Sebastian Glanzer 09.03.2024 | 6:30 p.m
This week, the developers of Diablo 4 released the long-awaited and oft-delayed Gauntlet feature for Season 3. Designed for level 100 characters, the trials were intended to push players to their limits and reward them in the rankings and halls of fame. Less than a week later, it is clear that – as is often the case – there is a lot of negative stuff being written about the Gauntlet in the Diablo forums.
While the promised dungeon challenge was delivered, the execution is more than expandable. It was already clear in advance that it would always be the same map every week, on which you actually had to be very tactical. Instead of a test against particularly strong monsters, the tactics in the Gauntlet are primarily based on the route or the shrines that you have to explore, which is what it takes with sufficient equipment more like a running simulator might.
Community and partly also streamers disappointed
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ARPG streamer Raxxanterax gave the Gauntlet a chance and at the end of his first and only run decided that the Trials actually fun have, However, it doesn't make sense to him to try to climb the rankings. Frequent player with several Uber Uniques would dominate the leaderboards anyway, says Raxx. This makes his conclusion as a content creator one of the most positive.
Content Creator Mathil had to go on a rant about how bad he thinks the Gauntlet is and described the trials as “Challenge rifts from Diablo 3 – but worse”. Mathil came to this conclusion without even having a high-level character in Diablo 4 (buy now for €82.24), let alone having played the content himself. A quick look at videos and streams from other players confirms his “Diablo Bad Rant”.
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The feedback on Reddit is also, as usual, negative. There, a Redditor writes that the Gauntlet is the “shrine simulator that no one wanted.” “So much content. No wonder it's been postponed so many times.” another Redditor writes sarcastically.
Season 3 has already had a rough start. And even if you sort out the typical “Diablo Bad” cries, it is clear that the mid-season update is not well received. The Gauntlet was intended to awaken the competitive core of the community, but in this form the rankings will only interest a very small portion of players. Especially since the rewards aren't really desirable either…
Inexplicable timing
Something is going terribly wrong in organizing the Diablo 4 team. Because what happens during the development and timing of the features is difficult to explain.
The Gauntlet was already presented at BlizzCon in November 2023 and should be released in early February. That wouldn't have been a bad time in the fight for the ARPG community, as Last Epoch launched the very successful 1.0 version a week ago. But then the feature was postponed several times. There was no real reason. Given Blizzard's history, we might not want to imagine the possible reason…
Source: Eleventh Hour Games Last Epoch has become the expected strong competition for Diablo 4. The game does a lot more right than the big Californian game company. The feature was released in March after Last Epoch was released extremely bad timing. It's unrealistic to think that a dungeon feature can completely distract players from Last Epoch. But as you can see in the example video from Raxx, with the current release the thought comes to mind: “Well, why should I play this when I could play Last Epoch instead?”
This Shifts even gave rise to conspiracy myths among D4 players. During the presentation, the developers showed the leaderboards where the Date of runs However, this data was visible to the developers made unrecognizable. The theory: The feature was probably already ready at the start of Season 3 or even at the release, but they wanted to delay the content, according to some players' comments in the Campfire chat.
Sometimes I feel sorry for those responsible for Diablo 4, especially the social media manager who tries to lighten the mood with cool memes. Unfortunately, these funny posts seem out of place with Blizzard's struggling ARPG.
Yes, Blizzard has been trying things… for almost seven years
You can give the developers credit for trying things. Leaderboards were a player wish that came true. Season 2 had an appealing seasonal theme. In the same season, Zir's Slaughterhouse wasn't received badly at all and with season 4 they want to devote themselves to the mammoth task of itemization.
Blizzard tries a lot. But when you consider that the game has been in development for six years and we're talking about an itemization update, leaderboards and lots of simple things like a rebirth system or more chest slots almost a year after release, you have to wonder what actually happened in these six years.
Even with a large seasonal team, the Gauntlet and leaderboards were announced as a feature that initially only in season 3 Will be available. Did you know that it wasn't enough in the long term? Or why do you take such baby steps in development? For some reason, the Diablo team seems to be having a hard time with its features, which is also because they say they want to stand out from other Diablo games. And that, in my opinion, is a big mistake.
Feel free to steal from yourself, Blizzard
As I said, the Gauntlet is a kind of bad Challenge Rift for some. You know, Challenge Rifts, the things from Diablo 3. You could say that the Trials from Season 3 might even be better designed as a kind of Nephalem Rift. Nephalem Rifts… also from Diablo 3. The leaderboards there work fantastically – even without rewards. Of course, there is also a ranking system in Diablo 2.
It wasn't until a later patch that D4 allowed all possible values to be displayed on items that you can get when rerolling. In the coming seasons, when the character roster is full, the Rebirth feature for seasonal characters from Diablo 3 will likely be carried over. These features have always been there in Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls. So why not build on your own features? Where does the false pride and the idea that you have to be different from other Diablo games come from?
Source: Blizzard (Kmalmsten, deviantArt) The new class in Diablo 4's first add-on (Vessel of Hate) will intentionally not be the witch doctor – although it would fit the expansion's jungle area. For some reason you want to be unique with Diablo 4. Even if fan wishes are not fulfilled. As a WoW player in particular, you are familiar with Blizzard's scheme of taking something from another game and incorporating it into your own game in an improved (or different) way. And this one Content theft is even considered positive. This even resulted in a series of articles “Please steal from game XY, Blizzard”. Why don't you use the Diablo predecessors? Why aren't even the simplest features adopted? Questions about questions.
Season 4 of Diablo is scheduled to release in mid-April 2024 and so far there has been 0 communication about what will change in the itemization. At least the first PTR is planned (well stolen from Diablo 3, Blizzard!). Looking at the development processes in the D4 team so far, as a fan of the series you have to worry about whether it will be something good. This topic has of course already been discussed in the Reddit forums. It says: “If the itemization rework doesn't work, the game is dead”. These are delicate times for the Diablo 4 team, which has gained a strong competitor in the fight for ARPG fans in Last Epoch.