Diablo IV is running an open beta this weekend, and as a fan of the genre and someone who like Diablo 3, I gave it a shot. I'm playing a lightning sorcerer, and while the game is fun I really don't see where the massive amount of hype is warranted.

Diablo 4 looks like a mid-gen PS4 game. The world is mostly dull and the colors muted, which fits the game's tone, but none of the visuals here will be winning any kind of award. I know Blizzard games focus on being widely accessible, but it's a little disappointing to see such a relatively small graphical improvement over Diablo 3 when it came out so long ago.

Gameplay feels good. I haven't completed the game yet and unlocked all my skills, but the ones I have are fun, if not groundbreaking. Loot is plentiful. The game is pretty easy so far, I'm played on the highest difficulty available for the first playthrough and haven't died yet. The open world is fun; I like the random world events where you can work together with other players. That said, I'm not a fan of having to be constantly connected to a server for what's mostly a single-player game, and the advertised monetization rubs me the wrong way.

I will eventually pick up Diablo 4. Maybe not on release, but probably on a sale. It looks like it'll slot in as one of the more polished games in the genre, as it should. But nothing I've seen in the beta has me shaking with anticipation or anything.