It seems that D4 is a lot more similar to D2 in terms of the storytelling and the feeling

Just a brief synopsis of what I accomplished while working on the D4 Beta. I didn't really know what to expect going in, so a lot of things came as a shock to me.

I have leveled up the Sorceress on World Tier 2 all the way to level 20. Completely demolished the competition, discovered rare items that complimented one another, and made the whole thing a piece of cake. Frost build was the primary one I used. A World Boss Ashava run in which I participated.

I have reached level 15 on World Tier 2 as the Barbarian character. It was challenging and difficult, just the way I like it. I was on my second boss in the dungeon when I died. I took some damage from a butcher that spawned at random. I tried out a number of different builds, switching things up whenever I came across rare items.

Even though I place a high premium on the gameplay itself, I place an even higher premium on the atmosphere and the narrative of the game.

1. As I was saying earlier, I thought that D3 fell short in this regard for a variety of reasons

2. At least for the prologue and Act 1, I am relieved to report that D4 appears to be much closer to D2 in terms of the storytelling and the feeling it evokes

3. Maybe even better

4. How things turn out is up to time

The prologue was endearing, and the newly introduced "Cain" character has… well, a lot more personality in general! I like Lillith's character as a villain, and Inarius is a classic example of a "bad guy who's actually good."Both the lightning and the sounds of battle are executed very well.

The music was passable, but it did not stand out to me as particularly remarkable in any way.

The vast majority of the quests were enjoyable. Some of them were a little silly and reminiscent of MMOs. To put it another way, you should come over here and employ an emote (sigh…). Aside from that, I found myself pretty engaged, and the voice work ranged from adequate to excellent.

There were a lot of cutscenes, and my goodness, that was such a satisfying experience. The cutscenes in D2 were without a doubt the best part of the game, while those in D3 were not very good. They have regained their previous level of excellence in D4.

The game's skill tree was the first aspect of the game that caught my attention. Now, prior to the beta, I had made a conscious decision to not conduct any research.

The skill tree functions in a manner that is a cross between D2 and D3.

In D3 you just got specific skills at specific levels. Therefore, you needed to have a wizard level of 5 if you wanted to obtain an arcane orb. When you reached a certain level, "Runes" for your skills became available, which altered how those skills were used. Therefore, in order to unlock the Frozen Orb rune and be able to cast the Arcane Orb spell as the Frozen Orb spell instead, you needed to have a Wizard level of 55. That was the way things were, and there was nothing you could do to change them. On top of that, you had passives, in which you had to choose buffs that were applied automatically. But no skill tree.

In D2, there was a branching skill tree, and in order to gain access to a particular skill, you had to first put points into that skill (or have an item that gave +points into a skill), and then you could use it. You had the option of investing 20 points (!) into a skill in order to improve the damage the skill dealt or its stats. In addition to that, you had other active skills that would passively increase the damage or stats of the skill in question. It is not unheard of to level up to the maximum of three or more skills in order to use a single primary damage ability. There are a lot of levels in which absolutely nothing new takes place…

A combination of these two types of systems can be found in D4. A system that provided me with a fantastic amount of fun while I was playing it. The process goes as follows:

You gain one skill point whenever you level up (although it is unlikely that this will continue all the way up to level 100; perhaps it will stop when the paragon starts at level 50?).  You have the option to choose between the fundamental damage skills for your class when you reach level two.

You are able to use a skill once you have earned one point in that particular ability. You will not be able to use a skill and you will not acquire it if you do not have enough skill points or an item that gives you a bonus to that skill. If you really wanted to, you could choose each of the Basic skills; however, doing so would not really make much sense.

There is a maximum of five points that can be invested in each skill. This will increase the damage done by the skill as well as its stats. I believe that being at 5 is a much more desirable position than being at 20 like D2.

At the end of each skill is an upgrade that you can choose to use. The same pattern was repeated, with one upgrade for each active skill and a branching upgrade from there where you can choose between two potential upgrades, but you cannot pick them both. The same pattern was repeated, with one upgrade for each active skill and a branching upgrade from there where you can choose between them.

When you have contributed 6, 11, and 16 points to the tree, respectively, you will be able to unlock a special cluster that corresponds to your class. When you reach level 23, you are awarded the "Ultimate cluster," and when you reach level 33, you are awarded the "Final Cluster" with some enticing passives. If you so choose, you are free to skip over clusters.

If you are accustomed to the skill bar in D3, you will notice that it is very similar in appearance in D4.

You could have as many active skills as you wanted in D2, but it was a real pain to activate the ones you actually needed to use. It was worse in D2R, but not nearly as bad as it was in D2R.

In D3, this problem was solved by placing a limit on the number of active skills a player could have at any given time. This is also the case in D4, and I find that it satisfies me perfectly. Because there is only room for six items on the bar at one time, you will need to make some decisions here. You are free to switch between inside and outside combat at any time.