Diablo 4 Without Element That Was the Foundation in Diablo 1 and 2
Diablo IV will not offer an essential element that has been present in the series since the dawn of time. It's a shame, because (albeit in a simplified form) it was also present in Diablo 3.
While Diablo IV remains in production, fans are wasting no time looking at the changes implemented by Blizzard - one of which is the lack of an automap, the detailed, spatial terrain map present in the Diablo series since the dawn of time.
Diablo IV takes a step back
The lack of an automap (or even a similar element) was pointed out by one player on Twitter.
- He asked whether it will be added in the full version of the game (it was present in its basic form in the first two installments of Diablo).
- The series' CEO, Rod Fergusson, replied that the studio at this point has no plans to implement this element in the game.
In the first Diablo the automap was a simple drawing consisting of lines (depicting walls and doors encountered by players) and only in the second part it became almost the foundation of the game - it showed more details (such as teleporters or chests), and could be rotated by the player or minimized to the role of the minimap. In Diablo III the developers replaced the automap with a simple minimap, but even there the game enabled the player to expand it to full screen and play that way.
Unfortunately Diablo IV takes a step backwards - the title has only a minimap in the upper right corner, admittedly with the possibility of interfering with its size (e.g. expanding it to full screen), but without the ability to play while zoomed in on it.
Diablo IV will debut on June 6 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X. Time will tell if the developers will change their decision and decide to implement the automap like in Diablo II.
