Diablo 4 originally designed as a Dark Souls 3rd-person game, new project sticks to isometric view and dark look

Diablo fans were clearly not happy about Diablo Immortal, but that is not the only Diablo-related game currently in development at Blizzard, so at least there is hope for something decent in the near future. Earlier this year, the company revealed that it is working on multiple Diablo projects, and one of these is the much-anticipated Diablo 4. Sure, Blizzard did not officially release any info on Diablo 4 for some weird reason, but Kotaku’s Jason Schreier had the opportunity to get in contact with 11 Blizzard developers that have worked or are currently working on Diablo-related projects, and it looks like Diablo 4 underwent drastic changes over the past 5 years (development started in late 2013 according to insider sources).

The first Diablo 4 version envisioned by Blizzard was a Dark Souls 3rd-person gothic game, but the company felt the project is going nowhere by 2016 and it had to replace original director Josh Mosqueira with design director Luis Barriga. All plans were scratched, and the game is currently shaping up to be an isometric ARPG with a dark and gritty art style akin to Diablo 1. Since development was interrupted, Diablo 4 could take years to complete, so earliest rumored release date is around 2020. Speaking of rumors, Diablo 4 might end up integrating a few MMO elements like a hub where players can meet up before entering dungeons, but it will not be a full-fledged MMO ARPG like Lost Ark.

It will be interesting to see how Blizzard tackles the server connections and the monetization scheme with Diablo 4, since these were the biggest issues with the early versions of Diablo 3.

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