washing machine, for optimally fresh laundry. But streamlined progression and reward mechanisms aside, players appear to be enjoying Blood Harvests simply because they’re a fun challenge. There’s also positive chatter around Season 2’s updates to World Bosses, which spawn more frequently, drop more loot, and are tougher. As reported onGamesradar, the extra difficulty means that there’s more time to appreciate the intricacies of the boss designs - take Avarice, for example, who spawns a load of loot-heavy smaller enemies as a distraction, when the boss’s health is low.
The third Most Helpful review offers some more specific, if loaded comparisons with Larian’s RPGBaldur’s Gate 3, which continues to beexalted online as the Right Way to do a blockbuster videogame. What doesDiablo 4do better than Baldur’s Gate 3? “Microtransactions”, “[being] always online” and “$20 horse cosmetics”, to name a few. What does Baldur’s Gate 3 do better than Diablo 4? Well, the game’s “patches don’t nerf classes and items that ruins everyones build”, it offers a “full story with an ending that isn’t behind paid DLC” and it “doesn’t have malicious UI design that makes it extremely easy to accidentally purchase battlepass”. For good measure, the user throws in a few references toallegations of threats and harassment at Activision Blizzardover the past few years.
And the fourth Most Helpful review? It compares Diablo 4 toOverwatch 2, which is also a service-game with microtransactions and a battle pass system, and which also gotmass-pitchforked and set ablaze when it launched on Steam in August.
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