Blizzard Entertainment has defined how the open-world structure and nonlinear marketing campaign in Diablo 4 will work.
In an interview with Diablo 4‘s affiliate sport producer Naz Hartoonian and affiliate sport director Joe Piepiora, EpicGames News realized how the upcoming sport will department out with an act-based, nonlinear marketing campaign and an open world for gamers to discover.
Hartoonian explains that the sport begins with a prologue that “introduces all of the basic elements that make up the combat system, and basic enemies, that you’re going to see” within the sport, earlier than the marketing campaign branches off in numerous instructions.
“Eventually, you’re at this point where there are three major things that you can follow up on – and it’s entirely up to you which one you want to pursue,” explains Hartoonian. “That takes you to different areas in the game, and eventually once you do all the things that are available to you as the player, the story will eventually converge and go from there.”
While Hartoonian confirms that Diablo 4 will persist with the collection’ conventional act-based story structure, Piepiora provides that “the player has a choice on the order in which they want to tackle certain elements as they go, but eventually, they arrive at a pretty epic conclusion toward the end of the campaign.”
As for Diablo 4‘s open-world format, Hartoonian shared that the team consulted with Diablo “historians” on Sanctuary’s varied biomes and cultures, which helped them create new areas in 4.
“So a lot of our different zones are actually very culturally diverse and unique,” defined Hartoonian. “Within those different biomes you have different stories within the towns and local communities there, you get to learn about their own personal struggles – and while we have all of these unique threads, we also have a larger, more cohesive story that we’re trying to tell.”
Hartoonian added that Diablo 4‘s range of environments is reflected in the game’s dungeons, of which there will likely be over 150 at launch. Hartoonian factors out that every dungeon is “entirely unique” and affords methods for gamers to study extra about Diablo 4‘s areas.
“Each of them has lore books that you can collect and find throughout the dungeon to better understand the world of Sanctuary,” she says. “Depending on what zone you’re in, and the dungeon’s in, you can better understand what the regional conflicts are and what folks are going through in that particular area.”
Elsewhere within the interview, the pair mentioned how Diablo 4‘s tone will likely be “darker” than earlier entries within the collection.
