author: Bart Swiatek
Diablo 4 - Info on Multiplayer, Open World and Narrative
A note appeared on Blizzard Entertainment's official website, presenting a number of details about Diablo IV. The changes include the narrative, as well as open world and multiplayer mode.
IN A NUTSHELL:
- Diablo IV will have an open world with many side activities;
- An important role is to be played by camps "liberated" by players from the monsters;
- While playing we will encounter other players, but the frequency of such meetings will not be too high (except for cities and world events);
- Story events and dungeons will be private;
- During discussions with NPCs, the characters will be better animated;
- Key moments in the plot will be shown on real-time cut-scenes.
Blizzard Entertainment published another entry about the upcoming hack'n'slash Diablo IV on its official website. The note was written after another internal playtest, dedicated to one of the locations - Dry Steppes. The text brings closer the outline of the multiplayer mode and describes how the open world works in the game. The entry also reveals some information about the narrative.
Open world and multiplayer
Let's start with the fact that the gameplay at key moments of the story, as well as different kinds of dungeons, will always be private - we won't see other players on the screen then. However, we can encounter them when entering the city, taking part in world events, and from time to time also by simply travelling. The creators made sure that these interactions are well-balanced and do not kill the atmosphere typical of Diablo.
"Dungeons and key story moments are always private—just the player and their party. Once story moments are complete and towns turned into social hubs, you’d run into a few people in town. While on the road, you’d sometimes run into a player here and there. And then finally, if you went to a location where a world event was happening, you would see a larger congregation of players trying to defend against an attack by a cannibal horde or trying to take down Ashava, the demonic world boss we showed at BlizzCon," wrote the author of the note, Luis Barriga.
The game world will be open and will offer a number of additional activities, options and tasks. Camps are to play an important role, acting as outposts for the player - provided that we clear them from opponents first.
"While we have many open world activities, such as crafting, events, world PvP, and side quests, perhaps the most popular open world feature was Camps. These are locations of importance that have been overrun by enemies, which once cleansed turn into friendly outposts with NPCs and a waypoint location. While there is a backstory to each camp, most of the storytelling is visual and quests don’t directly send you to them. For example, one of the camps in the zone was a town afflicted by a curse that turned villagers into piles of salt. Another was a crypt, haunted by a spirit that possesses the bodies of various undead—jumping from skeleton to skeleton until you defeat him," we read.
Diablo IV - the narrative will be different
Compared to the previous part, the way the story is told will also change - conversations with characters are to work in a similar way, but we can expect better character animations (e.g. gestures). This is to be particularly visible in the case of important conversations and story events.
"For simple interactions with NPCs we bring the camera in closer to the characters (while still maintaining an overall isometric feel) and use a library of animations to deliver the general gist of the conversations. For more complex conversations, we take a similar camera approach but here the character’s movements and animations are more deliberately hand-crafted. This lets us deliver story moments that are complex while keeping you in the world as much as possible," wrote Luis Barriga.
But that's not all - from time to time we also get what the creators call real-time cutscene (RTC for short). These will be scenes of a slightly more cinematic character, which are to be reserved for the most important, key moments in the story. The fact that they will be generated in real time will enable them to show a character in their current equipment and with the same level of detail as the rest of the game, making them appear to be a natural part of the game.
"We showed you some early work on real time in-game cinematics during the BlizzCon demo. Our cinematics and engine teams have made a lot of improvements since then, so we were excited to see a fully produced cinematic serve as the climax to the Dry Steppes experience, and the team was not disappointed (with the result of their work - editorial note)," we read.
It is worth noting that all the information is related to an early version of the game and is subject to change. Diablo IV is coming to PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game has no release date set for the moment.
